Trance is full of mysterious intentions, hidden secrets and unexpected twists, but it fails to sustain its ambitions

Danny Boyle has had an illustrious career. His drug drama Trainspotting is still regarded as one of the finest releases of the ‘90s, his Frankenstein play was critically acclaimed and broadcast across the world, and Slumdog Millionaire scooped the coveted Best Picture Oscar in 2009 beating out heavyweight entries from Ron Howard, David Fincher and Stephen Daldry. But even with this impressive résumé under his belt the enthusiastic Brit managed to reach new heights last year with his unforgettable opening ceremony to the 2012 Olympic Games – a wild production full of wit, humor and imagination. So how does one follow that? Well, in typical Danny Boyle fashion, he’s confounded all expectations by choosing to direct a low-budget London based heist thriller titled Trance.

The film begins with the theft of an exceptionally pricy Rembrandt painting estimated at over £15 million. The plan is orchestrated by criminal mastermind Frank (Vincent Cassel) who uses an art expert and employee at the auction, Simon (James McAvoy), as an inside man. Simon’s one job is to follow his company’s procedure in such an event – taking the painting, putting it in a specially designed bag and transporting it to a safe location – but instead he'll hand the object over to Frank at the very last minute. However, when this crucial moment arrives, Simon decides to attack the thief seemingly in an attempt to prevent the crime. It forces Frank to fight back and deliver a blow to the head that knocks Simon out cold. Nonetheless, despite this one setback, the scheme comes off without a hitch – at least until Frank opens the aforementioned bag to discover that the painting has disappeared.

The New In Cinema Awards 2013

Best Picture

Winner:

The Master

Runners-Up:

Holy Motors

Amour

Rust And Bone

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

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Best Director

Winner:

Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

Runners-Up:

Leos Carax, Holy Motors

Michael Haneke, Amour

Jacques Audiard, Rust And Bone

Behn Zeitlin, Beasts Of The Southern Wild

The one in which I read *way* too deep into Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty begins in darkness. A pitch-black screen lingers for almost a full minute filled only with the sounds of emergency calls made on September 11th 2001. Without a single image, we are reminded of the shock, the horror and the tragedy that began the decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden, the story told here in Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal's follow-up to the Oscar winning The Hurt Locker.

We then cut to a CIA Black Site; an isolated house stripped bare and guarded by armed men. Its whereabouts is not revealed. Held here is a man suspected of financing terrorists responsible for the aforementioned attacks. He’s about to be tortured in an almost unbearable 15-minute sequence that sees Dan (Jason Clarke) strip him, water board him and lock him into box barely large enough to contain him. In one transition, Zero Dark Thirty captures the War On Terror with an unflinching honesty; the desperate, sometimes unlawful lengths we went to in order to avenge the voices just heard. 

In the corner observing this scene is Maya (Jessica Chastain). She’s a human reflection of the tenacious, unwavering urge to achieve justice by whatever means necessary – a young agent recently appointed to the counter-terrorism intelligence team driven by one single goal: catch or kill Osama Bin Laden. She doesn’t have a social life, nor does she have commitments back home. This mission is her entire life.

Steven Spielberg's monumental Lincoln is his finest work in years

When playwriter Tony Kushner was first hired to pen a biopic of Abraham Lincoln which would be directed by Steven Spielberg he spent a long period of time ingratiating himself in the man’s entire life and presidency. He ultimately produced a 500-page script that could only be filmed as a television series over several hours. One day, however, Kushner was in his car when he received a phone call from Spielberg who had an idea for how to make this gigantic story into a movie: focus only on the short period when Lincoln attempted to push the Thirteenth Amendment through Congress that would emancipate the slaves. 

It proves to be a stroke of genius from Steven Spielberg. This snapshot of the most challenging moment in his presidency, after all, is the perfect way to tell the story of Abraham Lincoln as a whole. In much the same vein as My Week With Marilyn or The King’s Speech, it uses a small fraction of his life to provide an insight into his overall political genius, impact on history and personal tragedy.

It opens in January 1865 when America was in the depths of Civil War. Countrymen are fighting against fellow countrymen and more than enough blood has been shed on both sides. President Lincoln has resolved that it’s time to finally put the war to an end and believes that the Thirteenth Amendment is the only way to sustain a lasting peace. Making slavery unconstitutional, however, is thought to be political suicide. His wife Mary Todd warns that he risks losing support while numerous fellow Democrats refuse to back him.

Django Unchained is pure Tarantino

In 2009, Quentin Tarantino made what is arguably one of his finest films yet; the spaghetti western influenced tale of Jewish American vengeance in World War II titled Inglorious Basterds. The film took a look at one of the most infamous moments in world history through the prism of a genre film, capturing it not as a po-faced issues movie but instead as a blisteringly entertaining revenge flick. This year, the Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs director does the same thing for pre-Civil War America with Django Unchained.

The film tells the story of a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) who has been sold to another plantation after he and his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) attempted to run away from their owners. On the way to this new establishment, Django is given freedom by a German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Chrisoph Waltz) who requires his assistance. Posing as a dentist, he’s tracking three brothers but does not know what they look like, making it impossible to identify them - but Django can. 

The duo spends the winter in search of these brothers - and other wanted criminals - with Schultz imparting his bounty hunting skills on his new partner. But Django doesn’t just want be a free man chasing down outlaws; he wants to be reunited with his wife who is now under the ownership of one of Mississippi’s most notorious businessmen, plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).