It’s the weekend again, and that means Film Focus. Here’s Mike Laidman with what’s new in local theaters.
This week, let’s get right into it. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out, and you should go see it.

As well, Love Actually is back in theatres after a 12-year hiatus. Many people watch this every year at Christmas, so you might as well check it out the big screen and feel some nostalgia.


[Slug CG]
Mike Laidman

Welcome to another edition of Film Focus. I’m Mike Laidman.

[Slug CG]
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015, J.J. Abrams)
The Star Wars saga continues with the seventh installment of the story.

There’s no denying that there was great worry that this new film might not be able to match the original series. But with director J.J. Abrams at the helm, things are, at long last, right with the Force.

Episode VII picks up a number of years after the events in Episode VI. While the Empire has fallen, the sinister First Order has risen in its place. And instead of the Rebellion, we have the Resistance. There’s no denying that everything feels very familiar, but at the same time, different and exciting. We have a host of new characters, and a number of older faces joining us once again after 30 years.

The set pieces are beautiful, the effects wonderful, and the drama, superb. There isn’t much more to say that you likely haven’t already heard. All I can say is, The Force Awakens is very worthy of your time.


[Slug CG]
Love Actually (2003, Richard Curtis)
Follows the lives of eight very different couples at Christmas.

Love Actually has become a very popular Christmas movie, so there aren’t many around who haven’t seen it yet.

But for those who haven't, it involves more than a dozen main characters, each weaving his or her way into another's heart over the course of one particularly eventful Christmas. There’s a seemingly perfect wedding, a recent widower trying to help his lonely stepson express his true feelings to a classmate, a devoted working mother trying to rekindle the passion of her husband. Then the lonely woman who not-so-secretly pines for a man just a few desks away, who returns her affections but may not be able to dissuade her neuroses. This is all set to the soundtrack of an aging rocker who just wants to cash in, but even he might find a meaningful relationship in the most unlikely of places.