Director George Clooney‘s The Boys in the Boat is a gorgeous adaptation of the Depression-era story of a group of poor but scrappy young men who find a slice of glory when they become the USA’s choice to compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It is, to use a well worn cliché, a stand-up-and-cheer tale if ever there was one.

But the primary reason to cheer is the kind of unspoken underlying message within, that this is a sport where it is imperative that everyone in the boat rows as one, in unison and together physically and psychologically. This makes The Boys in the Boat not just enormously entertaining, but also important and relevant to our current world that is more divided, more ripped at the seams, than ever in memory. This movie, based on the 2013 bestseller by Daniel James Brown, assures us that the triumph of the soul is working together, not apart. It is a simple sentiment to be sure, but watching Clooney’s beautifully constructed period piece it is pretty much all you can think about.

Cinematographer Martin Ruhe’s cameras swoon over the finished product once the boat is revealed in a long, slow shot ogling every inch of it. The work of Ruhe (a longtime collaborator of Clooney’s) here overall is sumptuous, employing every possible way to make the spectator sport of it all seem genuinely exciting to watch. The 1936 Olympics is expertly re-created. Two-time Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat’s lovely score avoids the usual beats for this genre and is well matched to what we see on screen. Turner and Robinson are both appealing young actors, giving us all the reason we need to hope they will have a life together.

Producers are Clooney and his Smokehouse partner Grant Heslov. It is a gift for lovers of the kind of movies you thought they just didn’t make anymore.

Acclaimed multi-Oscar winning director Alexander Payne travels back to the 1970s for his eighth film, in which three disparate characters find support in the most unlikely of places. Already nominated for numerous awards this season!

Barton men don’t lie. This is just one of the many rules Professor Hunham (Paul Giamatti) takes much too seriously as he hands out poor grades at an elite boarding school in 1971. As he dismisses the politics that come along with educating the children of people in high places, he’s punished by the headmaster who gives him a most undesirable assignment for the winter break: to stay at the school and supervise the students who are unable to go home.

Hunham resolves to have the students suffer with him, forcing them to start studying next semester’s curriculum ahead of time. Among them, 15-year-old Angus (Dominic Sessa), bright but belligerent, makes a ruckus. Teacher and student become foes, antagonizing one another and tiring themselves out, as Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school cafeteria manager, observes from the sidelines, herself alone after recently losing her son in the Vietnam War. As the petulant pair succumb to the depressing truth that they’ve got little else but each other this holiday season, Professor Hunham starts to soften up and they begin to see themselves in one another.

Giamatti gives a career-high performance as the risible teacher who delights in doling out punishment, while newcomer Sessa makes an immediate name for himself, revealing layers of complexity to his character’s rebellious nature. With The Holdovers, director Alexander Payne (Sideways, Nebraska) makes a delicate point about how a first impression never tells the whole truth and shows that the pains and tragedies that feel specific to us actually make us a lot more alike than unalike.

Alexander Payne will be talking to Neil following the film screening on evening of Tuesday 13th February via a pre-recorded interview. Please book tickets here for the Q&A screening

BAFTA AND OSCAR NOMINATIONS

BAFTA: 7 nominations including Best Film, Best Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Director, Original Screenplay, Casting

OSCARS: 5 nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.