In Cinemas: 'Gone Girl' (2014) + 'Magic In The Moonlight' (2014)
As an unmarried man, I'm pretty sure 'Gone Girl' (★★★★) has set back my desire to wed by several years. Acclaimed director David Fincher masterfully takes Gillian Flyn's twisted 2012 novel to the big screen, aided by the novelist's own screenplay. The result offers a simmering tension previously seen in the likes of excellent Fincher offerings 'Se7en' and 'The Social Network'.
Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike) seem like the perfect couple - till she goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary. Their relationship is put under intense scrutiny, leading to inevitable suspicions that Nick himself was involved in Amy's disappearance. 'Gone Girl' is a darkly unpredictable thriller, managing to even maintain an undercurrent of uneasy humour. Ultimately, the feeling of absurdity is difficult to overcome, but my what a ride.
Writer-director Woody Allen continues his prolific filmmaking run despite approaching the ripe old age of eighty years old sooner rather than later. Following up last year's relatively weighty 'Blue Jasmine', Allen opts for a more whimsical fare with 'Magic In The Moonlight' (★★★), set in the French Riviera in the 1920s.
Colin Firth stars as Stanley, aka the great Wei-Lin Soo, an illusionist and rationalist who is recruited to debunk the work of a young clairvoyant, Sophie. Stanley struggles to find fault with Sophie's (Emma Stone) methods and the situation increasingly becomes a will-they-won't-they romance. Often enchanting and amusing, nonetheless fans of the lighter Allen touch would perhaps be better served revisiting 'Midnight In Paris'.
At Home: 'Edge Of Tomorrow' / 'Fruitvale Station' / 'Bad Education' / 'The Paedophile Hunter'
Out on DVD this week and the next come two films that we covered back in June in this very column, 'Edge Of Tomorrow' and 'Fruitvale Station'. The former sees Tom Cruise killed over and over again as he battles an invading force of aliens, while the latter takes on the tragic tale of a young American. Both are worth investigating, for very different reasons.
Jordan FG delivered another Telly Text column earlier in the week, and you can still catch BBC Three comedy 'Bad Education' and documentary 'The Paedophile Hunter' on catch-up TV.
TV & Movie News
Probably the biggest news of the week was the newly announced nine episode series of David Lynch and Mark Frost's 'Twin Peaks', which originally hit the screens at the turn of the Nineties. The third series will appear on Showtime in 2016.
The 58th BFI London Film Festival is now in full flow - check out overall preview of the festival here, recommending films such as WWII thriller 'Fury' and Jean-Luc Godard's foray into 3D, 'Goodbye To Language'.
If you've already caught 'Gone Girl', as reviewed above, then 'Donnie Darko' director Richard Kelly has written an essay on the film - aligning it with Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut'.
The latest trailer to Christopher Nolan's eagerly anticipated 'Interstellar' arrived recently. Watch it above, and catch it in UK cinemas from 7 November.
And finally, a 'Myst' TV show is supposedly in development, with tie-in mobile gaming designed to be played alongside the programme. As an avid fan of the mysterious video game, colour me intrigued.
Read previous On Camera columns here. Drop us a line at film(at)fadedglamour.co.uk if you have something you think might be worth featuring in a future column.
We're a collaborative British music, film and TV blog. "Trying to find the perfect match between pretentious and pop."
