#OnTheBigScreen: Frozen 2, Pain and Glory and Last Christmas

Frozen 2

Why was Elsa born with magical powers? What truths about the past await Elsa as she ventures into the unknown to the enchanted forests and dark seas beyond Arendelle? The answers are calling her but also threatening her kingdom.

Together with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven, she'll face a dangerous but remarkable journey. In Frozen, Elsa feared her powers were too much for the world. In Frozen 2, she must hope they are enough.

From the Academy Award-winning team – directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck. Director-writer Jennifer Lee says Anna is the fairy-tale character. “She’s the optimist,” says Lee. “These characters are only human. They’re not magical but often enter into the dangers of a magical world. They go into the belly of the beast, suffering hardship and loss with great struggles, yet rise triumphant.”

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Biz readers can win a fantastic Frozen 2 hamper.

Pain and Glory

Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar brings us a remarkable new film about creation, about the difficulty of separating it from one’s own life and about the passions that give it meaning and hope.

A tale of memory, regret and making peace with his past – isn’t just his most personal, it is also one of his greatest, and blurs the line between art and life and mixes autobiography with fiction to powerful effect. As the title suggests, the result is a swirl of heartbreak and joy.

Pain and Glory tells of a series of re-encounters experienced by Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas), a film director in his physical decline. Some of them in the flesh, others remembered: his childhood in the ‘60s, when he emigrated with his parents to a village in Valencia in search of prosperity, the first desire, his first adult love in the Madrid of the ‘80s, the pain of the breakup of that love while it was still alive and intense, writing as the only therapy to forget the unforgettable, the early discovery of cinema, and the void, the infinite void that creates the incapacity to keep on making films.

In recovering his past, Salvador finds the urgent need to recount it, and in that need, he also finds his salvation. The film, which was showcased at the European Film Festival, is Spain’s official entry for the Foreign Language Film category at the Academy Awards.

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Last Christmas

Set in London during the 2017 holiday, Last Christmas features the music of George Michael and Wham!, including the bittersweet holiday classic of the film’s title.

It tells the story of Kate (Emilia Clarke), who harrumphs around London, a bundle of bad decisions accompanied by the jingle of bells on her shoes, another irritating consequence from her job as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop. Tom (Henry Golding) seems too good to be true when he walks into her life and starts to see through so many of Kate’s barriers.

As London transforms into the most wonderful time of the year, nothing should work for these two. But sometimes, you gotta let the snowfall where it may, you gotta listen to your heart and you gotta have faith.

It is directed by Paul Feig and written by Bryony Kimmings and Emma Thompson.

Alongside his production partners, Feig aims to make Last Christmas a holiday classic. “A great Christmas movie should be about love, family, redemption and happiness,” Feig says. “Our film is so emotional in places, then really funny; it’s also charming and beautiful.”

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Haunt

In this elevated horror from dynamic writer-director team Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, a handful of teens head out in search of fun on Halloween and arrive at an extreme haunted house that promises to feed on their darkest fears. The night turns deadly as they discover that some monsters are real.

With recent high shockers like Hereditary, The Witch, The Babadook and Get Out, Haunt is proof of why movies like it exist and must continue to exist: for the primal cathartic release of a bloody carnival ride.

The approach of the filmmakers was informed by two infatuations; their love of simple, streamlined B-movies and their shared experience of growing up together in Iowa, frequenting the local haunts as teenagers.

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