Trance

MUST SEE: Danny Boyle's Trance (UK, 2013) - “Everyone knows amnesia is bollocks,” snarls one of the thugs in “Trance.” Hypnotism, on the other hand, is fair game in this brash, beyond-belief psychothriller from director Danny Boyle, who seizes on a script co-written by Joe Ahearne and longtime Boyle collaborator John Hodge as a chance to play elaborate mind games with fans of his early work. A trippy variation on the dream-within-a-dream movie, Boyle’s return-to-form crimer constantly challenges what auds think they know, but neglects to establish why they should care. The pic’s flashy style, plus its stark violence and nudity, ought to transfix male genre auds. (VARIETY) / Just what do you do for an encore to the opening night ceremony of the London Olympics? Well, director Danny Boyle - who put James Bond and Mr Bean into the acclaimed opening event entertainment - has opted for a freewheeling London-set psychological heist thriller that twists and turns as it seeks to engage, entertain, confuse and confound its audience with its sheer abundance of style and passion for standing the genre on its head and then twisting it about again for good measure. (SCREEN). 2013HKFF, 2013SXSW. RATING: 8