Odds are high you’ll like it
New Zealand-born US reality show host Phil Keoghan gets it almost spot on with his own amazing race in this 2016 documentary. Eager to learn more about the incredible feats of four Australasian cyclists (including fellow Cantabrian Harry Watson), Keoghan and mate Ben Cornell ride the infamous 1928 Tour de France course. With punishing timetables, and dangerous roads and descents, organisers designed routes aimed at testing riders. The warts-and-all approach to filming is endearing, while Keoghan makes for a genial guide.
Chastain is endlessly watchable and conveys a selfcontained intelligence which can be seen in real-life talk show footage of the real Molly.
Shot on location in Jordan and Hungary with a new cast portraying members of the revived Section 20, the fifth season of the popular military drama features this new team facing new threats and enemies. Disavowed and disbanded, the Section programme is restored to track down a notorious terrorist following a brutal prison break. Tasked with covert military intelligence and high-risk operations, the resurrected unit embarks on a lethal manhunt that will uncover a vast web of interconnected criminal activity. The 52nd clash for American Football supremacy this year takes place at Minneapolis’ US Bank Stadium in Minnesota. Chucking around the pigskin are the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, while the half-time entertainment is scheduled to include Justin Timberlake, while Pink will perform the National Anthem. New series of this popular Kiwi show, which sees Lynda and Jools Topp journeying around New Zealand, meeting passionate food producers, home cooks and lovers of life. Ben Mendelsohn and Rooney Mara star in this thoughtprovoking 2017 drama. An adaptation of David Harrower’s 2005 play Blackbird, Benedict Andrews’ film is the story of a young woman who tracks down the man who had an unlawful relationship with her. Told with restraint, nuance and style, it offers up a knotty and potentially divisive narrative. – James Croot Molly’s Game (R13) 140 mins MOLLY’S Game is a frequently exhilarating screen adaptation of the true story of a young woman who, after her Olympic dreams are shattered, goes on to make a great deal of money and notoriety in the glamorous world of illicit gambling.
Molly Bloom and her father thought she would be a competitive skier, until an accident set her life on another course.
The film tracks Molly’s exciting, winner-takes-all trajectory from desperate secretary to hostess of high-stakes poker games, where her guests include rock stars, movie stars, and organised criminals. (The likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire are said to have played, although celebrities of their ilk are merely alluded to in the film.)
Jessica Chastain ( Zero Dark Thirty, The Martian) is terrific as the eponymous madam who takes revenge on her misogynist boss by beating him at his own card game.
Chastain is endlessly watchable and conveys a selfcontained intelligence which can be seen in real-life talk show footage of the real Molly.
Less impressive is Idris Elba as Bloom’s lawyer, who seems to have lost his brilliance from The Wire somewhere on the snowy peaks of the dreadful The Mountain Between Us.
But the vibrancy and verve of the movie is mostly down to writer-director Aaron Sorkin, who makes a solid directorial debut out of his own screenplay, after years of making his name writing other people’s awardwinning movies and TV (The Social Network, The West Wing, Moneyball among others. Basically, if it’s chatty and witty, it’s probably Sorkin).
The film makes little pretence of being highbrow or particularly cinematic in its crafting (though its editing matches the speedy dialogue), but as a pacey tell-all it’s a fascinating and entertaining watch.
Like 21 and Casino and other gambling biopics, Molly’s Game grants you entrance into a glamorous milieu of riches and risk that would never accept you in real life. For a fun night out, your ticket price is worth the gamble. – Sarah Watt