Award Winning Independent Cinema

In the cinema from 25th Jan - 7th Feb, Helen Tope reviews this week's film, 10 times Oscar-nominated The Favourite. A comedy of manners, The Favourite is smart, elegant and deliciously foul. Director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, Dogtooth) has form in creating absurdist worlds. Taking the formula of the costume drama, and upending it, our perceptions of the past are blown apart in this story. https://youtu.be/SYb-wkehT1g We are witness to the final years of Queen Anne’s court. A monarch in poor health and no heir – she is, despite her status, utterly vulnerable to those on the make. ... Continue Reading

Reviewed here by Helen Tope, Disobedience is showing in our cinema from 12th - 17th January. A film of rare intelligence, Disobedience explores a love affair that threatens to tear a community apart. https://youtu.be/RgoKZ3zORfE Set within an Orthodox Jewish community in North London, the sudden death of community leader Rav Krushka means a change in the ranks. His disciple Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) is the natural choice to be his successor. Krushka’s only child, Ronit (played by Rachel Weisz) is notified of his death, and returns home. A photographer living and working in New York, Ronit has left the Orthodox life behind. Returning ... Continue Reading

Helen Tope reviews Bohemian Rhapsody, showing at Plymouth Arts Centre until this Thursday (limited tickets available here).  On 13 July 1985, rock band Queen took to the stage at Wembley Stadium. Taking part in Live Aid, a benefit concert spearheaded by Bob Geldof, each act was allowed twenty minutes to perform. Everyone used the same set, lights and sound – the only difference would be the music. Freddie Mercury walked out on stage, sat down at the piano and began to play Bohemian Rhapsody. Their 20-minute show has become a marker in the history of rock performance, a feat made all ... Continue Reading

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