Award Winning Independent Cinema

Our reviewer Helen Tope revisits Hitchcock's classic. Sitting in Alfred Hitchcock’s creative high-point, Rear Window is a textbook thriller. While it doesn’t have the psychosexual drama of Vertigo, Rear Window (released in 1954) treads tonally between the rooftop capers of To Catch a Thief and the nail-shredding tension of North by Northwest. In Hitchcock pitching it here, Rear Window raises the cinematic game of cat and mouse to extraordinary heights.  Hitchcock’s scene-setting begins wordlessly. We are in a Greenwich Village apartment; it is high summer New York. The camera pans to a thermometer pushing 90, moving across to ... Continue Reading

Regular blog contributor Helen Tope had the chance to watch A Beautiful day in the Neighborhood in our cinema before our temporary closure had to be enforced. Our cinema might be closed, but we're keeping our blog alive with film reviews and cinema related articles! Will you be my neighbour? This was the question put to American children, every day, for 30 years. Television host Fred Rogers created a children’s show completely different to anything that had come before. Airing in 1968, the show took Rogers’ gentle moral guidance as its framework, adding an element of fun with songs, puppets and model ... Continue Reading

Helen Tope reviews Emma, showing in our cinema from Friday 13th to Thursday 19th March. Advance booking recommended. Rich, clever and handsome, Emma Woodhouse is Jane Austen’s most challenging heroine. Indulged by her father, and the social lynchpin of her town, Highbury, Miss Woodhouse is – safe to say – living her best life. In her feature debut, director Autumn de Wilde takes a classic approach to retelling Emma’s story. Enabled by a script from novelist Eleanor Catton, this Emma is the most recognisably true to form since Douglas McGrath’s 1996 film, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Played by Anya Taylor-Joy, this Emma ... Continue Reading

Helen Tope reviews The Lighthouse, showing in our cinema for one last screening on Wednesday 4th March [only a few tickets left]. A comedy in the deepest shade of black, The Lighthouse is Robert Eggers’ follow-up to cult favourite, The Witch. Borrowing from the Edgar Allan Poe story, director and screenwriter Robert Eggers, along with his brother Max, draw on influences as diverse as classic horror and American Gothic. Set in the 1890’s, the film tells the story of lighthouse keeper Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe), as he is joined by new recruit, Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson). As an experienced New England ... Continue Reading

Helen Tope reviews Parasite, showing in our cinema until Thursday 5th March [SOLD OUT]. Sharp, funny and beautifully observed, Parasite was the surprise winner at this year’s Oscars. Directed by Bong Joon Ho, Parasite – a part-comedy / part-thriller -  has transitioned into the mainstream, and the implications for cinema – for audiences and film-makers alike – are huge. Bong Joon Ho gives us a portrayal of contemporary Korean society that is Dickensian in its intricacy. We meet the Kim family, underemployed and unambitious, living in virtual squalor. Mum, Dad and two siblings jostle for space (and free Wi-Fi) in the ... Continue Reading

Helen Tope reviews Jojo Rabbit, showing in our cinema until Thursday 6th February. A perfect satire on the cost of war, Jojo Rabbit tells the story of World War II from the perspective of a 10-year-old boy. Jojo (played by Roman Griffin Davis) lives with his mother, Rosie (Scarlet Johansson) – his father is still fighting in the war, and Jojo hopes it is a war that Germany will win. Soaking up nationalist ideas like a sponge, Jojo has no doubt that he is on the right side of history. His mother, who forms part of the resistance, tries to ... Continue Reading