13th Nov2017

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Film)

by timbaros
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It’s a dark, disturbing and dysfunctional world that Dr. Murphy lives in in the new film ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer.’

Dr. Steven Murphy, played by Colin Farrell, is a surgeon in a nameless U.S. city. He’s got, at least it seems, a picture perfect life. He’s married to the beautiful Anna (Nicole Kidman), who plays dead to satisfy his sexual desires, and two amazing children – teenage Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and younger son Bob (Sunny Suljic). But one day a young man by the name of Martin (played to perfection by Barry Keoghan) starts showing up at Steven’s hospital. Martin takes an interest in his work, but then starts showing up even when Steven isn’t there. One day Steven invites Martin over to his home for dinner, where Kim is immediately smitten with him and Bob wants to be his best friend. Barry is that easy to get along with, very friendly, wouldn’t hurt a fly, or so it seems. But Barry has other intentions, not good ones, that will grossly effect Steven’s family. It turns out that Barry’s father died on the operating table at the hands of Dr. Murphy, so he wants to get revenge. He does something to Kim and Bob to make them deathly sick (frustratingly it’s not clear exactly what he does to them), but Bob and Kim wind up in the same room at Steven’s hospital, and test after test after test doesn’t reveal the true cause of their illness. Dr. Murphy starts getting desperate and kidnaps Barry to try to get him to confess to what he did, but it might be too late as Steven’s perfect family and his good reputation as an excellent doctor could all come crashing down, not to mention he could potentially lose his children.

’The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ is all very dark and disturbing and moves at a snails pace along with the tension and drama, all to amazing dramatic effect. Directed by Yorges Lanthimos, who brought us the dark ’The Lobster,’ is able to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat as the tension keeps getting ramped up higher and higher. Farrell is at the top of his game here as the tormented father who can only stand back and watch his two children slowly get sicker and sicker. Kidman is good as the mother who is helpless, but Keoghan tops them both as a sinister kid with only one thing on his mind – revenge. ’The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ is a must see.

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12th Nov2017

The Florida Project (Film)

by timbaros

The_Florida_ProjectIt was always going to be for filmmaker Sean Baker to top 2015’s critically acclaimed film ‘Tangerine.’ But now he’s back with ‘The Florida Project,’ and it’s a winner!

‘Tangerine,’ which was shot on iPhones, told the story of two transvestite hookers surviving by any means possible in Hollywood. ‘The Florida Project,’ shot on 35mm, has a similar trajectory involving a single mother and her adorable 6-year old daughter surviving by any means and barely eking out a living in a rundown motel on the tacky fringes of DisneyWorld in Orlando, Florida. It’s an area filled with cheap motels (with tacky names such as Futureland Inn) and even cheaper and tackier gift shops and fast food restaurants (Orange World). And like in ‘Tangerine,’ Baker uses non-professional actors in this film.

Bria Vinaite is excellent as Hailey, a single young mother who struggles to find money to pay the weekly rent and to care for her very adorable six-year-old daughter Moonee (an excellent and natural Brooklynn Prince). Moonee has made friends with all of the little children at their motel complex (appropriately called The Magic Castle) in an area where Disney did not sprinkle magic dust on. The children spend their days getting up to no good, causing mayhem whereever they go, much to the annoyance of the motel manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe – in an award worthy performance). Hailey’s downstairs neighbor Ashley (Mela Murder) works at the nearby Waffle House and gives them free food, but after an incident that involves her son and Moonee, she forbids her son to hang out with Moonee, and severs her friendship with Hailey. One thing leads to another and slowly the magic seeps out of The Magic Castle.

‘The Florida Project’ is just fantastic. While it doesn’t quite come close to ‘Tangerine’ with it’s sarcastic and biting humor, it nonetheless is a cute and charming movie of childhood through a little girl’s eyes and the hard truths that reality will eventually rear it’s ugly head. And the cast are just superb. Baker, who co-wrote the script with Chris Bergoch, has another winner on his hands.

Trailer:

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12th Nov2017

Body Electric (Film)

by timbaros

BodyElectric_EC1069_AdditionalImage2Life is one big party for the characters in the new film ‘Body Electric.’

Elias (a sexy Keiner Macedo) is the assistant manager in a factory somewhere in Brazil. He’s only 23 and quit young to hold such a responsible job, but his female boss, who is always jetsetting from here to there on business, trusts Elias completely to run the factory while she’s gone. It’s a factory that makes clothes, and Elias sees his fellow employees not just as co-workers but as friends, and they all spend lots of time hanging out with each other after work and on weekends, They’re all friends, very close friends. And when a new employee starts work at the factory, a West African man called Fernando (Welket Bungue), Elias welcomes him into the fold and nothing much changes for these happy-go-lucky group of people who work hard and play much much harder.

And play is just what Elias likes to do. He’s openly gay at work and in his personal life, and there appears to be no issue with his colleagues when he takes up with fellow young feminine co-worker Wellington (Lucas Andrade). Wellington introduces Elias to a gaggle of drag queens with a queen bee who wonders out loud where all the fabric Wellington and Elias brought to them comes from. But it doesn’t matter for these folks, life is one big party, and with that comes alcohol and sex. In ‘Body Electric,’ director Marcelo Caetano relies on lots of lingering shots to portray his cast in ways that make them look and feel so real it’s at times make you feel like you’re eavesdropping on their lives, and loves. But ‘Body Electric’ is all about Elias and how happy he is, and how happy his co-workers are who toil away at the factory day in and day out, and we are very happy for all of them.

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05th Nov2017

The Exorcist (Theatre)

by timbaros

036_The-Exorcist_Clare-Louise-Connolly-Regan_Pamela-Raith-Photography
A show about a young girl possessed by the devil is now scaring audiences in the West End in London.

Her name is Regan, and she is 12 years old. She once used to be a playful little girl, happy, singing, always with a smile on her face. Then one day she started mentioning to her mom that she had an imaginary friend in her room. This friend, which went by the name Captain Howdy, would talk to her, and tell her to do things. But eventually Captain Howdy started to take over her life, and her body, while mysterious and strange goings on take place in the house (windows opening, doors not closing, strange writing on the wall). But the worst was yet to come. Regan started to harm herself, and harm others, and the sight of blood didn’t phase her. But she was becoming extremely dangerous, not just to herself, but to the people in her household, which includes her actress mother’s best friend and film director Burke Dennings. At some point Regan needs to be tied to her bed, and it’s then, and only then, that we realize that Regan is possessed by the devil. She spews vomit, turns her head in a 360 degree angle, and levitates over her bed – actions that only can be performed by something that is very very evil – not of this world. Regan’s mother by this time has lost her wits – she doesn’t understand and can’t cope with all this, so she brings in Father Damien Karras whose job it is to determine if Regan is actually possessed, and soon enough he realizes this is the case. So it’s time for the Exorcism and it will take the work, and expertise, of one Father Merrin to free Regan of the evil inside of her, an evil that could kill Regan if it’s not exorcised out of her in time.

Based on the hit, and terrifying movie of the same name, and now cleverly adapted for the stage by John Pielmeier, ‘The Exorcist’ is scaring audiences at The Phoenix Theatre, and scaring is putting it mildly. What the director, Sean Mathias, and cast have done is to have successfully brought the story to a live audience and all of it’s bone chilling and terrifying moments. With the excellent performance by Clare Louise Connolly who lives and breathes Regan and the voice of the devil by Ian McKellan in tandem they practically make is a believeable experience. Peter Bowles chews up his scenes as Father Merrin and Adam Garcia is a very good as Karras while Tristram Wymark as Dennings has the much needed funny lines in the show to relieve the chills. ‘The Exorcist’ is downright scary, not suitable for children, but nice and scary for the adults. Perfect for this time of year.

Booking to 10 March 2018

Monday – Thursday 8pm
‘Friday is Fright-Night’ 6pm evening and ‘Fright Night late show’ 9pm
Saturday 4pm and 8pm

http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/the-exorcist/phoenix-theatre/
0844 871 7629

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