Author: Roger Dodger

Stars: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt

As the millennial boom rolled on, the housing market seemed like the best one-way bet in town – anyone could own a home (or five) and the banks made vast profits packaging and selling on mortgage debt. A few small-timers, lone wolves and oddballs – Carell’s splenetic trader and Bale’s death-metal-drumming fund manager among them – realised the foundations were rotten, and set out to profit… McKay is brilliant, telling most of this potentially complex story in outrageously entertaining style, while mindful of the human cost of the crash and furious at the amoral decadence which led to it. 

Review: watch this space

Trailer: watch this space

 David Lean Cinema, Croydon on Saturday 23 April 2016
From 2:30PM to 4:45PM Click on time to book relevant tickets.
Ticket Price: £6.50 – £8.00

 

Stars: Sigurður Sigurjónsson, Theodór Júlíusson, Charlotte Bøving

Gummi and Kiddi are brothers, neighbours and rivals, farming sheep in a remote Icelandic valley. They haven’t spoken in 40 years, communicating only through a sheepdog messenger, but must cope with radically changed times when scrapie is found in Gummi’s flock. With its “intensity and deadpan humour”, this tragicomedy, set on the very edge of human civilisation, is a “wonderfully idiosyncratic and moving Cain and Abel-style saga”” (The Independent).

While the address is theguardian.com, this review incorporating a link to the trailer is actually from The Observer: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/07/rams-observer-film-review

David Lean Cinema, Croydon on Thursday 21 April 2016
Starts at 2:30PM and 7:30PM
Ticket Price: £6.50 – £8.00

Click on times above to book relevant tickets.

Stars: David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan 

Motivational speaker Michael (voiced by Thewlis) struggles so much to connect with other people that they’ve all started to sound the same (Noonan), until he meets Lisa (Leigh) and forges a connection. Can these two insecure souls form a lasting relationship? And how do you tell a story like this through the medium of stop-motion animation? 

Expertly, it seems, as this is another innovative gem from Kaufman, writer of Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine…, 

“Anomalisa has more heart, soul and pathos than 99.9 per cent of live-action movies” (Empire Magazine).

This Guardian link is a comprehensive resource on the film, gving you review, interview with the Director and trailer all in one click: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/10/anomalisa-review-charlie-kaufman-puppet-masterpiece-about-the-human-condition

David Lean Cinema, Croydon on Tuesday 19 April 2016
Starts at 7:30PM Click on time to book tickets.
Ticket Price: £6.50 – £8.00

Stars: Alec Guinness, Robert Newton, Kay Walsh, John Howard Davies

Presented on 35mm. 

Marking 25 years since David Lean’s death, his biographer Kevin Brownlow joins us to introduce a favourite Lean film. This adaptation expertly retells Dickens’ enormous novel in little under two hours, and gave Lean another box office hit after the huge success of Great Expectations. In Lean’s hands, the tale of a young boy’s progress from the workhouse to London’s criminal underworld is, “A superb piece of motion picture art… One of the finest screen translations of a literary classic ever made” (New York Times).

Strange to say, internet links to contemporary reviews of a film which premiered 68 years ago are hard to come by….. 

But here are links to:

   John Hurt reminiscing on how the film influenced him – http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/09/oliver-twist-john-hurt

   The BFI page on the film (may take a long time to load) – http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b2089e7

   and (courtesy of a mega-film-buff on Youtube), the 1948 trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulKAAJWVFDc

David Lean Cinema, Croydon on Saturday 16 April 2016
Starts at 2:30PM Click on time to book tickets.
Ticket Price: £6.50 – £8.00