It is one of the most anticipated British film releases for some time. The Iron Lady, a biopic about Britain’s first and only female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher is going to have an exclusive gala screening on Thursday 15th December at Manchester Town Hall to celebrate it’s impending release. The hall was used as a double for the Houses of Parliament, the key location in the film.

The event is the next in line of Volkswagen’s ‘See Film Differently‘ series, which has been providing fans with an intimate and unique experience for the past six years. They have hosted screenings of some of the most iconic British films in their most iconic filming locations in support of independent film-making and to give audiences a bigger and more involved experience.

To date they have successfully held screenings of: An American Werewolf in London inside ZSL London Zoo, Trainspotting at the Royal Scottish Academy and a 40th anniversary screening of  A Clockwork Orange at Brunel University – all classic locations from the films.

The latest offering of The Iron Lady, will allow fans to watch the film, which stars Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher and Jim Broadbent as her husband Denis,  almost a month before its UK theatrical release in January 2012.

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, the biopic is a complete departure from her first collaboration with Streep, Mamma Mia. The Iron Lady is a compelling and intimate portrayal of Thatcher’s battle through the male dominated world of politics to become the most infamous, longest reigning and only female Prime Minister in Britain’s long history.

The Iron Lady co-stars Richard E. Grant and Anthony Head.

The screening is held 15th December 2011, or you can catch it after its UK release on 13th January 2012.

My Week With Marilyn had its London premiere on Sunday to the delight of fans that lined the red carpet. And with the star of the film, Michelle Williams, conspicuously absent from the festivities, it was up to the British supporting cast to fill the void. Most notably Emma Watson.

Fresh out of the last Harry Potter movie, and less than a month before its release on DVD, Watson can be seen as Marilyn Monroe’s wardrobe assistant Lucy in the film opening in theatres on the 25th November 2011. It was up to her to bring the Hollywood glamour to the carpet, and boy did she rise to the challenge, wowing the public and media in a stunning black skirt and white peplum top combination, courtesy of Jason Wu. Needless to say she more than made up for Williams’ disappointing, but unavoidable absence.

The film is set around Marilyn Monroe’s brief time in England when she played opposite Lawrence Olivier in The Prince and the Show Girl. Based on the memoirs of Colin Clark, Olivier’s Third Assistant Director (really a dogsbody), the film documents the tension between his boss and Miss Monroe during production. Critics have so far been impressed with Williams’ portrayal of the tragic star, a performance that makes sense of the enigma that was one of the most intriguing stars of the 1950s.

Much speculation of Michelle Williams’ immanent Oscar nomination is already circulating. The Academy are notorious for honoring actors who give convincing portrayals of real people. Last year, the best actor Oscar went to Brit Colin Firth for his role as King George VI in the much acclaimed The King’s Speech.

We’ll have to wait until next year to find out. Until then My Week with Marilyn is released on 25th November 2011.

BBC films are hoping that a script for the comedy show – often known as Ab Fab and starring Jennifer Saunders as well as Joanna Lumley – will be written next year.

Saunders – who is currently working on the Spice Girls Musical – has resisted temptations to transform the popular show into a film, but due to an approaching deadline, it has recently been reported that she could be getting a film together after all.

The sitcom became a hit back in 1992 and has since produced 5 series and 36 episodes. Absolutely Fabulous attempted a comeback in 2001, but it wasn’t as highly rated as the original seasons.

The show follows Edina Monsoon (Saunders), who desperately tries to stay young and hip by chasing bizarre trends, while enjoying a drink or three on the side. Edina is joined by her drink-driven best friend, Patsy Stone, (Joanna Lumley) who is a middle aged depressed woman with two divorces under her belt.

The plot for the film begins with Edina and Patsy waking up hungover on a private yacht, with little memory of the night before. There is little else known about the potential film venture as of yet – but we’ll keep you posted!

Fans of the classic movie, and two other Ealing comedies Hue & Cry and Passport to Pimlico, are in for a treat. To coincide with the re-release on July 22nd, three exclusive bike tours around some of the most iconic London locations used in the films have been created  by Tally Ho! Cycle Tours and British cinema expert Richard Dacre.

That’s not all though, participants get to ride a 1920s-style British-made bike and each tour will end with a screening of one of the films at Vintage at Southbank Centre.

Vintage at Southbank Centre is a three day festival celebrating the style of the 1920s to the 1980s, and presents an exciting mix of music, fashion, film, art, design and dance.

If this sounds like your cup of tea visit Vintage Festival section of the Tally Ho Cycle tours site for tickets and more details.

In the meantime take a look at our favourite clip from The Lavender Hill Mob. It features the one and only Audrey Hepburn who was unknown at the time. It was reported that after filming the scene Alec Guinness, who plays Henry Holland in the film, called his agent and said:

“I’ve just filmed a scene with a girl, I’ve no idea who she is or even if she can act…but I know she’s going to be a star! Someone should sign her up quick.”

Over 180 films took part in order to win a development deal with Vertigo Films. The winner gets the chance to develop a feature film with the creators of StreetDance 3D and Monsters, which is a pretty good prize don’t you think?

Two amateur film makers who we are big fans of, Nick Acott and Gary Scullion, rose to the Sci-Fi challenge. You may remember that back in November we interviewed the pair after they made the great short The Night the Reindeer Died, on a budget of just £900.

They’ve managed to impress us again with their entry for the SCI-FI-London Film Festival, called Thought Provoking. Take a look for yourself and see what you think.

Check out Nick and Gary’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/sneakyzebra
Check out their website:  http://www.fireflylondon.co.uk/

Not in terms of worldwide recognition and awards, of course, where Black Swan looks set to clean up at most of this year’s ceremonies. No, but more simply in terms of what people should be watching at the cinema this week, Neds could be a winner. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen the ‘Swan, and it absolutely lives up to the hype – but at the same time it does seem to be casting a rather unfortunate shadow over the likes of the rather splendid Neds.

Peter Mullan does an outstanding job of directing this tale of Non-Educated Delinquents in 1970s Glasgow – although, really, the events of this film could take place in any modern working-class suburbia, which probably the point.

Unknown Glaswegian actor Conor McCarron – who for now, incidentally, continues to study thermal insulation at college – is brilliantly believable as the teenage John McGill, a young man who comes to personify the phrase, ‘victim of circumstance’.

Neds is a coming-of-age film, but not quite in the way you might expect. Teenage boys are largely preoccupied with asserting their place within the gang culture which consumes their lives – while their female counterparts are left twirling their hair and chewing gum in the background.

Far from appearing sexist, however, focussing on the character of John McGill draws the entire audience in. He is set him apart from his peers by his ability to look at his situation from much the same standpoint as the audience. His brother is a notorious gang member and, while John is exceptionally bright, he is forced to live in fear of local bullies as well as his abusive and alcoholic father (played by Mullan himself), until he one day achieves the freedom awarded by a place at university.

The film starts with John being acutely aware of his need to escape – a belief which is reinforced by rare visits from his glamorous Aunt Beth (Marianna Palka), who occasionally drops in with tales of her new life in America.

As he becomes a teenager, John’s ambition, enthusiasm and enthusiasm get lost, and it is heart-breaking to watch his steady transformation into the thug he was determined never to become. A brief flirtation with the world of the middle-classes, followed by a harsh rejection, only propels him further towards a life of violence which is often difficult to watch. You can’t fault the execution of this transition: one minute McGill is listening to T.Rex‘s 20th Century Boy on a record player whilst having ‘afternoon biscuits and juice’ – the next it is the soundtrack for a heart-thumping encounter between menacing gang members on streets of Glasgow.

The film draws inevitable parallels with Shane Meadows’ This Is England, both in subject matter and delivery. There are certainly enough eccentric teachers and deadpan humour, first half, to mean that it’s not half as bleak as you might expect. In one scene, McGill’s efforts to stay out of trouble land him in an football team, in which the oddball players are registered not by their names, but by their medical condition. Only the physically unfit can avoid joining a gang.

This film is also undoubtedly influenced by the gritty realism found in films from the likes of Ken Loach, who, in fact, helped to kick start Mullan’s acting career back in the 1990s. However, Neds is set apart by an occasional surreal flourish – sometimes wonderfully (as is the case with a dream-like wander through a lion’s enclosure) and occasionally less successfully (as with a hallucinatory meeting with a violent incarnation of Christ). Still, the tragedies of class conflict remain at the raw heart of Neds, and its portrayal of rage-filled and directionless rebellion is flawless and unsettling throughout.

As The Film Review are interested in up-and-coming talent, and British movies in particular, we thought we’d catch up with the guys and find out what they’re up to. Both Nick and Gary are 25, and have been into all things film for as long as they can remember. The change came when, “We got fed up with talking about stuff and decided to do it” as Nick puts it. “There is no support for film makers in the UK, so we just thought we’d better go and do it ourselves.”

Gary completed a diploma in filmmaking at the London Film Academy, three years ago and has since been working as an film editor on various TV and video projects. It was during his studies that he hatched the zany plot for their current film, The Night The Reindeer Died, came about.

The frenetic Christmas comedy-action tells a story of things going wrong for Santa Claus one Christmas eve, when he is captured by an evil toy company executive while out delivering presents. He is tortured for his secrets, but somehow manages to hold his tongue. Finally, help comes to hand when two rescuers turn up. These are no ordinary saviours however: it is Jesus and God who have to fight their way through 200 evil henchmen and save Santa.

Gary takes his inspiration from South Park or Family Guy, and says he realised the concept might work because “over the last few years whenever I mentioned my idea to people, they’d say ‘I’d watch that’.” Gary and Nick contacted some actors they’d kept in touch with from some previous projects, including Jon Campling (who has a role in the new Harry Potter film) and were very pleased when they agreed to take part.

The next thing was to get some finance. The guys decided they would raise some money on IndieGoGo, a fund-raising website, so started to offer various funding packages. These ranged from the ‘Santa package’ for $25 which gave donators a credit in the movie, all the way up to a ‘Holy Roller package’ for $250 which meant donors would receive an executive producer credit, have a henchman named after them and get an official signed movie poster. The money will go towards covering actors, post-production special effects such as muzzle flashes, and music.

So far the initial $1,250 (£900) amount has been reached, but they will “keep on pimping it around the web to find funding and audiences”, as Gary puts it. Any additional funding will go into improving the film – they can always use a bit better music says Gary.

The other great online resource that Gary and Nick have used is the amateur film-making websites, Film Riot and FreddieW. These sites give tips on how to make professional-looking movies on a fraction of the budget. For instance, FreddieW made a short movie (1 minute and 2 second) of a William Tell scene of a sniper shooting a water melon off his head, and then goes on to explain how he did it using special effects without endangering his life.

Film Riot explained how to make a cheap dolly track for £40 using things bought in a hardware shop, when a professional one would normally cost hundreds of pounds. Although Gary had learned some key skills as a part of his diploma, but FreddieW and Film Riot taught them to do things in a way that isn’t taught in film school. “You don’t have to spend 20 or 30 thousand pounds, you can get by on £500 or £1,000,” he says.

They will be doing the entire shoot on a single day on Sunday 21st of November and hope to complete most of the shooting in the day time with some ‘pick-up’ shots at night. Post-production should be about 3-4 weeks of cutting and adding visual effects. The Night The Reindeer Died should come out the week before Christmas – when everyone breaks for work. That’s if the name, which comes from the classic Bill Murray comedy Scrooged, sticks – they’re thinking of letting users choose the film title in a poll on IndieGoGo.

Asked whether he thinks the subject matter isn’t a bit controversial, Gary reminds us that he was born in Northern Ireland where he had a Christian upbringing, and they’re keeping it in good spirits. “God and Jesus are characters in the film rather than being the religious figures themselves and we’ll be tactful.” After all, he points out, some people won’t like it anyway, even films as apparently harmless as The Matrix or Star Wars get people angry. He’s probably right that you can’t please everyone, and he concludes with what could be their defining motto: “We’re not going out to upset people, we’re having a bit of fun making a quirky action film.”

Check out Nick and Gary’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/sneakyzebra
Check out their IndieGoGo page: http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Night-the-Reindeer-Died

Shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize back in 2005, Never Let Me Go was a stalwart on the bestseller list and it arrives on our screens with a certain amount of expectation having struck a chord with the literary world with its deftly unpretentious prose and gentle tone.

This curiously subdued film regales us with the experiences of Ruth at a seemingly idyllic boarding school, where a love triangle develops that includes her two best friends. As the time scale darts forward into their early adulthood, all three characters must confront their feelings and purpose within the wider world

It may initially sound a familiar premise, but what differentiates this from similar films is the mentioning of ‘donations’ and ‘completion cycles’ by the head teachers that suggests that these children are not quite what they seem. It plays into an interesting combination of genres, part love story, part sci-fi, but to say anything more would lessen its emotional impact, which is potentially pretty hefty if the matinee crowd I watched it with is anything to go by.
Never Let Me Go is most notable as a showcase for British actors. Spearheaded by Carey Mulligan with a mature performance entirely befitting to her character, her work here should help contribute to her deserved rise up the Hollywood A-list. Keira Knightley provides amiable support as her more impressionable best friend, goading sympathy from the audience in a potentially thankless role

Garfield, Mulligan and Knightley at the premiere of Never Let Me Go at the London Film Festival

Both women are complimented by Andrew Garfield, recently cast as Peter Parker in the upcoming Spiderman reboot, as the object of their affection. Elsewhere Charlotte Rampling and Sally Hawkins appear briefly as two vastly different authoritative figures, and there is even room for a breakout performance by Ella Purnell as the young Ruth, eerily similar to Mulligan in appearance.

Alex Garland has taken on the script-writing duties and uses his background in novels to bring an experienced hand to adapting the material, skillfully editing the more meandering aspects of the dialogue from the source material to suit the dramatic expectations of film.

It is a mostly faithful adaptation retains Ishiguro’s considered mood, however a film must stand alone and there are problems with such a literal approach. In conveniently dividing the story into three time periods to suit a three act structure, Garland loses a sense of momentum that drives the plot. In shortening the opening segment, there is little to empathise with about the profound influence of the boarding school on its naive and suspiciously protected pupils.

The film is also quite flat; the director, Mark Romanek, fails to build on his promise shown in One Hour Photo, perhaps rushed into the project after his bad experience with Universal Pictures as the original helmer of The Wolfman before he ran into creative differences with the studio.
Make no mistake: Never Let Me Go is by no means a multiplex film. The themes of fate and mortality are intriguing in giving it a lasting impression, but the characters’ general blind acceptance of what is in store for them is irritatingly passive and many will leave frustrated at their compliant personalities. Of course, this may be the intention; to query our own reluctance to question the lives we’ve been dealt, but it leaves for a rather cold experience and the romance, whilst undoubtedly tragic doesn’t quite strike the emotional chord that it should.

Twelve makes no fuss about its plot – twelve fighters, six millionaire backers and a jackpot for the winning fighter of £500,000. The backers are a generic big-shot types – the wealthy wife with questionable marital loyalty, the quiet Triad lord, and of course the old man who sees his son in one of the fighters he backs: a man going by the fighting name of The Homeless.

Now, this is where the film develops beyond the two-dimensional. At first, it’s easy to be sceptical. The Homeless? He’s, yes, a homeless bloke, who happens to be a ridiculously good fighter, having lost his wife after battering her senseless for cheating on him. It’s difficult to empathise with his plight, as he’s actually one of the most morally corrupt of the twelve. However, it’s him the film’s writers have picked as our “hero”, so it’s him we follow.

The other characters, however, aren’t anywhere near as convincing. The Teacher? The Ex-Convict? Surely they wanted a less generic cast than this? But this slightly shonky narrative is only a framing device, a stage on which the fights are set, and if you can put the plot and character gripes to one side, the choreography is truly marvellous. Given the fact it was shot on a low budget by director Chee Keong Cheung – a lot of big-budget fights in films like The Expendables couldn’t touch the slick, focused camera-work on display here.

The fighters themselves are very talented. The Homeless, played by Mark Strange (keep an eye on him, he’s quiet, but he’s good, and also appears in Batman Begins), alongside three-times World Kickboxing Champion Nathan Lewis (Fight School, Kick Ass) and Joey Ansah (The Bourne Ultimatum). Co-starring Danny John-Jules (Blade 2, Red Dwarf) make for a cast of capable actors and fighters.

The issue here is balance – how do you create engaging fight sequences with the best fighters in the world without losing a bit of acting quality in the process? It’s not easy, but the film’s tournament rounds are varied both in environment and action. One particular fight between The Foreigner and The Kid left me surprised when one of them won, and without giving the result of the fight away, safe to say it’s unlikely you’ll see it coming.

All in all, if you’re looking for a meaty fighting film to get your teeth into, it’s worth watching. If you’re after Oscar-winning performances then you might be let down, but if you let that get in the way of the incredible fighting talent on display here, you’re missing the point of the film. Relax, pick a fighter, and cheer him or her on throughout the competition, because the outcome might not be as predictable as you think.

The film starts with Richard Lee (played by Shaun Dooley, of The Mark of Cain and Red Riding, who originally hails from Barnsley, Yorkshire) returning to Afghanistan where he works clearing the land mines that litter the country. His principle team member is another gruff northerner, Steve Delamore (Dean Andrews, of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes fame).  It soon becomes clear that Richard has something of a romance going with one of their two female translators, the beautiful Jamillah (Tatmain Ul Qulb, a Pakistani fashion model). After the pair get caught kissing, Richard first attempts to save her from a stoning and then has to go on the run in an attempt to reach the safety of Pakistan. Meanwhile, Steve tries to help his mate out, while keeping on the right side of the seriously trigger-happy Taliban.

From the scene where the two Brits meet, it becomes clear that these are probably not their finest performances. Although the acting gets better through the course of the movie (or perhaps we learn to ignore it), that first encounter is etched on the mind as wooden as a piece of Yorkshire two-by-four.

Richard, it turns out, is a bit of a prat. First, in a very tense scene, he almost gets himself shot by an irate guard for peeing in full view of their female colleagues – a huge breach of protocol and something that one assumes he should know about. Then, the stray looks and poignant expressions between Richard and Jamillah, are revealed to be because the two are in love. Whether an Afghan woman, even one who has lived in New York like Jamillah, would or could really have a relationship with a westerner under the Taliban regime is a moot point.

If we believe in this rather unlikely situation for the sake of the film (bearing in mind that under the Taliban, even starving widows were not allowed to leave their houses to earn money to feed their families and remembering that the war-ravaged country had many, many widows), the pair inevitably get spotted canoodling – they hadn’t even closed the curtains. Before you can say ‘I’m a humourless, blood-thirsty fundamentalist’ Jamillah is dragged off to suffer one of the infamous Taliban stonings. Richard attempts to save her and finds himself on the run – trying to make it to the border.

The local Taliban leader, Ashiq Khan (Rasheed Naz, a veteran of Pakistani movies and television) is what we’ve been waiting for: a great baddie and a fine actor to boot. The film really gets going when he’s on the screen, he captures the fury and lust for revenge of a hate filled ideologue very well.

It’s fair to say the Pakistani actors do a much better job than their English counterparts. When Richard is huffing and puffing his way through the mountains trying to make it across the border to Pakistan, he bumps into Omar Baloch (Hameed Sheikh, who is also one of the film’s producers) the leader of a small group of guerrillas fighting for independence for the region of Balochistan. This charming character introduces himself, rather amusingly, as being in the import/export business and reminded me of Art Malik as the suave, Oxford-educated mujahideen who comes to James Bond’s rescue in The Living Daylights. Baloch then helps lead the beleaguered Brit though the treacherous countryside.

Despite the uneven acting, Kandahar Break is a good effort for a first feature-length movie from its director David Whitney. He skilfully builds tension, to sometimes heart pounding levels and introduces some interesting twists into the story. The cinematography highlights the stark beauty of the country – almost like searing majesty of Monument Valley – and reinforces the idea that Afghanistan will one day be be the perfect spot for hiking holidays.

Kandahar Break is out in selected cinemas September 10 and available to own on DVD/Blu-Ray from September 13 (also available via digital download from iTunes, Love Film, Playstation and Sky VOD).

See the trailer here: