This week, south London’s best cinema will be colonized by the mumbliest superhero movie of them all. It’s the final part of one of cinema’s most successful trilogies…
By Ashley Clark
You probably won’t need me to tell you that the big new release this week is the final instalment of Christopher Nolan’s downright moody Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, which stars Christian Bale as the multimillionaire-turned-superhero, and the ever-inflating Tom Hardy as nemesis Bane. I haven’t seen it yet, so am in no position to comment, but I can tell you that it’s long, dark, (allegedly) loud and (almost certainly) excruciatingly mumbly. It’s also caused quite the storm in the blog/nerd/Tweet-o-sphere, where negative reviews have been seized upon by uber-fans. Ooh!
Also out is Dr. Seuss adaptation The Lorax, which looks to be an animated film about a tiny orange Granddad with a big moustache. You guessed it, I haven’t seen that either, but your kids might like it. And that’s about it for new releases this week, which means that Magic Mike is still on. Steven Soderbergh’s funny, warm film stars the pretty excellent Channing Tatum as the eponymous character looking for a way out of the stripping game. Intriguingly, it’s based on Tatum’s own experiences as a younger man.
Also still running is esoteric, enjoyable coming-of-age tale Electrick Children, which has been touted as Almost Famous meets Witness. It’s about a young Mormon (Julia Garner), who wakes up one day to find herself pregnant after secretly listening tape of ‘Hanging on the Telephone’.
More films continuing their runs this week include William Friedkin’s brilliant Killer Joe, haunting (and very good) Willem Dafoe thriller The Hunter, thoroughly decent ’68 Olympics doc Salute, kiddie fare Ice Age: Continental Drift, blockbuster re-boot The Amazing Spider-man, (distinguished by solid turns from Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone). and still, for the love of God, Moonrise Kingdom. There is also a preview of The Art of Rap with a Q&A with director Ice-T. But it’s sold out, so stand-by tickets are your best bet.
You can also catch Hungarian auteur Bela Tarr’s final film The Turin Horse, which came out earlier this year, but is getting another shot as part of the Ritzy’s ongoing Discover Tuesdays strand. Over to Bela for the synopsis: “It is loosely based on an incident in Turin in 1899 when the philosopher Nietzsche witnessed a horse being whipped in the street and subsequently suffered a breakdown, from which he never recovered.” Sounds pretty chilled, so bring a date, buy a WKD, just relax, you know?
In terms of repertory this week, the Ritzy’s going all modern American classics with screenings of bloody (but not actually that bad considering all the controversy) heist thriller Reservoir Dogs which is still, for my money, Quentin Tarantino’s best film, and Martin Scorsese’s slick mob drama Goodfellas which, if you haven’t seen, you really should. Joe Pesci won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his electrifying turn as psychotic hood Tommy deVito.
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.
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