The Danish Girl (M)
Directed by Tom Hooper
A year after winning awards for transforming into Stephen Hawking, Eddie Redmayne is captivating as Lili Elbe who was the first known person to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Einer Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) is a successful artist when his artist wife Gerda (Alicia Vikander) asks him to pose in stockings and silk slippers … and Lili emerges.
Set in Copenhagen and Paris between 1926 and 1931, this is beautifully filmed movie takes full advantage of the fashion of the time and only briefly engages with the negatives. Based on David Ebershoff’s novel of Elbe’s life, the film has taken 15 years to get to the screen.
Redmayne is alluring as the coyly seductive Lili who becomes more certain of herself and decides to go to Dresden for the risky pioneering surgery. Gerda has found her muse and supports her husband’s transformation but life becomes turbulent as their marriage disintegrates.
Room (M)
Directed by Lenny Abrahamson
In this disturbing drama, Jack (Jacob Tremblay) has just turned 5. The wretchedly cramped space of the room is the only world Jack has ever known but he seems to be thriving.
His mother (Brie Larson) has been imprisoned in the locked room for seven years after being kidnapped at the age of 17.
We see the world from Jack’s point of view and, like Jack who is kept safe in the wardrobe when the man visits at night, we are protected from much of the violence. Jack’s mother is not in a good way and realises that her son is the only chance they have of getting back to the world beyond the skylight.
A desperate plan is hatched but Jack is reluctant to leave his world. Emma Donoghue wrote the screenplay from her marvellous 2010 novel inspired by women who have been abducted. Brie Larson brilliantly brings the desperation to life and Jacob Tremblay adds delightful innocence to the drama.
Steve Jobs (M)
Directed by Danny Boyle
This is not a biopic, but an interesting three act drama with each 40 minute act taking place at the launch of a new product. As the clock ticks down to Steve Jobs’ presentation, he is confronted by people from his past with whom he has unresolved issues.
Through these backstage interactions, Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) reveals his obsessions, his contradictions and his demons. There’s his ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterson) who begs him to acknowledge their daughter Lisa and ask for money.
There’s the Apple co-founder Steve ‘Woz’ Wozniak (Seth Rogen) who seeks acknowledgement for the Apple II engineers and disagrees with the Mac’s lack of compatibility with other computers.
Then there’s the Apple CEO John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) who returns each time to probe Job about his insecurities on being adopted. We see a fascinatingly different side to the computer guru.
Sherpa: Trouble on Everest (M)
Directed by Jennifer Peedom
In 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first people known to reach the top of Mount Everest. Since then, smiling Sherpa people have escorted foreigners up the world’s highest mountain and carried most of their equipment.
Australian filmmaker Jennifer Peedom noted that the Sherpas were rarely acknowledged for the major role they play in helping foreigners climb their sacred mountain and set out to make a documentary of the 2014 climbing season from the Sherpas’ points of view.
While she is capturing the spirituality of the magnificent icy world, 16 Sherpas are killed by an avalanche. When the families can’t cover funeral costs, the Sherpas question the disproportionate risks they take for disproportionate rewards. This is a breathtakingly important documentary.
Lezly Herbert
