I’ve missed a couple of movie previews lately because, well let’s be honest the increasing Covid numbers in WA have me a little spooked. With a compromised immune system and parents in their late eights/nineties I’d hate to pass anything on to them. So instead of movie reviews here are a few upcoming movies that I would go to if I could and you really should add to your list.

Perth Festival Encore Week

The Encore week is always one to watch out for as it contains all the movies that other patrons liked. It runs from March 30 until April 3rd. The key movies are:

• How To Please A Woman. A fun comedy movie. When her all-male housecleaning business spins out of control, a mature woman Sally Phillips) embraces her own desires to make a new life for herself. The movie takes a warm-hearted look at sexuality and vulnerability at all stages of life.
• One second. After escaping from a prison labour camp, a fugitive sets off to catch a screening of a newsreel film that contains a glimpse of his beloved daughter. Along the way he teams up with a scruffy orphan who has her own reasons for wanting the film. The latest touching drama celebrates the many powers and uses of cinema.
• Flee. Amin Nawabi (a pseudonym), a 36-year-old academic in Denmark, grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years. He opens up to his close friend, director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, telling for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan. Told mostly through animation, with some additional archival footage, Flee the movie weaves together a stunning tapestry of reflections to tell the deeply affecting story of a man grappling with his traumatic past in order to find his true self and the real meaning of home.  This Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner breaks bold new ground in animation and confessional narrative with an extraordinary true story that is heartbreaking,  moving and impossible to forget. 
• Compartment Number 6. It’s the early 1990s and a Finnish grad student in Moscow has planned a trip to a remote city in the Arctic circle to see some rock paintings. Awaiting her in her second-class train compartment is a traveller from hell, a heavy drinking Russian skinhead who is about the last person you’d want to be stuck with in close quarters on a long journey. Although at first the two strangers couldn’t seem to be more different, they form an unexpected bond, both coming to face the truth about their yearning for human connection.  The movie is a wryly observed and intimate character study that celebrates the beautiful loneliness that ties us together. 
• Memoria. Jessica (Tilda Swinton), a Scottish botanist living in Bogotá, Colombia, wakes up one morning from the sound of a loud reverberating bang in her dream. Loud noises repeat at odd moments during her day, but only she can hear them. Determined to find out why, Jessica goes on a quest to the sound recording booths, university quarters and mountainous landscapes of Colombia, as the lines between past and future, reality and death, blur into one big bang itself.  Unique, deeply mysterious and with a twist that will make you question everything, Memoria the movie is a languid, calm and patient narrative woven into a meticulously designed land and soundscape. It’s 100% cinema and 0% like anything else. 

Beyond the Festival there’s also these beauties to look out for:

Dog. With a dog named Lulu by his side, Army Ranger Briggs (Channing Tatum) races down the Pacific Coast to make it to a soldier’s funeral on time. Along the way, Briggs and Lulu drive each other completely crazy, break a handful of laws, narrowly evade death, and learn to let down their guards to have a fighting chance of finding happiness. This is Tatum’s Directorial debut and by all accounts it’s gone well.

Belfast. A coming-of-age drama movie set during the tumult of late-1960s Northern Ireland, the film follows young Buddy (Jude Hill) as he navigates a landscape of working-class struggle, sweeping cultural changes, and sectarian violence. Buddy dreams of a glamorous future that will whisk him far from the Troubles, but, in the meantime, he finds consolation in his charismatic Pa (Jamie Dornan) and Ma (Caitríona Balfe), and his spry, tale-spinning grandparents (Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench).

Drive My Car. Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanja at a theatre festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled. As they spend time together, Kafuku confronts the mystery of his wife that quietly haunts him.

Death On The Nile. Based on the 1937 novel by Agatha Christie, the movie is a daring mystery-thriller directed by Kenneth Branagh. It’s follows the emotional chaos and deadly consequences triggered by obsessive love. Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirto’s Egyptian vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple’s idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short.

The Power Of The Dog. A New Zealand–led Western psychological drama film written and directed by Jane Campion. It is based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same title. A domineering rancher responds with mocking cruelty when his brother brings home a new wife and her son, until the unexpected comes to pass.

Other movies to consider are: Blind Ambition and Licorice Pizza.

For more movies check out Luna Cinema Palace Cinema