Junkhearts - Tortured Souls - Bad Seeds. Junkhearts is directed by Tinge Krishnan and written by Simon Frank. It stars Eddie Marsan, Candese Reid, Tom Sturridge and Romola Garai. Story has Marsan as Frank, an alcoholic ex-soldier suffering nightmares over an incident that saw him shoot a young mother. Frank strikes up an unlikely friendship with Lynette (Reid), a homeless girl sleeping rough on the streets. Once barriers are broken down, Frank takes Lynette into his home to stay, but it's not long before Lynette's drug dealing boyfriend comes a calling... For the most part Junkhearts is a very gritty slice of British miserablism. The pic is populated by addicts and wannabe gangsters, in a part of London built of dingy concrete council abodes, and where single promiscuous moms struggle to keep a grip on their lives. Director Krishnan suffered herself from PTSD, so she was on hand to ensure the great Marsan could do the role justice, while there's a refreshing street believability about young Reid's performance. The camera work is intense and deliberately intruding, with the sound work being hypnotic to add bleaker tones to the characterisations. The harshness and hurts of addiction rings true here, as does the key betrayal plot line and the breakdown of Frank. Unfortunately the parallel plot line featuring Romola Garai undermines the grit and grime surrounding Frank and Lynette's world, and it sadly serves only to give the pic a somewhat disappointing ending. Whilst the introduction of gun and knife crime appraisals don't strike the requisite powerful chords. Yet even with its flaws this is still an intense film, with Marsan on top form and some other technical smarts on show, it's well worth a look by anyone interested in a slice of some moody British underbelly. 7/10
Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.
Lili, a pouty and voluptuous 14-year-old, is caravan camping with her family in Biarritz. She's self-aware and holds her own in a café conversation with a concert pianist she meets, but she has a wild streak and she's testing her powers over men, finding that she doesn't always control her moods or actions, and she's impatient with being a virgin. She sets off with her brother to a disco, latching onto an aging playboy who is himself hot and cold to her. She is ambivalent about losing her virginity that night, willing the next, and determined by the third.
As the romantic monsoon rains loom, the extended Verma family reunites from around the globe for a last-minute arranged marriage in New Delhi. This film traces five intersecting stories, each navigating different aspects of love as they cross boundaries of class, continent and morality.
Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
A woman director is making a film about Billie Holiday. She wants to learn from her how to "feel" again, how to love again.
In a small American coal town living in the shadow of a recent mining accident, the disappearance of a teenage boy draws three people together—a surviving miner, the lonely wife of a mine executive, and a local boy—in a web of secrets.
Overeducated and underemployed, 28 year old Megan is in the throes of a quarterlife crisis. Squarely into adulthood with no career prospects, no particular motivation to think about her future and no one to relate to, Megan is comfortable lagging a few steps behind - while her friends check off milestones and celebrate their new grown-up status. When her high-school sweetheart proposes, Megan panics and- given an unexpected opportunity to escape for a week - hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year old Annika and Annika's world-weary single dad Craig.
Former policeman Lenny Nero has moved into a more lucrative trade: the illegal sale of virtual reality-like recordings that allow users to experience the emotions and past experiences of others. While they typically contain tawdry incidents, Nero is shocked when he receives one showing a murder.
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.
While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.
Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into the lives of the deaf and at a story about the love for music. A girl who has always had to translate speech into sign language for her deaf parents yet when her love for playing music grows strong she must decide to continue doing something she cannot share with her parents.