Showing Films Worth Seeing...

A Serious Man (15)

1960s west coast America. A film infused with the ratty and humorous portrayal of Jewish lives spinning apart. It’s a portrayal drawn from the Coen brothers’ own adolescence. It is a look at suffering – in the words of the Jefferson Airplane soundtrack – of ‘when the truth is found to be lies and all hope within you dies’ … what then? The photography is crisp and stylish; the sounds intimate and suggestive and funny. You cannot but both empathise with Larry – he has faith, he is conscientious, he tries to be a serious man but his children are alienated, he is plagued by professional rumours, he has a siren as neighbour, and the recurring calls of the mail-order telephone salesman. Unjustly suffering, is Larry Job, or Joseph K?

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennik, Aaron Wolff

106 mins, USA/UK

Stahl season

Bright Star (12A)

There are films, usually simple films, which engage with a depth and power that is disproportionate to their bones. This film, based on the last creative years of Keats’ life, is one such. Jane Campion captures the fragile yet deep relationship that developed between him and Fanny Brawn, his neighbour’s daughter. … [more]

A Serious Man (15)

1960s west coast America. A film infused with the ratty and humorous portrayal of Jewish lives spinning apart. It’s a portrayal drawn from the Coen brothers’ own adolescence. It is a look at suffering – in the words of the Jefferson Airplane soundtrack – of ‘when the truth is found to be lies and all hope within you dies’ … what then? … [more]

Glorious 39 (12A)

The veracity of a possible alternative history of Britain in the Second Wold War has always attracted dogged commentators. Churchill’s eventual triumph against the appeasers, as against Hitler, was never universally expected or hailed. … [more]

Avatar (12A)

As the camera sweeps over Pandora, the lush and green world of the Na’vi, Jake (played by Sam Worthington) wakes up in a hospital to find that his brother, who had been prepared for a secret mission to Pandora, has died. Jake is offered his brother’s place. He accepts and so begins a film that deals with issues of energy crisis, war, truth, love, native rights. … [more]

It’s Complicated (15)

And it is complicated, but extremely funny. This is Meryl Streep (Jane), in great form, playing the other woman to her former husband – Alec Baldwin, now married to Lake Bell. A comedy about memory and desire. And among the middle-aged! Streep and Baldwin seem to have had a great relationship both out of and in bed. … [more]

Nowhere Boy (15)

John Lennon’s childhood...... A spirited teenager, curious, sharp and funny, growing up in the shattered city of Liverpool. Two extraordinary sisters tussle for his love – … [more]

Vier Minuten (15)

In a German prison Jenny, a teenage girl, incarcerated for murder and filled with both hatreds and a great talent for the piano, is befriended by an aged pianist. Having discovered the girl’s terrible secret and her dreams, she decides to piano competition. … [more]