Sunday 2 January 2011

2011 preview (ST 02/01/11)


Black Swan
Having celebrated the exertions of sweaty he-men in last year’s The
Wrestler, a change of bodily emphasis for ever-limber director Darren Aronofsky: Natalie Portman is the ballerina on the verge of a breakdown in this hallucinatory psychothriller. (January 21)

NEDS

It’s been nine years since Scottish polymath Peter Mullan got behind the camera – but early word suggests this tale of 70s Glasgow tearaways (Non-Educated Delinquents, according to the acronym of the title) is every bit as admirably scabrous as 2002’s superb The Magdalene Sisters. (Jan 21)

True Grit
The Coens head into remake territory again, corralling some heavyweight
acting talent (Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin) for their take on the Charles Portis novel that inspired the 1969 John Wayne Western. Has to be better than 2004’s The Ladykillers, surely. (Jan 14)

Attack the Block
It’s hoodies versus aliens – a cast-iron movie conceit – in the
first feature from writer/director Joe Cornish, a.k.a. one half of perennially playful 6Music favourites Adam & Joe. This year’s Shaun of the Dead, providing it isn’t this year’s Scott Pilgrim. (April 8)

Pirates of the Caribbean 4

In a year of hardly pressing sequels (Big Momma’s House 3, anyone?),
the return of Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow will doubtless be the most prominent and money-spinning. It’s in 3D, too. Early summer places at Dignitas are still available, we gather. (May 18)

The Adventures of Tintin
On the plus side, it’s Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, collaborating to bring the world’s favourite boy detective to the screen with all their collective state-of-the-art movie nous. Against that: those are some awfully cherished childhood memories they’ll have to live up to. (October 26)

Hugo Cabret
Two firsts for Martin Scorsese in this adaptation of Brian Selznick’s
graphic novel: it’s his first (non-Mafia) family film, and his first in 3D. Asa Butterfield plays the titular orphan, enmeshed in a mystery in 1930s Paris in what’s intended as 2011’s big seasonal offering. (December 9)

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