By Ashley Clark
It might be Valentine’s weekend, but there’s a shortage of romance on show in a truly diverse week of new releases and repertory cinema at South London’s best cinema.
It’s somewhat ironic – and possibly telling – that the Pope has stepped down in the week that Alex Gibney’s searing expose of child abuse in the Catholic church – Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God – is released. The doc starts in Winconsin in 1972, with what the director found to be the first publicly registered report of abuse in the American Church, at a school for deaf children. It gradually opens up to include Ireland, and later Italy and the Vatican itself, to illustrate the sheer breadth and depth of the corruption. It’s infuriating, shocking, convincing and completely essential viewing. Do not miss.
Bruce Willis’ advanced age hasn’t prevented him from squeezing back into his iconic wife-beater for A Good Day To Die Hard, the fifth instalment of the franchise. This time around, New Jersey hardnut John McClane has got serious beef with the Russians, but he’s got help in the form of his errant son Jack (Jai Courtney), a hard-headed CIA agent. From its sanitized 12A rating to its panoply of cliches and lame wisecracks, AGDTDH is a predictable disappointment. Perhaps its time to put this series out to pasture, guys?
Far better instead to check out Christopher Keneally’s Side By Side, an engaging doc fronted by Keanu Reeves about the rise of digital filmmaking and its effects on filmmakers. It features compelling, instructive interviews with the likes of Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher and Martin Scorsese. Also on offer is hugely enjoyable animation Wreck-It Ralph, and, on Saturday afternoon, a one-off screening of Mark Cousins’ newie What Is This Film Called Love? plus a Q&A with the unmistakably-voiced critic/filmmaker/raconteur.
Films continuing their runs include Robert Zemeckis’ enjoyable Denzel-starrer Flight; Steven Spielberg’s stately, well-acted historical drama Lincoln; Sacha Gervasi’s truly rubbish Hitchcock, in which Anthony Hopkins’ make-up artist (perhaps the same one from those creepy VW pre-film ads) accidentally appears to have styled the actor as Neil Kinnock; and Quentin Tarantino’s horribly self-indulgent (but occasionally enjoyable) buddy slavery romp Django Unchained. It’s a real shame that one of the best films of the year so far – Pablo Larrain’s No – isn’t being shown regularly, but there are a couple of chances to see it dotted throughout the week.
In terms of rep cinema, it’s all gone a bit Hitchcock. There are late Friday and Saturday screenings of his classic 1960 chiller Psycho, as well as a Sunday afternoon showing of his film about birds, entitled The Birds. On Monday, you can also see The Greatest Film Of All Time (according to a recent Sight & Sound magazine poll), Vertigo. The Ritzy’s Discover Tuesdays arthouse strand continues with a screening of Ursula Meier’s gripping if glacial Swiss drama Sister, and earlier on in the day, there’s a ‘Reminisce’ screening of Ken Loach’s 60’s classic Kes.
All films showing at the Ritzy Cinema, Brixton Oval. Book tickets here.
Ashley Clark runs the film blog Permanent Plastic Helmet. You can follow it on Twitter @PPlasticHelmet and/or him @_ash_clark.
