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Odyssey
(2025)

Director – Gerard Johnson – 2025 – UK – Cert. 18 – 110m

****

A ruthless London estate agent with mounting debts finds herself at the mercy of criminal backers – out in UK cinemas on Friday, November 7th

This starts off no holds barred with protagonist Natasha (Polly Maberly from Muscle, Gerard Johnson, 2019) having a tooth removed at the dentist’s, then having her card declined as she attempts to pay the £950 bill, going out of the front door after the third failed payment attempt. Throughout what follows, she will consistently receive phone messages about the outstanding amount and ignore them, although you suspect they are slowly eating away at her soul along with most of the other influences in her life. Somehow the incident seems to define her character: a driven, self-made woman – or, more accurately, a self-making one who never quite got there and lives beyond her means to maintain the illusion.

Natasha runs a tight office with right-hand woman Safi (Kellie Shirley), tech guy Spike (Charley Palmer Rothwell) developing a game-changing app for her, and promising new girl learning the ropes Dylan (Jasmine Blackborow). But Natasha is the person in charge of everything, the place where the buck stops, and despite their undoubted talents the other three seem scarcely to matter: it’s all about Natasha as she struggles to see through a hostile takeover, or, as she frames it, merger.… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

Fountain of Youth
(2025)

Director – Guy Ritchie – 2025 – US – Cert. 12a – 126m

*

Two estranged, treasure-hunting siblings, with the help of a rich backer, pursue the trail towards the life-giving water source of legend, pursued by forces that want to prevent them from doing so – premieres globally on Apple TV+ from Friday, May 23rd

Films get made in a variety of different ways. According to the press handouts, this one came about initially through producer Tripp Vinson’s research into the legendary Fountain of Youth and the desire to have a globe-trotting hero searching for it. This idea was developed by screenwriter James Vanderbilt (Scream VI, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, 2022; The Amazing Spider-man, Marc Webb, 2012; Zodiac, David Fincher, 2007) into where the hero was not one but two people, an estranged brother and sister. When director Ritchie later came on board, he brought to it the idea of the journey being more important than the destination. This is not, therefore, a director-led project. In the process of making movies, however, it is ultimately the director, once they are on board, who is responsible for the myriad decisions that are taken in putting the film on the screen.… Read the rest