Up In The Air
Keywords: Home, travelling, meaning, purpose, relationships

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) has an unusual job: he flies around America firing people on behalf of their employers. Equipped with motivational anecdotes, a winning smile and a pamphlet purported to contain ‘all the answers you’re looking for’, he is confident that he makes the experience bearable, even dignified.

One might wonder what attracts a person to this role. Ryan doesn’t do it out of spite or goodwill; he does it for the miles. He wants to become the seventh person ever to reach ten million frequent flyer miles. Ryan also wants to continue meeting frequent flyer Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga), the female version of himself.

His goal is put in jeopardy when his boss, Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman), is won over by Natalie Keener’s (Anna Kendrick) idea of sacking people over the internet rather than in person. Ryan is adamant that Natalie knows nothing about firing people, so Craig shrewdly insists that whilst the necessary preparations for Glocal (the name given to Natalie’s concept) are being made, Ryan should show her how it’s done.

As Ryan and Natalie travel together, making people redundant as they go, they build a friendship. Ryan thought he was completely content with his life, but Natalie and Alex make him question his goals and long for deeper relationships.

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The Informant!
Keywords: Lies, greed, fraud, mental health

By the time we finish breakfast, most of us have eaten something made from corn, and not just if we've feasted on the humble corn flake. Corn-derivatives are in orange juice, cereals, syrups and most other parts of our culinary lives. Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) is very fond of corn. As the president of the BioProducts division of ADM - a giant in the corn industry - he was one of the biggest executives in the business. But he also uncovered an industry-wide price-fixing cartel, with ADM at the centre. Persuaded by his wife (Melanie Lynskey) to do the right thing, Whitacre tells the FBI all about ADM's fraudulent activities. That's when everything begins to unravel for Mark.

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The Hurt Locker
Keywords: Fear, courage, significance, war, obsession, addiction

As the war in Iraq continues, we're growing used to thought-provoking films about the conflict. But The Hurt Locker does not tackle the broad issues of the war. Instead, it zooms in on a group of men with perhaps the most dangerous task of all, defusing improvised explosive devices (IEDs). These have been the hallmark of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, set up by local fighters aiming to disrupt American and other forces. Director Kathryn Bigelow immerses us in this deadly environment, where each day could be a soldier's last. She doesn't comment on the rights or wrongs of the conflict or give us a large-scale view of its progress, but shows us the near-narcotic effect of war on this small group of soldiers.

Avatar

Keywords: Empathy, incarnation, greed, environment, colonialism

In a future where the human race has set off into space in search of new worlds to plunder, a paraplegic marine called Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is posted to the forest moon Pandora. Here the natives, the tall blue-skinned Na’vi, have long resisted the miners trying to plunder their home for the valuable mineral Unobtainium. Jake joins a team of scientists led by the tough Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) on an unusual mission. Inhabiting an artificially-grown alien body or ‘Avatar’, he must go among the Na’vi, learn their ways, and win their trust.

Under secret orders from Colonel Quaritch (Sam Lang) to manipulate the Na’vi into leaving their home, Jake is determined at first simply to get the job done. But as he immerses himself in his new life, he begins to fall in love - with his Avatar body, with the Na’vi way of life, and with chieftain’s daughter Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). As tensions escalate between invaders and natives, Jake must decide once and for all where his loyalties lie.

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Precious

Keywords: self worth, abuse, redemption, community, transcendence

Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-yearold African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her
absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write.
Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her.
Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. Precious doesn’t know the meaning of “alternative,” but her instincts tell her this is the chance she has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.

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The Blind Side

Keywords: homelessness, compassion, talent, family, acceptance

Teenager Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is surviving on his own, virtually homeless, when he is spotted on the street by Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock). Learning that the young man is one of her daughter’s
classmates, Leigh Anne insists that Michael—wearing shorts and a t-shirt in the dead of winter—come out of the cold. Without a moment’s hesitation, she invites him to stay at the Tuohy home for the night.
What starts out as a gesture of kindness becomes much more as Michael becomes part of the Tuohy family despite the differences and backgrounds.
Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. And as the family helps Michael fulfill his potential, both on and off the football field, Michael’s presence in
the Tuohys’ lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own.

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Bright Star

Keywords: communication, romance, redemption

London 1818: a secret love affair begins between 23-year-old English poet, John Keats, and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student of fashion. This unlikely pair started at odds; he thinking her a stylish minx, she unimpressed by literature in general. It was the illness of Keats’ younger brother that drew them together. Keats was touched by Fanny’s efforts to help and agreed to teach her poetry. By the time Fanny’s alarmed mother and Keats’ best friend Brown realised their attachment, the relationship had an unstoppable momentum.
Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers were swept into powerful new sensations. “I have the feeling as if I were dissolving”, Keats wrote to her. Together they rode a wave of romantic obsession that deepened as their troubles mounted. Only Keats’ illness proved insurmountable.

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How to Train Your Dragon

Keywords: Expectations, relationships, adventure, calling, changing misconceptions

From the studio that brought you Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda comes How To Train Your Dragon. Set in the mythical world of burly Vikings and wild dragons, and based on the book by Cressida Cowell, the action comedy tells the story of Hiccup, a Viking teenager who doesn’t exactly fit in with his tribe’s longstanding tradition of heroic dragon slayers.

Hiccup’s world is turned upside down when he encounters a dragon that challenges he and his fellow Vikings to see the world from an entirely different point of view.

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District 9

Keywords: Aliens, humanity, compassion, cruelty, refugees, justice, reality, secrets, selfishness

South Africa is now home to thousands of alien refugees. Their ship was accidentally marooned over Johannesburg 28 years ago. For partly humanitarian but mainly selfish reasons, the government decided to keep them here and to segregate them in a township called District 9. The area is policed by a private corporation called Multi-National United (MNU), whose chief interest is discovering how their weapons work.

Due to public anxiety, MNU decide to move the aliens to another facility. Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), an MNU bureaucrat, is put in charge of this operation. Whilst distributing eviction notices to the aliens, he is contaminated by a chemical that begins to change his DNA. As Wikus mutates into someone who can activate alien weapons, he becomes the most wanted man in the world and is forced to seek refuge in
District 9.

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Wendy and Lucy

Keywords: Poverty, dignity, compassion, love, sacrifice

Wendy and Lucy is a quiet, sparse film about a woman whose life is teetering on the edge of disaster. It follows Wendy, played with heartbreaking vulnerability by Michelle Williams, as she attempts to travel north to find work in the Alaska fish canneries with nothing to her name but a car, a dog called Lucy and just enough money to complete the journey. When her car breaks down in Oregon, Wendy attempts to steal a few cans of dog food and is caught in the act. Taken into custody, she has to leave Lucy tied up outside the supermarket and on her return, having been forced to pay a $50 fine which she cannot afford, she finds that the dog has disappeared.

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Up

Keywords: Adventure, dreams, fulfilment, love, grief, friendship, self-centredness, relationships

As a boy, Carl Fredricksen (voice of Ed Asner) longed for adventure and idolised the world explorer Charles Muntz (voiced by Christopher Plummer). When he met and fell in love with a fellow adventurer, Ellie (voice of Elie Docter), he made her a promise: one day they would follow in Muntz’s footsteps and travel to South America to live at Paradise Falls. They have a long and happy marriage, but Ellie dies without ever making it to her dream destination. As a widowed senior citizen with a dodgy back and dentures, Carl longs only to live an undisturbed life. Until one day when he is forced to move out of his home and into a retirement community, and decides to do something radical. He attaches thousands of helium balloons to his house, intending to fly it south.

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