Killer Joe
Finally leaving the naff rom-coms in his dust, Matthew McConaughey has embraced his inner thespian in recent times, turning in a number of strong performances. Here, with the help of William Friedkin (the director of The Exorcist and The French Connection), McConaughey portrays a hired killer employed by a desperate Emile Hirsch who decides to have his mother rubbed out in order to pay off his debts. Touted as “a totally twisted deep fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story”, advance word has been very positive.
Premieres 28 September

THE 25th Helsinki Film Festival will be staged once again in the capital city from 20-30 September. Better known as Love and Anarchy, the festival is an eagerly anticipated event for the city’s cinephiles, with some 180 feature films and 80 short films being screened this year.

Opening proceedings is Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Golden Camera Prize at Cannes. Also the recipient of the FIPRESCI prize, granted by an international jury of film critics, the film has been lauded as a visual masterpiece.

Total Recall

For those who like their films associated with the words “remake”, “reboot” and even “rehash”, along comes a new version of Paul Verhoeven’s seminal 1990 sci-fi classic. Now, along with the Dutch director’s scathing societal appraisal, the Austrian Oak himself Arnold Schwarzenegger leavened the pulpy material with a typically wooden performance littered with trademark one-liners. In their place for this new version is Die Hard 4.0’s Len Wiseman at the helm (also known for the Underworld series) and Irishman Colin Farrell – and, unfortunately, no getting their ass to Mars.

Premiere 31 August

Kicking things off this summer season is the strangely fascinating idea of Tom Cruise acting the cock rock god in the musical Rock of Ages (29.6). The Amazing Spider-Man (6.7) follows the next week with what seems like a hasty reboot of the franchise, however it arrives on the back of some very strong early reviews. Impatiently waiting for this epic conclusion to the Batman trilogy? Well, pencil in 20.7 into your calendar as entering the box office ring populated by troubled men in tights, The Dark Knight Rises at your local multiplex.

ORIGINALLY from Kuopio, the Rubik crew settled in the capital during the early 2000s and now has its training ground at the legendary Helsinki venue, Kulttuuritalo. Made up of four core members, with a group of around 30 other people who have a part in what makes the sound of Rubik to varying extents, the band rose to the attention of this nation of ours during the year 2007 in the wake of their debut album Bad Conscience Patrol.

From the very beginning Rubik was hyped to the extent that could easily put on damaging pressure to starting musicians, but Artturi Taira, the lead man of the group, assures that the band was never affected by the high hopes of the early days.