Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson), a widow and a retired religious education teacher, is uptight, judgemental, uncomfortable with her own body. She has had 30 years of boring sex life—”There are nuns out there with more sexual experience than me”—and now wants to play at feeling young again. She hires a young sex worker Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack) but feels conflicted: “Oh god, I am a seedy old pervert. The film is beautifully written, sensitively handled with McCormack matching up to the brilliant Emma Thompson as they banter on sexual repression, intimacy, questions of morality and the “body being a playground of delight”. (Amazon Prime)
Set in Naples of 1970s-90s, the films follows the rise and fall of the Fratassio brothers: Erry (Luigi D’Oriano), who wanted to be a DJ as a child and is sought after in the neighbourhood for his mixtapes, Peppe (Giuseppe Arena) and Angelo (Emanuele Palumbo). They start a company, Mixed by Erry, and soon they are selling mixtapes all over Italy. As they grow bigger, becoming the leading record label in Italy, they draw the attention of the finance police. The brothers duplicated more than 180 million tapes. This Sydney Sibilia film on music piracy is fun and engaging with some good performances. (Netflix)
Danish singer, Christopher Lund Nissen makes his debut as a fisherman Elliot with an extraordinary voice in this musical drama. His luck changes when a high-profile music manager discovers his talent and pairs him with her estranged daughter Lily (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), setting off his journey to stardom. The film follows Elliot as he struggles to hold on to his roots and his love for music while navigating the volatile life of a star. (Netflix)
A group of South Korean Christian volunteers are taken hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan. A diplomat, Jung Jae-ho (Hwang Jung-min), and an intelligence agent, Dae-shik (Hyun Bin), with very different approaches to the situation, risk their lives to save the Koreans as they navigate political, cultural and language barriers. Based on the true events of 2007, the Soon-rye Yim film is slow-paced, cliched and unintentionally comical at times. Hyun Bin has very little to do, apart from being a good-looking accessory to Hwang Jung-min. (Amazon Prime)
