What To Watch At The Cinema

Jungle Cruise

Have children to entertain this summer? This could be just the ticket. Inspired by the famous Disneyland theme park ride, Jungle Cruise is an adventure-filled trip down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) and intrepid researcher Dr Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt). Lily travels from London to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s services to guide her downriver on La Quila, his ramshackle boat. Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree said to possess unparalleled healing abilities. Thrown together, the unlikely duo encounters dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the beauty of the rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, their fate – and mankind’s – hangs in the balance.

Summer of Soul

In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, musician Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary that’s part music film, part historical record – all created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just 100 miles south of Woodstock, the Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park. The footage was never seen and largely forgotten – until now. Summer of Soul stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The film includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach and more.

In The Heights

If you haven’t caught it yet, In The Heights is still available to see at the cinema. A new film from Lin-Manuel Miranda (creator of Hamilton) and the director of Crazy Rich Asians, the film focuses on the day-to-day life of one vibrant and tight-knit community, in particular magnetic bodega owner Usnavi (Anthony Ramos), who saves every penny from his daily grind as he hopes, imagines and sings about a better life. Fusing Miranda’s joyful music and lyrics with Jon M. Chu’s authentic eye for storytelling, this is a high-energy experience that demands to be seen on the big screen with a group of friends.

The Last Letter From Your Lover

Spanning 40 years, this adaptation of the award-winning novel by Jojo Moyes sees two women's stories of love, loss and betrayal become intertwined. When journalist Ellie (The Theory of Everything’s Felicity Jones) looks through her newspaper's archives for a story, she doesn't think she'll find anything of interest. Instead, she discovers a letter from 1960, written by a man asking his lover to leave her husband – and Ellie is caught up in the intrigue of a past love affair. In 1960, Jennifer (Big Little Lies’ Shailene Woodley) wakes up in hospital after a car accident. She can't remember anything: her husband, her friends, who she used to be. When she returns home, she uncovers a hidden letter, and begins to remember the lover she was willing to risk everything for. Also stars Callum Turner and Joe Alwyn.

Limbo

Limbo is an unexpected comedy about following a dream, no matter where it takes you. Directed by award winner Ben Sharrock, this is a wry and poignant observation of the refugee experience, set on a fictional remote Scottish island where a group of new arrivals await the results of their asylum claims. It centres on Omar (Amir El-Masry), a young Syrian musician who is burdened by his grandfather’s oud, which he has carried all the way from his homeland. An essential watch.

Saint Maud

Maud is a reclusive young nurse whose impressionable demeanour causes her to pursue a pious path of Christian devotion after an obscure trauma. Now charged with the hospice care of Amanda, a retired dancer with a cancer diagnosis, Maud's fervent faith quickly inspires an obsessive conviction that she must save her ward's soul from eternal damnation, whatever the cost. Truly chilling.

Annette

Visionary filmmaker Leos Carax made a triumphant return at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where his latest film, Annette, premiered as the opening film and won the coveted best director award. The film sees him team up with cult band Sparks to tell an audacious story of the pitfalls of love, fame and fortune. Oscar-nominee Adam Driver (House of Gucci, Marriage Story) and Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard (Inception, La Vie en Rose) star as a provocative stand-up comedian and internationally renowned opera singer living in LA: a seemingly perfect couple constantly in the good graces of the media spotlight. However, when they welcome their daughter Annette into the world, they soon learn that her mysterious and ethereal gifts will change their lives forever. 

Stillwater

This dramatic thriller is directed by Oscar-winner Tom McCarthy and stars Matt Damon. The film follows an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, who’s in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.

The Nest

Hailed by Variety as one of the best films of the year, it’s fair to say we’re excited to see this one. Rory (Jude Law), an ambitious entrepreneur and former commodities broker, persuades his American wife, Allison (Carrie Coon), and their children to leave the comforts of suburban America and return to his native England during the 1980s. Sensing opportunity, Rory rejoins his former firm and leases a centuries-old country manor, with grounds for Allison’s horses and plans to build a stable. But soon the promise of a lucrative new beginning starts to unravel, and the couple has to face the unwelcome truths lying beneath the surface of their marriage. 

Zola
Zola is the newest release from the studio behind Moonlight, Lady Bird, Ex Machina, The Witch, Eighth Grade and Hereditary. Based on a viral Twitter thread by A’Ziah King, the film follows Zola (newcomer Taylour Paige), a Detroit waitress who strikes up a new friendship with a customer, Stefani (Mad Max’s Riley Keough), who seduces her to join a weekend of dancing and partying in Florida. What at first seems like a glamorous trip full of 'hoeism' rapidly transforms into a 48-hour journey involving a nameless pimp, an idiot boyfriend, some Tampa gangsters and other unexpected characters. This wild, see-it-to-believe-it tale is a must-see.

The Courier

The Courier is a true-life spy thriller telling the story of unassuming British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) as he is recruited into one of history’s greatest international conflicts. At the behest of the UK’s MI6 and a CIA operative (Rachel Brosnahan), he forms a covert, dangerous partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) in an effort to gather the intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also stars SL fave Jessie Buckley.