Eight films to
watch in December 2013
Inside Llewyn Davis
Three years after the
crowd-pleasing True Grit became their highest-grossing film ever, Joel and
Ethan Coen return with a film that feels more akin to their darkly comedic mood
pieces like Barton Fink and A Serious Man. Inside Llewyn Davis stars Oscar
Isaac as an aspiring singer-songwriter navigating the folk music scene of New
York’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960s. Bob Dylan-level success proves
difficult for him to achieve as he encounters quirky fellow Manhattanites
played by Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake. Released 5 December in Germany,
6 December in the US and 24 January 2014 in the UK. (CBS Films)
·
American Hustle
Director David O Russell
essentially combines the casts of his Oscar-winning hits The Fighter and Silver
Linings Playbook in the story of the FBI’s inquiry into the widespread
political corruption in the 1970s known as Abscam. Christian Bale, Amy Adams,
Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper don outrageous ‘70s outfits to play the
cops and crooks whose intersecting agendas ultimately helped expose the
scandal. Released 13 December in the US, 20 December in the UK and 31 January
2014 in Japan. (Columbia Pictures)
·
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The second installment of
Peter Jackson’s blockbuster Hobbit trilogy ups the action considerably compared
with 2012’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. That first film barely took
Bilbo Baggins and his party of scruffy dwarves beyond the first 80 pages of JRR
Tolkien’s rather slim novel. This time the band encounter Lee Pace’s fiercely
territorial Elvenking, Orlando Bloom’s expert archer Legolas, a female Elf
warrior named Tauriel (invented by Jackson just for the film), and of course,
the gold-hoarding dragon Smaug, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch. Released 12
December in Argentina, 13 December in the US and UK, and 28 February 2014 in
Japan. (Warner Bros)
·
The Past
Iranian director Asghar
Farhadi mined the relationship dynamics of a failing marriage for Hitchcockian
suspense in 2011’s A Separation. In his next film, divorce is again under the
spotlight, as a Parisian woman (The Artist’s Berenice Bejo) seeks to end her
marriage to the husband (Ali Mosaffa) who abandoned her. But a web of
extenuating circumstances makes her pursuit of this aim more difficult than she
had imagined. Released 5 December in Serbia, 20 December in the US and 25
December in Norway. (Sony Pictures Classics)
·
Saving Mr Banks
It may seem
self-congratulatory for Walt Disney Studios to produce a movie that extolls the
greatness of one of their previous films, but Saving Mr Banks offers more than
that. It stars Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, − chronicling his fight to adapt Mary
Poppins despite the ferocious opposition of its author, PL Travers (Emma
Thompson). The film is not an entirely hagiographic account of Disney company
history, though: Uncle Walt is shown smoking, drinking, and being as ornery as
his colleagues have claimed. Released 29 November in the UK, 13 December in the
US, and 26 December in Australia. (Walt Disney Studios)
·
Her
For his first film since
2009’s Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich,
Adaptation) directs Her, which concerns the influence of technology on
contemporary relationships. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a man who has at least
three gorgeous flesh-and-blood women in his life – played by Amy Adams, Rooney
Mara, and Olivia Wilde – yet would rather pursue a romance with his computer’s
operating system because he is smitten with its sensitive Siri-like voice.
Scarlett Johanssen has received such praise for her vocal work as the
computer’s artificial intelligence, that, despite never being seen on-screen,
some critics have suggested she should receive an Oscar nomination. Whatever
its awards season chances, Her is a welcome return for Jonze to Malkovich
territory – a meditation on the increasing separation of mind, body, and heart
in modern life. Released 18 December in the US, 16 January in Singapore, and 24
January 2014 in the UK. (Warner Bros)
·
The Wolf of Wall Street
All the seedy decadence
and debauchery of gangster life that Martin Scorsese conveyed in his classics
GoodFellas and Casino are captured once again, this time in a different milieu:
New York’s financial sector. The Wolf of Wall Street depicts the heady days of
the prosperous 1990s, when cash-flushed securities brokers like Jordan Belfort
(Leonardo DiCaprio) made a killing by ignoring financial regulations and
breaking the law. Scorsese’s new epic tries to make the case that white-collar
crime is still crime – and can have devastating repercussions. Released 25
December in the US and Canada, 3 January 2014 in Turkey, and 31 January 2014 in
Norway. (Paramount)
·
The Invisible Woman
Charles Dickens’ life has
been scrutinised almost as much as his dazzling literary works, but rarely has
his own story been brought to the big screen. Ralph Fiennes seeks to correct
that by directing and starring in a biopic about Dickens, focusing particularly
on his affair with a much a younger woman (Felicity Jones) who became his muse
for some of his work. Released 25 December in the US, 7 February 2014 in the UK,
and 27 March 2014 in The Netherlands. (Sony Pictures)
