Lion (2016)
Genre: Drama
Certification: PG
Duration: 118 minutes
Directed by: Garth Davis
Starring: Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara
KRS Releasing Ltd

Having received six Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Dev Patel), Best Supporting Actress (Nicole Kidman) and Best Adapted Screenplay, Lion, based on Saroo Brierley and Larry Buttrose’s book A Long Way Home, promises to be a good watch this year.

The film follows five-year-old Saroo who gets lost on a train that takes him thousands of kilometres across India, away from his family.

Saroo must learn to survive alone, before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, armed with only a handful of memories, access to technology and his unwavering determination, he sets out to find his lost family and finally return to his first home.

While the plot is a unique one, some critics have suggested that it lacks depth. In fact, Peter Debruge, Variety’s chief film critic, deems the story not “meaty enough to wrap the evening news, let alone sustain a two-hour feature.

“Saroo’s story is somewhere between the-guy-who-found-a-lottery-scratcher-worth-fifty-bucks and the-farmer-who-prayed-for-rain-and-got-it,” he adds.

On the other hand, the simplicity of the film garnered a few praises too. David Sims from The Atlantic maintains that while Lion is not a revolutionary work of cinema, “it’s an excellent example of its type – a sob-inducing true story told with confidence, rather than manipulative cliché”.

Despite having mixed thoughts about the simplicity of the storyline, however, all critics appear to have agreed that the story is only as interesting as the people it happened to, and the cast of charismatic actors received rave responses from critics across the board.

Sunny Pawar wins us over as five-year-old Saroo, Slumdog Millionaire star Patel steps in to play the young man who turns to the internet to search for his family, Kidman takes the role of Saroo’s adoptive mother, Rooney Mara is his Indian food-loving girlfriend and Priyanka Bose is the mum he left behind.

All in all, grossing a worldwide total of $33.9 million against a production budget of $12 million as of January 29, the drama film is one not to be missed.

Ratings
IMDB: 8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Empire Magazine: 4 stars

Jackie (2016)
Genre: Biography/drama
Certification: 12
Duration: 100 minutes
Directed by: Pablo Larrain
Starring: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig
KRS Releasing Ltd

Natalie Portman in Jackie.Natalie Portman in Jackie.

A searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of the iconic First Lady, Jackie places us in Jackie Kennedy’s world during the horrific days following the assassination of her husband John F. Kennedy. Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a psychological portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband’s legacy and the world of “Camelot” that they created and loved so well.

The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival and has been nominated for three Oscars at the 89th Academy Awards: Best Actress, Best Original Score and Best Costume Design.

Jackie received universal acclaim from critics, with Portman’s performance being widely lauded.

Manohla Dargis from The New York  Times asserts:

“Intensely affecting and insistently protean, the film Jackie is a reminder that for a time Jacqueline Kennedy was bigger than any star, bigger than Marilyn or Liz.”

Adding to this, The Atlantic’s David Sims maintains:

“Jackie is a remarkably composed, artful piece of storytelling about storytelling, as an examination of the gauzy reputation of the Kennedys and the darker myth-making involved. It attempts to reckon with the inner life of an iconic figure while acknowledging just how much she worked to obscure it.”

Ratings
IMDB: 7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Empire Magazine: 4 stars

T2 Trainspotting (2017)
Genre: Drama
Certification: 18
Duration: 117 minutes
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Kelly Macdonald, Jonny Lee Miller
KRS Releasing Ltd

Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller in T2 Trainspotting.Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller in T2 Trainspotting.

Based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting was one of the most talked about films in the 1990s. It told the stories of young working-class men from a rough area of Edinburgh.

In T2 Trainspotting, which is loosely based on Porno, Welsh’s follow-up novel from 2002, Boyle has his characters haunted by the past.

After 20 years in Amsterdam “choosing life” (or at least a job in “stock management solutions”) and not taking heroin, Mark Renton has returned to Edinburgh, the only place he can call home and Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie are waiting.

Scenes deliberately allude to those of the first film: Renton runs on a treadmill (rather than down a street); Francis Begbie re-enacts a violent encounter.

In general ,critics agree that it is not as good as the first film, but T2  received positive reviews.

Mark Kermode from The Guardian calls the film “a vibrant and welcome reunion”, while Empire’s Ian Freer suggests that “in some senses T2 shares elements with its Terminator namesake. It’s inventive and full of surprises. But unlike Cameron’s sequel, it doesn’t reimagine the original in quite the same glorious way”.

Furthermore, although unlikely to reach the level of its predecessor, T2 does not betray its reunion and allow a younger audience to be introduced to a world that shook the 20th century.

Ratings
IMDB: 8.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 76%
Empire Magazine: 3star

Split (2016)
Genre: Horror/thriller
Certification: 15
Duration: 117 minutes
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, James McAvoy, Haley Lu Richardson
Eden Leisure Group

James McAvoy in Split.James McAvoy in Split.

While the mental divisions of those with dissociative identity disorder have long fascinated and eluded science, it is believed that some can also manifest unique physical attributes for each personality, a cognitive and physiological prism within a single being. Though Kevin has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr Fletcher, there remains  one still submerged who is set to materialise and dominate all the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey, Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him – as well as everyone around him – as the walls between his compartments shatter.

A thematic sequel to the 2000 film Unbreakable, Split received generally positive reviews and has grossed $101 million worldwide.

Ratings
IMDB: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Empire Magazine: N/A

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