Summer not withstanding, Costa-Gavras' The Ax (Various) – a scathing black comedy of redundancy and revenge – opens November 24th. For those who missed it first time around at the TNZIFF, it's easily one of the year's most bitter and twisted – although the country's record low unemployment rate renders it less than pertinent right now. Later in the season, Vincent Ward's River Queen opens on January 26th; our review is embargoed until then, but without giving away anything, its well-documented production turmoil should not at all be a deterrent in seeing it. Swooping NZ-orientated blockbusters Narnia and Kong needn't get in the way of lesser-known holiday options either: the apparently fantastic Chicken Little and the latest Hayao Miyazaki, Howl's Moving Castle, will both jostle for position come December 22nd. Of the under-the-radar selections screening now: Mysterious Skin (Paramount), a hard-as-nails ordeal; In the Realms of the Unreal (Academy), also from the TNZIFF; Me and My Sister (Penthouse), In Her Shoes-esque going by its description, and with Isabelle Huppert (enough to swing our vote); Gallipoli (Various), the unique retelling of Anzac and Turkish war remembrance; glorious new prints of The Leopard and Dr. Strangelove (Empire); and The Land Has Eyes (Reading), the first ever film made in Fiji by a native. Partly self-financed by director Vilsoni Hereniko, our sources tell us it impressively depicts violence and rape, and is well worth wading through the slosh at Courtenay Central etc. to see.