According to (), Trumbo has been directed by Jay Roach “in a style somewhere between his commercial comedies (Meet the Parents, Austin Powers) and his politically-charged HBO movies (Recount, Game Change)”. Blacklisted during the McCarthy era for being a member of the Communist Party, he still managed to produce Oscar-winning scripts for Roman Holiday and The Brave One under a pseudonym his career was revived after he was revealed as the true writer of Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus in 1960. (Credit: PR)Īdapted by John McNamara from Bruce Cook’s biography, this film tells the story of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, played by Bryan Cranston. Released 30 October in the US, 13 November in Finland and 26 November in Germany. Noé didn’t set out to arouse rather, he intends to stress how sex is a vital aspect of the way humans connect”.
While the sex on show is graphic, Variety argues, “this is not pornography. Yet (), while the cast holds nothing back, it’s Noé “who exposes the most in his sexually explicit, semi-autobiographical Cannes scandal-in-the-making, a courageously personal account of an aspiring filmmaker torn between the mother of his child and the one that got away”. It’s since gone on to divide critics, with many arguing that it’s nothing more than a cheap provocation from writer-director Gaspar Noé, who courted controversy with his previous films I Stand Alone, Irréversible and Enter the Void. When it premiered at Cannes, this 3D erotic romance featuring authentic sex scenes received (). Released 18 November in Brazil, 19 November in Australia and 20 November in the US. She is a phenomenal fictional creation, yet is real enough that moviegoers can draw inspiration from her values, her resourcefulness, and her very human inner conflicts.” The final instalment promises much in the way of rebellion: () “an all-action Everdeen preparing for her final assault on the enemy, armed with only a souped-up bow and arrow, and a barrel-load of rousing, revolutionary rhetoric”. Jennifer Lawrence has become () as Katniss Everdeen, with critics praising her character as a role model for young girls. The fourth and final film adapted from Suzanne Collins’ dystopian novels is eagerly awaited: according to a US poll in September, (). (Credit: Wilson Webb/ The Weinstein Company) Released 20 November in the US, 27 November in Ireland and 3 December in Greece. The period detail is as captivating as the performances: for Bradshaw, the combination of “the clothes, the hair, the automobiles, the train carriages, the record players, the lipstick and the cigarettes… is intoxicating in itself”. Set in the 1950s, it’s adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s erotic novel The Price of Salt. I went into a trance watching it – and haven’t quite surfaced, even now.” Cate Blanchett stars as the eponymous housewife, a glamorous older woman who seduces young department store clerk Therese (played by Rooney Mara).
Carol was praised for being “outstandingly intelligent” by The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, () “to suffuse everything with woozy eroticism and passion and defiance. The latest from director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven) wowed audiences when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Released 4 November in the US and 6 November in Ireland. “When work and home collide in such a huge way, you don’t know what to do with it,” she told (). Ronan, who is herself the child of Irish immigrants to the US (although they moved back to Ireland with her when she was three), found the role struck a chord. Domhnall Gleeson and Emory Cohen co-star as love interests vying for her affection, and Brooklyn set off a bidding war among distributors when it was screened at Sundance.
(), the film achieves “something close to a miracle – the kind of old-fashioned, shivers-down-the-spine serendipity that’s hushed and special, and can’t be taught”. Nick Hornby’s screen adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s bestselling novel stars Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) as a young woman who returns to her small town in Ireland from New York after a family tragedy.