Sean Penn stars in This Must Be the Place, portraying Cheyenne, an ageing, semi-retired glam rock star who arrives too late to reconcile with his estranged father.
Bored and jaded, Cheyenne decides he needs to confront the Nazi war criminal who tormented his father in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He sets out on a road trip across America to find the fugitive.
Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch, Kerry Condon and Harry Dean Stanton also star. Musician David Byrne has a cameo, and the title references the Talking Heads song "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)". Byrne also composed original songs for the film, co-written with singer-songwriter Will Oldham. However,, Penn does not actually sing the songs himself.
Paolo Sorrentino, making his English-language debut, directs. He and Penn got together after Penn expressed interest in working with the Italian director after the actor was head of the jury at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and saw Sorrentino's Il Divo.
This Must Be the Place premiered in competition at last year's Cannes Film Festival and was also featured at Sundance this year. Critical reception is fairly positive.
It's at Apex Siam Square. See it there before they tear the place down.
Also opening
Mirror Mirror – Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall) brings his penchant for wildly costumed fantasies to the fairy tale of Snow White. In this vivid and humorous-looking reimagination, Julia Roberts is the Evil Queen, with Lily Collins as the exiled princess who gets help from the seven dwarfs to reclaim her kingdom. Armie Hammer, Sean Bean and Nathan Lane also star. It's one of two Snow White movies coming out this year. Due in June is Snow White and the Huntsman, which casts the tale as a historical battle epic and stars Kristen Stewart from Twilight. The U.S. release of Mirror Mirror has been delayed until March 30, so there's no reviews yet. Rated G.
Puncture – Chris Evans is a brash young playboy lawyer who's covered with tattoos and has a love for recreational drug use and partying. But he finds a cause to fight for in an emergency-room nurse who was pricked on the job by a contaminated needle. As he digs deeper to expose a health-care conspiracy, heavyweight attorneys swoop in to threaten him. Critical reception is mixed. At Major Cineplex (Esplanade, Paragon, Paradise, EGV).. Rated 18+.
Special Forces – With Act of Valor in cinemas right now to serve as a recruiting commercial for the U.S. Navy SEALS, here's the French answer, depicting a unit of the Commandement des Opérations Spéciales, assigned to rescue a journalist (Diane Kruger) taken hostage in Afghanistan. Djimon Hounsou, Denis Menochet and Benoît Magimel also star. There isn't much critical reception yet. At SF cinemas. Rated 13+.
This Means War – Chris Pine and Tom Hardy are CIA operatives who become increasingly competitive rivals after they discover they are in love with the same woman (Reese Witherspoon). They engage in an escalating battle of wits, using all the hi-tech spy gadgetry at their disposal. McG (Charlie's Angels, Terminator Salvation) directs. Critical reception is generally negative. Rated G.
Also showing
French Film Festival – Part of La Fête, the annual French-Thai cultural festival, the film fest continues through Sunday at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Movies this week are the teen drama Love Like Poison tonight at 8 and the parenting comedy A Happy Event tomorrow at 8. Saturday has a Checkout Girl's Big Adventure at 12.30, The Names of Love at 2.45 and Sarah's Key at 5pm. Sunday closes the fest with Altogether Too Many at 12.30, Service Entrance at 2.45 and Deep in the Woods at 5pm.
Salaya International Documentary Film Festival – The Sri Salaya Theater at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom survived last year's floods to hold another Salaya Doc fest, but this year the organizers will also bring a selection of their films to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. The opening feature on March 20 will be 311, a documentary by veteran filmmaker Tatsuya Mori on the aftermath of last year's earthquake in Japan. The closing film on March 25 will be Golden Slumbers, a documentary on the lost films of Cambodia's golden age of cinema by Davy Chou. Other films include The Cheer Ambassadors, about the first Thai team to participate in the World Cheerleading Championships. It's part of the Perspective section, which also includes Nicolas Philibert's Nenette, about the 40-year-old orangutan at Paris' Jardins des Plantes zoo; Aki Ra's Boys, about orphaned bomb victims at Cambodia's Landmine Museum; Repatriated, on North Korean spies who were held in South Korea for 30 years; and Word is Out, a classic, recently restored 1977 documentary by the Mariposa Film Group that shattered stereotypes of gays and lesbians. Another highlight is the Director in Focus. This year it's China's Xu Tong with Wheat Harvest, covering the sex industry in Beijing; and Fortune Teller and Shattered, a pair of films about a crippled itinerant soothsayer and his deaf, mute, mentally impaired wife. There's also an ASEAN documentary competition with entries from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Burma and Indonesia. Some of the films will be repeated on March 31 and April 1 at the BACC. In addition to the screenings, there will be workshops and seminars. A story in The Nation today has more. Check out the film festival's blog for the full schedule.
No comments:
Post a Comment