Lexi Cinema London

“There’s much to enjoy in The Reluctant Fundamentalist:  fine photography, juicy supporting turns from Kiefer Sutherland and Om Puri, and a powerfully sustained sense of a man adrift in a world going mad.” Tom Huddleston, Time Out

From award-winning director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), and based on the acclaimed novel by Moshin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist leads us on a chase through the contrasting  worlds of New York, Lahore and Istanbul to explore prejudice and the phenomenon of globalisation. Benefiting from a strong cast – Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber – this is timely, intelligent and compelling viewing.

Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed) is a young Pakistani professor, with the world at his feet. Educated at Princeton and working as a successful business analyst on Wall Street, his future changes abruptly after the events of 9/11.  The alienation and suspicion he suddenly experiences drive him back to Lahore. There it is not long before his charisma and intelligence attract attention, from both the Pakistani students who revere him, and the American government which suspects him.

Expect the same radical re-think of “classic” that Baz Luhrmann brought to Romeo + Juliet! This pearl of a book – but a novella, really – may never be the same…

With signature bravura soundtrack and staging to put Busby Berkley to shame, Luhrmann’s style is well met in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s brittle depiction of excess and vapidity during the Roaring Twenties.  Arguably eclipsing Robert Redford’s portrayal in the 1974 version, Leonardo DiCaprio as the maverick millionaire Jay Gatsby is inspired casting.  Add to that Carey Mulligan (An Education, Drive) as Daisy, Gatsby’s unobtainable love interest; Joel Edgerton (Zero Dark Thirty) as her philandering husband; and Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man) as Nick Carraway, the impressionable writer who witnesses the destructive unravelling of a world, and you have the makings of a film as durable as the Fitzgerald original.

Just to remind you of why you may still want to (re)read the book:  ”They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures, then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness…”

Watch this space for details of a special Lexi Mint Julep evening…

“Tobias Lindholm’s superb [film] actually grows more chillingly subdued as its nightmare scenario unfolds.” Variety

From the BAFTA winning writer Tobias Lindholm (Borgen, The Hunt) this is a visceral thriller that explores the extremes of experience and the ethics of putting a price on human life.  

When a Danish freight ship is over-run by Somali pirates the CEO brings in a hijack specialist to advise, hoping to resolve the situation quickly.  He is overwhelmed to learn that a quick offer of settlement would be seen as a show of weakness by the pirates, and that he must play a canny waiting game while people around him go to pieces.  Filmed in an almost documentary style on a ship that was itself actually involved in a hijack, the story keeps a tight and intimate focus on the three main characters as the psychological tension ramps up…

This is fascinating, gripping and intelligent drama.  Fans of Scandi drama will recognise Pilou Asbæk (the ship’s cook) and Soren Malling (the CEO of the shipping company) from Borgen and The Killing. Skip that sub-standard Arne Dahl on BBC4 at the moment; this is the real deal!