Each Wanted EDEN

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to theatres from writer/director Ron Howard, Noah Pink, Vertical and Imagine Entertainment comes the story of an island and those who want nothing more than to find EDEN.

Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and partner Dora (Vanessa Kirby) have found their bit of solitude on the island of Floreana in the Galapagos. Ritter spends his days writing his meaning of man and Dora gardens and loves her burro, this is the life they want. That is all about to change with the arrival of Heinz (Daniel Bruhl), wife Margaret (Allison Sweeney) along with son Harry (Jonathan Tittel). They have read the works of Dr. Ritter and want to be part of that isolated life.

Upset by the isolated intrusion, Ritter sets them up far away from their home thinking by the looks of them, running home will happen quickly. What Ritter couldn’t have expected is that within months, the new family is adjusting and settling quite well so their presence is tolerated. That tense acceptance is quickly interrupted when Baroness Eloise (Ana de Armas), Felix (Rudolph Lorenz) and Robert (Toby Wallace) land on the beach with plans of their own.

Heinz and Margaret make it work, especially with a child on the way. Ritter, however, is constantly distracted by the madness the Baroness brings with her. There is manipulation and deception constantly swirling around the eight islanders that brings about mistrust and danger. There is a social virus on the island and it is beginning to infect them all!  

Law as Ritter is a man possessed writing a book that he believes will save humanity from itself. Isolation on the island is something he craves in order to do the ‘important’ work. The distraction of new arrivals sets him on a path that can either help his thought process or hurt it. Law is just exceptional in this character with the mystery surrounding him. There are moments of lyrical brilliance followed by madness but who am I to say which is which. I just loved his performance, period.

Kirby as Dora is a woman with her own set of physical issues but believes she is Ritter’s biggest supporter in all things. Keeping herself busy around their makeshift home, she isn’t the warmest human being to be around but they each seem to understand one another and it works for them – well it did for a while. Kirby gives her character the standoffishness that made me want to know so much more about her and why she saw the island as her home.

Bruhl as Heinz is taken with the prospect of making a life on Floreana with the family. Working hard to set it up, he tries to befriend Ritter but realizes its better to focus on their own homestead and let things work out on their own. Bruhl has the uncanny ability to totally own a character role and he has such a wide range of them both good guys and not-so-good guys. Every film he has been in I’m always in line to see where he is going to take the story. In this film, he kept me guessing.

Sweeney as Margaret is a young wife who wants to keep the peace on the island. She does try to befriend Dora and Ritter but finds herself taking small steps to understanding them. When the Baroness enters the pictures, Margaret clearly knows narcissism when she sees it and has not difficulty standing on her own. Sweeney’s character is the timid one and on the watchful side than the other characters, taking it all in before doing whatever it takes to protect her family – and that isn’t always noticeable.

De Armas as the Baroness is an absolute train on flaming tracks and she is the conductor. Every moment she is on the screen I wanted to throw something at it. The character reminded me of an attention seeker who would burn the world down if it would make her feel superior. Charming, well dressed and manipulative are in her bag of tricks. It is an intense role adding another layer to the madness happening on the island. Lorenz and Wallace play the two men who see to her every whim and, like Dora, believes in her and the plan she has made.

Other cast include Ignacio Gasparini as Manuel, Richard Roxburgh as Allan Hancock, Nicholas Denton as Ray, Thiago Moraes as the Captain, and Antonio Alvarez as the Governor of the Galapagos.

Vertical Entertainment is a global independent distributor that offers a unique wealth of experience minus the studio costs. Film such as MY MOTHER’S WEDDING, I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU, FIGHT OR FLIGHT and IN THE LOST LANDS are only a few of the film the studio has brought forward. For more of what they have to offer, please visit www.vert-ent.com.

The film is loosely based on the real-life story of these characters, living on an island wanting solitude, the Ritters had their life far away from Germany. Even the story of the Wittmer family comes with a respect for the island and the couple living a distance away and again, it worked. Then, Baroness Eloise Wehrborn de Wagner-Bosquet landed on the beach. What comes next is pure speculation and conjecture which is where writer/director Howard and writer Pink comes in.

Howard says of his film, “I am fascinated by stories based on real events. There is no question that in this circumstance, the kinds of the choices these characters feel compelled to make or are forced to make are more complex than anything I’ve done in film. This is what these people leaved through and I found it fascinating, I found it utterly human and surprisingly relatable to the human existence today with all its quirks, all its pain and danger as well. It was exciting every day!”

That is what makes this film so compelling as Howard has chosen to do something out of his directorial character. His memorable films include WILLOW (1988), THE DA VINCI CODE (2006), THIRTEEN LIVES (2022) and in my family, THE GRINCH (2000), which is a yearly holiday happening. EDEN is a different direction bringing such rawness and the horror of human nature when squeezed beyond all sanity. He chose a story that allows for so many levels of lies mixed with truths that I spent some time reading up on this story myself.

EDEN is one of my favorite films of this year because of its unpredictability, its jaw dropping moments, the lives it is based on and the originality of it all. I found myself on the edge just waiting to see what could possibly happen next on this roller coaster ride of a storyline. I love that it is framed around an island forcing the characters to deal with one another because it’s not like they could easily walk away. There is even humor that felt twisted and intriguing at the same time. I am hoping to see awards attached to it very soon.

In the end – where is the truth lie?

 

The Boys Are Back in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to 4K Ultra HD, Bluray and Digital from director Quentin Tarantino and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment comes one of the most stellar films ever made with the 2009  classic INGLORIOUS BASTERDS.

It is 1941 France and the SS Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) is looking for a Jewish family. Suspecting a farmer is lying to him, what happens as a result shows the absolute heinousness of Landa. A young girl named Shoshanna does manages to escape with her life and nothing else.

Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) has put together a group called the Basterds with Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth), Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger), Corporal Wicki (Gedeon Burkhard) and more. Their goal? To bring fear and horror of their own to the Nazis, so much so that it gets back to Hitler and drives him to madness.

Emmanuelle Mimieux (Melanie Laurent) runs a cinema in Paris and keeps to herself but it does not last long. Capturing the attention of Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl), a German who is celebrated for the number of soldiers he has killed and for a film called Stolz der Nation (Nation's Pride).

Trying to impress Emmanuelle, he wants the premier of the film to be held at her film house but first must convince Joseph Goebbels. She must also meet Landa who is head of security and is told that as long as she runs the projection, there should not be a problem having the premiere.

Learning of what is happening, Lt. Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) is brought in to help the Basterds plan a little surprise at the premiere. Meeting undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), everything is going smoothly - until it doesn't. Now, Raine must take Donowitz, Ultivich (B.J. Novak) and Ulmer (Omar Doom) along with Stiglitz and Wicki to get the job done.

Landa knows something is wrong and being the steely eyed rat that he is makes a deal so that the plan can move ahead. Both Landa and the Germans in the theatre are not ready for what is to come!

Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine is a man who says exactly what he means and holds nothing back. The calm force behind the Basterds, he leads them forward further and further into occupied France to make sure and take down as many Nazi's as they can. Pitt is nothing short of exceptional in this role and did something fantastic with this character in the look, sound and feel of Lt. Raine. He is charmingly frightening and who would have thought those two words would ever go together.

Waltz as Landa is also charmingly frightening in the look, sound and feel of this totally calm and collected murderer. Seeing the film in 2009 my first thought was, 'man does he love to hear himself talk' and it is in years since that I realized that his talking brought about all the right fear he wanted from his 'victims'. Just wait for that sweat to pour down their foreheads and - he had them! Waltz is an incredible actor and has proven that teaming up with Tarantino again for DJANGO UNCHAINED.

Laurent as Emmanuelle has been trying to live the best life she can under the circumstances. Finding a bit of a harbor in the cinema, everything she had been running from has finally caught up with her. Laurent is exceptional giving her character mannerisms and knowing exactly how she plans to rid herself of past pain. Kruger as von Hammersmark is the femme fatale who can easily work both sides of the fence. Having been a fan of Kruger for a long time, watching her bring everything campy to von Hammersmark, the switch is flipped when one false move sounds the alarms.

Fassbender as Lt. Hicox is fantastic and his scene in the basement bar is everything. There is a standoff like no other and, as with many of the characters in this film, he plays his part until the bitter end. Roth as Donnie "The Bear Jew" is just plain insane from start to finish, His most memorable scene with the clanging of the bat on a bridge wall can never be done again with the same intensity or insanity.

Bruhl as Zoller is a soldier being celebrated for all the wrong reasons in the minds of everyone but the Germans. Giving his character a bit of naiveté and having been shot by Cupids arrow, Bruhl seems to be the only character in the film that doesn't have a plan.

Shout out to Schweiger as Stiglitz because he is a man who does not have to say one stinkin' word because his face tells you everything frightening thing you need to know and, I loved it.

Other cast include August Diehl as Dieter Hellstrom, Denis Menochet as Perrier LaPadite, Hilmar Eichhorn as Emil Jannings, Martin Wutke as Adolf Hiter, Sylvester Groth as Joseph Goebbels, Mike Meyers as General Ed French, Rod Taylor as Winston Churchill, Alexander Fehling as Sgt. Wilhelm, Richard Sammel as Sgt. Rachtman, Sonke Mohring as Butz, Paul Rust as Andy Kagan, Michael Bacall as Michael Zimmerman, Carlos Fidle as Simon Sakowitz and Samuel L. Jackson as the narrator.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us to all experience and re-experience in our own home theaters. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

The 4K Ultra HD and Bluray Bonus Features include: Over Two Hours of Bonus', Extended and Alternate Scenes, The New York Times Talks, Roundtable Discussion with Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and Elvin Mitchell, Nation's Pride, Full Feature THE MAKING OF NATION'S PRIDE, The Original INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, A Conversation with Rod Taylor and more!

INGLORIOUS BASTERDS is first and foremost a violent, sometimes shockingly so film. Now that that is out of the way, it is also a brilliant piece of filmmaking. Tarantino as a screenwriter has always given theatre goers something to look forward to, always original and always in-your-face. As a director, he does not shy away from making it clear that the worlds he has written about are vivid, and cinematically eye opening (and even jaw dropping).

The cast is stunning from end to end and irreplaceable if anyone gets a wild hair thinking of remaking this in a few years. Everything about this film screams for us to throw away our notions and give into the story Tarantino is trying to tell. He takes thoughts and turns them into film with and ending that makes many feel uncomfortable but yet - not.

Tarantino's film is a must have for any home theatre library and now with 4K Ultra HD you can be sure everything you see will be sharper than ever.

In the end - once upon a time in Nazi occupied France!

THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE is Dramatic on Bluray

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to Bluray and DVD on July 4^th and currently on Digital HD from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and director Niki Caro is a story hope from THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE.

The Warsaw Zoo is owned by Antonia (Jessica Chastain) and Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh), a couple who have dedicated their lives to their love of animals. Along with their son Ryszard (Timothy Radford), their days are spent tending to the zoo.

Then comes the German invasion and bombs are dropped all over Warsaw, including the zoo. Sending animals everywhere, the Zabinski’s try to find and return them home. Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl) a zoologist, comes to Antonia and offers to take their prize animals to the zoo in Germany and return them when the war is over.

Knowing he is right, Antonia tells her husband Jan it is the right thing to do for the animals. What they don’t expect is the return of Lutz wearing the uniform of a German officer who immediately shoots animals left over. Immediately the Jewish population is rounded up and family friends are afraid. Antonia and Jan agree to take in Magda (Efrat Dor) knowing it could cost them everything.

Jan learns that there are ways to help other Jews and tells Antonia they must try. Coming up with a plan, they go to Lutz wanting to turn the zoo into a pig farm that will feed the German soldiers. Agreeing, Lutz also says he wants to continue his cross-breeding work which means unexpected visits to the zoo.

What Lutz doesn’t know is the real truth behind the pig farm. Jan and Antonia use food scraps from the ghetto where the Jews have been sent as a way to do their part for the resistance. They use the cellar of the zoo to become a way station for those they can save.

Antonia knows that she must keep Lutz’s focus on her if Jan and zoo employee Jerzyk (Michael McElhatton) are to help more and more before they are discovered.

Chastain as Antonia is a woman who loves her family, the animals and their zoo. Nothing gets in the way of helping the creatures she is charges with caring for. When the opportunity comes to help the people of war with her zoo, she may be afraid but knows it’s the right thing. Chastain is such a strong actress and this role fits her to perfection.

Bruhl as Lutz has the duality of a man who is dedicated to his zoology and serving in the German military. Finding solace at the zoo working with Antonia, there comes a moment when it all begins to unravel and his reaction is frightening. Bruhl has taken on so many different roles and in THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE, it is once again good versus evil within the character.

Heldenbergh as Jan immediately begins to find ways to help his Jewish neighbors. Getting deeper and deeper, the danger is right in front of him yet he continues. Seeing the horrors is sometimes more than he can stand which sends him even further into the resistance – such a strong performance.

Other cast include Iddo Goldberg as Maurycy Fraenkel, Martha Issova as Regina Kenigswein, Daniel Ratimorsky as Samuel Kenigswein, Arnost Goldflam as Dr. Janusz Korczak, Marian Mitas as Stefan, Waldemar Kobus as Dr. Ziegler, Slavko Sobin as Mr. Keller, Alena Mihulova as Marysia Aszer and Shira Haas as Urszula.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us all to experience and re-experience in our own home theatres. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE is a story of humanity, love, resistance and doing what is right at all costs. The film is based on a book by Diane Ackerman  inspired by the unpublished diary of Antonia and Jan Zabinski. Published in 2007, it didn’t take long for The Zookeeper’s Wife to become number 13 on the New York Times best seller list.

Coming to film, THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE used no CGI but real animals including the lion baby cubs. Also, although the zoo was in Warsaw, the story was filmed in Prague. Both of these add elements to the film that are rich and stunning to a story that is so heartfelt and intense.

The Bluray/ DVD and Digital HD includes the Special Features of Deleted Scenes, The Making of THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE as filmmakers, cast, and crew discuss the challenges they encountered in making the film, including recreating the Warsaw Zoo; working with the animals; and doing justice to such an important story, The Zabinski Family – a closer look at the selfless family at the center of THE ZOOKEEPER’S WIFE including interviews with Teresa Sabinski and Ryszard Sabinski, the children of Antonia and Jan.

In the end – they gave all they had to save all they could!

THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE Comes to Bluray and a Chance to Win!

Coming to Bluray this June from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment is Jessica Chastain and Daniel Bruhl in a riveting and powerful true story THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE.

In 1939 Poland, working wife and mother Antonina Żabińska (portrayed by Ms. Chastain) became a hero to hundreds. Antonina and her husband Jan (Mr. Heldenbergh) care for animals at the Warsaw Zoo and have raised a family in an idyllic existence. Their world is overturned when the country is invaded by the Germans and they are forced to report to the Reich’s newly appointed zoologist (Mr. Brühl).  To fight back on their own terms, the Żabińskis risk everything by covertly working with the Resistance and using the Zoo’s hidden passages to safeguard human life.

Based on the true story told in The New York Times best seller by Diane Ackerman, the critically acclaimed and heart-pounding WWII drama The Zookeeper’s Wife debuts on Digital HD on June 20, 2017 and on Blu-ray™, DVD and On Demand on July 4, 2017 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Directed by Niki Caro (North Country) from a screenplay adaptation by Angela Workman (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan), the film stars two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain (The Help), Johan Heldenbergh (The Broken Circle Breakdown), Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones), and Golden Globe Award nominee Daniel Brühl (Rush).

Focus Features’ The Zookeeper’s Wife on Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital HD comes packed with exclusive bonus content including deleted scenes as well as a special behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film and captivating interviews with the real-life Żabiński family.

We have an amazing opportunity for five of our readers to win a copy of THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE! Please email hellomoviemaven@aol.com with ‘animal lover’ in the subject line along with your name and address. We will be pulling winners and notifying them through email. We are so excited to be offering this amazing film so get your entries in now!