This week’s movie releases
Director George Miller’s post-apocalyptic road warrior returns in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
You’d be forgiven for greeting the news that Australian director George Miller has directed a reboot of his dystopian Mad Max series with a tired roll of the eyes. Sounds like a project to be forgotten as quickly as it probably took to come up with. But, driving headlong over all prejudices, Mad Max: Fury Road has attracted a trunk-load of praise for its dementedly imaginative execution. Tom Hardy takes over from Mel Gibson as the former patrolman-turned-road warrior in a post-apocalyptic Outback where oil, water and civil behavior are now in scarce supply. Charlize Theron plays the female leader he hooks up with to take on tyrant warlord King Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, a veteran from the original trilogy).
The new movie from Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), The Captive stars Ryan Reynolds as the father of a nine-year-old girl who goes mysteriously missing from his car after he pops into a diner. Eight years later and with his marriage in ruins, he starts investigating her disappearance himself after signs emerge she may still be alive, leading to evidence that her kidnappers may also have installed a network of cameras to pry into his family’s private despair.
From prolific French director François Ozon, whose last-but-one effort In the House won top prize at the 2012 San Sebastián Film Festival, The New Girlfriend is a psychological comedy-drama about a woman (Anaïs Demoustier) who tasks herself with looking after the husband (Romain Duris) and baby of her closest friend after she passes away. But stopping by their house without warning one day, she learns he harbors an unusual secret that leads to strange feelings between the two. The movie is based on a short story by British thriller writer Ruth Rendell, who died earlier this month.
Big deal
Oliver’s Deal stars Stephen Dorff and Spanish-Argentinean actor Alberto Ammann (Cell 211) as an American businessman and his Peruvian friend getting caught up in a web of power struggles as they try to put together a huge deal destined to have an even huger impact on Peru’s citizens. Director Barney Elliott’s political drama also features Carlos Bardem and David Strathairn.
Spanish thriller Sicarivs: La noche y el silencio starts with contract killer Víctor Clavijo finding himself unable to carry out a hit on a young woman. Knowing his decision will cost him his life, he sets about eliminating everyone who hired him. First timer Javier Muñoz writes and directs.
