By Ashley Clark
This week, lots of films I haven’t seen, but am going to write about anyway. South London’s best cinema, and South London’s best people will forgive me, I’m sure.
I haven’t seen this week’s big new release, Pacific Rim, but here are some things I know about it: 1) The title makes me giggle like a schoolboy, 2) It has monsters and CGI, 3) It stars Idris ‘Luther Bell’ Elba as a character called Stacker Pentecost, 4) That’s Stacker Pentecost, 5) It’s directed by Guillermo del Toro, who hasn’t made a film since 2008’s Hellboy II, and who is still best loved (by me, at least) for not-for-kids fairytale Pan’s Labyrinth, 6) Charlie Hunnam’s also in it – you may remember him from some specific rimming in TV’s Queer As Folk, or from his forehead-spankingly pathetic cockney accent in Hobbit hooligan fiasco Green Street. If all that floats your luxury yacht, go see it.
Another film I haven’t seen is Balthasar Kormakur’s The Deep. Here’s the synopsis from the website: “In 1984, after a raucous night in a waterfront bar, a trawler crew set off on a trip that turned to disaster when their net caught a rock, capsizing the boat. Trapped in a shrinking air pocket, bluff 22-year-old Gulli determined to swim several kilometres back to land with his childhood friend and shipmate Palli, who soon succumbed to the lethally cold water. Sustained by physical tenacity, faith and hope, he eventually reached shore, only to shred his bare feet walking across the volcanic coastline. When he finally got home, to his humble surprise, he became a national hero.” Sounds tense, unless that is actually the whole plot and you’ve just read it here. Making up the end of this paragraph is my third goal in a shameful hat-trick of unseen new releases: animated sequel Despicable Me 2 (showing in both 2D and 3D). Apparently its very heartwarming and an improvement on the first; it’s earned rave reviews Stateside.
If, like me, you think Julian Assange is actually Gordon Ramsay with a light dusting of make-up, you’ll enjoy poring over the hi-def images in Alex Gibney’s compelling (and skeptical) doc We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks. Elsewhere, you can catch up with a host of films continuing their runs, including: Ben Wheatley’s Civil War-set, monochrome mushroom mindfuck A Field In England; Steven Soderbergh’s moving and expertly-crafted Liberace doc Behind the Candelabra; CGI magic fest Now You See Me; and Sofia Coppola’s banal shrug of a film The Bling Ring (I’ve yet to read a truly convincing positive review of this film – hit me up if you find one.) There are one or two screenings of the year’s most disturbing film, doc The Act of Killing, at odd times, so do check the listings.
As for rep, there’s a Discover Tuesdays screening of Sergei Loznitsa’s ultra-bleak but very moving WW2 drama In The Fog, a Tuesday afternoon showing of classic, fast-talking Howard Hawks romcom His Girl Friday, and a Saturday late of classic anime Akira.
