New In The USA: BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR
Perhaps this film was exceptional in that its main character is exceptionally normal. Sure she experiments with her sexuality at a young age, and ends up emotionally satisfied and devastated at points, but looking at her journey of a decade or so feels real because her only large obstacle or insurmountable challenge is life itself.
Blue Is The Warmest Colour will not suffer too much on a smaller screen, so nows your time to catch up with it.
New In Canada: PRINCE AVALANCHE
I was unawares that this film was a remake of an Icelandic picture, the original of which, 2011's Either Way I still have not seen, but rest assured, American director David Gordon Green dips his toe back in the waters of Southern-fried quests for maturity that made him an indie darling in the early 2000s.
Green allows for his two actors, Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch as well as the forest-fire ravaged roadways of Texas to shine making everything seem of its place. For a movie literally about paint drying, there is a lot of comedy, pathos and horseplay involved. It is the warm-up to the directors' stellar comeback with Joe.
New In The UK/Ireland: THE DEEP
Were you impressed with the crazy Louisana meth cook who got himself all blown up in his own booby-traps in True Detective? Well, the actor there is one of Iceland's best, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, who stars here in the rather unconventional story of a fisherman who survived a lengthy swim in the freezing Northern Ocean after his boat sunk in the late 1980s.
Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, the very engrossing film won pretty much every Edda Award (Iceland's Oscars) was this year's entry from Iceland to The Academy Award Foreign Language category, it made the first short list, but didn't make the final five. This is too bad because the film is quite exemplary and you learn a lot of good things about body fat ratios.
New In Mexico/Brazil: VIDEODROME
David Cronenberg's masterpiece in all its goopy, analog VHS glory. Nothing more can be said about this movie at this point, so just watch it already, probably for the 2nd or 3rd time. Long live the new Flesh, and Toronto's CITY-TV which was the inspiration for the film after the local channel started showing uncensored soft-core pornography during the wee hours in the morning to the outrage of many.
New In Norway/Sweden/Denmark: HANNIBAL Season 1
Prequel TV has never been better, mainly due to the fact that the good Dr. Lecter is played by none other than Mads Mikkelson. Season 2 just got underway in the United States, so you northern European folks had best get caught up to the well directed, well shot series which has genre luminaries such as David Slade, Tim Hunter, John Dahl and Guillermo Navarro directing and Karim Hussain as cinematographer.
New In Finland: FRIGHT NIGHT (2011)
A surprisingly excellent remake of the cult 1980s picture that features a virile Colin Farrell and an effective change in locale using a Las Vegas suburb. This allows for a Criss Angel inspired satire featuring former Dr. Who, David Tennant who does credit to Roddy McDowall's iconic Peter Vincent (vampire hunter).
Previous antagonist Chris Sarandon has a stellar cameo, and Imogen Poots and Toni Collette spruce up the female roles. Anton Yelchin and Christopher Mintz-Plasse are only service-able as the best friends in the know about a local blood sucker, but I guess you cannot have everything.
A scene where Farrell's vampire is right at the threshold of Charlie Brewster's kitchen threatening to emasculate the young pup by ravaging his mother and girlfriend is really, really fantastic stuff that in of itself makes this remake worth watching.
New In The Netherlands: WALK THE LINE
Between Taylor Hackford's Ray and James Mangold's Walk The Line, the 'genre' of musical biopics finally achieved 'formula' - such that comedies such as Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story could have a field day with mocking just that. The film is salvaged by a convincingly moving performance from Joaquin Phoenix as the young up and coming Johnny Cash and some excellent stage performances of classic Cash tunes.