This week sees Pixar’s triumphant return to the screen with yet more brightly coloured emotional devastation, as well as Jake Gyllenhaal’s continued attempt to prove that he is definitely worthy of an Oscar nomination. Alongside these is an unusually star-studded bunch of smaller/indie films, and a French film about clubbing (as in dancing, not seals).
If you don’t include Brave, Inside Out will be Pixar’s first original film for six years. The film takes a look at the inner-workings of an eleven year-old girl’s mind, with each of her emotions – joy, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust – being the main characters. With Pete Docter, who previously worked on films like Toy Story, Wall-E, and Up, taking the helm once more, no doubt Pixar are aiming for their latest offering to reach the heady heights they are used to, and if early reviews are anything to go by, they may well have done. Inside Out is released on Friday.
The other of this week’s major releases is Jake Gyllenhaal’s new film, Southpaw. The film tells the story of a boxer who struggles to reach the pinnacle of his career, only to have to fight harder to stay there while holding his life together at the same time. Despite being overlooked for the Oscars last year, Gyllenhaal looks set to move from his superb performance in Nightcrawler to a similarly meaty role here, continuing to prove himself as one of Hollywood’s finest working actors, and hopefully not remaining one of its most underappreciated. The film hits cinemas on Friday.
The first of the smaller films this Friday (even though most of them are anything but), sees Robert Carlyle, Emma Thompson, and Ray Winstone, join up for The Legend of Barney Thomson. Directed by Carlyle as well (the first feature film he has directed), the film tells the story of Barney Thomson, a Glasgow barber who stumbles into the less-than-ordinary world of a serial killer. Having received largely positive criticism when it showed at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the film joins the lineup of an impressive looking Friday.
If, having watched the new Terminator film (Genisys) the other week, you found yourself wishing it had featured zombies, look no further than Maggie. Starring the Schwarzenegger himself alongside Abigail Breslin, the film follows a father and daughter as they navigate yet another post-apocalyptic, zombified America. Having already been released in the US where it stumbled at the box office, Maggie looks to be shaping up as the worst of this week’s releases, but even so, nothing can quite beat seeing Arnie on the big screen, and though it may never be as good as its competition, it will no doubt still be a fun, easy film. Maggie is released on Friday.
The next film this week (though it, too, is released on Friday) is Ruth & Alex. The film looks at an elderly, long-married couple as they navigate a move of home and all the emotional baggage that that throws up, and stars Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton as the titular couple. Based on the novel Heroic Measures, the film has already been released in America (under the title 5 Flights Up) where it gave a lukewarm box office performance and received similarly (un)enthused reviews. The film will see a limited release here in the UK.
Our final film this week is Eden, a French/English indie film that takes a look into the world of clubbing and EDM (Electronic Dance Music). Having shown at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival where it received high praise from critics, Eden looks to offer a refreshing break from the otherwise very Hollywood-esque bunch of films being released this week. Eden is, like all the other films this week, released on Friday.
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Matt you need to include Brave. There is no justifiable reason to not include it.