Odeon Panton St

• 
• 2011
• US
• 99 min
• 12A

• Directed by: Richard Linklater
• Written by: Skip Hollandsworth, Richard Linklater
• Cast: Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey

Based on a real-life 1996 murder in Texas. When violence mars the friendship of popular mortician Bernie Tiede (Black) and mean-tempered widow Marjorie Nugent (MacLaine), the neighbours' sympathies aren't with the victim. Black and MacLaine are well-cast but underused, and the faux-documentary style robs the film of immediacy.

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• 
• 2012
• Germany/US/HK/Singapore
• 172 min
• 15

• Directed by: Lana Wachowski/Tom Tykwer/Andy Wachowski
• Cast: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant

An epic story of humankind in which the actions and consequences of our lives impact one another throughout the past, present and future as one soul is shaped from a murderer into a saviour and a single act of kindness ripples out for centuries to inspire a revolution.

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• 
• 2013
• US
• 81 min
• 15

• Directed by: Adam Leon
• Written by: Adam Leon
• Cast: Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickson, Zoë Lescaze

Sofia (Washington) and Malcolm (Hickson) are teenage graffiti artists who plan to tag the Mets' Apple, a giant trophy which only appears when the New York Mets get a home run. A slightly meandering plot adds to the relaxed tone, and the film is pulled off with naturalistic grace.

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• 
• 2012
• Denmark
• 99 min
• 15

• Directed by: Tobias Lindholm
• Written by: Tobias Lindholm
• Cast: Pilou Asbæk, Roland Møller, Søren

Thriller about the hijacking of a freighter in the Indian Ocean, as experienced by both the desperate ship's cook (Asbæk) and the ice-cool CEO (Malling), who negotiates with the pirates from his boardroom. Negotiations drag on for months, making for commendable realism and fine performances but also slowing the pace to a crawl.

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• 
• 2012
• France
• 105 min
• 15

• Directed by: François Ozon
• Cast: Fabrice Luchini, Ernst Umhauer, Kristin Scott Thomas

High-school teacher Germain (Luchini) sets his students an assignment to write about what they did that weekend, but then Claude (Umhauer) writes about his desire to infiltrate a classmate’s household. Ozon’s new film is a sparkling black comedy, effortlessly shifting between genres, tones and styles. Highly recommended.

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• 
• 2012
• Belgium/Luxembourg/France/Switzerland
• 111 min
• 15

• Directed by: Joachim Lafosse
• Cast: Émilie Dequenne, Niels Arestrup, Tahar Rahim

Murielle (Dequenne), a young Belgian woman, is married to Mounir (Rahim), a Moroccan man adopted by a Belgian doctor (Arestrup); the pressures of the arrangement drive her to drastic actions. A gripping but restrained, detached and balanced portrait of a mother driven to murder.

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• 
• 2012
• US
• 140 min
• 12A

• Directed by: Derek Cianfrance
• Written by: Derek Cianfrance, Darius Marder, Ben Coccio
• Cast: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes

Luke (Gosling) is a stunt motorcyclist who takes to robbing banks on his bike, until ambitious cop Avery (Cooper) starts to trail him. This ambitious thriller tries to tell a complex story over two generations, but despite good performances the oddly broken-backed narrative prevents it from finding an emotional pay-off.

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• 2011
• France
• 136 min

• Directed by: Mathieu Kassovitz
• Cast: Mathieu Kassovitz, Iabe Lapacas, Malik Zidi

La Haine director Kassovitz helms this gritty thriller about a police negotiator called into restore order in the tropical New Caledonia jungle.

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• 
• 2012
• USA/UK/Qatar
• 130 min
• 15

• Directed by: Mira Nair
• Cast: Riz Ahmed, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland

Changez (Ahmed, impressive) is a Pakistan-born Wall Street financial analyst who finds himself ostracized after 9/11. Nair's intermittently powerful adaptation of Ahmed's novella retains the frame of a radicalised Changez telling his story to an American in a Lahore tea-shop but adds superfluous thriller elements, sacrificing the ambiguity of the original.

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• 
• 2012
• Argentina/Spain/France
• 110 min
• 15

• Directed by: Pablo Trapero
• Written by: Pablo Trapero, Alejandro Fadel, Martin Mauregui, Santiago Mitre
• Cast: Ricardo Darin, Jeremie Renier, Martina Gusman

Rich and satisfying character study of Father Julian (Darin) and Father Nicolas (Renier), priests who work with and live among gang members, drug addicts and outcasts in the slums of Buenos Aires. With terrific performances from Darin, Renier and Gusman, it's a unique and impressive achievement.

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