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. 

A celebration of the most iconic – and much missed – homegrown star of the 21st century, BACK TO BLACK tells the extraordinary tale of Amy Winehouse. Painting a vivid, vibrant picture of the Camden streets she called home and capturing the struggles of global fame, BACK TO BLACK honours Amy’s artistry, wit, and honesty, as well as trying to understand her demons. An unflinching look at the modern celebrity machine and a powerful tribute to a once-in-a-generation talent. Featuring many of Amy’s hit songs recorded and performed in the film by Marisa Abela, BACK TO BLACK is made with the full support of Universal Music Group and SONY Music Publishing.

In his chilling, oblique study of evil, British director Jonathan Glazer situates the viewer at the centre of frighteningly familiar banality. It’s summer in the mid-1940s, and a German family merrily idles by a river. Father Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and mother Hedwig (Sandra Hüller fresh from her multi-nominated performance in Anatomy of a Fall) tuck their kids in bed at night. They entertain family and guests in their vast backyard garden on the weekends. In the mornings, she oversees chores with a cadre of housekeepers and cooks; he goes to work as head Commandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Their domestic life is paradisiacal. Yet over the wall abutting their home, we can see smokestacks, and at night we hear screams and occasional gunshots. Loosely inspired by the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis, Glazer has created a singular, unsettlingly timeless representation of inhumanity and our capacity for indifference in the face of atrocity, filmed and edited with aptly cold precision and punctuated with an ominous score by Mica Levi.

Screening as the centre-piece for our retrospective of British filmmaker's, Jonathan Glazer, work this month when we are also screening his other films - Sexy Beast starring Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley, Birth with Nicola Kidman and Lauren Bacall, and Under the Skin starring Scarlett Johansson.

BAFTA AND OSCAR NOMINATIONS

BAFTA: 9 nominations including Best British Film, Best Film not in the English Language, Best Supporting Actress, Editing, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Sound, Production Design, Cinematography

OSCARS: 5 nominations including Best Film, International Feature, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Sound

Part Two explores the mythic journey of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he unites with Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee. The all-star ensemble cast consists Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Stephen McKinley Henderson. Austin Butler joins the cast of the film as the notorious Feyd Rautha with Christopher Walken set to portray the Emperor. Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux, and Souheila Yacoub also star.

Dog lives in Manhattan and he’s tired of being alone, so one day he decides to build himself a companion, Robot. Their friendship blossoms, and they become inseparable, together exploring the sights and sounds of 1980s New York. But one summer night, Dog, with great sadness, is forced to abandon Robot at the beach. Will they ever meet again?

Based on the popular graphic novel by Sara Varon, and the first animation from Spanish director Pablo Berger (Blancanieves, Abracadabra), Robot Dreams is a dialogue-free love story about friendship – its importance, meaning and fragility. Wise and wistful, charming and often sharply humorous, with evocative sound design and a lovely soundtrack (including joyous use of Earth, Wind & Fire’s dance-floor filler September), it’s full of nods to silent cinema classics.

GENESIS VISIBLE TOUCH : THE LONGS & SHORTS TOUR 2024 - LIVE ON STAGE

Genesis Visible Touch are the ultimate celebration of Phil Collins-era Genesis!

For their 2024 ‘Longs & Shorts’ tour, GVT are doing exactly that - playing a mixture of Genesis’ longer songs alongside some of their shorter ones, from hits to old classics.

Expect anything from “Follow You Follow Me” to “Dance On A Volcano” with some favourites both old and not so old for good measure!

“The best exponents of Collins-fronted Genesis I’ve seen”

(Nick Davis, Genesis’ producer)

“A ‘must see’ show!”  

(Dave Hutchins, Genesis’ engineer on The Lamb…)

“Genesis fan or not, go see them, you won’t be disappointed!”

(Cardiff Live)

Carmen declares that any man she loves should beware. However, even she is unprepared for what will happen when she decides to seduce Don José, an army corporal who initially appears uninterested in her charms. Don José soon abandons his sweetheart Micaëla and his army job for Carmen, and joins her and her smuggler friends in the mountains. But Carmen quickly wearies of Don José's possessiveness. When she turns her attentions to the dashing toreador Escamillo, Don José's jealousy erupts into violence.

Damiano Michieletto's sizzling new production evokes all the passion and heat of Bizet's score, which features Carmen’s sultry Habanera and the rousing Toreador song. Antonello Manacorda and Emmanuelle Villaume conduct an exciting international cast, with Aigul Akhmetshina and Vasilisa Berzhanskaya sharing the title role.

Cast: Aigul Akhmetshina, Piotr Beczala, Kostas Smoriginas, Blaise Malaba, Sarah Dufresne, Olga Kulchynska,  Gabrielė Kupšytė, Pierre Doyen, Vincent Ordonneau, Grisha Martirosyan

Conductor: Antonello Manacorda

Director: Damiano Michieletto