The Love Of Cinema

Little Joe with Emily Beecham | Picturehouse

Sam Clements talks to Emily Beecham about her role in the new film by director Jessica Hausner, Little Joe. 

Little Joe follows Alice (Emily Beecham), a single mother and dedicated senior plant breeder at a corporation engaged in developing new species. She has engineered a special crimson flower, remarkable not only for its beauty but also for its therapeutic value: if kept at the ideal temperature, fed properly and spoken to regularly, this plant makes its owner happy. Against company policy, Alice takes one home as a gift for her teenage son, Joe. They christen it ‘Little Joe’. But as their plant grows, so too does Alice’s suspicion that her new creation may not be as harmless as its nickname suggests.

Greed with Michael Winterbottom | Picturehouse

Sam Clements talks to director Michael Winterbottom about his new film, Greed. 

Steve Coogan stars in a gleefully grotesque satire about the filthy rich.

Set in the glamorous and celebrity-filled world of luxury fashion, Greed is a fictional story about the rise and fall of a British retail mogul, as seen through the eyes of his biographer (David Mitchell). To save his reputation after a damaging public inquiry, self-made billionaire Sir Richard McCreadie (Coogan) decides to throw a spectacular 60th birthday party on the Greek island of Mykonos. But as the guests arrive in the build-up to the bash, McCreadie’s empire begins to fall apart. 

Cathy Yan on Birds Of Prey | Picturehouse

Felicity Beckett talks to director Cathy Yan about her new film, Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. 

Scene-stealer Margot Robbie stars as DC Comics’ Harley Quinn in an all-female superhero adventure. Since the events of Suicide Squad, Batman has disappeared, leaving Gotham City unprotected from crime, and Harley has left the Joker. When a young girl comes across a diamond belonging to crime lord Black Mask (Ewan McGregor), Harley joins forces with Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya to help protect her. Always dangerously unpredictable, can Harley’s mildly psychotic imagination and her vigilante colleagues win the day?

Parasite | Picturehouse

Sam Clements is joined by cinema programmers Carol McKay and Codie Entwistle to discuss the results of the BAFTAs and Bong Joon-Ho's new film, Parasite. In cinemas now.

A glorious success and box-office hit for Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer, Okja) and already the most successful Palme d'Or winner ever, Parasite is a politically charged cinematic wonder. Described by Bong himself as "a comedy without clowns and a tragedy without villains", the film moves quickly from one tone to another, mixing pathos and satire with thrills and drama. A vertical story of class struggle – punctuated by staircase scenes going from mouldy basements to top floors, from darkness to breezy spaces designed by star architects – Parasite observes and dissects with surgical precision the life of two families of different social backgrounds.

Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) is a good-for-nothing, unemployed family man, patriarch of a family of grifters – his wife Chung-sook (Chang Hyae-jin), his clever twenty-something daughter Ki-jung (Park So-dam), and his son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) – who live in an overcrowded, sordid basement. The Parks, on the other hand, live in a fabulous house with their teenage daughter Da-hye and terribly spoiled son Da-song, who has suffered a childhood trauma that occasionally causes him seizures and strange behaviour. When, due to an unexpected stroke of luck, Ki-woo is hired by the Parks to be the private English tutor of Da-hye, the destinies of the two families cross. Their explosive meeting exposes the merciless evils of class inequalities, culminating in a powerful and utterly original outcome.

The Lighthouse with Robert Eggers | Picturehouse

Sam Clements talks to director Robert Eggers about his new film, The Lighthouse. In cinemas now. 

Acclaimed filmmaker Robert Eggers (The Witch) returns with a hypnotic and hallucinatory tale of two lighthouse keepers clinging onto their sanity on a mysterious New England island in the 1890s. Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) and Tom Wake (Willem Dafoe) are beginning a four-week stretch of duty at the lighthouse. The two men veer wildly between enmity, comradeship, father-son intimacy and hatred. But they are keeping secrets from one another and, on this wind-lashed, uttermost spot, the tension mounts. Visually stunning, stark and unforgiving.

★★★★★ “A swirling descent into madness that takes the breath away… you can almost taste the salt on your lips.” – Time Out

Waves with Trey Edward Shults | Picturehouse

Sarah Cook talks to director Trey Edward Shults about his new film Waves. 

The latest film from Trey Edward Shults (Krisha, It Comes At Night) is a heartrending story about the universal capacity for compassion and growth even in the darkest of times. Set against the vibrant landscape of South Florida and featuring an astonishing ensemble of award-winning actors and breakouts alike, Waves traces the emotional journey of a suburban African-American family – led by a well-intentioned but domineering father – as they navigate love, forgiveness and coming together in the aftermath of a loss.

1917 with Dean-Charles Chapman | Picturehouse

Sarah Cook talks to Dean-Charles Chapman, co-star of Sam Mendes's new film 1917. 

Sam Mendes’ visceral and immersive vision of the First World War battlefields. Two young British soldiers, Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop hundreds of soldiers – Blake’s own brother among them – from walking into a deadly trap.

In cinemas now. 

Last Christmas with Paul Feig | Picturehouse

Sam Clements talks to director Paul Feig about his new movie, Last Christmas. 

Scripted around the songs of George Michael, this boy-meets-girl meet-cute tale is set to become a perennial favourite for the holiday season. Kate (Emilia Clarke, GAME OF THRONES) is down on her luck. She mopes around London, one bad hair day after another. After a spell in hospital, she’s had to move back in with her mother (Emma Thompson), and from day to day, she’s plagued by the jangly bells on her shoes – an irritating reminder that she’s working as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop. When soup kitchen volunteer Tom (Henry Golding, CRAZY RICH ASIANS) walks into her life and starts to see a way through Kate’s mishaps, it all seems too good to be true. As London transforms into the most wonderful time of the year, nothing should work for these two. But sometimes, you gotta let the snow fall where it may, you gotta listen to your heart … and you gotta have faith.

The Good Liar with Bill Condon | Picturehouse

Sarah Cook talks to director Bill Condon about his new film, The Good Liar. 

Legendary actors Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen star together on screen for the first time in this smart and suspenseful thriller directed by Bill Condon (Mr Holmes, Gods And Monsters). Career con artist Roy Courtnay can hardly believe his luck when he meets well-to-do widow Betty McLeish online. As Betty opens her home and life to him, Roy is surprised to find himself caring about her, turning what should be a cut-and-dry swindle into the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life.

Doctor Sleep with Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy | Picturehouse

Sarah Cook talks to director Mike Flanagan and producer Trevor Macy abut their new film, Doctor Sleep. 

Danny Torrance is a middle-aged man drifting though America in order to shed his father's alcoholism, which passed down to him in order to forget the events of "The Shining". After landing into a small Massachusetts town and with the aid of a cat, he becomes "Doctor Sleep". After meeting a young girl with the most powerful shining Danny's ever seen, he must now face the demons of his past and the demons of the present in order to save her from a horrifying evil known as "The True Knot".