STACK #148 Feb 2017

YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CINEMA, DVDs, GAMES & MUSIC

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ISSUE 148 Feb ’17

JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK • T2: TRAINSPOTTING • HALO WARS 2

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Founder Nic Short Editor-in-Chief Paul Jones Film & DVD Editor Scott Hocking

Music Editor Zoë Radas StaffWriter Alesha Kolbe Creative Directors Justin Buxton, Michelle Black DVD Consultant Kerrie Taylor Games Consultant Andre Eivik Music Consultants Mike Glynn, Fleur Parker Chief Contributors Bob Jones , Amy Flower, John Ferguson Contributors Savannah Douglas, Graham Reid, Gill Pringle, Michael Dwyer, Jeff Jenkins, Emily Kelly, Simon Lukic, Chris Murray, Billy Pinnell, Denise Hylands, Simon Winkler, Adam Colby Social Media Manager Sally Carlier-Hull Photographer Chip Mooney Production Manager Craig Patterson Accounts Coordinator Tracy Kingman

Issue 148 FEBRUARY 2017

WELCOME There’s a nice synergy between this month’s STACK cover and the February 2016 issue, Sicario , in that both showcase films by Denis Villeneuve. This French-Canadian director with a reputation for moody thrillers – Incendies , Prisoners , Enemy – has managed to transition to the Hollywood mainstream without compromising his signature style and artistic vision. No small feat. With Arrival, an eerie and poignant account of humanity’s first contact with an alien species, he eschews the CGI overload that has become the default for this sci-fi staple, delivering instead an emotionally rich and contemplative drama on the nature of language and memory. (For more conventional examples of alien visitations, check out our Beginner’s Guide on page 34.) Nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Director, Arrival would be a strong contender to take out both were it not for musical juggernaut La La Land , which has dominated the awards season to date and is now poised to scoop the Oscars with 14 nominations. Tipping the winners has always been a matter of head or heart, and after much agonising we’ve made our predictions on page 10. Here’s hoping it’s not a one horse race. Paul Jones, Editor-in-Chief

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Issue 148 FEBRUARY 2017

Extras Pages 10, 24, 44

Cinema Pages 14–22

DVD & BD Pages 26–42

Games Pages 45 – 62

Music (From back) Pages 1–20

10-12 NEWS The Oscar noms have been announced! Who’s in, who’s been snubbed, and who do we think has a real shot at glory. 24-25 BOB J. Following WWII, the demographics of US moviegoers changed dramatically. Studio moguls were stunned and struggled to cope with the changes in the next chapter of the dramatic decline of Hollywood’s studio system. 34-35 BEGINNER’S GUIDE Alien visitors can be friend or foe, humanoid or monstrous, lost and alone, or hellbent on conquering our blue planet. 44 GIVEAWAYS Gamers, set your sights on Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Sniper Elite 4 . Plus lots more, including a chance to tip and win in our Oscars sweep.

14-15 T2: Trainspotting Two decades on, Sick Boy is back, along with a lot of personal issues he hasn’t resolved in this hotly anticipated sequel. 16 SPLIT James McAvoy exhibits 24 different personalities in this new thriller from the writer and director who brought us Signs , and err… The Happening . 18 PATRIOTs DAY Mark Wahlberg reunites with director Peter Berg for a deeply personal project based on the tragic 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. 20-22 REVIEWS Jackie, Split, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Lion, Moonlight

26-27 ARRIVAL Director Denis Villeneuve delivers an exquisite and unconventional tale of humanity’s first contact with an alien species. 28 JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK Tom Cruise returns as the lethal one-man army, and true to form, he does his own stunts. 30 SHERLOCK: SERIES FOUR Don’t let the arrival of a baby daughter for Watson fool you. This series is the darkest to date, according to secretive creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. 32 DEATH RACE 2050 After starring in the Hobbit trilogy, Kiwi actor Manu Bennett is in the driver’s seat for this continuation of the ‘70s Roger Corman cult classic. 36-41 REVIEWS Arrival, The Accountant, Snowden, The Light Between Oceans, Hell or High Water, Keeping Up with the Joneses, Ouija: Origin of Evil, American Honey, Dog Eat Dog, The Neighbour, Fear the Walking Dead: Season 2, Wayward Pines: Season 2, Sherlock: Series 4, Class

48-49 halo wars 2 It feels like forever, but we’ve finally got a sequel to 2009’s Halo Wars . We caught up with the design director and gave the new title a whirl. 50 for honor Ubisoft are throwing another new IP our way – a faction war of epic proportions. For Honor pits Vikings, Samurai and Knights against one another. 52 sniper elite 4 The series famous for close-up, brutal killcams has returned – Nintendo has just lifted the lid on its latest home console: the Switch. We went hands-on so you know what to expect. 56 bradley jolly We caught up with local Twitch personality Bradley Jolly to chat about how to make it in the world of content creators. 58 esports round-up We check in with the Junglist for the latest in esports, and review Corsair’s K55 RGB Gaming Keyboard. 60-62 previews Halo Wars 2, For Honor, LEGO Worlds, Hitman: The Complete First Season, Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World, Sniper Elite 4 and we’ve got all the goss. 54-55 nintendo switch

3-8 NEWS + INTERVIEWS This month we chatted with Holly Throsby, Japandroids, Foxygen, Sampha, and Kasey Chambers; we also took a look into Max Richter’s brand new contemporary classical offering

and Tash Sultana’s super anticipated EP, Notion . 10-11 THUNDAMENTALS Blue Mountains hip hop

foursome Thundamentals are releasing Everyone We Know this month, and we spoke to MC Tuka about its mission and message. 13 VINYL REISSUES Michael Dwyer considers Warner’s reissuing of Otis Redding’s The Complete Dictionary Of Soul , on the 50th anniversary of its original release. 14-20 REVIEWS Foxygen receive our Album of the Month crown, but we also have feelings about Ty Segall, Deadmau5, Busby Marou, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Eric Gales, Ryan Adams, Los Campesinos!, Dune Rats, Run The Jewels, Meat Wave, Sepultura, Rag’n’Bone Man, Holy Holy and more.

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Cinematography: Arrival, La La Land, Lion, Moonlight, Silence • Arriva l looks stunning, but the technicolor La La Land will win. Editing: Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, La La Land, Moonlight • This one has to go to Arrival . Production Design: Arrival, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Hail, Caesar!, La La Land, Passengers • Fantastic Beasts and Arrival both deserve this, but unfortunately they're up against La La Land . COSTUME DESIGN: Allied, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Florence Foster Jenkins, Jackie, La La Land • Lots of period outfits here, so it's an even field. La La Land . Makeup and Hairstyling: A Man Called Ove, Star Trek Beyond, Suicide Squad • We'll go for Star Trek Beyond here. Who is this man called Ove? Original Score: Jackie, La La Land Lion, Moonlight, Passengers • Can anything beat a musical in this category? La La Land . Original SONG: Audition - La La Land , Can't Stop The Feeling - Trolls , City of Stars - La La Land , The Empty Chair - Jim: The James Foley Story , How Far I'll Go – Moana • See Original Score above. JT and Disney lose to La La Land . Sound Mixing: Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, La La Land, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi • Sounds like it's La La Land 's night. Sound EDITING: Arrival, Deepwater Horizon, Hacksaw Ridge, La La Land, Sully • Arrival' s is out of this world. Animated Feature: Kubo and the Two Strings, Moana, My Life as a Zucchini, The Red Turtle, Zootopia • Disney win all the time, so give it to Laika for Kubo . Visual Effects: Deepwater Horizon, Doctor Strange, The Jungle Book, Kubo and the Two Strings, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story • Kubo , if it doesn't win animated film.

Celebrated musical La La Land is the film to beat in this year's Oscars race, with 14 nominations, and having already dominated the Golden Globes and awards season in general, it's a safe bet. Arrival and Moonlight both received eight nominations, with Aussie flick Lion also roaring with five. There will be no outcry over the lack of diversity among the nominees this year, with a strong showing for Fences , Moonlight and Hidden Figures . However with Trump now in the White House, the acceptance speeches could be a political powderkeg, and it's anyone's bet as to who will use the stage as a soapbox. Words Scott Hocking

BEST PICTURE The nominees: Arrival, Fences Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water Hidden Figures, La La Land, Lion, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight Despite a prevalence of racially- themed dramas and a worthy contender in Arrival , it's all about La La Land and the feel-good musical will be the film of the year. BEST DIRECTOR The nominees: Denis Villeneuve - Arrival , Mel Gibson - Hacksaw Ridge , Damien Chazelle - La La Land , Kenneth Lonergan - Manchester by the Sea , Barry Jenkins - Moonlight Mel might be back on Hollywood's radar after his spectacular fall from grace, but forgiveness will take time. Denis Villeneuve would have been a favourite this year were it not for Damien Chazelle and his dazzling revival of the old school Hollywood musical. Another one for La La Land . BEST ACTOR The nominees: Casey Affleck - Manchester by the Sea , Andrew Garfield - Hacksaw Ridge , Ryan Gosling - La La Land , Viggo Mortensen - Captain Fantastic , Denzel Washington - Fences Any other year it would be Casey Affleck, for an affecting performance in a devastating drama, but the all singing and dancing Ryan Gosling has this in the bag. Nice to see Viggo recognised – his time will come. BEST ACTRESS The nominees: Isabelle Huppert - Elle , Ruth Negga - Loving , Natalie Portman - Jackie, Emma Stone - La La Land , Meryl Streep - Florence Foster Jenkins Isabelle Huppert was the surprise winner at the Globes, and nobody does intense quite like this French

La La Land

star. As Jackie Kennedy, Natalie Portman has never been better and might have taken home her second Oscar were it not for the luminous Emma Stone , who will win. Perennial nominee Meryl Streep (now on her 20th) is "overrated", apparently. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR The nominees: Mahershala Ali - Moonlight , Jeff Bridges - Hell or High Water , Lucas Hedges - Manchester by the Sea , Dev Patel - Lion , Michael Shannon - Nocturnal Animals Michael Shannon has been consistently great throughout his career and is overdue an Oscar – this will be his year. Considering the inferior performance by his co-star Aaron Taylor-Johnson won the Globe, it would be an insult if Shannon didn't win. Mahershala Ali and Lucas Hedges could upset, however. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS The nominees: Viola Davis - Fences , Naomie Harris - Moonlight Nicole Kidman - Lion , Octavia Spencer - Hidden Figures , Michelle Williams - Manchester by the Sea No snub for Nicole this year, with her first nomination since 2011. Naomie Harris is the favourite though and

likely winner, but faces stiff competition from Viola Davis. Octavia Spencer is also an outside chance. BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY The nominees: Hell or High Water, La La Land, The Lobster, Manchester by the Sea, 20th Century Women You can't get more original than a story about singles being turned into animals of their choice if they fail to find a partner, but The Lobster , while brilliant, is a bit too arthouse for the Oscars. Writing an original musical that works is a tough gig, and La La Land 's Damien Chazelle will be duly rewarded for his efforts. BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY The nominees: Arrival, Fences, Hidden Figures, Lion, Moonlight Ted Chang's "Story of Your Life" proved tricky to adapt into Arrival , but Eric Heisserer did a stellar job and deserves the Oscar. However, Fences is based on a Pultizer Prize- winning play and could upset. And let's not forget how much the Academy loves a true story about unsung Americans, making Hidden Figures is an outside chance.

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Quarry: The Complete First Season

edge thanks to the introduction of Sherlock's father, played by wonderful character actor John Noble. It's out February 8. Not your average bunch of amateur sleuths, Scorpion: SeasonTwo is about a team of geniuses, drawn together to tackle some of the most dangerous national threats. Their crime solving skills may be first rate, though their people skills are questionable, which is where maverick federal agent Cabe Gallo (Robert Patrick) comes in. He's the interface who can act on the intelligence of this super smart, tight knit group, because sometimes it takes more than a keyboard to take down a criminal. If you love the procedural of CSI , Scorpion packs a similar sting. Out on February 22. FROM THE CREATORS OF WESTWORLD The hype surrounding HBO series Westworld certainly befits the makers of Game of Thrones . If you haven't yet, you might also want to check out the other series from Westworld showrunner

February is a great month to binge on some great TV, coming to a JB Hi-fi store near you. ALL THE TV HITS & HITMEN ON DVD

And JB Hi-Fi is the only place you will be able to grab this edition featuring exclusive artwork when it comes out on February 8. PRIVATE EYES Worldwide BBC hit Sherlock: Series Four is out on February 15. Check out page 30 to see what's in store for Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as the dynamic and resilient crime solving duo.

GUNS FOR HIRE Best known for writing Road to Perdition , Max Allan Collins is a prolific storyteller, and his book series is the source material for Quarry: The Complete First Season . Set in 1972, Logan Marshall-Green plays Vietnam vet Mac Conway, whose skills as a sniper are coveted by the 'Broker' (Stellan Skarsgård). Struggling with demons from his tour of duty and shunned by the mainstream, Mac becomes a reluctant gun for hire, in a seedy world where no one is who they seem. Set in Memphis, a soulful southern soundtrack is an integral part of this captivating slow-burn crime drama. And when the action hits, it's sure to leave an impact, as you would expect from the makers of that other hard-hitting cult crime series Banshee . Out on February 15. Speaking of guns, there are plenty in Hell on Wheels: Season Five,Vol. 2 . Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount) reaches the end of the line as he tracks down those responsible for killing his wife, in this western series set during the American Civil War. Out on February 22. ZOMBIES The dead just keep on walking and true to its zombie DNA, Fear theWalking Dead:The Complete Second Season

Jonathan Nolan - Person of Interest:The Fifth and Final Season which completes a remarkable and thought provoking drama set in the aftermath of 9/11. Finch (Michael Emerson)

is the inventor of an artificial intelligence system that can

Person of Interest:The Fifth and Final Season

predict a crime before it happens. It can do this thanks to the information deluge pouring out of surveillance equipment installed following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Finch enlists former CIA agent Reese (Jim Caviezel) to help him prevent the catastrophic events predicted by his machine. There's a fine chemistry between Emerson and Caviezel, two accomplished actors able to exploit the dynamics of an odd couple drawn together by urgent circumstances. Conceptually ambitious it may be, but you would expect nothing less from Nolan, the screenwriter of Interstellar . Person of Interest also plays on the paranoia and moral dilemmas posed by accelerating technological change, a feeling of unease that Nolan also uses to great effect in HBO's Westworld . The final season of Person of Interest is out February 15.

Elementary:The Fourth Season

And if you're a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's enduring and dexterous detective, don't forget equally compelling US counterpart Elementary: The Fourth Season . Starring Jonny Lee Miller as a modern day Sherlock, this fourth season finds his companion Watson (Lucy Liu) attaining equal status in their professional relationship as

private investigators. As intriguing as the cases are, Elementary rises above run of the mill procedurals thanks to Miller's beguiling reinterpretation of Sherlock, with his fair share of character flaws. The season is also given an extra

maintains the same fever pitched intensity that has electrified fans around the world. If you want to know more, make sure you check out our review on page 41.

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SERIES FOUR

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)8//< 6,&. Sick Boy – aka Jonny Lee Miller – is back, along with a lot of personal issues he hasn't resolved, in the hotly anticipated sequel T2:Trainspotting . Words Gill Pringle

7 wenty years ago, a small Scottish indie movie announced the arrival of four future stars, catapulting Jonny Lee Miller, Ewan McGregor, Kevin McKidd and Robert Carlyle into the spotlight and likewise cementing the career of director Danny Boyle, who would later go on to win an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire . Although McGregor had already worked with Boyle two years earlier on Shallow Grave , the buzz didn’t really start until Trainspotting, which spoke to disenfranchised youth as well as rocking the best soundtrack of its day. “We were all pretty new apart from Robert – that’s why he had the ‘and Robert Carlyle’ credit,” laughs Jonny Lee Miller, 44, when STACK catches up with him in New York, where he films hit TV drama Elementary , having portrayed Sherlock Holmes for five years now. But Trainspotting was a seminal experience for all its cast, so Miller wasn’t entirely surprised when he received a postcard from Boyle 18 months ago, simply

STACK 's Gill Pringle with Jonny Lee Miller

very close with Robert as well but hadn’t seen him in ten years either, so it was amazing to come back together again. “It’s very surreal, but really wonderful to have that opportunity to do this all over again; to suddenly be able to reconnect as friends and colleagues as well,” adds Miller, whose Sick Boy was the only non-Scot among the main cast. Sick Boy, he says, has not fared too well in the two decades since we last saw him, having traded heroin for a full-blown coke habit. “I’m not ruling out heroin entirely but Sick Boy is now a bit of a cokehead. He’s still got a lot of personal issues and he really hasn’t moved on in his life. In the first film, they’re a group in the same situation, and here, they are four individuals in very different places.” If it was a given that Sick Boy was the cool one in the original Trainspotting , Miller isn’t so sure second time around.

recalls Miller, who just months later found himself reunited with McGregor and Carlyle in Edinburgh, along with original Trainspotting cast members Ewen Bremner, Kelly Macdonald and Shirley Henderson. With anticipation riding high for T2: Trainspotting , Miller admits to a certain level of anxiety. “It wasn’t anything that any of us took lightly. We were all quite nervous about it. And none of us had seen each other in ages. Ewan and I used to be very close but I hadn’t seen him in a very long time. Life just took us in different directions. And I was

If Sick Boy is cool then the credit has to go to screenwriter John Hodge, and his vision stating: “We’re going to have a go at T2. Will send a script when we have one.” A few months later the script arrived in the mail. “I thought it was pretty good and I heard the other guys liked it too,”

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In the first film they're a group in the same situation, and here, they are four individuals in very different places

“If Sick Boy is cool then the credit has to go to screenwriter John Hodge, and his vision. I just show up and play it. I remember with the first movie, people were like ‘Oh, Sick Boy’s so f– ing cool’. And he was! The hair and everything. Now he ain’t so cool, at all. Because he’s kind of stuck, and it was very interesting to me to show that, like, if you get stuck, and he’s still trying to be that, but it’s not working. The whole film is interesting like that to me, because some of the characters are really stuck in place, and hopefully, I think that’s relatable to people. We’re not trying to recreate the cool vibe of Trainspotting , because what’s the point in doing that?” Miller also debunks the popular theory that T2: Trainspotting is a

things, for whatever reason, and things aren’t always black and white, and there’s not always right and wrong, and that happens in groups of people, and I think that was really relatable, so T2 looks at that,“ adds Miller, although his lips are firmly sealed regarding T2 ’s plot. “The first film didn’t have a plot,” he argues. “It’s just a group of friends interacting, and then at the end, they get some drugs, and go down and do a drug deal. That’s really the plot! That’s it! There’s no plot! And it’s kind of the same model for the second movie. It’s a group of people interacting, and how their actions have affected one another.” Returning to Edinburgh to shoot T2 was also surreal, he says. “First time round, we could run around doing whatever we wanted, and no one cared or bothered. But this time, people were freaking out and

literal translation of Irvine Welsh’s sequel novel, Porno . At the heart of T2 – just like the original – is the relationships. “I think that’s what people really identify with, and what was refreshing about the first movie is that the hero does that to his friends at the end – and he’s still sort of remembered as the hero of the movie,” he offers. “People let each other down all the time and they do selfish

trying to shelter our costumes and saying ‘Put your hood on when you get your hair dyed,’ and I was like ‘What’s the f–ing point?’ And it was Danny who said, ‘It’s like they’re f–ing Star Wars up there!’ But it’s true. It brings a lot of people, and a level of excitement which is quite alarming.” Wed four years to Angelina Jolie after they met on his first film, Hackers , Miller has had enough excitement to last a lifetime, today married to actress Michele Hicks with whom he has an eight-year- old son, Buster. “People liked to imagine I was like Sick Boy but I’ve never been that guy. In my spare time I like to run marathons,” he reveals. “I’m happy living in New York and I just wanted to continue doing Elementary for as long as they let us. Ride that one out and see what happens next. I’m a parent, so I’m just looking to raise my kid well.”

• T2: Trainspotting is in cinemas on Feb 23

we were getting followed by paparazzi, and they’re

+HUH V -RQQ\

From wedding Angelina Jolie to playing Sherlock Holmes, Miller has kept busy between Trainspotting films...

Miller plays Dade "Zero Cool" Murphy in this futuristic (well, for 1995) cyberpunk thriller that explores the hacker subculture. It also stars young Angelina Jolie in her first major film role, as Miller's fellow high school hacker and love interest. The pair wed the following year and divorced in 1999.

Miller was reunited with his Trainspotting co-star Robert Carlyle in this period action- comedy. The pair play 18th century highwaymen, with Macleane (Miller) the brains and Plunkett (Carlyle) the brawn. The film was a flop on its initial release but found a cult following on home video, thanks largely to its stars.

Miller starred as the eponymous San Francisco lawyer who is diagnosed with a brain aneurysm that causes him to suffer bizarre visions, which he interprets as signs. Convinced he has a higher purpose, he accepts hard luck cases for altruistic reasons rather than financial gain. The show ran for two seasons.

While Benedict Cumberbatch was reinventing Sherlock

(/(0(17$5< (2012– ) Holmes on British TV, Miller was doing the same thing Stateside, albeit partnered with Dr. Joan Watson (Lucy Lui). Essentially transplanting the super sleuth into a New York-set police procedural, the series owes much of its success to Miller's portrayal.

0$&/($1( (1999)

+$&.(56 (1995)

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PRIMAL FEAR The filmmaker who introduced the notion of seeing dead people in The Sixth Sense explores Dissociative Identity Disorder in Split , with James McAvoy exhibiting 24 different personalities. Words Gill Pringle

I just find this psychological

W riter-director M. Night Shyamalan originally wrote the Split script with Joaquin Phoenix in mind, having previously worked together on The Village and Signs . But when Phoenix dropped out, James McAvoy stepped in – no stranger to multiple personality disorder, having already made a trial run in Filth . A stickler for homework, Shyamalan, 46, has done much research into Dissociative Identity Disorder, otherwise known as Multiple Personality Disorder. DID is still the black sheep of the psychiatric world, many believing that patients invent their “multiples” to dodge prison sentences or that therapists actually “push” the DID diagnosis on fragile patients who may be suffering from other psychiatric disorders. When STACK meets with the director in Los Angeles, his eyes light up at the sheer numbers. “Oh there are as many as like 60 personalities [that have] been diagnosed in one patient. Tons! I mean even Sybil Dorset had 16 and the famous ones, like Billy Milligan, was 22, or something like that,” he says, referencing The Minds of Billy Milligan , a film treatment to which Leonardo DiCaprio has long been attached, while the former's story was told in the 1976 mini-series Sybil , starring Sally Field. For Shyamalan, however, the 1957 film The Three Faces of Eve , starring Joanne Woodward in an Oscar-winning performance, really spoke to him. “I found it very moving. I just find this psychological disorder absolutely moving and

tragic, and amazing too. Especially the science of it. Pretty much everything I do in the movie, with one exception, is true. “DID is a disorder that only happens to individuals who were consistently sexually or physically abused between the ages of one and five years old, which is when the brain is still developing and the brain actually starts different synapses, and starts a different area, and goes ‘We can’t deal with the fact that our uncle or mother, or whatever it is, is doing this, so we’re going to create a whole other existence’. And then once it learns to do that during those years, it does it forever; it keeps on splintering over the course of time, so that these different personalities all become options for them,” explains Shyamalan, who worked with some of the top researchers in the DID field; genuinely compassionate of those afflicted with the disorder. With all of his research into DID, it was little wonder he felt anxious once the deal with Phoenix failed and he began recasting the lead. “But sometimes it’s like the right human being walks into your life at the right time. James was actually very aware of this subject, so I wasn’t starting from zero. Not many people can do empathy, comedy, and the physicality all at once. That was what scared me. But he was able to do it all.” Split also features The Witch 's Anya Taylor- Joy in a key role; the actress was yet to hit the

disorder absolutely moving and tragic...

zeitgeist when she first auditioned. “I was unfamiliar with her but just found her mesmerising," says Shyamalan. "She’s just an odd soul. She can’t be normal, and she’s obviously very beautiful, but she has the energy of this odd, ethereal person with her china doll-like face. And there’s a darkness there underneath, which I got to bring out.”

Split is in cinemas now and reviewed on page 22.

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CINEMA FEATURE HOMECOMING MarkWahlberg is known for headlining thrilling Hollywood blockbusters, but his latest project is as emotional an experience for the star as it is action-packed. Words Jake Taylor M ark Wahlberg’s recent collaborations with director Peter Berg have tackled some of the major events that have shaped modern America – be it as a member could count on a stellar cast including John Goodman, J. K. Simmons and Kevin Bacon, as well as his past successes with Peter Berg to provide the tribute he wanted to the people of Boston.

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of the US Special Forces in Afghanistan in 2013’s Lone Survivor or a rig engineer during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2016’s Deepwater Horizon. The pair’s latest project, however, is one that holds special importance for Wahlberg; the star plays Detective Sergeant Tommy Saunders in Patriots Day, based on the tragic terrorist attack that took place in Wahlberg’s birthplace of Boston in 2013. Despite his past cinematic successes, taking part in Patriots Day posed a completely new set of problems for Wahlberg. “I knew it was going to be extremely difficult,” the 45-year-old explains. “But in the end I realised that they’re probably going to make this movie anyway and that I should do it because that way I could control the way the story was told. “I thought there was probably no one who cared about what happened and wanted to honour the victims and their families more than I did. Even though there was a lot of pressure, it’s the kind of situation where

“I knew that Peter was as committed to that as any director could possibly be and that also made me feel confident that we could do justice to the people of Boston and also to the victims of the attack, their families, and everyone who was affected by this event,” he agrees. “Just talking about the movie is hard because it feels so close.” Set on the day of the Boston Marathon attack – in which Chechen brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev used homemade explosive devices

to kill three and injure over 250 other crowd-members watching the marathon’s finale – Patriots Day follows the immediate

[We made sure] we told this story with the right kind of respect and sensitivity

you want to show how proud you are of the

aftermath of the explosion and the

way people responded to the tragedy and how everyone united behind each other.” Thankfully for Wahlberg, he

subsequent manhunt. “I flew to Boston the next day and after landing at the airport and driving into the city, everything felt different,” Wahlberg recalls. “The

streets were virtually deserted and I don’t think I’ve ever had a more eerie feeling than I did on that day.” This intense connection to the story has made the filmWahlberg’s most emotional to date, and he hopes the project is a success not just for himself, but for all the “people who are going to stand up to these kinds of attacks in the same way that the people of Boston faced up to the tragedy”. “I felt a personal responsibility not only to the people who went through this ordeal but also to the entire Boston community, which is very close-knit,” he concludes. “And I wanted to still be able to show my face in the city after making this movie, which meant making sure that we told this story with the right kind of respect and sensitivity.”

Patriots Day is in cinemas from Feb 2

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AN ORIGINAL SERIES

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THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON

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LION

RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Garth Davis CAST: Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara RATING: PG Aussie director Garth Davis's gruff and passionate debut feature has pounced upon the awards season like a wild beast. Garnering acclaim wherever it's screened, Lion 's hard-hitting beauty, earnestness and poignancy has reduced audiences to tears. Five- year-old Saroo Brierley (Sunny Pawar) is separated from his brother after boarding a cross-country train and finds himself lost on the streets of Calcutta, India. After several years of struggling to survive, Saroo ends up in an adoption centre and soon finds a new home in Tasmania. Twenty years later, Saroo (now played by Dev Patel), is haunted by the fear of what his biological family felt when he went missing, and begins a Google Earth search to find out where he came from. But as the search slowly brings him closer to his lost family, it also strains the relationships he has built in Australia. If the film came to a halt before its jump to the future, it would be a roaring win for Lion . Newcomer Pawar hits all the right notes and makes a huge impact that claws your heart to shreds. Post-jump, it’s Patel’s charm that keeps us engaged during the reduction in pace and long glances at computer screens. There’s no doubt that Lion is a tearjerker, especially for parents, but you'll feel like more time has been spent getting lost than found, resulting in a conclusion that feels premature and less emotional than it could have been. Consequently, this big cat ends with a cute little meow instead of a roar. Savannah Douglas A troubled boy growing up in the tough urban projects, a crack addict mother, a kindly father figure who tries to show him the right path… the broad story outline suggests Moonlight is just another gritty urban drama. However, Barry Jenkins’ superb Golden Globe-winner offers a totally different experience altogether. Unfolding over three haunting chapters, it’s a coming-of-age drama about Ciron – played as a boy by Alex Hibbert, a teenager by Ashton Sanders, and as an adult Travante Rhodes – who not only has to cope with the usual hardships of growing up in a poor African-American neighbourhood in Miami, but is also grappling with his own sexual identity; the fact that the rest of the school have already decided that he is gay makes life doubly difficult. The largely unknown Hibbert, Sanders and Rhodes are great as the conflicted Cirons, Mahershala Ali brings gravitas to the role of the local drug dealer who takes the young Ciron under his wing, while R&B singer Janelle Monáe is a revelation as his sympathetic girlfriend. However, the acting honours go to Naomi Harris for her electrifying turn as the boy’s hopelessly addicted mother, who realises too late the damage she has inflicted on her son. Despite the gritty subject matter, there’s a dreamy, pastoral feel to Jenkins’ imagery, which helps bring a warmth and tenderness to the otherwise bleak storyline. Melancholic, moving and magical, expect Moonlight to feature prominently at this year’s Oscars. John Ferguson MOONLIGHT RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Barry Jenkins CAST: Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali, Janelle Monáe RATING: M

xXx: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE

RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: D.J. Caruso CAST: Vin Diesel, Toni Collette, Ruby Rose RATING: M

V in Diesel's characters just keep coming back for more. While we're unlikely to see The Last Witch Hunter 's Kaulder again, Dominic Toretto returns in April in The Fate of the Furious , there's a new Riddick movie in development, and now, after 15 years, extreme sports nut turned special agent Xander Cage is back! When a piece of tech that can turn satellites into guided missiles is stolen by a bunch of bad guys (led by Donnie Yen), who ya gonna call? "We need someone who can walk into a tornado and come out on the other side like it was a damn gentle Action to the XXXtreme.

fur coat, Cage assembles his team – comprising our own Ruby Rose (a perfect fit for this kind of action flick), Bollywood star Deepika Padukone, nerdy hacker Nina Dobrev, DJ Kris Wu, and the Hound from Game of Thrones (aka Rory McCann) – and the race is on to retrieve the device, known as Pandora's Box, before more satellites drop out of orbit. Set in a world where the laws of physics don't apply, the heroes are indestructible and motorcycles turn into jet skis to navigate tubular swells, xXx: Return of Xander Cage revels in its own shameless stupidity and rarely pauses for breath.

RATING KEY: Wow! Good Not bad Meh Woof!

It's a prime example of what the modern action movie has become in the wake of The Expendables and The Fast and the Furious . Diesel has an uncanny knack of making mindless movies more enjoyable than they deserve to be through sheer charisma alone (yes, even The Last Witch Hunter ), and this is no

breeze," says Toni Collette's NSA boss, while remaining admirably stony-faced. Flash cut to the Dominican Republic where Cage is enjoying the quiet life, skiing

through the jungle (as you do), putting Tony

Hawk to shame on a skateboard, and basking in the attention of gorgeous young women. Following a stopover in London to pick up his trademark

exception. It's "100% pure adrenaline" for a youthful demographic jacked up on too much Red Bull. Think Fast and the Furious without the cars and a lower IQ. Scott Hocking

FEBRUARY 2017

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SPLIT

ALSO SCREENING IN FEBRUARY

RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan CAST: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy RATING: M

Night falls.

M. Night Shyamalan might be cinema's greatest one trick pony. After making an auspicious debut in 1999 with The Sixth Sense and an Oscar nomination for Best Director, it's been all downhill ever since with a series of films predicated on twist endings ( Signs, The Village, The Lady in the Water, The Happening ) that became progressively more preposterous. Nothing has changed – his latest film, Split , is quintessential Shyamalan and the twist here is that he hasn't learned from past mistakes. James McAvoy plays a guy named Kevin, and Dennis, and Barry, as well as a prim woman named Patricia and a lisping child called Hedwig. These are just five of the 23 personalities inhabiting this sufferer

of Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder), who has abducted a trio of students (Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula) and imprisoned them in a basement for some sinister purpose. Split resembles a bad Dean Koontz novel or a rejected X-Files script, with the narrative alternating between the girls' encounters with Kevin's different personas – appealing to the benevolent ones, inciting the wrath of the more malicious – and the revelation uncovered by his elderly psychiatrist (Betty Buckley) concerning the nature of his disorder and the possibility that a 24th personality is struggling to emerge. Then there are the flashbacks to Taylor-Joy's childhood involving a hunting trip with her father and uncle, that may have some significance to her present predicament. And who or what is the mysterious 'Beast' that's so ominously name- dropped throughout, and will it actually show up? Assembling Shyamalan's enigmatic jigsaw of a plot and attempting to pre-empt the inevitable climactic reveal is ultimately an exercise in futility – Split is all set-up with little payoff, and the coda smacks of conceit. McAvoy, however, is enormous fun and his blatantly showy performance is almost worth the price of admission. Scott Hocking edit of the piece. The story is unconventionally structured, jumping between Jackie's distress following the shooting in Dallas, her confiding in a priest (John Hurt), and a recreation of the 1962 documentary on the White House refurbishment that showcases her public persona. It's the scenes aboard Air Force One in the wake of the tragedy and Jackie's subsequent return home that resonate most strongly – wandering shell- shocked through an empty White House with her husband's blood still splashed across her pink outfit, her grief is palpable. With her striking physical resemblance and distinctive diction, Natalie Portman nails it, personifying a woman both fragile and strong, and fiercely resolute in her desire to preserve the Kennedy legacy. Frequently shot in extreme close-up, Jackie keeps us in the immediate sphere of its subject and the result is an extremely melancholic experience that runs contrary to expectations for a film of this type. There's a scene in the aforementioned White House doco where John F. Kennedy states its purpose is to offer a more intimate look at the people behind the legends, and that's exactly what Larrain's remarkable film does. Scott Hocking

"Choose looking up old friends.... Choose watching history repeat itself..." It's been too long – 20 years in fact – since we last hung out with Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begby in Danny Boyle's Brit-classic. Choose your seats on Feb 23 , but for now, turn to page 14 for our interview with star Jonny Lee Miller. T2: TRAINSPOTTING

JACKIE

And hopefully fifty shades sexier. After a surprisingly tame introduction to Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele in the first film, a Fatal Attraction -like sub-plot promises to turn up the heat. Opens Feb 9 in time for Valentine's Day. FIFTY SHADES DARKER

RELEASED: Now Showing DIRECTOR: Pablo Larraín CAST: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard RATING: MA15+

Portrait of a First Lady.

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain's portrait of iconic First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy is less a biopic than an intensely intimate character study. There's a lot of life to cover so Jackie narrows its focus to the week following the assassination of JFK and its devastating impact upon his widow. Noah Oppenheim's exquisitely layered screenplay is informed by an interview conducted by LIFE journalist Theodore H. White (played by Billy Crudup but unnamed in the film), and begins with an initially frosty reception between the two as Jackie lays out her terms, which includes a final

Matt Damon and the guy from Game of Thrones are recruited to defend the Great Wall of China from a monstrous invasion force that threatens the historical site on Feb 16 . THE GREAT WALL

Set thirteen years after the films starring Naomi Watts, the curse of Samara is updated for the internet age as a viral video. But will it still be as scary as that terrifying tape? Find out, if you dare, on Feb 23 . RINGS

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The most important of these events occurred in 1948 when the Justice Department challenged the monopolistic practices within the movie industry. Moreover, they were able to persuade the Supreme Court that the film industry's studio system was in fact a criminal conspiracy designed to strengthen their hold on the exhibition field.

The Decline of Hollywood's Studio System 1947-1950 Part 3

A key element – and the most profitable part of the studio system – was the block-booking of movies to independent exhibitors. The "big five" studios owned or controlled a network of some 1,400 movie theatres situated in the major urban areas of the US. These "picture palaces" were primarily first run theatres premiering the big name stars' A-releases, which also allowed the industry to charge high ticket prices. But when independently owned theatres – mainly located in the rural areas of America – wanted to rent these big-budget pictures, they would also have to take an entire year's worth of films from the individual studios without having the opportunity to screen them in advance. These block or blind-booking units would invariably include a number of mediocre low budget movies. The studios' B-movie units provided an indispensable training ground for contracted novice actors and directors. By bundling together these low budget productions with major features guaranteed the studios a profitable return on every film in the unit. As a consequence, if the independent movie houses did not take a certain number of these lesser quality films, plus cartoons and newsreels, they would not get the prestige productions their paying customers wanted to see. This was considered an unfair trade practice and a violation of the federal anti- trust law, and in the case of The United States vs Paramount Pictures, et al , block booking was outlawed as an abuse of market power. If that was not bad enough, the five major studios were also forced to divest themselves of their theatre chains to allow for a true free market enterprise. This meant that Paramount, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, RKO and MGM no longer The Paramount Theatre, Times Square, Manhattan in 1948 - it was premiere theatres like these that the major Hollywood studios were legally forced to relinquish control of.

become more sophisticated than previously supposed, and the post-war baby boom meant that the millions of new parents had far less time and money to spend on entertainment. The studio moguls were stunned and perplexed, for they had believed that the correlation between the industry's early post- war boom and America's weekly habit of going to the movies would continue well into the next decade. Bereft of any immediate ideas of how to lure mass audiences back into cinemas, Hollywood was then hit with a series of events that would sound the death knell for the industry's studio system.

1946 had been a bonanza year for Hollywood with combined profits of the five major, and three minor, movie studios reaching the all-time high of $122 million ($1.6 billion in today's money). But without any discernible warning, the following year millions of Americans suddenly stopped going to the movies. Hollywood's profits in 1947 dropped to $89 million and the decline accelerated to less than $60 million in 1948. The demographics of US moviegoers changed substantially after the war ended and complex factors combined to both lower attendance and change audience tastes. War-time audiences had been primarily women, made up of the mothers, wives, daughters and sweethearts left behind by the fighting men who had shipped out to Europe and the Pacific. Servicemen returning fromWWII had little taste for the fictional and somewhat frivolous onscreen entertainment that paled in comparison to what they had witnessed and experienced on the battlefield. Furthermore, a vast majority of early post-war movies were naïve and of poor quality, and Hollywood was slow to realise that cinema audiences were now carefully selecting the films that they wanted to watch. Moviegoers had

The lavish interior of the "picture palace" RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood

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