York film preview: Cocaine Bear, Broker and What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Heroin Panda! MCAT Goldfish! Marijuana Manatee! Cannabis Corgi!

You’ll have to excuse me – I’m high on excitement for this week’s new release Cocaine Bear, which is indeed about an ursine coke fiend on the rampage, and am busily trying to think of other films starring chemically stimulated creatures I could flog to the major studios.

Ecstasy Badger! Prozac Goose! Um, there are some other new films out this week but they just feature humans going quietly about their business, I don’t know why you’d want to see them. Amphetamine Donkey!

Anyway, full details below as per usu – Horse Tranquilizer Horse! Oh no hang on, that would just be a sleeping horse…

New releases

Cocaine Bear

A 500-pound black bear comes across a duffel bag of cocaine – and takes to the stuff like Paddington to marmalade, in this darkly comic thriller.

Based (sort of) on a true story, this 80s-set tale follows the mayhem that ensues as its eponymous antihero embarks on a coke-fuelled rampage – and woe betide any drug dealers, cops or tourists who get in his way.

Those going on a bear hunt include Keri Russell (The Americans), O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton) and Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story), while the film also boasts the final big screen appearance of Ray Liotta as a drugs kingpin none too pleased that the bear has got high on his supply.

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Set in London and Lahore, this new British romcom from genre stalwarts Working Title (of Bridget Jones and Love Actually fame) puts a multicultural spin on the genre, following a filmmaker who documents her childhood friend’s arranged marriage.

When oncologist Kazim (Shazad Latif, Spooks) tells documentarian Zoe (Lily James, Yesterday) that he’s letting his parents choose his future bride, she decides it’s the perfect subject for her next project – but like Julia Roberts before her, Zoe finds her best friend’s wedding throwing up some unexpected emotions…

Emma Thompson and People Just Do Nothing’s Asim Chaudhry are among the supporting cast in this crowd-pleasing tale, while the screenplay comes from journalist-turned-film producer Jemima Khan, who drew on her own time living in Pakistan to ensure the film portrays a different side to the country from that often seen in Western releases.

Broker

Parasite star Song Kang-ho leads this acclaimed Korean drama about the makeshift family which forms around an abandoned baby.

The story sees young mother So-young (Lee Ji-eun) leave her baby Woo-sung in a ‘Baby Box’ in a Busan chuch (a safe place for new mothers to leave unwanted children) – but the infant is intercepted by under-the-radar adoption brokers Sang-hyun (Song) and Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won), who plan to sell him on the black market.

When So-young finds out what has happened, she demands to be cut in on the deal, joining them on a road trip to meet prospective new parents which sees them picking up a seven-year-old stowaway en route.

While this unlikely family of outcasts begins to bond, a pair of detectives are hot on their tail, in this gentle, compassionate drama from celebrated Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who scored an indie hit with another tale of life on the margins, Shoplifters, in 2018.

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Gold standard: BAFTA winners round-up

All Quiet on the Western Front may have won big at the BAFTAs last weekend – bagging seven of the 14 awards it was nominated for – but in terms of cinema screenings for the heavily garlanded German war drama, it’s, er, all quiet on the western front, I’m afraid – you’ll have to head over to Netflix to see what all the fuss is about.

There are however plenty of other BAFTA big-hitters to be found in York cinemas this week (an asterisk after the date indicates that it’s a matinee screening).

Baz Luhrmann’s supremely entertaining Elvis picked up four gongs on Sunday, and you can catch Austin Butler’s award-winning portrayal at City Screen (Fri 24th*, Weds 1st) and Vue (Sun 26th, Thurs 3rd).

Also scooping four awards – including Outstanding British Film – was blackly comic fable The Banshees of Inisherin, which is showing at City Screen (Sun 26th, Weds 1st*), Everyman (Mon 27th*) and Vue (Fri 24th, Mon 27th).

It was great to see director Charlotte Wells pick up the Outstanding Debut BAFTA for her unforgettable father-daughter drama Aftersun, which has a few more screenings at City Screen (Fri 24th, Sat 25th, Mon 27th*, Tues 28th*).

Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett’s majestic performance in Tár was an unsurprising but well-deserved winner of the Best Actress award – see her in action at City Screen (Sat 25th*, Tues 28th, Weds 1st*), Everyman (Mon 27th*, Tues 28th, Thurs 2nd*) and Vue (daily matinees).

And finally, while it’s hard to argue with Austin Butler’s win, it was a shame to see Bill Nighy miss out on Best Actor for Living, though you suspect the great man will have taken it all in his immaculately tailored stride – there are a couple more screenings of his career-best turn in this moving, reflective period drama at City Screen on Fri 24th and Thurs 2nd*.

Other screenings

City Screen have a double bill of devilish deeds on Sun 26th as part of their Weimar season, celebrating the visionary German cinema of the early 20th century.

First up is 1931’s M, a brooding thriller (from Metropolis director Fritz Lang) about the hunt for a serial killer (Peter Lorre in his breakout role) which is seen as a major influence on all those nail-biting murder mysteries which still keep us glued to our seats today.

But why get your hands dirty with all that pesky murdering when you can get someone else to do it for you? An insane carnival hypnotist uses a somnambulist to work through his kill list in silent classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, showing after M on Sunday afternoon.

There’s another walk on the dark side in new Japanese psychodrama Lesson in Murder (City Screen, Mon 27th), the twisted tale of a university student’s relationship with an imprisoned serial killer who insists that he is innocent of one of the murders he has been convicted of – it’s one of several films showing over the next few weeks as part of the Japan Foundation Tour, a UK-wide festival of Japanese cinema.

It’s not all mind games and bloodlust this week, though – there are two timeless romances on offer, with a Dementia-Friendly screening of Casablanca showing at City Screen on Mon 27th, and Titanic’s 25th anniversary cruise continuing daily at Cineworld and Vue.

There are also previews of acclaimed Belgian coming-of-age tale Close, which follows the intense friendship between two teenage boys, at City Screen (Tues 28th) and Everyman (Weds 1st).

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If you prefer your teenage angst with an iconic 80s soundtrack, though, then you can sign up for The Breakfast Club, showing in Everyman’s regular Throwback strand on Sun 26th.

More 80s nostalgia is guaranteed in Boy George & Culture Club: One World, One Love (Vue, Sat 25th), a live stream of a one-off concert by the pop legends to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their Colour By Numbers album.

On the artier side of things, Brian & Roger Eno – Live at the Acropolis (City Screen, Thurs 2nd) sees the hugely influential musician and producer performing live with his brother for the first time, featuring selections from across his vast back catalogue of ambient records, television soundtracks and film scores.

There’s a treat for anime fans in the form of the snappily-titled Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -To the Swordsmith Village, a premiere compilation of the latest episodes of the hugely popular fantasy saga, showing at Cineworld and Vue on Weds 1st and Thurs 2nd.

And finally, when it comes to sanitising the works of Roald Dahl, Wes Anderson was way ahead of the game – you can catch his cussin’ creatures in all their stop-motion glory in Fantastic Mr Fox, this week’s Kids’ Club choice at City Screen (Sat 25th, tickets £3.30).

There are more Dahlian delights to behold in Matilda the Musical at Cineworld (Sat 25th/Sun 26th, £2.50) and Vue (Sat 25th/Sun 26th, £2.49); Vue have an additional, Autism-Friendly screening of Matilda on Sun 26th (£2.49), while Cineworld are also offering return trips to Disney’s Strange World (Sat 25th/Sun 26th, £2.50).