An Education (12a)
Thursday September 23 7.30pm £3
2009. 100 mins Dir. Lone Scherfig. Starring Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard
In the early 1960's, sixteen year old Jenny Mellor lives with her parents in the London suburb of Twickenham. On her father's wishes, everything that Jenny does is in the sole pursuit of being accepted into Oxford, as he wants her to have a better life than he.
Jenny is bright, pretty, hard working but also naturally gifted. The only problems her father may perceive in her life is her issue with learning Latin, and her dating a boy named Graham, who is nice but socially awkward. Jenny's life changes after she meets David Goldman, a man over twice her age.
David goes out of his way to show Jenny and her family that his interest in her is not improper and that he wants solely to expose her to cultural activities which she enjoys. Jenny quickly gets accustomed to the life to which David and his constant companions, Danny and Helen, have shown her and Jenny and David's relationship does move into becoming a romantic one.
However, Jenny slowly learns more about David, and by association Danny and Helen, and specifically how they make their money. Jenny has to decide if what she learns about them and leading such a life is worth forgoing her plans of higher education at Oxford.
Adapted by Nick Hornby from Lynn Barber’s memoir.
Starring: Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Rosamund Pike, Dominic Cooper, Olivia Williams, Cara Seymour, Emma Thompson, Matthew Beard, Sally Hawkins
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Director: Lone Scherfig
Screenwriter: Nick Hornby
Producer: Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey
Composer: Paul Englishby
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
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Crazy Heart (15)
Thursday September 30 7.30pm £3
2009. 112 mins. Dir. Scott Cooper. Starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Four-time Academy Award® nominee JEFF BRIDGES stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film CRAZY HEART from writer-director Scott Cooper.
Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who's had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can't help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean, a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.
Fifty-seven year old Otis Blake - better known by his stage name Bad Blake - is a minor legend as a country & western singer. But that minor legend status only allows him currently to perform in not even B-rate venues such as bowling alleys, although he does have a standing gig to perform at his friend Wayne Kramer's bar in Houston. Bad is an overweight, chain-smoking alcoholic. He is informed by a doctor that his self-destructive lifestyle will send him to an early grave. This self-destructive behaviour has also led to several failed marriages and a grown son who he has not seen since he was aged four and whose current whereabouts Bad does not know.
While performing in Santa Fe, Bad meets newspaper journalist Jean Craddock, who wants to do a piece on him for her newspaper. Despite the differences in their ages, Jean and Bad begin a relationship. Jean and her four year old son Buddy are the closest thing Bad has had to a family in quite some time. Bad's professional career also takes a turn when he reconnects with a more famous former touring partner named Tommy Sweet, who wants Bad to write some songs for him. What looks to be both a promising professional and personal future for Bad may be jeopardized by his long standing self-destructive lifestyle.
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Colin Farrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall, Beth Grant
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Director: Scott Cooper
Screenwriter: Scott Cooper
Producer: Robert Duvall, Robert Carliner, T Bone Burnett, Judy Cairo
Composer: T Bone Burnett
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
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Nowhere Boy (15)
Thursday October 7 7.30pm £3
2009. 98 mins. Dir. Sam Taylor Wood. Starring Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Anne-Marie Duff.
NOWHERE BOY, the debut feature of Sam Taylor-Wood, tells the never seen before story of John Lennon’s childhood and is a sensitive and sprightly look at the formative years of one of Britain's cultural icons.
Liverpool 1955 and 15-year-old John Lennon is a teenager hungry for experience. Since the age of five he has been brought up by his Aunt Mimi, who seems to be the epitome of respectability. John is a bit of a rebel though, and when he meets his mother Julia, he forms an instant bond with her. Mimi likes to listen to Tchaikovsky, but Julia prefers Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and after she takes John to see an Elvis film at the local cinema, he's a convert to the world of rock'n'roll. He's bewitched by Julia, and she by him, but their reconnection provokes a great deal of friction between the two women, with John caught in the middle. Yearning for a less troubled life, he escapes into music, starting a band with a group of friends, and finding a kindred spirit when he meets Paul McCartney. Just as he begins his new life, further tragedy strikes, but by then he's found his voice…
Running time: 95min
Director: Sam Taylor-Wood
Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Aaron Johnson, Anne-Marie Duff, Thomas Sangster, David Morrissey
Writer: Matt Greenhalgh
Distributor: Icon Film Distribution
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Harry Brown (18)
Thursday October 14 7.30pm £3
2009. 103 mins. Dir. Daniel Barber. Starring Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer
Harry Brown follows one man’s journey through a chaotic world where teenage violence runs rampant. As a modest, law abiding citizen, Brown lives alone. His only companion is his best friend Leonard. When Leonard is killed, Brown reaches his breaking point. Harry Brown is a powerful, character driven thriller starring two-time Academy Award winner Michael Caine in a tour-de-force performance.
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Blindside (12a)
Thursday October 21 7.30pm £3
2009. 129 mins. Dir. John Lee Hancock. Starring Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron
"The Blind Side" depicts the story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfil his potential as a football player and student, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All American football star.
Based on the true story of Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy who take in a homeless teenage African-American, Michael "Big Mike" Oher. Michael has no idea who is father is and his mother is a crack head. Michael has had little formal education and few skills to help him learn. Leigh Anne soon takes charge however, as is her nature, ensuring that the young man has every opportunity to succeed. When he expresses an interest in football, she goes all out to help him, including giving the coach a few ideas on how best to use Michael's skills. They not only provide him with a loving home, but hire a tutor to help him improve his grades to the point where he would qualify for an NCAA Division I athletic scholarship. Michael Oher was the first-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens in the 2009 NFL draft.
Runtime: 128 mins
Directors: John Lee Hancock
Cast: Jae Head, Lily Collins, Quinton Aaron, Quinton Aaron, Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw
Producer: Gil Netter, Broderick Johnson, Andrew Kosove
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Shutter Island (15)
Thursday October 28 7.30pm £3
2010. 138 mins. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio team up for a fourth time for this adaptation of SHUTTER ISLAND, a novel by Dennis LeHane (MYSTIC RIVER).
The film opens in 1954 as World War II veteran and current federal marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner, Chuck (Mark Ruffalo), ferry to Shutter Island, a water-bound mental hospital housing the criminally insane. They have been asked to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), a patient admitted to the asylum after she murdered her three children.
As Teddy quizzes Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), the head of the institution, he begins to suspect that the authorities in charge might not be giving him the whole truth, and that a terrible fate may befall all the patients in spooky Ward C -- a unit devoted to the most heinous of the hospital's inmates.
Complicating matters further, Teddy has a secret of his own -- the arsonist who murdered his wife is incarcerated on Shutter Island. Driven to confront his wife's killer, and stranded on the island because of a hurricane, Teddy must unravel the secrets of the eerie place before succumbing to his own madness. Max von Sydow, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, and Jackie Earle Haley round out the supporting cast.
Runtime: 2 hrs 18 mins
Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenwriter: Laeta Kalogridis
Producer: Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Bradley J. Fischer, Martin Scorsese
Composer: Robbie Robertson
Studio: Paramount Picture
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