Revolutionary Road posterAs Oscar night approaches anoth­er of the expec­ted heavy­weight con­tenders goes into cinemas: Sam Mendes’ Revolu­tion­ary Road reunites Kate Wins­let and Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time since Titan­ic (still the highest gross­ing film of all time fact-fans) in a story of a middle-class 1950s couple dis­sat­is­fied with the Amer­ic­an sub­urb­an dream. Based on (what I under­stand to be) an awe­some nov­el by Richard Yates. Play­ing at Light­house Petone, Regent-on-Man­ners, Read­ings, Pent­house and Sky City Queens­gate.

Road­show will be hop­ing that Clint East­wood light­ning will strike twice at the Oscars and are using that rare tac­tic, the sneak pre­view, to launch his new film (and his last as an act­or) Gran Torino. His last per­form­ance was in the multi-award-win­ning Mil­lion Dol­lar Baby in 2004. You can see Gran Torino early at Empire, Read­ings, Pent­house and Sky City Queens­gate. (East­wood’s oth­er new film Changeling opens on Feb 12)

For those inclined toward the crap­pi­er end of the mar­ket there’s Bride Wars, a “com­edy” star­ring Anne Hath­away and the woe­fully-man­aged Kate Hud­son. Please note that I totally have an open mind about this film – I just don’t have any hope or faith: Empire, Regent-on-Man­ners, Read­ings, Sky City Queens­gate.

The Pent­house keeps it classy with a big­gish-budget French WWII movie called Female Agents about some young French women enlis­ted into the Brit­ish Spe­cial Forces and sent on a sui­cide mis­sion to res­cue a Brit­ish geo­lo­gist. True story appar­ently. Mean­while the Para­moun­t’s eclect­ic run con­tin­ues with a Czech com­edy-drama called Beauty in Trouble. It’s by one of my favour­ite film­makers, Jan Hrebejk who made the fant­ast­ic Divided We Fall from 2000. Also at the Para­mount, for just a few ses­sions, is a surf­ing movie called Bustin’ Down the Door.

All of the above will be reviewed in next week’s Cap­it­al Times (and online at Funer­als & Snakes), although I may draw the line at the surf­ing flick.