Independent Cinema for Everyone

Helen Tope reviews First Man, showing at Plymouth Arts Centre until this Thursday (tickets available here).  The challenge in making a film about space travel is how to make it human. Astonishing technical feats; pilots at the peak of mental and physical perfection – excellence may be laudable, but it’s not always watchable. Director Damien Chazelle squares up to this challenge in First Man; a film that gets to the heart of the Space Race. Here we find not just brilliance, but courage and fallibility.  It is a beautifully balanced piece of work, detailing just what it took to put Man ... Continue Reading

Helen Tope reviews The Happy Prince, showing at Plymouth Arts Centre until this Thursday (tickets available here).  Oscar Wilde is a gift for film-makers – vivacious, charming and always ready with a one-liner, he could have been created for cinema. The story of his life – a meteoric rise to fame, followed by a catastrophic fall from grace – is the stuff of legend. This is also the problem for any film-maker in approaching the story – it has all been told before. In his directorial debut, actor Rupert Everett takes the Wilde story and refocuses it. Moving away from the ... Continue Reading

Helen Tope reviews The Wife, showing at Plymouth Arts Centre until this Thursday (limited tickets available here).  Based on the novel by Meg Wolitzer, The Wife tells the story of Joe and Joan Castleman. Joe, a writer of international standing, has been notified that he was won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The film sees the couple travel to Sweden for the ceremony. Pursued by would-be biographer, Nathaniel Bone, he befriends a lonely and isolated Joan. They talk freely. Nathaniel mentions that in his research on Joe’s work, he has found Joan’s creative writing from her university days. Bearing a ... Continue Reading

Helen Tope reviews Cold War, showing at Plymouth Arts Centre until this Thursday (tickets available here).  Against the backdrop of communist Poland, Cold War is a love story that travels across Europe, going behind and beyond the Iron Curtain. Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski (Ida, The Woman in the Fifth), Cold War takes its inspiration from a source close to home. Based loosely on his parents’ lives, Pawel describes them as “strong, wonderful people, but as a couple, a never-ending disaster”. We meet this disaster in Poland, 1949. The newly-formed communist government wants to connect with the country’s rural population. Someone has ... Continue Reading

Helen Tope reviews The Children Act, showing this week at Plymouth Arts Centre (all performances are sold out).  A portrait of inner life, Ian McEwan’s novel The Children Act shouldn’t translate onto film, but with previous form such as Enduring Love and Atonement, McEwan’s dark, acerbic vision lends itself all too readily to the big screen. Telling the story of High Court Judge Fiona Maye (played by Emma Thompson), we meet the woman behind the establishment. Fiona’s home life is held hostage by her long hours and crushing workload. The demands placed on her seem entirely unreasonable, until you see her ... Continue Reading

There is no easy way to introduce The Shape of Water. A love story between a woman and a mythical sea creature, this film announces its oddity right from the start. The pet project of director Guillermo del Toro, this film has taken years to make. Not least, one imagines, because starting a pitch to investors with “There’s this man-fish...” is not the quickest sell. But, as is sometimes the way with film-making, it is the oddity that creates a moment of rare magic. The winner of four Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture, The Shape of Water is a film ... Continue Reading

Helen Tope reviews Redoubtable, showing in our cinema from 15th - 21st June. Telling the story of the ultimate modern auteur, Redoubtable takes us into the life of Jean-Luc Godard. Set across 1960’s Europe, the film is achingly stylish. The clothes, the interiors; you will want them all. But behind the tinted specs, Godard’s world is in crisis. As a young film-maker, Jean-Luc Godard was at the forefront of New Wave cinema. The movement, categorised by a free editing style and fresh directorial voices; Godard found success not only in Europe, but internationally. The anti-Hollywood approach taken by up the New ... Continue Reading