• Friday 6 August for 2 weeks

I, ROBOT (12A)

(US 2004) dir.Alex Proyas 115m.
Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Alan Tudyk, James Cromwell, Bruce Greenwood, Adrian Ricard, Chi McBride, Jerry Wasserman, Fiona Hogan.

“This ripping futuristic thriller is one of the more intelligent action films in recent years. It's a thoroughly entertaining combination of strikingly visual direction with strong writing and intriguing performances – three elements that seem to come together very rarely indeed.

In 2035 Chicago, where robots perform all mankind's pesky daily tasks, Del Spooner (Will Smith) is a detective with robot-phobia, even though there are three strictly enforced laws that ensure safety. When the head of US Robotics (James Cromwell) is found dead from an apparent suicide, Spooner naturally suspects something's fishy with the robots. But his boy-who-cried-wolf reputation isn't going to get him anywhere. Working with a scientist (Bridget Moynahan), Spooner is in a race against time to figure out what's up while navigating a minefield that includes his sceptical captain (Chi McBride), a unique robot named Sonny (Alan Tudyk) and an unhelpful executive (Bruce Greenwood).

"Suggested" by Isaac Asimov's book, the filmmakers combine intriguing ideas about artificial intelligence with the structures of an action movie, and they get the balance exactly right. The script is especially smart – with a strong narrative, intriguing action sequences and well-defined characters we can grab hold of. It helps that Smith is at his charming best, beefy and offbeat at the same time, carrying us through the story effortlessly. Moynahan holds her own against him, and Tudyk provides the film's emotional centre with a combination of fascinating effects and superb voice work. The look of the film is wonderfully original – and not so distant that it's not recognisable. This is a realistic take on life 30 years form now, only going over the top in skylines and transport systems that probably couldn't be developed so quickly. This is a gritty, witty version of the future that the characters fit nicely into. And after establishing the people and places so well, the filmmakers are free to develop the film in to a big conspiracy thriller with suspicions everywhere, inventive action set-pieces and lots of clever plot twists and turns. But best of all, this is a story that's actually about something – the soul, free will, revolution. Very cool.”

(Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall)

• Friday 20 August for 1 week

THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL (U)

(Germany 2003) dirs.Byambasuren Davaa & Luigi Falorni 91m. Documentary. Subtitles

“Robert Flaherty’s widow once referred to his work as a cinema of ‘non-preconception‘; this début feature belongs firmly to the ethnographic documentary mode that Flaherty helped establish with such films as NANOOK OF THE NORTH, but it’s ‘preconceived‘ insofar as it was scripted – indeed, it could fairly be called a remake. When the Munich Film School students set out with 16mm cameras for the nomadic communities of the sandstorm-swept Gobi Desert, they were spurred by an educational movie that Davaa saw as a kid growing up in Ulaanbaatar, about an ancient musical ritual used by herders to heal the rift when a mother camel rejects her newborn. WEEPING CAMEL is an enthralling delight: by turns highly suspenseful, Buddhist-serene, and plainly staggered by the pitiless, musicals winds of the endless desert. The film is blessed with exquisite compositions, elegant montage, high resistance to sentimentality, and attentive patience for the hard, concretely rewarding work of the herding life. If this were a Disney product, the stuffed-animal tie-ins would be flooding McDonald’s, but when the film-makers rhyme the wailing of a human baby with the cries of her camel counterpart, they don’t anthropomorphise the animal but, rather, simply dramatise the elemental need for food and love – a seemingly straightforward prospect that’s no mean feat.”
(Jessica Winter, Time Out)

• Friday 20 August for 1 week

THE RETURN (12A)

(Russia 2003) dir.Andrey Zvyagintsev 110m. Subtitles.
Ivan Dobronravov, Vladimir Garin, Konstantin Lavronenko, Natalia Vdovina.

“Life’s tough for kids... especially if, like Ivan (Ivan Dobronravov), all you recall of your dad derives from a photo taken over a decade ago. Still, at least Ivan’s older brother Andrey (Vladimir Garin) looks out for him when other boys in their provincial Russian hometown tease him about his timidity with heights and water; so does their mum, at least until the pair arrive to find a sleeping man (Konstantin Lavronenko) who, she says, is her long-lost husband. But is he really the guy in the photo? Shouldn’t a father be a little warmer, maybe explain why he was away so long? Andrey’s fine with him but Ivan’s unsure, sometimes hostile, even when the stranger takes them on a fishing trip to the remote north; after all, his mind still seems to be elsewhere... Zvyagintsev’s Venice prize-winner is a model of suspenseful storytelling; the taut, streamlined narrative drip-feeds just as much information as we need to get hooked, while the meticulous Scope compositions add to the overwhelming air of unease. The acting, too, is terrific (with tragic irony, young Garin drowned after the film was finished), but what raises it above most thrillers is its resonance: echoing Odysseus and Oedipus, as well as stories of imprisonment and release, while playing on paranoia about all kinds of vulnerability, the movie succeeds as a metaphorical fable which may be read in mythic, psychological, political or existential terms. Furthermore, it somehow avoids predictability while achieving a near-tragic inevitability. An exemplary first feature, and very highly recommended indeed.”
(Geoff Andrew, Time Out)

• Friday 20 August for 1 week

BEFORE SUNSET (15)

(US 2004) dir.Richard Linklater 80m.
Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Vernon Dobtcheff, Louise Lemoine Torres.

“It looks like a walk in the park, but Linklater’s magic-hour impromptu lights up passions and possibilities most films don’t dream of. A more seasoned follow-up to BEFORE SUNRISE, in which Ethan Hawkes rambling young American and Julie Delpy’s French student waxed romantic over one charmed night in Vienna, it’s some companion piece: a modest resumption of a love story whose pristine naturalism is never breached by its concurrent self-reflexiveness as a fiction and a sequel. The couple themselves remain as self-conscious as they are direct, aware that this reunion is a both a reprise and a new chapter, a turn full-circle and another waypoint down the line; they speculate on dreams, make-believe, and the idea of being characters in someone else’s scheme – suggesting fiction as a metaphor for fate. Chinese-boxes style, they’ve even translated their memories of Vienna into their own art: a book, she a song... It’s at his final reading in Paris that they meet again. The film picks up momentum before delightfully slipping a gear for a sublimely wound-down ending. This is the soul of generosity, a beautifully vibrant and big-spirited film.”
(Nick Bradshaw, Time Out)

• Friday 27 August for 2 weeks

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (15)

(US/Argentina/Chile/Peru 2004) dir.Walter Salles 126m. Subtitles.
Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Mia Maestro, Gustavo Bueno, Jorge Chiarella.

"This is much more than an epic road movie; it's also an introspective biography and an examination of a socio-political situation that's rarely discussed. It's also thoroughly entertaining and deeply moving – a vital historical document with something important to say. Alberto and Ernesto (Rodrigo de la Serna and Gael Garcia Bernal), ages 29 and 23, are Buenos Aires medical students who have one last blow-out before life gets serious, ambitiously riding their motorcycle from Argentina to Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela to see the continent they call home but know nothing about. Along the way they have adventures that are hilarious and nerve-wracking – and also eye-opening. By the time they reach Caracas their worlds have changed; the life-loving Alberto might be ready to settle down, while the more introspective Ernesto sets his sights on something larger than medicine. Ernesto is, of course, better known as Che Guevara. Salles films this in a documentary style that captures both the intense internal conflicts and the scenic grandeur of Latin America. Eric Gautier's cinematography has a gritty authenticity that catches images and textures (and smells), dwelling in the expressive, worn faces of people along the road. Meanwhile, Rivera's screenplay is both sensitive and rollicking, grabbing hold of life's joys and injustices. What this does is root the story solidly in the culture, which is vitally important if we're to understand Guevara's internal journey. It also helps that Salles draws another profound performance from Bernal, who fully inhabits Guevara as just another 23-year-old adventurer who along the road discovers his soul. And Bernal's chemistry with De la Serna is revealing, edgy and often hilarious. These are such real young men that we can't take our eyes off the screen, and the people they encounter along the way all contribute eloquently to their story. There's not a false note in this film, which elegantly draws out the truth of South America's history through a story and characters that are gripping and involving on their own. Essential!"
(Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall)

• Friday 10 September for 2 weeks

SUPER SIZE ME (12A)

(US 2003) dir.Morgan Spurlock 100m. Documentary.

“This hugely entertaining documentary examines the culture of obesity in North America Michael Moore-style. The filmmaker's ingenious idea is to actually experiment on himself, showing us what's going on rather than just telling us. When he hears that two girls are suing McDonald's because they're obese, New York filmmaker Spurlock decides to eat an all-McDonald's diet for a month – with a few key rules, including the exclusion of any other food and a limit on his exercise so he's more in line with the average American. Starting as an exceptionally healthy young man, we watch him turn into a pasty, pudgy, mopey mess... after only five days! A team of doctors, a nutritionist, a physiologist and his vegan-chef girlfriend all keep an eye on him, and along the way each urges him to abandon the experiment. They're all shocked at how devastating the diet is on his body – as destructive as going on a month-long drinking binge! Spurlock constructs the film brilliantly, maintaining a darkly hilarious tone while continually jolting us with images of fat Americans, greasy fast food and, most tellingly, children who are programmed to overeat from an early age. We learn a lot about how the American food industry works, how it's drifted into such a dangerously unhealthy system and how difficult it will be to change. Besides Spurlock's personal odyssey, which is funny and scary in equal measure, the film's strongest message centres on school food programmes that ignore health and nutrition in the name of efficiency and economy. Spurlock effortlessly shows how spurious each of their arguments are, how strongly in the grip of corporate greed we really are, and how the current system merely feeds into a system of obesity, hyperactivity and illness. That he can entertain us so much while teaching us something this important is a real achievement.”
(Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall)

• Friday 24 September for 2 weeks

HERO (12A)

(China 2002) dir.Zhang Yimou 99m. Subtitles.
Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Donnie Yen, Daoming Chen.

“In third century BC China, an assassin called Nameless (Jet Li) visits a warlord (Daoming Chen) to describe how he’s killed three of the tyrant’s most terrifying enemies. But the truth may not be as he says… The comparisons are inevitable, so let’s get them out of the way. HERO is a better film than CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON. Ang Lee’s sword-centred melodrama was, for most, their first taste of wushu – a Chinese film and fiction genre which loosely translates as ‘heroic warrior‘ – and it certainly delivered on the lyrical action front. HERO, though, is the real deal. Zhang Yimou, who has emerged as one of the East’s most visually adventurous directors, and cinematographer Christopher Doyle have between them raised Joel Silver’s famous action bar too high for Hollywood’s current reach. Indeed, it’s an irony that a director of the Fifth Generation should now have pushed the craft of action way beyond anything that commercially-driven Western cinema has so far delivered. It’s impossible not to think of ballet as Yimou’s camera tracks his characters through their airborne slaughter, with bodies hanging against the sky in graceful, perfect compositions. The fights form a consummately sustained crescendo: a contest in a rain-drenched chess arena, daringly conducted mostly in the protagonists’ minds, is followed by a frantic battle in an autumnal forest in which the blood-red duellists swoop among an orange blizzard of falling leaves, before Yimou abruptly switches the colour palette to greens and blues as the pair of assassins dance a pas de deux above the glassy waters of a placid lake.You’ve seen a lot, but you’ve never seen anything like this. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anything as visually dazzling in cinemas this year. In fact you’ll be hard pressed to find anything as visually dazzling as this in cinemas ever. And since Yimou has described it as a mere rehearsal for his next run at wushu (HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS), there’s more to come..."
(Adam Smith, Empire)

• Friday 1 October for 1 week

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (15)

US/Argentina/Chile/Peru 2004) dir.Walter Salles 126m. Subtitles.
Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Mia Maestro, Gustavo Bueno, Jorge Chiarella.

“Forget everything you thought you knew about the Ché Guevara. Instead, this is the story of the two young Argentinian students who spent seven months in 1952 travelling the length of their continent as close friends and curious witnesses to chronic inequality and artificial borders. This is a film about integrity, honesty, friendship, citizenship, political awakening and how an exceptional road journey sowed the seeds of the future experiences of 23-year-old Ernesto ‘Ché‘ Guevara (Bernal) and 29-year-old Alberto Granado (De la Serna). Walter Salles’ camera is that of a documentary-maker; it subtly captures the real people and places that the two encountered along the way, while also presenting an intelligent witty and human script.”
(Dave Calhoun, Time Out)