Zero Dark Thirty (MA)
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow won lots of awards for her film The Hurt Locker. Although the film was set in the middle of a war zone, her focus was on the people. This time she centres her narrative on another renegade – a junior CIA agent Maya (Jessica Chastain). Stationed in Islamabad, Pakistan, her task was to locate people to recruit or obliterate. As one woman in the middle of a male world, she faced more battles with military bureaucracy in her workplace than in the war-torn country she lived in.
It was because of her determination for over a decade that Osama Bin Laden was located, and the US Navy Seals and elite military forces were able to use stealth helicopters to raid the premises and kill the military’s number one target. Bigelow maintains that the film is again based on first-hand reporting, but cannot reveal any of the identities and claims have been made that she accessed classified information.
This is a drama, not a documentary, but only Bigelow has been able to give the world access to the motivation, the difficulties and the human insights behind the clinical removal of the world’s number one terrorist.
The Hunt (MA)
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg
Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) teaches at the local kindergarten in his small rural town in Denmark. He is extremely popular with the children. Living alone, he is trying to get more access to his teenage son and taking small steps towards a new relationship. He does join the men of the town in drinking and hunting gatherings but he seems to have more of a sensitive soul than the roughnecks he is surrounded by. When one of the children in his care falsely accuses him of sexual impropriety, he is devastated and can’t defend himself as he can’t access any details. The accusations from children increase and he becomes the target of moral outrage from his former friends. The Hunt screens at Somerville 7-13 January and Joondalup Pines 15-20 January.
Hitchcock (pg)
Directed by Sacha Gervasi
Alfred Hitchcock is the undisputed master of horror films. As a pioneer of the genre, he often had to fund his own films. This also gave him incredible artistic licence, even killing off the heroine in his most famous film Psycho. Anthony Hopkins portrays Hitch as a quirky and temperamental guy who slobbered over his leading ladies. As Janet Leigh, Scarlett Johansson recreates the famous shower scene but is rather coy about his advances. Hitch spends most of the film arguing with and ignoring his wife Alma (Helen Mirren) and is insanely jealous of her writing collaboration with another man. Eventually, he acknowledges that she is essential to the success of his film as screen writer and editor (as well as persevering with the huge task of looking after him) in his speech for his Lifetime Achievement Award. Interesting to see the story of the woman behind the man.
The Impossible (pg)
Directed by Juan Antonio Beyona
Maria (Naomi Watts) and husband Henry (Ewan McGregor) take their three young sons to Thailand for a Christmas holiday and are upgraded to a pool-side room. However, they don’t have much time to enjoy the tropical paradise as a Tsunami comes out of nowhere and turns their dream holiday into a nightmare. Based on what happened to an actual family who were holidaying in Thailand, the film, like the huge wave, hits hard. It drags the audience under the swirling, muddy torrent, disorientates them as they are transported inland through debris and lifeless bodies and abandons them in a flattened wasteland. Approximately 230,000 people were killed by the Boxing Day Tsunami and the film goes some way to recreating the agonies endured by those who survived the living hell. The eldest son Lucas (Tom Holland) has to grow up quickly to rescue his injured mother and re-unite the scattered family.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (M) Directed by Peter Jackson
Based on the slim volume that is J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel to The Lord of the Rings, this is the first of a trilogy. Back at the Hobbit hole where the adventures of Middle Earth began, Jackson takes his time to explore New Zealand’s wondrous landscape in a new 3D format with 48 frames per second rather than the usual 24. This extra-high definition takes a while to get used to as we meet the familiar characters of Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and Gandalf the Grey (Sir Ian McKellen). With the company of thirteen dwarves, they set off to reclaim the lost dwarf kingdom and kill lots of really ugly beasts who are in their way. Of course the star of the adventure is the schizophrenic Gollum (Andy Serkis) who loses his precious ring in the bowels of the goblin tunnels. Fans flocked to the opening on Boxing Day and will sure to keep up with Bilbo as he continues on his adventure.
