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FOR THIS WEEK’S MOVIES ON SBS, SBS VICELAND & NITV
- Audio Description (AD) available for The Mask of Zorro, Lean on Pete, Free Fire, They Came Together, Big Fish, Mr. Jones, Scarface and Dark City
- Closed Captions (CC) available for Lean on Pete, The Bookshop and Scarface
Thrill Seekers season continues weeknights with Jackie Chan action-comedy The Medallion at 9:30pm on Wednesday 24th August, followed by Banderas and Hopkins in the 1998 hit version of The Mask of Zorro on Thursday at 10:00pm and finishes with the ’70s shoot-em-up throwback Free Fire on Friday, 9:45pm. For moodier thrills, tune in next week for Neo-Noir season, starting on Monday 29th August with Chinese spy thriller Cliff Walkers, from legendary director Zhang Yimou.
WEDNESDAY 24 AUGUST
A Translator
7:30pm
M
Cuba, 2019
Genre: Drama
Language: Spanish, Russian
Director: Rodrigo Barriuso, Sebastián Barriuso
Starring: Rodrigo Santoro, Maricel Alvarez, Yoandra Suárez, Milda Gecaite, Nataliya Rodina
What’s it about?
In the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Russian Literature professor Malin (Santoro) at the University of Havana is ordered to work as a translator for child victims of Chernobyl when they are sent to Cuba for medical treatment. Based on a true story.
The Medallion
9:30pm
M
Hong Kong, USA, 2003
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Action
Language: English
Director: Gordon Chan
Starring: Jackie Chan, Julian Sands, Claire Forlani, Lee Evans
What’s it about?
Chan plays Eddie Yang, a Hong Kong cop who suffers a near fatal accident while investigating a case involving a mysterious medallion. Eddie soon discovers that with the powerful medallion in his possession, he gains incredible speed, strength and skills, taking his martial arts abilities to awe-inspiring heights.
Rom
11:05pm
MA15+
Vietnam, 2020
Genre: Drama, Action
Language: Vietnamese
Director: Trần Thanh Huy
Starring: Trần Anh Khoa, Cát Phượng, Thanh Tú, Hải Triều, Anh Tú, Jayvee Mai The Hiep, Mai Tran
What’s it about?
14-year-old Ròm works as bookie lottery runner to earn a living. He lives an unsettling life due to his separation from his parents and always yearns to earn enough money to find them.
THURSDAY 25 AUGUST
The Fisher King
7:30pm
M
France, 1991
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Fantasy
Language: English
Director: Terry Gilliam
Starring: Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer
What’s it about?
A former radio shock-jock (Bridges) sinks into a boozy depression when his flip comment on the air is blamed for a shooting spree in an upscale cafe. Living off the kindness of long-suffering girlfriend Anne (Ruehl, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress), Jack has an epiphany when he is rescued from street punks by Parry (Williams), a homeless former professor who has created a world of his own invention to insulate himself from the pain of witnessing his wife’s death in the cafe shooting spree. Directed by Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys).
The Movie Show reviews The Fisher King (Episode 38, 1991)
The Movie Show interviews Terry Gilliam (Episode 38, 1991)
The Mask of Zorro
10:00pm
M, AD
USA, 1998
Genre: Action, Adventure, Romance, Drama
Language: English
Director: Martin Campbell
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Stuart Wilson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anthony Hopkins
What’s it about?
Elder Zorro has been in prison for many years, harbouring bitter feelings towards the man who cost him his freedom, murdered his wife and adopted his daughter. Don Rafael Montero is an evil man whom Zorro will once and for all foil his schemes. However, this means that the elder Zorro must train a new, young Zorro.
ORIGINAL MOVIE SHOW REVIEW (1998)
FRIDAY 26 AUGUST
Lean on Pete
7:30pm
M, AD, CC
UK, 2018
Genre: Drama, Adventure
Language: English
Director: Andrew Haigh
Starring: Charlie Plummer, Steve Zahn, Steve Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny, Amy Seimetz
What’s it about?
Charley Thompson (Plummer), a teenager living with his single father, gets a summer job working for horse trainer Del Montgomery. Bonding with an ageing racehorse named Lean on Pete, Charley is horrified to learn he is bound for slaughter, and so he steals the horse, and the duo embark on an odyssey across the new American frontier. Directed by Andrew Haigh, director of 45 Years and Weekend.
Free Fire
9:45pm
MA15+, AD
UK, 2017
Genre: Action, Crime, Comedy
Language: English
Director: Ben Wheatley
Starring: Brie Larson, Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy, Jack Reynor, Sam Riley
What’s it about?
An action comedy set in 1970s Boston, about a gun sale which goes wrong. Acclaimed filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Kill List, High Rise) propels the audience head-on into an epic shootout as he crafts a spectacular parody – and biting critique – of the insanity of gun violence.
They Came Together
11:20pm
MA15+, AD
USA, 2014
Genre: Comedy
Language: English
Director: David Wain
Starring: Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Christopher Meloni, Ed Helms, Max Greenfield, Cobie Smulders
What’s it about?
Molly (Poehler) is a small sweet shop owner in New York City who is at risk of losing her business to a big corporation. Tasked with forcing Molly’s eviction is corporate executive, Joel (Paul Rudd), who finds it difficult to put pressure on her because the two have fallen in love.
SATURDAY 27 AUGUST
Big Fish
5:15pm
PG, AD
USA, 2003
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Language: English
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter
What’s it about?
When Edward Bloom (played by Finney in the present day and McGregor as a younger man in flashbacks) becomes ill, his son, William (Crudup), travels to be with him. William has a strained relationship with Edward because his father has always told exaggerated stories about his life, and William thinks he’s never really told the truth. Even on his deathbed, Edward recounts fantastical anecdotes. When William, who is a journalist, starts to investigate his father’s tales, he begins to understand the man and his penchant for storytelling.
J.T. LeRoy
7:30pm
M
USA, 2019
Genre: Drama, History
Language: English
Director: Justin Kelly
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern, Diane Kruger, Jim Sturgess, Courtney Love
What’s it about?
Novelist Laura Albert (Dern) writes as her “avatar”, a disenfranchised young gay man named J.T. LeRoy. When her debut novel becomes a best-seller and J.T. becomes the darling of the literary world, she enlists her boyfriend’s androgynous sister Savannah Knoop (Stewart) to act as J.T. in the public eye. Together, they embark on a wild ride of double lives, infiltrating the Hollywood and literary elite, and discovering who they are while pretending to be someone else.
Dogs Don’t Wear Pants
9:30pm
MA15+
Finland, Latvia, 2019
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Language: Finnish
Director: J-P Valkeapää
Starring: Pekka Strang, Krista Kosonen, Ilona Huhta, Jani Volanen, Oona Airola, Iiris Anttila
What’s it about?
Juha (Strang) has lost his wife in a tragic drowning accident. Years after he still feels emotionally paralysed and unable to connect with people. Meeting a dominatrix named Mona (Kosonen) changes everything, leading them both down a wild and crazy path towards emotional enlightenment.
Suspiria
11:25pm
MA15+
Germany, Italy, USA, 2018
Genre: Horror, Fantasy
Language: English, French, German
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth, Angela Winkler, Ingrid Caven, Sylvie Testud
What’s it about?
A darkness swirls at the centre of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the troupe’s artistic director (Swinton), an ambitious young dancer (Johnson) and a grieving psychotherapist (also Swinton). Some will succumb to the nightmare, others will finally wake up… A bold reimagining of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror classic, directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, I Am Love).
SUNDAY 28 AUGUST
Kundun
4:00pm
PG
USA, Monaco, Morocco, 1997
Genre: Biography, Drama
Language: English, Tibetan, Mandarin
Director: Martin Scoresese
Starring: Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, Gyurme Tethong, Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin
What’s it about?
In 1937, a two year old boy from a simple family is recognised as Kundun, the fourteenth reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of Tibet Educated by the monks. The film charts his extraordinary growth into a figure who raises the world’s consciousness about the Buddhist society of the spirit, the plight of Tibet, and the sufferings endured by his people with unspeakable grace and dignity. From legendary director Martin Scorsese.
ORIGINAL MOVIE SHOW REVIEW (1998)
The Bookshop
6:25pm
PG, CC
UK, 2017
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Isabel Coixet
Starring: Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, Patricia Clarkson, Hunter Tremayne, Julie Christie
What’s it about?
In 1959, Florence Green (Mortimer), a free-spirited widow, puts grief behind her and risks everything to open up a bookshop – the first such shop in the sleepy seaside town of Hardborough, England. By exposing the narrow-minded local townsfolk to literature, she causes a cultural awakening in a town which has not changed for centuries. Based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel of the same name. Directed by Isabel Coixet (Elegy, My Life Without Me).
Mr. Jones
8:30pm
MA15+, AD
Poland, Ukraine, UK, 2019
Genre: Thriller, Drama, History
Language: Welsh, English, Russian, Ukrainian
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Starring: James Norton, Vanessa Kirby, Peter Sarsgaard, Joseph Mawle, Kenneth Cranham
What’s it about?
In 1933, Welsh journalist Gareth Jones (Norton) travels to Ukraine, where he experiences the horrors of a famine. Everywhere he goes he meets henchmen of the Soviet secret service who are determined to prevent news about the catastrophe from getting out. Stalin’s forced collectivisation of agriculture has resulted in misery and ruin—the policy is tantamount to mass murder.
Scarface
10:40pm
MA15+, AD, CC
USA, 1983
Genre: Crime, Action, Thriller
Language: English, Spanish
Director: Brian De Palma
Starring: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia
What’s it about?
After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana (Pacino) stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eventually becomes the biggest drug lord in the state, controlling nearly all the cocaine that comes through Miami. But increased pressure from the police, wars with Colombian drug cartels and his own drug-fuelled paranoia serve to fuel the flames of his eventual downfall.
MONDAY 29 AUGUST
Little Men
6:15pm
PG
USA, 2016
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Ira Sachs
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri, Paulina García, Jennifer Ehle, Alfred Molina
What’s it about?
Jake (Taplitz) is a quiet, sensitive middle schooler with dreams of being an artist. He meets the affably brash Tony (Barbieri) at his grandfather’s funeral, and the unlikely pair soon hit it off. The budding friendship is put at risk, however, when a rent dispute between Jake’s father, Brian (Kinnear), and Tony’s mother, Leonor (García), threatens to become contentious. From Ira Sachs, writer and director of Love Is Strange and Keep The Lights On.
Mulan Legend
7:50pm
MA15+
China, 2020
Genre: Action, Romance
Language: Chinese
Director: He Jianan
Starring: Zhang Dong, Shangwei Gu, Do Yuming, Sun Jiaolong
What’s it about?
During the reign of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the new emperor was still unstable, and the nomadic tribe, Ruo Ran, was eyeing Wei. In order to restrain her, the princess made peace with Northern Liang, but was unexpectedly kidnapped by her fierce general, Mian Ertu. However, the princess is taken hostage by Mian Ertu, who proposes a humiliating pact to surrender ten cities to Wei. With the deadline of two days to cede the city and land approaching, whether the raiding team will be able to rescue the princess and protect the Wei Dynasty.
Cliff Walkers
9:30pm
MA15+
China, 2021
Genre: Thriller, Crime, Drama
Language: Mandarin
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Zhang Yi, Yu Hewei, Liu Haocun, Qin Hailu, Ni Dahong, Yawen Zhu, Naiwen Li
What’s it about?
In the puppet state of Manchukuo in the 1930s, four Communist party special agents, after returning to China, embark on a secret mission. Sold out by a traitor, the team find themselves surrounded by threats on all sides. Directed by Zhang Yimou (Hero, Raise the Red Lantern, To Live).
TUESDAY 30 AUGUST
The Monkey King 2
6:00pm
M
Hong Kong, China, 2016
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Action
Language: Chinese
Director: Soi Cheang
Starring: Aaron Kwok, Li Gong, Shaofeng Feng
What’s it about?
Taking place 500 years after the Havoc in Heaven, the Tang Priest is appointed by Buddha to go to the West to fetch the sacred scriptures, only to accidentally free the Monkey King. With Lady White (Gong Li) aiming to break up the team assembled to defeat her, the Monkey King must fight in order to save his world!
Sollers Point
7:35pm
M
France, USA, 2017
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Matthew Porterfield
Starring: McCaul Lombardi, Zazie Beetz, Jim Belushi, Ashley Shelton, Wass Stevens
What’s it about?
Keith (American Honey‘s McCaul Lombardi), a small-time drug dealer is under house arrest at the home of his father in Baltimore. He re-enters a community scarred by unemployment, neglect and deeply entrenched segregation. There, he pushes back against his surrounding limitations as he tries to find a way out of his own internal prison.
Dark City
9:30pm
M, AD
Australia, 1998
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Language: English
Director: Alex Proyas
Starring: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Nicholas Bell, William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly
What’s it about?
John Murdoch (Sewell) awakens in a hotel room with no memory of the past and learns that he is wanted for a series of murders. While seeking answers, he discovers a group of aliens called the Strangers who are controlling the city. Directed by Alex Proyas (The Crow).
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