Thursday, October 23, 2014

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening October 23-29, 2014

Gone Girl


One of the those buzzworthy films you wish everyone would just quit talking about already, Gone Girl is the latest acclaimed thriller from director David Fincher, and is winning raves for its performances by Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.

Affleck is Nick Dunne, a husband who reports his wife's disappearance on their fifth wedding anniversary. Under pressure from the police and the frenzied media, his portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble.

Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry and Kim Dickens also star. The story is based on an acclaimed best-selling 2012 crime novel by Gillian Flynn, who also wrote the screenplay.

Since its premiere at the New York Film Festival, critical reception is positively glowing, and it's likely nobody is going to shut up about Gone Girl until it has won a few Oscars. This opened for a sneak preview run last week and now moves to a wide release. Rated 18+



Also opening


John Wick – Keanu Reeves is earning some of the best reviews of his career for this gritty hitman thriller. He's a gunman who comes out of retirement to settle the score with the gangsters who took everything from him. Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Winters and Ian McShane also star. It's based on a first-person-shooter video game, and is the directorial by a pair of stunt specialists, David Leitch and Chad Stahelski (Reeves' stunt double on The Matrix). Since its U.S. premiere a couple weeks ago, critical reception has been crazily positive. Rated 18+


Fury – Yet another highly acclaimed, star-studded vehicle in the hunt for awards, Fury is a World War II yarn starring Brad Pitt as the aptly named Sergeant Wardaddy. It's 1945, and the Allies are making their final push into Berlin. Wardaddy commands a Sherman tank and a four-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña and Jon Bernthal also star. David Ayer (End of Watch, Training Day) directs. Critical reception is generally positive. Rated 15+


Phee Overtime (โอ.ที. ผี Overtime, a.k.a. O.T.) – A segment from Five Star Production's 2012 horror omnibus 3 A.M. is expanded upon for this thriller the follows the exploits of horrible bosses Karan (Shahkrit Yamnarm) and Ti (Ray MacDonald), whose pranks on their late-night office staff turn fatal. That forces their business partner Bordin (Ananda Everingham) to give up his peaceful life and return to work. Rated 18+


Happy New Year – Six losers plan a massive diamond heist, using a dance competition as their cover. Shahrukh Khan stars and famed choreographer Farah Khan directs, marking the third collaboration for the pair after Main Hoon Na (2004) and Om Shanti Om (2007). Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Boman Irani, Vivaan Shah and Jackie Shroff also star. It's at Paragon, Embassy Diplomat Screens and Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.



Also showing


12th World Film Festival of Bangkok – There's still plenty to see as the fest heads into its final weekend. Among the highlights is the complete version of Metropolis, the 1927 sci-fi silent epic. It screens at 7.30 tonight and 9pm on Saturday. Tomorrow, catch the festival's opener, the Thai documentary Somboon, a gentle portrait of a man's devotion to his chronically ailing wife. Also worth a look are the Shortwave Programmes, with program two at 3.20 on Friday, and program one at 3.30 on Saturday. Program one includes Behind the Screen, a moving portrait of a Burmese director's parents' broken marriage. His folks were famous actors in Myanmar back in the 1960s. The fest wraps up on Sunday with the invitation-only closing film The Tale of Princess Kaguya, a new animation from Japan's Studio Ghibli. The festival is at SF World at CentralWorld. Tickets are 120 baht. For the full schedule, check the festival website.


The Friese-Greene Club – Tonight, Wong Kar-wai loosely follows up his In the Mood for Love with another moody romance, 2046. Jeff Bridges ties everything together in tomorrow's cult classic, The Big Lebowski, the stoner bowling-and-crime comedy by the Coen brothers. Saturday's Friedkin flick is his 2006 indie comeback, the thriller Bug. And Sunday's Hitchcock highlight is one of Hitch's best, North by Northwest. Next Wednesday captures the late Richard Attenborough in one of his most rascally roles, bringing dinosaurs back to life in 1993's blockbuster Jurassic Park. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. There's just nine seats, so book them. Also, check the Facebook page for updates and program changes.


Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – There are two films next week, Young Goethe in Love on Monday and the documentary The Power of Good: The Nicholas Winton Story, about a man who saved 669 Czech children from the Nazi death camps in World War II, at 7pm next Thursday. The screening, courtesy of the Czech Republic embassy, is free. Goethe!, screening at 7 on Monday, is part of the FCCT's Contemporary World Film Series. Directed by Philip Stolzl, the 2010 romantic drama follows the young writer after he flunks out of law school and is sent to a small town to work as a clerk. There, he falls in love with Lotte, a spirited young woman who is promised to marry someone else. The screening is courtesy of  the Goethe Institut, the German embassy and Ambassador Rolf Schulze. Entry for non-members is 150 baht plus 100 baht for anybody wanting to sample the German beer, wine and pretzels.


Alliance Française – Classic French films are on offer in October with the theme of "eternal thrillers", and the month closes out with 1974's Stavisky, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as politically connnected financier and embezzler Serge Alexandre Stavisky. Alain Resnais directs and François Périer, Charles Boyer and Anny Duperey also star. It's in French with English subtitles at 7pm on Wednesday, October 29.



Sneak previews


Love, Rosie – Lily Collins and Sam Claflin are childhood best friends who are secretly in love with each other. The young Brits take a big chance and go the the U.S. together to attend university. Critical reception is mixed. It's in sneak previews from around 8 nightly before opening wide on November 6. Also, the Sundance winning drama Whiplash continues its sneak-preview run this week. The story of a young jazz drummer terrorized by his band director, it opens in a wide release next Thursday.

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