With tons to look forward to in Irish cinemas this month, what will you go to see?
MALEFICENT
Directed by: Robert Stromberg
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Juno Temple, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley
Release Date: May 28th 2014
Everyone has a favourite Disney Villain, and for those who have a love for the evil villain who cursed Princess Aurora in SLEEPING BEAUTY, this is the film for you!
Angelina Jolie plays Maleficent, a fairy whose good heart was hardened, turning her into the Mistress of All Evil, and causing her to curse the newborn baby Aurora. For the first time, we find out more about the woman behind the evil, and learn what drove her to such desperate actions.
JIMMY’S HALL
Directed by: Ken Loach
Starring: Barry Ward, Andrew Scott, Jim Norton
Release Date: May 30th 2014
Fresh from the Cannes Film Festival, JIMMY’S HALL may well be veteran director Ken Loach’s final film, and he has returned to Ireland to tell the tale of perhaps the only Irish man to be deported from Ireland.
JIMMY’S HALL focuses on Jimmy Gralton, who returns to Ireland in 1932 – having spent 10 years in the US – to help his mother with the family farm. Once home, Jimmy decides to reopen ‘The Hall’; a place where young people came to dance, study or simply talk. Jimmy’s ideas and political views are seen as Communist and soon upset the local landowners, and the Catholic Church.
SABOTAGE
Directed by: David Ayer
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Josh Holloway, Terrence Howard, Olivia Williams
Release Date: May 7th 2014
The writer/director that brought us END OF WATCH – David Ayer – returns to our screens this month with crime thriller SABOTAGE.
Schwarzenegger plays Breacher, a man in charge of an elite team of DEA Agents, tasked with taking down a drug cartel’s warehouse. While there, the team help themselves to some of the cartel’s money, and it is not long before they are being picked off, one by one. Breacher must find out who is behind the death of his team, and stop them, before it is too late.
THE WIND RISES
Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring the voices of: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci
Release Date: May 9th 2014
Hayao Miyazaki has been trying to retire from directing animated films for several years now, and keeps getting pulled in for one last story. Well, this time Miyazaki promises THE WIND RISES will be his last film, and has decided to go out on a story that is as personal as it is beautiful.
Jiro Horikoshi (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) dreamed of airplanes ever since he was a small boy. One night, in a dream, he encounters the Italian plane designer Caproni (Stanley Tucci) and decides to follow his dreams. When an earthquake hits Japan, Jiro is working as an engineer, and rescues a young woman and her nurse from a crashed train, forever changing the course of his life.
THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY
Directed by: Hossein Amini
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Isaac
Release Date: May 16th 2014
Hossein Amini is a name known to cinephiles for some time now. Since being nominated for an Oscar for the Screenplay of THE WINGS OF THE DOVE, Amini has written the screenplays for many films, including DRIVE, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN and KILLSHOT. This month, Amini takes a turn as director with his first film, THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY.
Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name, THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY is a thriller that tells the story of a con artist, his wife, and the tour guide who gets caught up with them after they convince him to help them move a dead body.