West is West

As the long-awaited sequel to the 1999 breakout hit that was East is East, comes scribe Ayub Khan-Din’s West is West, a continuation of the Salford-set story of Sajid (Aqib Khan), jumping us forward five years to 1976. Except this time the plot moves the family (or at least 2 members of it, initially) out from the bleak chip chop and terraces of Greater Manchester to father George’s motherland, Pakistan.

The Rite

If there was an Oscar for most misleading film trailer, then my money would be on The Rite. Of course that’s an absurd award category, and I don’t have any money. But you get the idea. What the trailer promises the viewer is a supernatural horror film possessed by the spirit of Hannibal Lecter, which tantalises our obsession with the macabre. What we’re given is something quite different.

The King's Speech

US telly makes fun of British film with 'Don' You Go Rounin' Roun to Re Ro' trailer

First trailer for Russell Brand's desecration of Authur

The Fighter <insert cliched positive boxing term here>

As unimaginative and uninvolving as it is, The Fighter still manages to (insert boxing pun) throw a few punches before (here’s another one) the final bell, though admittedly it’s identical to every other underdog boxing movie you’ve ever seen. It couldn’t be more predictable, even if you already know the tale of “Irish” Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), with the only element of this different to any other pugilistic picture being that there’s a crackhead or two involved. And a greedy mother. Which both seemed to have gotten this one fast-tracked into production.

Brighton Rock

The Surprise Film at previous London Film Festivals has ensured its hot ticket status, with big films making it worthy of the hype. In 2007 they gave us the Coen brothers’ adaptation of the bleak Cormac McCarthy novel No Country For Old Men. In 2008 it was the treat of Mickey Rourke as The Wrestler. And last year it was Capitalism: A Love Story. All right. That was a bit of step down but it wasn’t awful, just disappointing.

This year’s surprise was Brighton Rock, another adaptation of the much-celebrated Graham Greene novel, scripted and directed by The American’s Rowan Joffe, and updated to 1964 (the year in which the death penalty by hanging was abolished).

Hereafter

Hereafter opens with a disaster which renders high-powered television journalist Marie (Cecile De France) unable to ignore questions about her destiny, and forces her to rethink her seemingly perfect life. Meanwhile, London school-boy Marcus (George and Frankie McLaren) is confronted with the untimely death of someone close to him and must address mortality alongside the arguably worse burden of living with his junkie mother in South London. Stateside, George Lonegan (Matt Damon) is a blue-collar San Franciscan who is struggling to keep his psychic abilities at bay, but is unwittingly drawn into the lives of Marie and Marcus. Will the three find what they’re searching for? Is there anything beyond our own ephemeral existence? Could Matt Damon’s character be any more monotonous?

Abel

Here’s one: a heartfelt directorial debut from Mexican actor Diego Luna, about a young boy who has this mental condition where he thinks he’s his dad, so he comes home from the hospital and orders his family about, checks their homework, meets their boyfriends for approval and such like. Sounds funny? It’s all right.

Neds

Neds (short for Non-Educated Delinquents in the film) charts the viscous trickle of one gifted boy’s eventual adhesion to the 1970s Glaswegian gang culture, a fate that Peter Mullan (writer-director), now into his third feature, so narrowly avoided in his youth.