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The Worst Person in the World

Sunday 3rd April 2022 – 5.30pm showing

Director: Joachim Trier

Certificate: 15

Time: 2hrs 8mins (Norwegian with subtitles)

Billed as a smart rom-com, Norwegian Director Joachim Trier has created a film in which there is plenty of the former but not so much of the latter. At the risk of giving away the plot one could even suggest that it veers into Love Story territory but with minimal sentimentality.

On the cusp of turning 30 Julie (Renate Reinsve), the subject of the film’s title, is struggling to find her metier. After an initial spell as a medical student, she turns to psychology before aspirations as a professional photographer grab her attention. She is equally fickle with her relationships, embarking on an intense affair with fellow drifter Eivind (Herbert Nordrum) whilst her older boyfriend (Anders Danielsen Lie) is talking about starting a family.

Told in 12 loose “Chapters”, rather like its main character the film initially struggles to find its voice until a series of emotional punches grab the attention. Extra gravitas is gained by how closely it mirrors the messiness of life. The Worst Person in the World is not an easy watch, but you’ll find yourself talking about it long after the credits roll.

Patrons: 6

Rating: 4/5

©Mark Brennand

#theworstpersonintheworld

The Duke

Sunday 27th February 2022 – 6.00pm showing

Director: Roger Michell

Certificate: 12

Time: 1hr 36 mins

Sixty-one years ago Francisco de Goya’s portrait of The Duke of Wellington was stolen from the National Portrait Gallery, the first such theft in its 137 year history. Initially thought to be the work of an international crime syndicate The Duke is the “true life” depiction of a more prosaic yet at the same time remarkable story.

Roger Michell’s film spends the first two thirds of its running time setting the scene in a deprived Newcastle upon Tyne community. Kempton Bunton, delightfully played by Jim Broadbent, is an itinerant taxi driver and local campaigner whose frequent scrapes with the law are a constant aggravation to his long-suffering wife Dorothy (Helen Mirren). Much of this pre-amble, including the motivation for the theft – to raise money for free television licences for pensioners - is rather mundane and it is only when the girlfriend of one of Kempton’s sons discovers the stolen work that things start to get going.

Concerned that his cover might be blown Kempton returns the painting and in so doing confesses to the crime. The subsequent trial at the Old Bailey is a complete delight, both funny and heart-warming in equal measure and sends one away with a pleasing glow.

Truth, as they say, can be stranger than fiction. The Duke is one such story.

Patrons: 13

Rating: 3/5

©Mark Brennand

Marriage Story

Sunday 9th March 2020 – 5.10pm showing

Director: Noah Baumbach Certificate:15 Time: 2hrs 17 mins

Before Marriage Story, the standard against which films on marital breakdown were judged was Kramer v Kramer the1979 blockbuster which earned Oscars for both Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman. Back then the subject of divorce remained off limits which probably explained its ground breaking infamy. That, and the fact that it was also incredibly moving.

In Marriage Story director Noah Baumbach mines a similar seam, a successful professional couple fighting for custody of their only child. Here the couple in question are played by Adam Driver as a New York Theatre Director and Scarlett Johansson his actress wife. Both are thoroughly convincing as responsible adults wishing to remain on amicable terms through what they recognise will be a difficult process. It is only when the lawyers get involved that the facade crumbles as the film turns into a brutal dissection of a marriage.

That this should play out over much of the film’s 137 minutes, is daining. But I didn’t cry. For all the plausibility it lacks an emotional punch.

Patrons: 19

Rating: 4/5

©Mark Brennand

Emma

Tuesday 25th February 2020 – 7.50pm showing

Director: Autumn de Wilde Certificate: U Time: 2hrs 5 mins

Jane Austen’s 1815 novel has seen countless adaptations perhaps the most successful being Amy Heckerling’s 1995 High School version, Clueless. Like that version one might think that a music video veteran such as Autumn de Wilde might opt for a similarly unconventional approach. But not a bit of it, the ravishing period costumes only matched by the beauty of the Regency interiors in which this film is set.

The tale too is well told though it takes some time to hit its stride. Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a spoilt heiress who dispels the ennui of her life by match making for others, all the while blind to the approach of the dashing Mr Knightly (Johnny Flynn). Taylor Joy’s evocation of her character’s mean spirited nature is a source of both antipathy and humour, the hapless Miss Bates (Miranda Hart) being the occasional butt of her sharp tongue.

It is only when it dawns on Emma that her scheming may backfire that the film’s emotional resonance begins to take hold. The dance scene with Mr Knightly offers a tender moment and from that point on the miss-steps and chemistry between the two, take us on to a much sought happy ending.

Patrons: 16

Rating: 4/5

©Mark Brennand

Bombshell

Tuesday 11th February 2020 – 5.30pm showing

Director: Jay Roach Certificate: 15 Time: 1hr 49 mins

For Bombshell, the tale of the takedown of Fox News mogul Roger Ailes, its current airing in the UK – during the trial of Harvey Weinstein - could not be better timed. Like Weinstein, Ailes was a powerful figure in the enticing world of entertainment albeit the more serious arena of television news. And like Weinstein he could make or break a woman’s career on whether or not they consented to his sexual demands (allegedly in the case of Weinstein).

But what this fascinating film also highlights is the contradiction at its heart. Bombshell’s protagonists are women who willingly worked for an organisation that institutionally harassed them. All owed their careers – and sizeable pay packets – to Ailes such that when Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) decides to blow the whistle, the support she receives from her female colleagues is scant.

The star of the film is Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) who encapsulates the Faustian pact which the women at Fox had to make. A powerful presence in her own right, yet cowed by the knowledge that were she to blow the whistle, her career and position would be in tatters. The end when it arrives is a little too pat. The Murdoch’s, who owned Fox News, are portrayed in an overly favourable light. But this is still a salutary tale of how abuse, unchecked, can become an accepted form of life.

Patrons: 5

Rating: 4/5

©Mark Brennand

The Personal History of David Copperfield

Sunday 3rd February 2020 – 8pm showing

Director: Armando Iannucci Certificate: PG Time: 1hr 59 mins

There is no doubting that Armando Iannucci’s take on David Copperfield is nothing if not inventive. Starring Dev Patel as the story’s hero together with Tilda Swinton as Betsey Trotwood, Hugh Laurie as the eccentric Mr Dick, Peter Capaldi as the hapless Mr Micawber and Ben Whishaw, the fawning Uriah Heep, the cream of British acting clearly enjoyed this new interpretation of the Dickens’ classic.

Furthermore in allowing for the tale to be told in just under two hours, the film gambols along at a brisk pace. But whilst this could be considered a positive, it also has its limitations, emotional attachment and a sense of melodrama the biggest casualties.

Still, if you enjoy watching fine actors in a classic Dickens tale, this is for you.

Patrons: 9

Rating: 3/5

©Mark Brennand

Little Women

Sunday 12th January 2020 – 7.45pm showing

Director: Greta Gerwig Certificate: U Time: 2hrs 15 mins

The novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott has been adapted for cinema on numerous occasions though I have seen none making this outing my first exposure to it. Greta Gerwig’s interpretation, which she both wrote and directed, has been lauded as the definitive piece. Whilst it is certainly good I would temper the plaudits.

The book charts the lives and dreams of the four March sisters; headstrong Jo (Saoirse Ronan), thoughtful Meg (Emma Watson), hot headed Amy (Florence Pugh) and delicate Beth (Eliza Scanlen) growing up in genteel poverty in Civil War Massachusetts. By starting towards the end of the book and flashing back Gerwig’s aim was to enhance the poignancy of unfulfilled childhood dreams, and particularly for women growing up in 19th century America.

There are certainly moments of poignancy in that narrative and also in the girl’s relationship with Laurie (Timothee Chalamet) the beloved boy next door. But with the same actresses playing the women young and old the flashbacks only serve to confuse. And their relatively privileged status inhibits the impact when things don’t go their way. As a consequence it’s an enjoyable tale rather than a classic.

Patrons: 35

Rating: 3/5

©Mark Brennand

Knives Out

Sunday 15th December 2019 – 8pm showing

Director: Rian Johnson Certificate: 12a Time: 2hrs 10 mins

Of late the whodunit as a film genre has fallen from grace. Interesting then that it should find Rian Johnson, a director more known for his work on the Star Wars franchise, resurrecting its reputation with this hoot of a film.

Suffice to say that Knives Out contains all the elements of an Agatha Christie film adaptation with Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc the Hercule Poirot of the piece. He has been mysteriously hired to solve the murder of Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) a wealthy author surrounded by avaricious relatives each with a motive for committing the crime.

Though convoluted the plot is kept on track with a fast paced yet clear narrative which succeeds in treading the fine line between hamming it up and intrigue. In these cynical times Knives Out offers up a suitably innocent counterpoint.

Patrons: 26

Rating: 4/5

©Mark Brennand

Le Mans ‘66

Sunday 8th December 2019 – 7.45pm showing

Director: James Mangold Certificate: 12a Time: 2hrs 32 mins

If you are a fan of motor racing and more specifically the Le Mans 24 Hour Race you will know of the iconic Ford GT 40 and its triumphant phase from 1966 – 70. Lesser known is the story of how the world’s largest volume car company turned its attention to motor racing, took on Ferrari, and won. Le Mans ’66 tells that enthralling story.

Ken Miles played with suitable brio and a convincing Brummie accent by Christian Bale was California based race car engineer and driver of considerable talent. Perverse and often difficult he was however well respected by one time Le Mans champion Caroll Shelby (Matt Damon). When Ford knock on Shelby’s door with the challenge to build them a car capable of winning Le Mans, it is to Ken Miles that Shelby turns.

There’s just one problem. The suits in the Ford hierarchy neither trust nor approve of Miles and it is this antipathy that forms the narrative arc of the tale. At 2 hrs and 31 minutes long the film has the potential to drag but director James Mangold’s race scenes ensure that never happens. Furthermore Damon and Bale are well cast as kindred spirits negotiating the greasy pole politics of the corporate world. Le Mans ‘66 is an adrenaline rush ride which also tugs at the soul.

Patrons: 12

Rating: 4/5

©Mark Brennand

Mrs Lowry & Son

Thursday 5th September 2019 – 6pm showing

Director: Adrian Noble Certificate: PG Time: 1hr 31 mins

Adapted from a radio play Mrs Lowry & Son is constrained for the most part in a single bedroom in the Lancashire town of Pendlebury. Here Vanessa Redgrave plays the mother of L.S Lowry the artist renowned for his paintings of life in the industrial north of England.

Bedridden and miserable she spends her time lamenting her loss of status and ridiculing the efforts of her son (Timothy Spall) to make it as a painter. And as maternal monsters go Redgrave does a tremendous job. Spall is equally good as the doting yet emotionally manipulated son one minute smirking at her overly protective nagging the next breaking down in rage at her hateful comments concerning his work.

This is not a film to set the pulse racing and at times the dreary nature of daily life and the conversations between mother and son come close to inducing lassitude. However so awful are the dreadful put downs that one is constantly rooting for the son who, as we know, finally succeeds despite the best efforts of his mother to undermine him.

Patrons: 12

Rating: 3/5

©Mark Brennand

Apollo 11

Monday 5th August 2019 – 8.20pm showing

Director: Todd Douglas Miller Certificate: U Time: 1hr 33 mins

Fifty years in the making and featuring never before seen footage this beautifully photographed film encapsulates the daring do of Apollo 11’s giant leap for mankind mission.

Everybody knows the outcome but it is the unknown quantities that provide the film with its tension. With less than an hour to go before lift- off, technicians are attempting to stem a leak of gas by tightening bolts. In the control room sit row upon row of predominantly white male technicians analysing the banks of crude computers in front of them. Whilst on the highways and beaches within sight of the launch pad sightseers gather to witness history being made, a noisy helicopter recording their gathering for posterity.

The take off is spectacular the crackling noise of the Saturn Five rocket unmistakable as it rises high into a clear blue sky. At every stage there is danger. Will they land the LEM safely on the moon? ...they do but with only 18 seconds of fuel to spare. Will they take off safely from the moon? Will they reconnect with Michael Collins in the circling command module? Will they get back to earth? Will they survive re-entry? All these hurdles are superbly portrayed providing further insight into a remarkable mission.

A giant leap for mankind it most certainly was.

Patrons: 13

Rating: 4/5

©Mark Brennand

Diego Maradona

Sunday 16th June 2019 – 5.30pm showing

Director: Asif Kapadia Certificate:12a Time: 2 hrs 7mins

The third full length documentary feature film by Asif Kapadia differs from the previous two (Senna and the Oscar winning Amy) in one distinctive feature. His subject Diego Maradona is still alive, though quite how is one of the more fascinating elements of this excellent film. For behind the façade of the world’s most gifted and infamous footballer was a man trapped in a goldfish bowl, a bowl, from which there was only ever going to be a messy ejection.

Constructed out of 500 hours of unseen footage from Maradona’s personal archive Kapadia concentrates on his subject’s two greatest achievements. Winning the 1986 World Cup, virtually single handed and then taking Napoli, an unfashionable club with a team of no hopers, to the pinnacle of Serie A. The result, as Claudia his long suffering girlfriend refrains, “was that he became a God”. Shawn of a hinterland to keep things firmly grounded he fell in hock to the mafia, slept around - siring children whom he would disown - and became addicted to cocaine. In the semi final of the 1990 World Cup v the hosts Italy the game was played in front of his adoring fans in Naples. It was Maradona’s penalty that knocked the hosts out and in that moment he went from God to pariah. Retribution was swift and harsh and before the year was out he had left for Spain where he would only play a further 60 league games.

If you appreciate football then you will revel in the footage of what was clearly a genius. But you will also appreciate Kapadia’s superb narrative, contrasting Diego, the shy boy from a Buenos Aires slum with the ability to raise the beautiful game to supreme heights with the hard bitten and morally suspect Maradona, capable of the Hand of God.

Patrons: 6

Rating: 5/5

©Mark Brennand

Rocketman

Director: Dexter Fletcher Certificate:15 Time: 2 hrs 1min

Director Dexter Fletcher said of the Freddie Mercury Biopic Bohemian Rhapsody – where he was brought in at the last moment – that he’d wished it had been grittier. With Rocketman, the story of how a pudgy boy from Pinner called Reggie Dwight became the international rock star Elton John – a brilliant Taron Egerton - he has had his way.

Jointly produced by Elton and husband David Furnish you might anticipate a rose tinted portrayal glossing over the drugs, the promiscuity and the famous hissy fits that have come to characterise much of Elton John’s life. That however is not that case. Framed around an AA Meeting the story is told through flashbacks beginning with Elton’s less than happy childhood trying to win the affection of a repressed father and a disinterested mother.

But it is the meeting with lyricist Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell) that transforms both their lives and from that point on the film takes on a rather bonkers form interspersing the brilliant tunes from his back catalogue with surreal moments from various live performances. At times the litany of woes does start to drag but overall this is a thoroughly entertaining portrayal of a rather remarkable life.

Patrons: 25

Rating: 3/5

©Mark Brennand

Green Book

Friday 15th March 2019 – 8.10pm showing

Director: Peter Farrelly Certificate:12a Time: 2 hrs 10 mins

Winner of this year’s Best Film Oscar Green Book, is a feel good buddy movie that goes a bit heavy on the syrup. It is based on the real life recollections of Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortenson), a New York bouncer who takes on a job as driver for Dr Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) a noted black concert pianist. It is 1962 and Shirley is booked to undertake a tour of America’s Deep South where segregation still prevails.

The Green Book of the title was a guide for black Americans detailing safe places for them to stay whilst travelling in the south. The initial set up is hackneyed placing Vallelonga and Shirley at opposite ends of the spectrum. The former is crass and bigoted the latter intelligent yet reserved. But over time, and with the help of a series of clichés, each comes to respect the others position.

Whilst there are moments when it’s just gets a little too pat, both Mortenson and Ali are thoroughly convincing. And one can always fall back on the discrimination, to raise the ire. By story’s end you know you have been manipulated. But it was fun all the same.

Patrons: 20

Rating: 3/5

©Mark Brennand

If Beale Street Could Talk

Tuesday 27th February 2019 – 5.30pm showing

Director: Barry Jenkins Certificate: 15 Time: 1 hr 59 mins

Moonlight, Barry Jenkins’ Oscar winning picture of a gay African American man growing up in the drug dealing world of a tough Miami neighbourhood was a moving evocation of a conflicted soul. His follow up If Beale Street Could Talk again centres on the lives of African Americans but this time within the confines of a stable, loving family unit. The conflict here is racism and the noble way in which those who felt its force dealt with it.

Set in 1970’s New York the story, based on the novel by James Baldwin, follows Fonny (Stephan James) and Tish (KiKi Layne) childhood sweethearts who fall in love. When Fonny is wrongly accused of rape, the pair are physically separated. Yet such is the depth of their love that they remain as one emotionally.

Apart from a lively early scene when Tish must tell Fonny’s pious mother that she is pregnant with her son’s child, this is a turgid film. The dialogue is dull and the love affair too cloying. Furthermore, there is not enough in the narrative to sustain a film of two hours duration.

Yes Fonny, and by implication Tish, were dealt a terrible wrong. But by the end I was so bored that sadly I didn’t really care.

Patrons: 14

Rating: 2/5

©Mark Brennand

Vice

Sunday 17th February 2019 – 2.30pm showing

Director: Adam McKay Certificate: 15 Time: 2 hrs 12 mins

Adam McKay’s previous film, The Big Short, - a knockabout account of how a disparate group of maverick traders made millions by betting against the market ahead of the 2008 crash - worked brilliantly because financial meltdown, whilst bad, is not quite as stark as life and death. His latest outing Vice, employs the same knockabout humour. But with terrorism, regime change and huge loss of life the motif, the satire works less effectively.

The Vice in question is Dick Cheney, convincingly played by Christian Bale, a quiet man who virtually unnoticed, became the most powerful man in America. When 9/11 occurred on the watch of the clueless President Bush (Sam Rockwell), Cheney used this as the pretext for a power grab. Whilst the film charts his rise from a drunken labourer seemingly going nowhere - until a reading of the palm by his ambitious wife Lynne (Amy Adams) - there are significant gaps which leave one to question quite what he had that allowed him to get where he did.

That said the film is a disturbing expose of how a single individual can acquire so much power in a nation where supposed checks and balances are designed to negate it. The humour may at times be misplaced but the message and its dangers, is all too clear.

Patrons: 18

Rating: 3/5

©Mark Brennand

The Favourite

Thursday 24th January 2019 – 8.15pm showing

Director: Yogos Lanthimos Certificate: 15 Time: 1 hr 59 mins

Anyone who has seen Greek Director Yogos Lanthimos’ previous films, such as Dogtooth and The Lobster will know of his penchant for oddity. Given that history one might consider it strange that he should alight upon a conventional period romp for his next project. Whilst you might think that, The Favourite is anything but and in the process Lathimos could well have turned the genre on its head.

Set in the court of Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714, the film explores the changing power dynamics and relationships between three female protagonists; Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail Masham (Emma Stone).

As the film starts it is the Duchess of Marlborough who holds sway. But with the arrival of Abigail Masham, so the dynamic begins to change. Weisz and Stone give excellent performances as the two strong women seeking favour with an unstable Queen. Their barbed insults are only matched by a degree of political scheming of which Machiavelli would have been proud. The star, however, is Colman whose portrayal of Anne is wholly believable one minute an infantile monster the next a needy monarch seeking affection and solace. Add to this a quirky take on 18th Century mores and some stunning cinematography and the result is a memorable film.

Patrons: 48

Rating: 4/5

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