This Oscar-winning documentary shines a spotlight on the untold true stories of the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the 21st century. This is both a tribute to the unsung voices who brought shape and style to popular music and a reflection on the conflicts, sacrifices and rewards of careers spent harmonizing with others. Along with rare archival footage and a peerless soundtrack,
20 Feet from Stardom features intimate interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger, Sting and others.
12A cert – USA 2013 – Director: Morgan Neville
Running time: 90 minutes – Language: English
Ahmad is an Iranian man who has come back to France to finalise his divorce from Marie who is pregnant by Samir and is planning to marry him. To complicate matters further, Samir’s own wife is in a coma, having tried to commit suicide for reasons that are only very slowly revealed. With five children involved in this triangle, the mistakes of the past weigh heavily on the future of all those involved. As in his previous film ‘A Separation,’ Farhadi’s interest is in the looks and gestures of his main characters as they struggle to understand each other’s motivations and feelings.
Woody Grant, a crotchety and senile old drunk mired in the backwoods of Billings, Montana, becomes convinced that he will be the winner of a million dollar sweepstake prize if he can somehow get himself to Nebraska, 750 miles away. Everyone else thinks this is all a scam but when Woody shows himself determined to do the journey on foot, if necessary, his son David agrees to drive him and so begins a bizarre riff on the classic American road movie. A delightful bitter-sweet depiction of a side of America we rarely get to see on the screen.
Gloria is a fifty-something divorcee with grown-up children who works in an office during the week and goes dancing in nightclubs on the weekend. Gloria is lonely, but not desperately so. She’s interested in sex, but she’s not looking for pity. She’s worried about losing control, but she’s also aware that she needs to move outside of her comfort zone. Not quite a comedy and not quite a drama, this Chilean film looks at middle age from a refreshingly even-handed and real-life perspective, not a contrived or tragic one which is so often portrayed in the cinema. Paulina Garcia’s note-perfect performance as Gloria won her Best Actress at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival.