Seaside Special

Germany, 2019, Documentary, 93m, U, Director: Jens Meurer

RT n/a, IMDb 8.2

This “love letter to Britain from Europe” focuses on the End-of-the-Pier variety show in Cromer, as it prepares for its 2019 summer season against the backdrop of Brexit.

“German filmmaker Jens Meurer has had a huge success in his native land with this vivid and richly affectionate anglophile documentary … I can see why” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian.

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Joyland (subtitles)

Pakistan, 2022, Family drama, 126m, 15, Director: Saim Sadiq

RT 98%, IMDb 7.6

The youngest son in a traditional Pakistani family secretly takes a job as a backup dancer in a Bollywood-style burlesque.

Winner Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, & Queer Palme awards.

RT critics consensus (RTCC): “With stunning honesty that’s achingly bittersweet, Joyland tackles gender and sexual fluidity in a repressed patriarchal society with wisps of hopefulness”.

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The Innocent (subtitles)

France, 2022, Comedy / crime drama, 100m, 15, Director: Louis Garrel

RT 98%, IMDb 6.8

Young widower Abel is at his wits’ end when his mother marries a convict. Caught up with suspicions of his new stepfather, he remains unaware of developing feelings for his friend Clemence. Winner Best Original Screenplay & Best Supporting Actress Cesar awards.

RTCC: “Giving heavy material an appealingly light touch, The Innocent is fast-paced fun that’s anchored in palpably honest emotion.”.

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Petite Maman (subtitles)

France, 2021, Drama, 73m, U, Director: Céline Sciamma

RT 97%, IMDb 7.48

A new friendship helps a little girl come to terms with the death of her grandmother.

RTCC: “Small in narrative scope but deeply impactful, Petite Maman is a delicate, powerfully acted meditation on grief”.

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Rififi (subtitles)

Frane, 1955, Thriller, 118m, 12, Director: Jules Dassin.

RT 93%, IMDb 8.1

Four men plan a technically perfect crime, but the human element intervenes …

Winner Cannes Film Festival Best Director award.

RTCC: “Rififi depicts the perfect heist in more ways than one, telling its story so effectively that it essentially provided the template for an entire genre to follow”.

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Squaring The Circle

UK, 2022, Documentary, 101m, 15, Director: Anton Corbijn

RT 91%, IMDb 7.8

Featuring a host of musician interviews and archive footage, the story of the iconic album art design studio which created some of the most distinctive and recognisable album covers of all time.

RTCC: “If it’s nowhere near as distinctive as the groundbreaking work of the studio that inspired it, Squaring the Circle remains an informative primer on The Story of Hipgnosis”.

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Close (subtitles)

Belgium, 2022, Coming of age drama, 104m, 12], Director: Lukas Dhont

RT 91%, IMDb 7.2

Leo and Remi are two thirteen-year-old best friends, whose seemingly unbreakable bond is suddenly torn apart.

Winner Cannes Film Festival Grand Jury Prize.

RTCC: “So moving for a majority of its runtime that not even a manipulative ending can ruin the experience, Close is a tender and powerfully acted look at childhood innocence lost”.

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Quatermas and the Pit

UK, 1967, Sci-fi, 94m, 12, Director: Roy Ward Baker

RT 88%, IMDb 7.0

When a mysterious object is unearthed at a London tube station, famous scientist Bernard Quatermass is called in to divine its origins and explains its strange effect on people. “One of Britain’s finest sci-fi films, based on Nigel Kneale’s masterful script” BFI

RTCC: “The mixture of classic horror and sci-fi blends extraordinarily well — think Edgar Allen Poe meets H.G. Wells, dipped in 1960s psychedelia”.

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The Intouchables (subtitles)

France, 2011, Comedy drama, 112m, 15, Director: Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano

RT 76%, IMDb 8.5

An unlikely friendship develops between a wealthy quadriplegic and his carer, just released from prison. Winner Best Actor Cesar award.

RTCC: “It handles its potentially prickly subject matter with kid gloves, but Intouchables gets by thanks to its strong cast and some remarkably sensitive direction”.

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Fried Green Tomatoes

US, 1991, Drama, 130m, PG, Director: Jon Avnet

RT 76%, IMDb 7.7

A housewife who is unhappy with her life befriends an old lady at a nursing home and is enthralled by the tales she tells of people she used to know.

RTCC: “Fried Green Tomatoes’ tearjerking drama is undeniably manipulative, but in the hands of a skilled cast that includes Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates, it’s also powerfully effective”.

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Electra Glide in Blue

US, 1973, Crime drama, 114m, PG, Director: James William Guercio

RT 64%, IMDb 6.9

A police officer assigned to patrol the Arizona desert by motorcycle hopes to break out of his rookie status and join the homicide department.

“One of the outstanding movies from the cycle of edgy police thrillers thrown up by the Vietnam war and the civil unrest of the early Sixties … a witty, ambivalent riposte to Easy Rider” Philip French, Observer.

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