Award Winning Independent Cinema

The third film from director Eliza Hittman, the film was featured in a Reclaim The Frame event on 14 May. You can watch Mia Bays' interview with Eliza Hittman on our Facebook page. Never Rarely Sometimes Always tells the story of 17-year-old Autumn. Living with her family in Pennsylvania, Autumn suspects she is pregnant. The film begins at Autumn’s school – appearing in a talent show, Autumn (played by Sidney Flanigan) sings and plays the guitar. She is the typical outsider – too different to be read clearly by her classmates. They jeer ... Continue Reading

A daring concept, beautifully presented, The Artist became the cinematic phenomenon of 2011. Working on the idea of a modern silent film, this was a project years in development for director and screenwriter, Michel Hazanavicius. The Artist was initially put on limited release, and soon became a hit with audiences and critics. Winning 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, what could be assumed to be a niche, avant-garde experiment, became a celebration of cinema; the past, its present and the films yet to come. Hazanavicius drops us right into Hollywood’s silent era. We ... Continue Reading

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