York film preview: C’mon C’mon, Boxing Day and Resident Evil

If Woody Norman, the young star of this week’s new indie drama C’mon C’mon, is looking for examples of how to make the tricky transition from child to adult actor, then he doesn’t need to look any further than his two co-stars.

Joaquin Phoenix, back when he was known as Leaf, got one of his early breaks starring in the 1989 comedy-drama Parenthood as Dianne Wiest’s angsty teenage son, while Gaby Hoffman played the daughters of Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams and Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle – as well as the niece to John Candy’s Uncle Buck.

Phoenix recently bagged an Oscar for playing one of the most famous comic book villains of all time, while Hoffman has carved out a nicely low-key indie career alongside appearances in hit shows like Girls and Transparent, so the lad could certainly do worse than follow their career trajectories.

There again, Hoffman’s Uncle Buck co-star Macaulay Culkin went on to form a pizza-themed Velvet Underground tribute act, so that’s always an option too…

New releases

C’mon C’mon

Joaquin Phoenix stars in this gentle indie drama about the growing bond between a middle-aged bachelor and his young nephew.

Phoenix plays Johnny, a radio journalist who interviews children across America about their lives, thoughts and hopes – but when his sister Viv (Gaby Hoffman) needs to take time out to support her bipolar husband, Johnny finds himself taking care of her young son Jesse (Woody Norman).

As Jesse accompanies his uncle on his travels, it becomes a transformative experience for both in this thoughtful tale from director Mike Mills (the man behind 2016’s excellent coming-of-age drama 20th Century Women).

Boxing Day

A British author living in LA returns home to London for Christmas with his fiancée in tow in this romantic comedy, which marks the directorial debut of its star Aml Ameen (Kidulthood, I May Destroy You).

Billed as the first-ever black British romcom and inspired by Ameen’s own family, the story sees Melvin (Ameen) plan to introduce Lisa (Aja Naomi King, How to Get Away with Murder) to his family at their legendary annual Boxing Day get-together.

However, matters are complicated when Lisa discovers that his ex-girlfriend Georgia is a globally famous pop star (played by Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock).

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

Back from the dead just like its flesh-hungry antagonists, the long-running zombie action franchise hits the reboot button following Milla Jovovich’s swansong in 2017’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.

Set in 1998, the story sees Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario, The Maze Runner) return to Raccoon City, the Midwestern town she fled many years earlier, and which is now on its last legs following the departure of pharmaceutical giant the Umbrella Corporation – who might just have left something nasty brewing beneath the surface in their wake…

Said to cleave a little more closely to its video game source material than the Jovovich era, this new take is helmed by Johannes Roberts, no stranger to short sharp shocks as the director of the shark attack thriller 47 Meters Down.

Christmas crackers

Pick of the week: Love Actually in Concert

In what seems to have become a festive tradition, the live orchestral screening of the Richard Curtis schmaltzfest is doing the rounds once again this year, alighting at the Barbican on Weds 8th.

Love it, hate it or just can’t be bothered to switch over from ITV2 (I’m a little from column A, a little from column C), it’s increasingly hard to get through December without some exposure to one of the ten interlocking storylines of this modern festive staple.

Tickets start from £45.55 and can be booked from the Barbican’s website – or you can catch the film without any orchestral bells and whistles at Everyman (Fri 3rd) and Vue (Fri 3rd, Sun 5th, Weds 8th).

Other festive treats

Elf is off the shelf at Everyman (Sat 4th) and Vue (Sat 4th, Sun 5th, Tues 7th); Jack Skellington and crew have a Nightmare Before Christmas at Vue (Sat 4th, Sun 5th) and Cineworld (Tues 7th); Bruce is walkin’ on, walkin’ on broken glass in Die Hard at Vue (Mon 6th); Macaulay Culkin screams in horror at the Disney+ sequel in Home Alone (Everyman, Sun 5th); and Jimmy Stewart’s frustrated everyman is at, er, Everyman in It’s a Wonderful Life (Sun 5th).

The annual CBeebies Christmas Show also returns to cinemas this weekend, with this year’s story The Night Before Christmas showing at Cineworld, City Screen and Vue on Sat 4th and Sun 5th.

Meanwhile, Everyman also have a couple of options for those in the mood for something a little off the beaten track – with confusingly similar titles to boot: on Tues 7th, their impressively obscure Cultpix strand offers 1972 slasher flick Silent Night, Bloody Night, with a video introduction by horror expert Kim Newman, while Weds 9th sees a screening of a new release, dark comedy Silent Night, which sees Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode host a festive gathering under the shadow of humanity’s imminent extinction. (With any luck, it’ll happen before the Mrs. Brown’s Boys Christmas special.)

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Other screenings

As Keanu Reeves prepares to revisit one of his most iconic roles in a hotly anticipated sequel, there’s a chance to see the classic 1990s original back on the big screen this week.

The souped up 4K restoration of The Matrix (sorry if I got you excited there, Johnny Mnemonic fans) is on at all four York cinemas – Cineworld are showing it daily, and it’s at Vue from Fri 3rd – Mon 6th, Everyman on Mon 6th and City Screen on Fri 3rd and Weds 8th.

Another chosen one continues his journey at Vue, as they screen the next two chapters in the Harry Potter saga – The Goblet of Fire shows on Sat 4th, followed by The Order of the Phoenix on Sun 5th.

You can also catch the boy wizard and pals at Cineworld, with screenings of The Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets on Sat 4th followed by The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire on Sun 5th.

Cineworld’s autism-friendly screening this month is Disney’s fun-sounding new one Encanto, showing on Sun 5th (tickets standard price), while their budget Movies For Juniors offerings (tickets £2.50) are Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon and Peter Rabbit 2 (both showing on Sat 4th and Sun 5th), plus Tom & Jerry: The Movie (Sat 4th only); Vue’s Mini Mornings screening this week is The Gruffalo and Zog (Sat 4th/Sun 5th, tickets £2.49).

This weekend also sees City Screen offering a chance to explore the world beyond Studio Ghibli with their short We Love Anime season, celebrating the increasingly popular Japanese medium with screenings of four recent releases.

Things kick off on Sat 4th with Looking for Magical Doremi, a coming-of-age tale about three young women on a tour of locations from their favourite anime show, followed by Pompo the Cinephile, which sees a B-movie producer set about trying to make her masterpiece.

Then on Sun 5th, Over the Sky follows a woman who harbours unspoken feelings for her old friend, and in Summer Ghost three high school students each missing something in their lives search for a mythical spirit girl.

Meanwhile, a titan of Japanese cinema lumbers back into City Screen on Mon 6th, with a 4K restoration of the original 1954 Godzilla.

They also have a couple more screenings of the highly acclaimed Drive My Car on Tues 7th and Weds 8th, while Shadow Country (Mon 6th) depicts life in a Czech-Austrian village from the 1930s to the 1950s, and Norwegian drama Hope (Tues 7th) co-stars Stellan Skarsgård and follows a couple dealing with a life-changing diagnosis.

Finally, I’m pleased to see that City Screen are bringing back the brilliant Petite Maman for a few more screenings this week – there’s something really quite magical about this childhood tale, and I would definitely recommend it. You can catch matinee screenings on Fri 3rd, Sun 5th, Mon 6th and Thurs 9th – it’s also on at Vue on Mon 6th.