The films to see in York this week – 12-18 July 2019

Whether he’s busting ghosts in New York or doing the dishes at a student party, no-one makes being a movie star look quite as much fun as Bill Murray.

The great man faces down the zombie apocalypse in typically laconic style in The Dead Don’t Die this week, while an Uber driver goes above and beyond for that five-star rating in buddy comedy Stuber.

Plus there’s a particularly tantalising selection of classics back on the big screen, and I kind of want to go see ’em all. Goodbye bank balance, I hardly knew ye…

New releases

The Dead Don’t Die

Back in 2014, cult US indie director Jim Jarmusch made a vampire film. Only Lovers Left Alive essentially featured Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston hanging around Detroit, chatting about The White Stripes, and indulging in hardly any vampiric activity whatsoever.

Needless to say, it was brilliant. Five years on, Jarmusch is back with his take on the zombie movie, with a killer cast led by Adam Driver and Bill Murray.

The pair play cops who find themselves dealing with hordes of the walking dead in their small town of Centerville – fighting alongside fellow residents including Swinton, Steve Buscemi, and Chloë Sevigny.

Deadpan one-liners rather than gut-churning gore are likely to be the order of the day here, and while it may have had mixed reviews on its release in the US, the prospect of a new Murray/Jarmusch collaboration – to say nothing of an undead Iggy Pop – is surely worth battling through a zombie apocalypse for.

Stuber

Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) team up in this action comedy about a particularly troublesome Uber customer.

The plot sees Nanjiani’s mild-mannered cab driver Stu picking up Bautista’s none-more-macho cop Vic, who’s on the trail of the sadistic terrorist who killed his partner.

With Vic barely able to see because he’s just had laser eye surgery (of course he has), the hapless Stu finds himself dragged into a series of hair-raising scrapes as the day goes on.

One-off screenings

This week’s York Outdoor Cinema offering is last year’s really rather good A Star Is Born remake – so you can imagine you’re there in the crowd when Lady Gaga belts out Shallow onstage for the first time (and I suspect there’ll be a fair few in the audience singing it back, too).

It shows at The Principal Hotel on Sunday 14th, doors at 7pm, film at 9:30pm, and you can book via their eventbrite page.

Meanwhile, there’s a wealth of modern classics being reissued in all three York cinemas this week.

Things kick off with two ‘90s favourites on Friday 12th. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette go on the run in 1993’s True Romance at Everyman (showing as part of their Tarantino season), while over at Vue, The Matrix is back in all its bullet-dodging, slo-mo glory.

Head on to City Screen on Sunday 14th to catch David Bowie in his most iconic (non-goblin related) role, as he plays an alien visitor in Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell To Earth.

Next up, cancel all plans you have for Monday night, as City Screen offer not one but two absolute corkers.

At 7pm, you can catch the incomparable Jackie Brown.

Tarantino’s surprisingly soulful crime caper is, for my money, his best film – I may have to find some way of cloning myself, though, because at 8:30 they’re showing actual bloody Jaws!

Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster is being rereleased nationwide for that all-important, er, 44th anniversary (but frankly, who cares how spurious the reason – it’s Jaws, on the big screen!).

If, like me, you’re torn between the two, then help is at hand – Vue are also showing Jaws this week on Thurs 18th, and again later in the month on Sat 27th, while Everyman’s Tarantino season offers another chance to see Jackie Brown on Fri 19th.

Away from the golden oldies, pick of the new releases this week is Support the Girls. Showing as part of City Screen’s Discover Tuesdays strand on Tues 16th, this slice-of-life US indie drama about the staff of a Hooters-style roadside bar has been picking up glowing reviews across the board, with Empire proclaiming it a ‘scrappy but soulful delight’.

Finally, two docs to flag up for music and sports fans, both accompanied by satellite Q&A sessions – on Sat 13th, there’s a preview of director Ron Howard’s portrait of Pavarotti (City Screen, Vue), while on Weds 17th cricket aficionados can fill the gap between the World Cup and the Ashes with The Edge, a look back at the only English Test cricket team to reach world number one (City Screen, Everyman).