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30 April 2012

May delivers us an eclectic collection of films that are sure to have you beelining to the nearest cinema.

Our resident film buff Michelle Veysey selects the three films that will keep your eyes and ears entertained with cinematic goodness throughout the month of May.

STARBUCK

Director: Ken Scott
Stars: Patrick Huard, Julie LeBreton and Antoine Bertrand
Rating: M Violence, offensive language, drug use and sexual references
Release date: 3 May

This Canadian comedy will steal your heart. Just when 42-year-old David Wosniak, an eternal teenager, decides to finally make something of his life, his existence is turned upside down by the appearance of numerous children – the result of his activities as a sperm donor 20 years before. The film takes its name, not from the US coffee house, but a Canadian Holstein bull who produced hundreds of thousands of progeny by artificial insemination in the 1980s and 1990s, Hanoverhill Starbuck.

“Scott deftly balances David’s ridiculous mission with moments of real tenderness, making for several heartfelt moments that help carry you past the fact that such a situation couldn’t possibly have the ending it does.” Dave McGinn, Globe and Mail

“A wonderfully sweet and poignant comedy that goes in all kinds of unexpected directions.” Bruce Demara, Toronto Star

 

LE HAVRE

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Stars: André Wilms, Blondin Miguel and Jean-Pierre Darroussin
Rating: G
Release date: 31 May

In this warm-hearted portrait of the French harbour city that gives the film its name, fate throws young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a well-spoken bohemian who works as a shoeshiner. With innate optimism and the unwavering support of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation. Critics are raving about this political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and Marcel Carné; Le Havre is a charming, deadpan delight. Director Aki Kaurismäki washes the town with classical 1950s’ lighting that romanticizes without resorting to any soft-focus distortions that might usually be used to create such a beautiful effect.

“Endearingly quirky, just this side of precious, but so warm and deftly executed that you go along with it.” Jon Frosch, The Atlantic

 

LAST WILL

Director: Peter Flinth
Stars: Malin Crépin, Richard Ulfsäter and Björn Kjellman
Rating: TBC
Release date: 31 May

From the producers of The Millennium Trilogy comes Nobel’s Last Will, the first in a six-feature franchise of Swedish crime thrillers based on bestsellers by Liza Marklund. Marklund’s Bengtzon novels have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and been translated into 30 languages. While covering the annual Nobel Banquet for tabloid Kvallspressen, crime reporter Annika Bengtzon witnesses a spectacular murder right in front of her. Two people are shot, one of them the controversial Laureate in Medicine, Aaron Wiesel. A terrorist group with connections to the Middle East quickly admits responsibility for the murder however Bengtzon becomes increasingly convinced that the real target of the attack is Wiesels dancing partner Caroline von Behring, Chairman of the Nobel Committee. Her unsanctioned investigation takes her into dangerous territory.