MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION Saturday 8th August Federal Hall Dinner from
6.30pm
Movie starts
7.30pm
ZZZ IHGHUDOÂź OPVRFLHW\ FRP RU WHO
The most praiseworthy thing to be said about franchise-flicks is that you know exactly what to expect from them. The new MI delivers handsomely on its promise of thrills and spills, chases and punch-ups, brain-breaking plot contortions and ratbag heroics, throwing in for good measure glossy travelogue shoots in London, Vienna and Casablanca. So what do we have to complain about? Well, nothing really. It is what it is and I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Watching Tom Cruise as the indestructible Ethan Hunt is a grotesque fascination in itself – is Cruise a real human being? – and this time out his jaw-grinding bravado is thankfully tempered by the presence of Simon Pegg’s less macho Agent Dunn. The movie opens, in fact, with a very funny scene in which the lads stooge around trying to release smuggled cargo from a terrorist’s plane while it’s in flight. The episode suggests a more light-hearted approach might follow and if Cruise’s colossal ego will not allow
for too much leave-taking the overall tone is not quite so testosterone laden as is normally the case. The delightful Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust (a Flemingesque name if ever there were one) also contributes to this, as do the reliably quirky Simon McBurney and everybody’s favourite boofhead, Alec Baldwin, as the CIA guy. Hunt’s aim is to find a microchip that, in the hands of the villainous Syndicate, will threaten all that is proper and right in the world. Technology, an increasingly significant factor in such scenarios ever since Q and his gadgets entered the Bond series way back when, plays its dazzling part, but inevitably it is the high-voltage action sequences that are what it’s all about. Here they are typically prolonged, but director Christopher McQuarrie handles them with brilliant precision – the backstage fight at the Vienna Opera House is a textbook example of rapid-fire editing and climax building. Twists and double-crosses add to the fun – if you’re willing to go with the flow.Â
WEDNESDAY
5 AUG to
WEDNESDAY
12 AUG
HURRY SAT/MON ONLY
Chiwetel Ejiofor
OPENS TOMORROW
SAT AND MON ONLY
TRAINWRECK (MA15+) (NO FREE TIX) Thu/Fri/Tue 11.25am, 4.20, 6.50, 9.15pm Sat 11.20am, 4.15, 6.45, 9.10pm Sun/Wed (12) 11.20am, 4.25, 6.50, 9.15pm Mon 11.20am, 4.20, 6.45, 9.30pm LAST CAB TO DARWIN (M) (NO FREE TIX) Thu-Sat/Tue 1.50, 6.30, 9.00pm Sun 10.30am, 6.30, 9.00pm Mon 1.45, 6.40, 9.10pm Wed (12) 1.50, 6.50, 9.15pm MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION (M) (NO FREE TIX) Wed (5) 11.15am, 4.00, 6.40, 9.15pm Thu/Fri/Tue 1.50, 4.00, 8.50pm Sat 10.30am, 4.00, 8.10pm Sun 1.50, 4.00, 8.10pm Mon 9.50am, 4.10, 9.10pm Wed (12) 1.50, 4.15, 8.20pm MR. HOLMES (M) Wed (5) 1.50, 7.00pm Thu/Fri/Tue 9.20, 11.30am, 6.45pm Sat 1.50, 6.00pm Sun 11.20am, 6.00pm Mon 2.50, 7.25pm Wed (12) 9.00am, 6.15pm AMY (MA15+) Wed (5) 1.25, 8.00pm Thu/Fri/Tue 11.20am, 4.15pm Sat 9.00am, 3.20pm Sun 1.25pm Mon 11.20am, 5.00pm Wed (12) 9.00am, 3.40pm Enjoy our licensed bar
Lavazza Espresso Coffee
OPENS TOMORROW
ANT-MAN (PG) Wed (5) 9.00, 4.35, 9.10pm Thu-Wed (12) 9.00am FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (M) Wed (5) 9.20, 11.45am Thu/Fri/Tue 9.15am, 1.30pm Sat/Wed (12) 11.30am Sun 9.00am Mon 9.00am, 2.00pm MAGIC MIKE XXL (MA15+) Wed (5) 9.00am INSIDE OUT (PG) Wed (5) 11.20am GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF (M) Wed (5) 2.10pm RUBEN GUTHRIE (MA15+) Wed (5) 4.00, 6.00pm
NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: EVERYMAN (CTC) Sat 1.00pm Mon 12.30pm ROYAL OPERA: GUILLAUME TELL (CTC) Sun 1.00pm Wed (12) 11.00am Gift cards are the perfect gift
Group Bookings available
108-110 Jonson Street, Byron Bay 6680 8555 | www.palacecinemas.com.au
48 August 5, 2015 The Byron Shire Echo
RUBEN GUTHRIE
Winter, between school hols, is generally the time of year that you find the more interesting movies turning up. They sneak into the cinema like refugees from the glitzy world of blockbusters and celebrity rom-coms and, as often as not, depart unnoticed. Their plight is made no easier if they happen to be Australian for, let’s face it, our homegrown artists just don’t get a look in when the mega-stars and big bucks of Hollywood’s PR machine swamp the media. Acclaimed actor Brendan Cowell, last seen in the wonderful Save Your Legs (2012), has made his debut as writer/director in a confessional film, adapted from his play, of scything humour and stark social comment. Ruben (Patrick Brammall) is a leading light in Sydney’s advertising scene. He lives in a stylish but sterile harbour-view house with Zoya (Abbey Lee), his gorgeous blond
girlfriend from Prague, and indulges in untrammelled hedonism. But he also has a problem that threatens to devour him – he loves the grog to the point that he cannot function without it. When Zoya leaves him, Ruben decides to confront his demon. Cowell asks more challenging questions than he answers by going full-frontal with his depiction of our contemporary mores. How can Ruben – or anybody – get sober and achieve self-determination when he is enmeshed in a mob-minded culture that puts such a high premium on obligatory good times and ‘having a drink’ (which, of course, always means having plenty more)? He turns to AA, where he meets Virginia, an ex-junkie who is now addicted to self-help platitudes (it’s a portrayal of uncanny accuracy by Harriet Dyer). And all the while he is being lured back onto the juice by his old, gay friend Damian (Alex Dimitriades). Warming to Ruben is initially difficult, for Cowell is not afraid of showing him as the dickhead that he is, but empathy is more genuine when truth’s ugliness is accepted and overcome. It’s the outsider Zoya who says it – twice: we are ‘an alcoholic nation’. Ruben’s journey is Australia’s.
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au/byron-echo