STACK 132 October Issue

36 / 120

COMING SOON Hitting the JB shelves in November
Trainwreck
Current it-girl Amy
Schumer headlines t
smart and hilarious
rom-com from direct
Judd Apatow. Believ
the hype. (Nov 12)
Minions
Ever wondered where
those little yellow
scene-stealers from
Despicable Me came
from? This origin story
has the answers. (Nov 5)
elf/Less
ying billionaire Ben
ingsley transfers his
onsciousness into Ryan
eynolds for a shot at
mortality. Things go
ear shaped. (Nov 25)
The Hobbit Trilo
Extended Editi
Now in a nice box set
sit beside your Lord o
the Rings trilogy. Let
Middle-earth marath
begin. (Nov 18)
THE
LEFTOVERS
DISC of the month:
A regular on TV and cinema
screens over the last
decade, the bewitching
older sister of Rooney Mara
has captured our attention
of late with starring roles
in Fantastic Four and The
Martian. She's better
known to House of Cards
fans as Zoe Barnes, journalist and collaborator
with Kevin Spacey's Frank Underwood – a role
for which she received an Emmy nomination
for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama
Series. Mara's TV CV is certainly diverse, from
rookie guest spots on Law and Order and Ed
to playing a bisexual cheerleader in Nip/Tuck
and a counter terror analyst in 24 . She's also
appeared in episodes of American Horror Story
and Entourage.
Mara's angular features, which evoke both
Liv Tyler and Lili Taylor, give her an elegant
intensity that has seen her cast as authority
figures and revolutionaries. She was a striking
presence in the awful Johnny Depp sci-fi
vehicle Transcendence, as an anti-technology
radical, and haunting as a drug dealer in Brad
Anderson's underrated thriller Transsiberian.
Other film credits include We Are Marshall,
Shooter and 127 Hours , as well as playing the
teenage daughter of Heath Ledger's character in
Brokeback Mountain.
But it's her role as Fantastic Four's invisible
girl, Sue Storm, that has finally moved Mara
centre stage and accentuated her tough girl
attributes. It's fitting that she's finally part of a
superhero movie, having been beaten to the
part of Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises and
Lois Lane in Man of Steel (by Anne Hathaway
and Amy Adams, respectively).
Although she has clocked up more movie
roles than her more famous sister, Kate Mara
has mostly slipped under the radar, but that's
about to change. Fantastic Four may have been
a box office flop but her star is most definitely
on the rise. As well as The Martian, Mara will
next be seen in the post-apocalypse thriller Man
Down alongside Jai Courtney, and as a single
mother battling drug addiction in Captive.
Transsiberian (2008)
House of Cards (2013)
Transcendence (2014)
Fantastic Four (2015)
The Martian (2015)
KATE MARA
visit EXTRAS DVD&BD
One of the best HBO series you've prob
never heard of, The Leftovers concerns
Rapture-like event in which two per cent
of the world's population mysteriously vanish. Rather
than delve too deeply into the nature of the event and
where all these people have actually gone, this creepy
and provocative series instead examines the impact
the disappearances have had on those left behind.
This isn't a faith-based show by any stretch; it's a
dark, violent and frequently disturbing drama in the
tradition of Stephen King. There are also comparisons
to Lost, given the series was co-created by Damon
Lindelof, who's one of today's most polarising writers
thanks to his infuriating habit of never explaining what
the hell is going on. But in the case of The Leftovers,
Lindelof's oblique plotting actually works, investing the
proceedings with an eerie vibe that intensifies over the
course of 10 episodes, and amplifying the fear inherent
in what can't be explained. Consequently, the viewer is
left as unsettled as the characters, but in the right way
– this is a show where less is more. The focus is the
small community of Mapleton, New York, where the
fallout from the event continues to affect the residents
three years later. The presence of a strange cult known
as the Guilty Remnant, who have taken a vow of
silence, chain smoke and dress in white, and a messiah
figure who takes away the pain of lost loved ones, adds
further to the mystery. In the wake of a slew of shows
in which people inexplicably return from the dead
(Les Revenants, Resurrection, Glitch), this bleak and
enigmatic series delivers a welcome counterpoint. The
second season will screen in October.
036 OCTOBER 2015