STACK NZ Aug #65

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44 AUGUST 2015 JB Hi-Fi
Also released...
Samba
The French team behind the hit The Intouchables – Omar Sy
and directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano – reunite
for another odd couple yarn, this time set around the illegal
immigrant community in Paris. Sy is as charismatic as ever as
the Senegalese kitchen worker facing expulsion from the country,
while Charlotte Gainsbourg enjoys herself in a rare frothy role,
playing a volunteer who falls for his charms. OUT: 19/08/15
Set Fire To The Stars
One-time Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood continues to follow
a determinedly indie path and his latest is a striking black-and-
white chamber piece based on the visit to the US of hellraising
Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Celyn Jones) in the ’50s. Wood is his
hapless minder, a young poetry professor who can’t understand
why his alcoholic charge is so intent on self-destruction.
Beautifully performed and stylishly directed. OUT: 12/08/15
Dead Rising: Watch Tower
More zombie mayhem erupts in this adaptation of the popular
Capcom game series. Jesse Metcalfe plays a reporter in the
zombie quarantine zone, where a drug called Zombrex is being
used to cure the infected – but when it stops working, the
walking dead quickly overrun the facility. The tone veers between
the horrific and humorous, and lots of POV shots acknowledge
the film's video game origins. OUT: 13/08/15
X + Y
Loosely based a true story, this feel-good Brit drama centres
on a brilliant but autistic maths student (Asa Butterfield) who
lands a place on the British team preparing for the International
Mathematical Olympiad. Butterfield is excellent as the teenage
outcast who has to cope with challenges both personal and
intellectual, although Sally Hawkins inevitably steals the show as
his long-suffering mother. OUT: 12/03/15
Posthumous
When struggling artist Liam Price (Jack Huston) is mistakenly
believed to have committed suicide, sales of his work go through
the roof. Fearing a scandal, gallery owner Daniel Volpe (Lambert
Wilson) convinces him to continue with charade and Liam duly
poses as his own brother. However, things get complicated when
journalist McKenzie Grain (Brit Marling) starts digging into the
story. Frothy fun. OUT: 05/08/15
THE BOY NEXT DOOR
Originally due in August, this reboot of the psycho-thriller sub-
genre that was popular in the '90s (Single White Female, Fear,
The Crush) is an unashamedly corny yet guiltily enjoyable blast
from the past. Handsome stranger Ryan Guzman enters the life
of Jennifer Lopez, whose marriage is on the rocks. But when she
rejects his further advances, things turn predictably nasty.
OUT: 05/08/15
xecutive produced by M Night Shyamalan, this eerie
V drama is sort of a cross between Twin Peaks and
hyamalan's own The Village. Like David Lynch’s seminal
eries, Wayward Pines explores a sinister world that lurks
eneath the facade of a seemingly ordinary small town,
hile the idea of closed-off, authoritarian community facing
n unknown threat from the outside is reminiscent of his
awed 2004 effort. Here, Matt Dillon heads the cast as
Secret Service agent investigating the disappearance
of two of his colleagues, but who soon discovers that it
is impossible to leave the seemingly sleepy hamlet. Although it follows
the basic premise of Blake Crouch’s trilogy of books, the show deviates
significantly from the source material, so while originally conceived as a
single series, the ending leaves the door slightly open for more...
Paradise or prison?
WAYWARD PINES
Release Date: 19/08/15 Format:
Toby Whithouse is best known as the creator of the cult TV
series Being Human, but has taken a leaf out of John Le
Carré's book for his latest BBC project. As with the recent
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, this six-parter revels in the Cold
War paranoia of the early 1970s as M15 race to uncover
a devilish Russian conspiracy named Operation Glass.
Tom Hughes (Dancing On The Edge) heads the cast as
Joe Lambe, a young operative haunted by the killing of his
girlfriend during a botched operation, while other familiar
faces include Brian Cox – who plays the M15 chief known
only as ‘Daddy’ – Shaun Dooley, Steven Mackintosh, Jonathan Aris and
Victoria Hamilton. The red herrings and devious plot twists come thick and
fast, while the superb retro design perfectly captures the shabby, fading
grandeur that was Britain of that era. A must for Le Carré buffs.
Reheating the Cold War
THE GAME
Release Date: 05/08/15 Format:
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