Featuring our pick of the films for November……

Michael Jackson - This Is It (G) 111 mins

Director:Kenny Ortega

Cast:Michael Jackson

Synopsis: Michael Jackson – This Is It is a unique music event on the big screen. 
It offers Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place beginning this summer in London's O2 Arena. 

Chronicling the months from April through June, 2009, the film is drawn from more than one hundred hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing a number of his songs for the show. 

Audiences will be given a privileged and private look at the singer, dancer, filmmaker, architect, and genius as he creates and perfects his final show.

The Box (M) 115 mins

Director: Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko)

Cast: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Gillian Jacobs

Synopsis: This is a film from Richard Kelly, director of Donnie Darko.  Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger, delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. 

But, pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don't know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.

An Education (M) 100 mins

Director: Lone Scherfig

Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan

Synopsis: It's 1961 and attractive, bright 16-year-old schoolgirl, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is poised on the brink of womanhood, dreaming of a rarefied, Gauloise-scented existence as she sings along to Juliette Greco in her Twickenham bedroom. Stifled by the tedium of adolescent routine, Jenny can't wait for adult life to begin.

Meanwhile, she's a diligent student, excelling in every subject except the Latin that her father is convinced will land her the place she dreams of at Oxford University. One rainy day, her suburban life is upended by the arrival of an unsuitable suitor, 30-ish David (Peter Sarsgaard). Very quickly, David introduces Jenny to a glittering new world of classical concerts and late-night suppers with his attractive friend and business partner, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Danny's girlfriend, the beautiful but vacuous Helen (Rosamund Pike). David replaces Jenny's traditional education with his own version, picking her up from school in his Bristol roadster and whisking her off to art auctions and smoky clubs. 

Just as the family's long-held dream of getting their brilliant daughter into Oxford seems within reach, Jenny is tempted by another kind of life. Will David be the making of Jenny or her undoing? 

Departures (M) 131 mins

Director:Yojiro Takita

Cast:Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamakaz, Kazuko Yoshiyuki

Synopsis: Academy Award® Winner for Best Foreign Language Film of the year, Departures is a delightful and sensitive journey into the heartland of Japan and an astonishingly beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan's cultural heritage. 

A premiere symphony orchestra in Tokyo disbands, leaving Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) suddenly unemployed. Suffering from an innate sense that he is a mediocre musician, he faces up to the fact that not everyone who has devoted their life to music can become a top artist. With wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) in tow, he moves back to his home town in the northeastern prefecture of Yamagata. They move into the crumbling remains of his mother's house, which doubled as the local pub. 

A story of love, of discovery, of revelation and of the transcending human spirit, Departures will linger in your heart and mind long after viewing.

Subtitles: Japanese/English

Whatever Works (M) 88 mins

Director: Woody Allen

Cast: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson

Synopsis: An eccentric New Yorker played by Larry David abandons his upper class life to lead a more bohemian existence. He meets a young girl from the south and her family and no two people seem to get along in the entanglements that follow. This is a comedy also starring Ed Begley Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Conleth Hill, Michael McKean, Evan Rachel Wood, and a number of other amusing types.

Moon (M) 93 mins

Director:Duncan Jones

Cast:Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey

Synopsis: It is the near future. Astronaut Sam Bell is living on the far side of the moon, completing a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth's primary source of energy, Helium-3. It is a lonely job, made harder by a broken satellite that allows no live communications home. Taped messages are all Sam can send and receive. 

Thankfully, his time on the moon is nearly over, and Sam will be reunited with his wife, Tess, and their three-year-old daughter, Eve, in only a few short weeks. Finally, he will leave the isolation of 'Sarang,' the moon base that has been his home for so long, and he will finally have someone to talk to beyond 'Gerty,' the base's well-intentioned, but rather uncomplicated computer.

Julie & Julia (PG) 123 mins

Director:Nora Ephron

Cast:Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina

Synopsis: Meryl Streep is Julia Child and Amy Adams is Julie Powell in writer-director Nora Ephron's adaptation of two bestselling memoirs: Powell's Julie & Julia and My Life in France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme. 

Based on two true stories, Julie & Julia intertwines the lives of two women who, though separated by time and space, are both at loose ends…until they discover that, with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible.

Private Lives of Pippa Lee (M) 98 mins

Director:Rebecca Miller

Cast:Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder

Synopsis: Pippa seems to have everything in life. But suddenly she finds her world beginning to unravel. Amid the buzzing lawnmowers and suburban coffee mornings, she starts to wonder how she came to be in this place. 

The answer is a story of wild youth, unexpected encounters, affairs and betrayals, and the dangerous security of marriage. It brilliantly reveals the challenges of modern life - and all the possibilities that it holds.

Reviews:'4 STARS. It's the kind of movie that is almost extinct - an intelligent, emotional drama that's confronting, surprising, elegant and still funny.' Paul Byrnes, SMH

'Miller's film is a bit like a breeze - a wonderfully fresh one that lifts our spirits and allows us to believe anything is possible.' Louise Keller, urbancinefile.com.au

'4 STARS. Impeccably performed...hits just the right note' Margaret Pomeranz, At the Movies