April 5 — CARNAGE
The infamous Roman Polanski directs a dream cast of four heavyweights (Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilley) who chew through the script’s harsh and witty lines like raw steak.
Based on a Tony-award winning play, CARNAGE dissects the empty discourse—and morality—of two modern, middle-class couples with razor acuity. Our story begins with a schoolyard fight between two boys, moves to an initially polite conversation among their parents, then escalates into a pitched battle of astonishing ferocity, unfolding in a tastefully appointed Brooklyn apartment.
Polanski is a master of space, subtly framing the dialogue in carefully angled shots of the apartment, steadily fashioning the prison of words in which the characters trap themselves. As this director well knows, appearances are everything.
Critics are sharply divided about this film, as they are about this director. ”A cozily evil little play, by way of Polanski,” one called it.
“A comedy of claustrophobia and revealed truths, and Polanski knows both all too well,” wrote the Toronto Star’s Peter Howell. The best part is, you get to come see for yourself.
CARNAGE plays one show only, 7 p.m., Thursday, April 5, at the Empire Theatres Studio 10, 325 Prince Street, Sydney. Tickets $11, students $7.
People’s choice — RESTLESS
You gave:
- MARTHA MARCIE MAY MARLENE 3.6 points out of 5.
- A DANGEROUS METHOD 3.4 points out of 5.
- LIKE CRAZY 3.0 points out of 5.
- THE GUARD 4.3 points out of 5.
- CAFÉ DE FLORE 4.3 points out of 5.
- MY WEEK WITH MARILYN 4.4 points out of 5.
- MELANCHOLIA 2.8 points out of 5.
- FRENCH IMMERSION, 4.3 points out of 5.
- LE HAVRE 4.3 points out of 5.
Mar 29 — RESTLESS
In this unusually sweet, quirky movie from director Gus van Sant (MILK, PARANOID PARK, GOOD WILL HUNTING, DRUGSTORE COWBOY), Mia Wasikowska plays Annabel Cotton, a charming young patient with terminal cancer and a deep love of the natural world. Henry Hooper plays Enoch Brae, a young man who has dropped out of the business of living, after an accident took the life of his parents.
When these two outsiders chance to meet at a funeral, they find unexpected common ground in their unique experiences of the world. For Enoch, it includes his best friend Hiroshi (RY? KASE), the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot. For Annabel, it includes an admiration for Charles Darwin and a keen interest in how other creatures live.
Upon learning that Annabel’s will soon die, Enoch offers to help her face her remaining days with irreverent abandon, tempting fate, tradition and even death itself. As their unique love for each other grows, so do the realities of the world in on them.
They are two misfits, bravely facing what life has in store for them, fighting pain, anger, and loss with youth, playfulness, and originality. They turn the tables on life, but no amount of youthful playfulness can stop the march of time..
RESTLESS plays one show only, 7 p.m., Thursday, MARCH 29, at the Empire Theatres Studio 10, 325 Prince Street, Sydney. Tickets $11, students $7.
You gave:
- A DANGEROUS METHOD 3.4 points out of 5.
- LIKE CRAZY 3.0 points out of 5.
- THE GUARD 4.3 points out of 5.
- CAFÉ DE FLORE 4.3 points out of 5.
- MY WEEK WITH MARILYN 4.4 points out of 5.
- MELANCHOLIA 2.8 points out of 5.
- FRENCH IMMERSION, 4.3 points out of 5.
- LE HAVRE 4.3 points out of 5.
Mar 22 — MARTHA MARCIE MAY MARLENE
For a while, we can’t be certain what exactly Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) is escaping from in MARTHA MARCIE MAY MARLENE. In some distress, she calls her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) from a pay phone.
Martha looks like she should be a college student. The peaceful, rustic refuge in upstate New York where she has been living turns out to be the power base of a small cult, overseen by the menacingly charismatic Patrick (John Hawkes), who lures Martha and other errant young souls into his nefarious ways.
Sean Durkin, writing and directing his first feature, has created a sombre and unsettling study of predators and their easily mastered prey. By cutting smoothly back and forth, however, between Martha’s sometimes brutal time on the farm and the apparent safety of her sister’s house, he spreads the unease, so that even Lucy’s relationship with her husband (Hugh Dancy) is tested and strained.
Hawkes presents a gaunt and gentle threat, not least when he croons a love song to the violated heroine, while Olsen is a beautiful paradox: an actress holding together a movie as a woman who is coming apart. (Adapted from Anthony Lane’s review in The New Yorker.)
MARTHA MARCIE MAY MARLENE plays one show only, 7 p.m., Thursday, MARCH 22, at the Empire Theatres Studio 10, 325 Prince Street, Sydney. Tickets $11, students $7.
![Follow Us On Twitter](http://i42.tinypic.com/2prsqs3.gif")