Warm Bodies (M)
Directed by Jonathan Levine
R (Nicholas Hoult) is not your typical Zombie. He is a bit of a collector and has made a home in a crashed aeroplane. He worries about his bad posture, pale skin, shuffling gait and the fact that he can’t connect with other Zombies at the abandoned airport … other than occasionally bumping into them. Attempts to communicate with his buddy M (Rob Corddry) frustrate him and he wants to get to the other side of the wall that separates the undead from those living in the rest of the post-apocalyptic world. When a group of young people come into his world, he manages to kidnap the beautiful Julie (Teresa Palmer) after killing her boyfriend and eating his brains. Just when you thought Zombie movies had died, this gem comes along. This preposterous romance in a messed-up world is ridiculously full of zombie jokes and has some interesting social commentary thrown in as well.
Rust and Bone (MA)
Directed by Jacques Audiard
Set in an idyllic seaside town in France, this edgy film has none of the refinements we associate with France. As Ali (Matthias Senoenaerts) travels there from Belgium with his five year old son Sam (Armand Verdure), he scrounges food left behind by other travellers. Ali’s sister gives the destitute pair somewhere to sleep while the ex-boxer gets a job as a bouncer. He rescues a young woman, Stephanie (Marion Cotillard), who is being assaulted. A trainer of killer whales at the local Marineland Water Park, Stephanie contacts Ali after a tragic accident and the two develop an unlikely relationship. Both of these damaged people live on the margins of society and sometimes resort to desperate measures in order to survive. The raw physicality of the characters is sometimes quite confronting as is their apparent lack of emotions. Fortunately, no five year-olds are harmed in this powerful film which celebrates out humanness.
Sleepwalk With Me (M)
Directed by Mike Birbiglia
Matt (Mike Birbiglia) has been with girlfriend Abby (Lauren Ambrose) for eight years but marriage is not on his radar. He is an aspiring stand-up comedian whose career has stalled and he manages to get engaged to Lauren because he is unable to communicate his true feelings. As the wedding draws nearer, his anxieties come out in increasingly funny and dangerous sleepwalking incidents … all of which are fodder for his stand-up acts. This insightful comedy is written and directed by comedian Mike Birbiglia, who also acts out his intimate and distressful journey of self-discovery. Mike Birbiglia has written a bestselling book and an off-Broadway show as well as winning the 2012 Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, so it won’t be long before everyone will know about the relationship struggles that made his career take off. He does repeat his repertoire quite a bit but when the comedy wanes, the poignancy takes over.
Trance (M)
Directed by Danny Boyle
Mild-mannered Simon (James McAvoy) auctions expensive paintings for a living. When his gambling debts become insurmountable, he teams up with professional criminal Frank (Vincent Cassel) to make off with Goya’s Witches’ Flight. The heist is thoroughly planned but the painting goes missing and, thanks to a blow to his head during the robbery, Simon can’t remember what he did with it. The film then takes a left turn to become a thrilling psychodrama when Frank arranges for Simon to undergo hypnotherapy in order to recover the valuable prize. Hypnotherapist Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) manages to reach into the dark recesses of Simon’s mind but things are complicated and memories merge with dreams. Danny Boyle has proven he can tell a fascinating story. This time, the mesmerising faces of the three main characters combine with multiple reflections in glass and mirrors make this an hypnotic, hallucinatory journey that continually keeps the audience thinking.
Kon Tiki (PG)
Directed by Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg
Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl always wanted adventure and, as a child, his parents warned him about taking risks. It wasn’t in his nature to listen to their advice and he moved to Polynesia for 10 years to write his thesis. The scientific world shunned his idea that Polynesia was first inhabited 1500 years ago by people who drifted from South America on balsa wood rafts. So Heyerdahl (Pal Sverre Hagen) built a raft using traditional materials and set off from Peru with five other men in 1947. A documentary of the expedition won an Academy Award in 1950 and this most recent drama recreates the 101 day journey with minimal special effects. The original journey was an incredible feat, with no rescue provisions if the storms, the sharks or the sun should get the better of them. Setting off in suits, it is not long before the six strapping Norwegians are weathered by their remarkable undertaking.
