38 / 57
38
JULY 2015
JB Hi-Fi
www.jbhifi.co.nz If you fancy eating something sweet, have it before you
watch this film, because you won’t want to afterwards.
Australian actor and documentary-maker Damon Gameau
embarks on a 60-day experiment to reveal the havoc
sugar wreaks on the body. Over two months, the normally
health-conscious Gameau sets out to eat the equivalent
of 40 teaspoons of sugar every day –- the amount the
average Australian consumes. But, and this is the really
scary part, he does so not by wolfing down junk food but
by eating products branded as healthy, such as low-fat
yoghurts, muesli bars and smoothies. He rapidly puts on weight, but the
other effects are more alarming – he develops a dangerously fatty liver,
has dramatic mood swings and finds it hard to concentrate. In a breezy,
entertaining way, personable Gameau gives us plenty of food for thought.
The sweetest thing
THAT SUGAR FILM
Release Date:
09/07/15
Format:
Big Eyes
is one of the few Tim Burton films that doesn't
star Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter (yes, really!).
Moreover, there are no magical worlds being explored in
this biopic of American artist Margaret Keane (played by
the always fantastic Amy Adams), who achieved fame
during the 1950s and '60s for her creepy paintings of big-
eyed kids (which are certainly Burtonesque). But it was
her unscrupulous husband Walter (Christoph Waltz) who
took all the credit, passing off her artworks as his own and
making a fortune through their mass production. The film
also follows their subsequent divorce and legal proceedings, and it's not
hard to see why Burton was attracted to the story; the Keanes are the kind
of big-dreaming eccentrics he's always loved, and Adams and Waltz deliver
performances to match.
Tim Burton's back, but where's Johnny?
BIG EYES
Release Date:
22/07/15
Format:
'Hot Teen Time Machine' best describes this Michael Bay-
produced found-footage film (that doesn't really need to
bea found-footage film) in which physics student David
(Jonny Weston) discovers his dad's blueprint for a time
machine in the basement. Building the contraption out of
acannibalised gaming console, car batteries, a hydrogen
(not Plutonium) power source and a smartphone to dial
uptime and date, David and his mates embark on an
excellent adventure to the Lollapalooza music festival, get
better grades, win the lottery and David gets the girl (Sofia
Black-D'Elia). But with time travel comes paradoxes, and
Project Almanac
ultimately echoes
The Butterfly Effect
, with David learning the hard way
that the more you try and change things back to the way they were, the
more screwed up they become.
An excellent adventure
PROJECT ALMANAC
Release Date:
08/07/15
Format:
Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives a strong performance in
the title role of a dedicated environmental lawyer living in
Venice, California, whose life is upended when her artist
turned stay-at-home husband announces that he is leaving.
In this gently unfolding indie drama, Winstead exquisitely
conveys Alex’s development from a workaholic to a woman
who re-discovers the important things in life, such as
spending time with her young son. There is lovely support,
too, from Don Johnson as Alex’s once-famous actor father,
who might be in the early stages of Alzhiemer’s, and Katie
Nehra (who co-wrote the script) as her hippy sister. Chris Messina, who
plays Alex’s husband, makes an impressive directorial debut with a film that
deftly shows that,in dealing with the day-to-day struggles of life, people
really find out what they're made of.
Starting over
ALEX OF VENICE
Release Date:
22/07/15
Format:
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