Stellar Goes to the movies…..
Welcome to the first installment of Stellar goes to the movies. Each week we’ll give you a quick run down of what’s hitting the big screen across the UK, and recommend our pick of the week. Where possible we’ll also track down interviews and clips and the best of the critical debate on the film to help educate your cinema going. Enjoy!
PICK OF THE WEEK:
The Multiplex –
Well, what can we say? Dark Knight is finally here. After one of the most interesting marketing campaigns by Warner Brothers – just take a look at the Wiki page – we can all happily geek out this week! Oh, and it’s a very British collaboration too, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Michael Cain and of course Mr. Christopher Nolan. And check out the great UK filming locations so lets not be snooty about a fabulous popcorn flick which is brining much needed £££ to our industry. Go Batman!
And over to Chris Nolan –
MOVIE ONE CODE!!!!!!!!!
FRIDAY 25 JULY 2008Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging (12A) Paramount, Nationwide
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Georgia Nicolson is fourteen, lives with nosey parents who don’t understand her, an annoying three year old sister and has to wear a beret to school. She would, however, rather be blonde, have a smaller nose and a boyfriend. Revolving around her hilarious journal entries, prepare to be engulfed in the world of the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager.
Baby Mama (12A)Universal, Nationwide
Director: Michael McCullers
Successful and single businesswoman Kate Holbrook has long put her career ahead of a personal life. Now 37, she’s finally determined to have a kid on her own. But her plan is thrown a curve ball after she discovers she has only a million-to-one chance of getting pregnant, due to her “T-shaped uterus.” Undaunted, the driven Kate allows South Philly working girl Angie Ostrowiski to become her unlikely surrogate. Simple enough … After learning from the steely head of their surrogacy center that Angie is pregnant, Kate goes into precision nesting mode: reading childcare books, baby-proofing the apartment and researching top pre-schools. But the executive’s well-organized strategy is turned upside down when her Baby Mama shows up at her doorstep with no place to live. An unstoppable force meets an immovable object as structured Kate tries to turn vibrant Angie into the perfect expectant mom. However, Angie’s husband shows up while Kate is not there and thrreatens with the truth: the baby is from his sperm, not from one of Kate’s eggs. Soon Angie’s husband reveals the truth. The two women go to court over the case. Meanwhile, Kate has been seeing a man and sleeping with him, but she has no problem–she has a T-shaped uterus, right? The results of the paternity test reveal in court that the baby is Angie’s, not Kate’s. Angie and Kate refuse to speak to each other, until Angie’s baby arrives. On that day, Kate dicovers that she, too, is pregnant. Angie and Kate have two happy lives after that, and Kate’s child is always nine months younger than Angie’s.
Before The Rains (12A)Metrodome, C’World S’bury Ave, City Screen G’Wich, Curzon Mayfair & Key Cities
Director: Santosh Sivan
A British spice grower in Kerala, India becomes involved with a married woman from a local village, and becomes the center of tribal customs and laws.
Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame (PG)Slingshot Studios, ICA Cinema and selected Key
Director: Hana Makhmalbaf
Amidst the wreckage beneath the ruined statue of the Buddha, thousands of families struggle to survive. Baktay, a six-year-old Afghan girl is challenged to go to school by her neighbour’s son who reads in front of their cave. Having found the money to buy a precious notebook, and taking her mother’s lipstick for a pencil, Baktay sets out. On her way, she is harassed by boys playing games that mimic the terrible violence they have witnessed, that has always surrounded them. The boys want to stone the little girl, to blow her up as the Taliban blew up the Buddha, to shoot her like Americans. Will Baktay be able to escape these violent war games and reach the school?
Dark Knight The, (12A)Warner Bros, Nationwide (Previews 24th July)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Come on…. Do I need to put a synopsis? Really? BATMAN = Christian Bale, JOKER = Heath Ledger.
Lou Reed’s Berlin (12A)Artificial Eye, Curzon Soho, Renoir & Key Cities
Director: Julian Schnabel
Lou Reed’s 2006 live concert performance of his 1973 concept album “Berlin”, filmed over five nights at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York.
Paris (15)Optimum Releasing, Barbican, C’Worlds Chelsea & Haymarket, Odeon Covent Gdn & Key Cities
Director: Cedric Klapisch
Pierre, a professional dancer, suffers from a serious heart disease. While he is waiting for a transplant which may (or may not) save his life, he has nothing better to do than look at the people around him, from the balcony of his Paris apartment. When Elise, his sister with three kids and no husband, moves in to his place to care for him, Pierre does not change his new habits. And instead of dancing himself, it is Paris and the Parisians who dance before his eyes.
