Zero Dark Thirty
Screened: Saturday 5 SeptemberAvailable now at SBS On Demand
(USA, drama/history/thriller, 2013)
MA+15
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt
What's it about?After early films about vampires, sci-fi cops, and surfing bank robbers, Kathryn Bigelow has moved to the much darker subjects of war and terrorism in both her latest movies, the critially acclaimed The Hurt Locker (for which she won the direcing Oscar) and Zero Dark Thirty. The latter follows an elite team of intelligence and military operatives, working in secret across the globe, tasked with locating and eliminating Osama bin Laden. Jessica Chastain delivers one of her greatest performances as the conflicted CIA agent on the hunt for the world's most wanted man.
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A Beautiful Mind
Saturday 12 September, 8:30pm
(USA, biography/drama, 2001)
M
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris
What's it about?Russell Crowe gives a mesmerising performance as mathematical genius John Forbes Nash, Jr. After distinguishing himself early in his career, Nash was enlisted by the US government to intercept Soviet communications during the Cold War. However, a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia plunges him into the depths of despair. By his side throughout his ordeal is his stoic wife Alicia, played by Jennifer Connelly, whose Oscar for Best Actress was amongst the four won by the movie at the 2002 Academy Awards.
[link title="Brian Grazer pays tribute to A Beautiful Mind subject John Nash" url="node/39401"]
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Munich
Saturday 19 September, 8:30pm
(France/Canada/USA, drama/history/thriller, 2005)
MA15+ Director: Steven Spielberg Starring: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush What's it about?Steven Spielberg dramatises the shocking events surrounding 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, when the team of 11 Israeli athletes was abducted and eventually killed by terrorists. Israel dispatches a secret Mossad team into Europe to locate those responsible but the operation becomes bogged down in moral ambiguity. A tense geopolitical thriller with an all-star cast led by Eric Bana, Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig and Mathieu Amalric.
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The Constant Gardener
Saturday 26 September, 8:30pm
(UK, drama/mystery/romance, 2005)
M
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Bill Nighy
What's it about?Acclaimed Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (City of God) and international best selling author John Le Carre join forces to spotlight the dubious practices of the pharmaceutical industry in this fast-paced, socially-conscious thriller. A British diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) and his political activist wife, Tess (Rachel Weisz, who won an Oscar for this role) are stationed in Kenya. When Tess learns that a new drug is being tested on unwitting impoverished Kenyans, the news has startling ramifications.
