Released, as of this Friday…

Big Boys Gone Bananas – Swedish film-maker Fredrik Gerttens looks at how his original documentary Bananas, examining claims from Dole food staff that working conditions left them infertile, was negatively affected by the company he was exposing. Showing at key cities only. Official site is here.

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel – Vreeland’s granddaughter-in-law directs this docu about the noted fashion editor. Showing at key cities only. Official site is here.

Heroine – Kareena Kapoor stars in this Bollywood drama about the life of a once successful film star. Key cities. Wikipedia has some details here.

House at the End of the Street – Jennifer Lawrence and her mum move into a house where the previous occupant killed her parents. As you would expect, the story is far from finished. Official Facebook page is here with cinema listings for the UK, photos and trailers. Showing all over, you lucky sorts!

Hysteria – saucy sounding comedy with Hugh Dancy as an idealistic young doctor working with Rupert Everett on a series of sexual therapies to help loosen up the hysterical women of London, among them Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sheridan Smith and Felicity Jones. Key cities only. Official Sony site is here.

Inbred – British Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Wrong Turn horror in which a group of young offenders and their care workers are menaced in a remote Yorkshire village by the inbred locals. Well, that’s fun in Northernshire for you! Key cities only. Official site is here.

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark – showing at Imax cinemas only so a big, big dusting off for the first in the Spielberg/Ford quadrilogy about the intrepid archaeologist.

Killing them Softly – A strong male cast, led by a seemingly impressive Brad Pitt, head up this crime thriller. Pitt is the enforcer investigating a robbery at a high stakes mob poker game. Could this be the film that nabs him an Oscar? Official site lends a few hints here. Showing all over the UK.

The Prophet – director and composer Gary Tarn’s film, if you can call it that, of Kahlil Gibran’s novel. Leaving the meaning of the film very much up to the viewer, Tarn mixes the nararative of the book with his own travels through the Lebanon, Serbia, New York, Milan and London. At key cities only. Thandie Newton narrates and the official site is here.

Santa Sangre – gruesome sounding horror from 1989 about a man who embarks on a campaign of revenge with his armless mother. Thankfully, showing at key cities only! IMDb has details here.

Savages – Salma Hayek dons a tarantula black wig as the head of a Mexican drug cartel who wants to get into bed with Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch – professionally of course, as they happen to grow the finest marijuana in North America. When they refuse, she kidnaps the girl whom they are in a three-way with (Blake Lively) leading to an extraordinary capture and revenge caper that ropes in dodgy FBI agent John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Emile Hirsch. Olvier Stone directs and with this cast, it should be available all of the UK. Official site is here.

Tower Block – Sheridan Smith again (the girl must be worn out this year, after Mrs Biggs on TV and, now Hedda Gabler at The Old Vic). A British thriller that centres on the residents of an inner city tower block being picked off by a sniper, a year after witnessing a murder. Key cities only. IMDb has a few more details.

Untouchable – actor Omar Sy has taken a few international awards for his performance here, as a young man from the inner city in France who is hired to help an aristocrat when he is paralysed after an accident. The trailers look good and so do the reviews. Unaccountably, it looks like the release will be in London only for this week. IMDb lowdown is here.

On Monday next week…

Saints and Soldiers 2: Airborne Creed – WWII drama about a group of soldiers rescuing partisans whilst on their way to support allied troops marching toward Berlin. Official site is here.

About Elly – Iranian drama about a young woman who, whilst trying to match-make on a trip with friends, innocently sets about a series of events with a shocking conclusion. The Axiom Films website has more here. Showing in key UK cities.

Anton Corbijn: Inside Out – Dutch language docu that follows the titular artist as he travels the world. There is an official site here for those who read Dutch but IMDb might be most people’s safer bet for more details. Showing at the Curzon London only though.

Barfi! – Indian ‘cheeky chappie’ comedy. The official UTV site is here, IMDb is here.

Hope Springs – if they mean in terms of making a hit film, then having Meryl Streep in the lead role makes that almost certain. Well cast comedy about a middle-aged couple (Streep and Tommy Lee Jones) approaching a crisis point in their marriage. Steve Carell is the guidance counsellor whose help they seek. Nice looking Columbia/Magnate website but, if you’re going to have a whole photos section, put a few more pics in it.

Keyhole – odd sounding Guy Maddin thriller, in which gangster Jason Patric returns home after a long absence with the body of a dead girl in tow, his gang inside his house and estranged wife Isabelle Rossellini in their bedroom. Good reviews from the likes of Roger Ebert, but definitely strange. Official site is here.

Paranorman 3D – fun looking Laika (Coraline) animation, showing in 2 and 3D about a young boy who talks to the dead called upon to save his town from Zombies and other ghouls. Official site is here.

Premium Rush – Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whom people of a certain age might remember as the constantly confused teenage alien in Third Rock From the Sun is becoming a mainstream movie man of the moment, after so many indie flicks, following his appearance in The Dark Knight Rises with this action thriller about a bike courier who picks up the wrong message. Sony Columbia’s official site has a trailer…and that’s it (making this look like The Fast and the Furious on two wheels). IMDb is here.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro – No, not the US 50’s drama with Gregory Peck atop aforementioned mountain, recounting the three women in his life but a French drama played out against the backdrop of trade union activity in a local community. Official Cinefile website has the full plot here.

To Rome With Love – typically star-studded Woody Allen offering, this time a romantic ode to the Eternal City rather than NY or London. Allen plays a retired opera director, though as usual it will be a role mirrored on his own carefully created image as the ultimate, modern day auteur. Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz and Judy Davis help flesh out the supporting cast. Official Sony site is here.

When the Lights Went Out – Just been reading about this drama in my regular Fortean Times, based on supposedly real-life events in Yorkshire in the seventies when a house was terrorised by poltergeists. IMDb site is here.

And on Wed 19 September…

Now is Good  – Dakota Fanning plays a terminal Leukemia sufferer who writes her own bucket list, top of which is losing her cherry to handsome neighbour Jeremy Irvine (War Horse). Who could blame here? WordPress has an official blog here.