From a cartoon to a comedy to a critically-acclaimed drama, there's something across the spectrum for everyone.

First off, we have Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a funny and bittersweet adult comedy about losing the one you love and learning to love again. Considering how raunchy this film gets at time, it's hard to believe how wise and insightful it becomes towards the end of the film.

We recommend Forgetting Sarah Marshall highly for all you grown-ups.

Also recommended is Pixar's brand new animation Wall.E, an utterly charming and meaningful story set in the future when Earth has become so polluted that we humans can no longer live on it. Instead, there are robots like Wall.E left to clean up the mess we left behind.

The third good film is The Banishment by Russian maestro, Andrei Zvyagintsev. Strictly for lovers of arthouse films, it tells a nuanced and precise drama about love, infidelity and abortion between a woman, her husband and his brother.

ON GAINING MASS AND MASS APPEAL
Celluloid to iron: Chaiwat "Tob" Thongsang
in Fridae Entertainment

Chaiwat ''Tob'' Thongsang of Bangkok Love Story fame speaks to Fridae's Vitaya Saeng-Aroon about success, taking on a gay role as a 17-year-old rookie actor and his future plans. more>>

READ Fridae Lifestyle Movie Review of Bangkok Love Story

INDPANDA: SHORTS FIESTA LASTS LONGER
Indie film festival in Hong Kong extends season with bumper of queer films
in Fridae Entertainment (Chinese)

The 4th InDPanda International Short Film Festival in Hong Kong will offer more screenings till 5 Sep. The festival opened in July with Academy Award-winning documentary Freeheld by lesbian director Cynthia Wade. There is also a showcase of works by Singaporean filmmaker Boo Junfeng, films with Indonesian actor-director Edward Gunawan as well as outstanding shorts from around the world. more>>
event details and film highlights>>

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the movie to catch this week. It is sweet, off-beat, and totally loveable. Produced by the same folks behind The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad, it will have you grinning from ear to ear long after the credits roll.

The comedy stars Jason Segel (not pretty but not ugly either) as an average guy with a way-above-average girlfriend (Veronical Mars' Kirsten Bell), who is an actress on a popular CSI-like TV show called Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime. Realising that she's too good for him, she decides to dump him, after six years of using him as her handbag at red carpet events. He begs and pleads for another chance. But she won't listen. In truth, she wants to leave him for a new guy, a hairy tattooed British pop star named Aldous (a very funny Russell Brand).

Jason tries to cope with the break-up by drinking and sleeping around. But nothing seems to work. He gets on plane to Hawaii to recuperate some more. There, he meets The One (Mila Kunis from The 70s Show) who is completely sweet, unpretentious and cool about everything. Let the healing begin!

Directed by Nick Stoller and co-written by Judd Apatow, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the best romantic comedy since, well, Judd's own Knocked Up. It mixes sexy and slapstick humour with very perceptive observations about love and relationships. Judd proves once again that you can make people laugh without making them stupid.

Don't miss it this hilarious, tender-hearted comedy for grown-ups.

Animation studio Pixar can do no wrong. After the amazing Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, you'd think that their new movie Wall.E would not be able to live up to the extraordinary cartoons they've made before. After all those mega-successes, you'd think they'd be running out of steam and/or ideas. Right? Wrong.

Wall.E confirms once again that the folks at Pixar are anything but out of ideas. Although this one did not make as much money at the American box-office as their previous hits, it is still a bundle of laughs, charm and loveability — making it the second must-watch of the week.

Set in the year 2775, Wall.E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is a robot designed to gather trash, compress it into neat cubes, and then stack those cubes one atop of the other. Wall.E's work is endless. Earth, as we know it, has become so polluted that humans no longer live on the planet. Instead, they are all cruising in luxury spaceships somewhere in deep space, without a thought for the little planet their ancestors once inhabited.

With few living beings to interact with, Wall.E feels rather lonely. So when a state-of-the-art female robot arrives on earth on a reconnaissance mission, Wall.E falls for her hard, very hard...

Five years ago, Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev swept major prizes around the world with his masterpiece, The Return. Now Andrei himself has made a return with his second film, The Banishment, a delicate and haunting drama about infidelity and abortion.

Alex (Konstantin Lavronenko) takes a break from the city and goes to a rural retreat with his wife Vera (Maria Bonnevie) and their two children. Soon, the quiet Vera tells him that she is pregnant, but it is not his child. Alex's brother Mark (Alexander Baluev) may or may not have something to do with it.

Alex demands an abortion but Vera is resistant. As relationships between the three start to fray, sharp insights about the characters — and about us all — emerge...

Once again, director Andrei displays his extraordinary understanding of the cinematic medium. The characters' moods and emotions are underlined by the changing weather — from clear days to torrential rains. The Banishment is an intense, intimate and complex study of souls in anguish.

For cineastes, there is no better film right now. But for those of you with mainstream tastes, you're likely to be bored with this 2-hour-40-minute film.

If you've been reading the stuff that Star Wars fans have written on the Web about Star Wars creator George Lucas, you'd think the guy just shot all their mothers. Yes, they really really hate him.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the latest disaster to come out of the once-beloved franchise. George, who seems dissatisfied with the millions he's already made, authorized this boring and pointless animated version. Not only do the 3D cartoons look like they were drawn in 1970s (square jaws, broad shadows, lifeless eyes), the story feels like it was written by 12-year-old children.

The uninvolving plot follows Anakin Skywalker (voiced by Matt Lanter) as he transitions from Jedi apprentice to Jedi master who takes young Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) under his wings. They are tasked to save the son of Jabba the Hut — yes, Jabba the Hut — which they affectionately nickname Stinky — yes, Stinky.

The whole film is watchable for about 20 minutes, and then it dawns on you that Star Wars: The Clone Wars isn't really telling you anything new or worth knowing about the characters or this galaxy far, far away. The experience quickly degenerates into indifference, stupor, and finally, hatred for George Lucas.

By the time the credits roll, you can't wait to get home and rant about that money-grubbing man called George.

READ Fridae People exclusive interview with Royston Tan

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READ Fridae Lifestyle Movie Review
of The Page Turner

Mother
by Royston Tan

Exodus
by Sherman Ong

Price: US$12
Produced by Objectifs Films
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Three award-winning short films by the best young film talents from Singapore. Now available through Fridae Shop.

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