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This week, there are SEVEN new films out for you to choose from: Rivalry on the tennis court in Borg Vs McEnroe, a woman grows in a tail in Zoology, there’s a recreation of the Maze prison breakout in Maze, a bizarre love story in On Body and Soul, there’s Lebanese drama in Tramontane, there’s five decades of tango history for a couple in Our Last Tango, and the sequel you can’t escape in Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Borg Vs McEnroe tells the tale of one of the world’s greatest icons Björn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason – although, at first, I thougth it was Tom Hiddleston), and and his biggest rival, the young and talented John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf) and their legendary duel during the 1980s Wimbledon tournament.
This is a story about two men who changed the face of tennis and who became legends and the price they had to pay. Having watched the pair on the court and the news at the time, McEnroe always looked a bit of an arse, but Shia looks superb as the player, and I’m very much looking forward to this.
Borg Vs McEnroe is out tomorrow and soon, I will engage the Borg!
Director: Janus Metz Pedersen
Writer: Ronnie Sandahl
Also stars: Stellan Skarsgård, Tuva Novotny, David Bamber, Robert Emms, Jane Perry, Björn Granath, Colin Stinton
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Zoology
Middle-aged zoo worker Natasha still lives with her mother in a small coastal town. As she struggles for independence, she has to endure the absurd reality of her life filled with gossip spread by the women around her. She is stuck and it seems that life has no surprises for her until one day… she grows a tail. Embarrassed at first, Natasha decides to go further with the transformation and use it as an opportunity to redefine herself as a person and as a woman.
With the new “accessory” she gets access to the life that she has never experienced before – she starts a relationship with a man, who finds her attractive, she goes out and allows herself to be foolish for the first time in her life. But her second puberty eventually comes to an end and Natasha has to make a choice between reality and illusion.
It looks very weird, but it really struck a chord with me and I do want to see this.
Writer/Director: Ivan I Tverdovskiy
Stars: Natalya Pavlenkova, Masha Tokareva, Aleksandr Gorchilin
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
Maze
Inspired by the true events of the infamous 1983 prison breakout of 38 IRA prisoners from HMP, which was to become the biggest prison escape in Europe since World War II.
I really liked the look of this, as it comes across as a decent, gritty British drama.
Writer/Director: Stephen Burke
Stars: Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Barry Ward, Martin McCann
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Hit!
On Body and Soul
An unusual love story set in the everyday world, based around the duality of sleeping and waking, mind and matter. I couldn’t get a handle on this, so I’m not too fussed.
Writer/Director: Ildikó Enyedi
Stars: Géza Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Tramontane
Rabih, a young blind man, lives in a small village in Lebanon. He sings in a choir and edits Braille documents for an income. His life unravels when he tries to apply for a passport and discovers that his identification card, which he has carried his entire life, is a forgery. Travelling across rural Lebanon in search of a record of his own birth, he meets people on the far fringes of society who tell their own stories, open further questions and give Rabih minor clues about his true identity. Descending into a void at the heart of his existence, Rabih encounters a nation incapable of telling his or its own narrative.
Similarly to the last film, this one just passed over me.
Writer/Director: Vatche Boulghourjian
Stars: Barakat Jabbour, Julia Kassar, Toufic Barakat
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Our Last Tango is a story of love between the two most famous dancers in tango’s history. And the story of their tremendous love of tango. María Nieves Rego (81) and Juan Carlos Copes (84) met when they were 14 and 17, and they danced together for nearly fifty years. In all those years they loved and hated each other and went through several painful separations, but always got back together.
Now, Juan and María are willing to open up about their love, their hatred, and their passion. In Our Last Tango Juan and María tell their story to a group of young tango dancers and choreographers from Buenos Aires, who transform the most beautiful, moving and dramatic moments of Juan and Maria’s lives into incredible tango-choreographies. These beautifully-shot choreographies compliment the soul-searching interviews and documentary moments of the film to make this an unforgettable journey into the heart of the tango.
This is the sort of thing my mum would love, but for me….
Director: German Kral
Writers: German Kral, Daniel Speck
Stars: María Nieves Rego, Juan Carlos Copes, Melina Brutman
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Kingsman: The Golden Circle is the sequel to 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, a film I eventually got round to watching recently, even though it’s (a) it’s written by Jonathan Ross’ wife, and (b) it’s censored in the UK, down from an 18-cert to a 15.
When the Kingsman headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, their journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organisation in the US called Statesman, dating back to the day they were both founded. In a new adventure that tests their agents’ strength and wits to the limit, these two elite secret organisations band together to defeat a ruthless common enemy, in order to save the world – something that’s becoming a bit of a habit for Eggsy… (Taron Egerton)
I couldn’t give two hoots about this…
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Writers: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn based on the original film’s comic book by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons)
Also stars: Channing Tatum, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Vinnie Jones, Sophie Cookson, Poppy Delevingne and… er… Elton John.
Hit or Miss? Verdict: Miss!
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.