The Weekly Ritzy Round Up by Robert Makin January 16th – 22nd

It’s a controversial, eclectic and entertaining week at The Ritzy this week. Director Steve Mcqueen’s historical drama Twelve Years a Slave stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a successful musician kidnapped and forced into slavery in a pre-Civil War United States. Based on Solomon Northup’s classic memoir it’s already one of this year’s must see movies.

Well I have to admit that it’s been a very long time since I looked forward to the prospect of watching a new Martin Scorsese film. Especially after seeing Hugo (2011), his 3D computer generated digital homage to celluloid and the cinema. But the word is that The Wolf of Wall Street sees the great director back on form. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Matthew McConaughey it promises to be an irreverent look at the rise and demise of notorious stockbroker Jordan Belfort and a scathing satire on financial power and corruption. It’s also rumoured to be his funniest film.

Documentary After Tiller takes on the highly complex and deeply controversial subject of late term abortions and the assassination of its practitioners by anti-abortionist extremists. Another equally topical documentary that’s back by popular demand is The Square, focusing on the recent Egyptian revolution and it’s personal and sociological repercussions.

Also screening this week is Nicolas Roeg’s unique and incredibly unsettling supernatural thriller Don’t Look Now (1973), a late night showing of Scorsese’s The Departed (2006), and don’t forget that American Hustle, Gravity and Anchorman 2 are still hanging on in there for your entertainment. Now go see some movies.