A warning to my fellow children of the 90s: do not get your hopes up.
I know what is going through your mind. You have seen the title Saturday Night and you have thought that finally, after all these years of hoping and dreaming, the Whigfield biopic which we have so long desired, and so richly deserved, is at last to be delivered unto us.
We would thrill as the future pop icon boldly bade farewell to her cloistered life as a Danish milking maid, stowing away in the back of a passing Italo-disco producer’s campervan. We would be there at the creation of that legendary dance routine. We would cheer as she liberated the UK from Wet Wet Wet’s 15-week reign of chart-topping terror. Perhaps we would even come to understand why she once recorded a hi-NRG cover of Wham’s Last Christmas (number 21 with a bullet in December 1995).
But no. None of these things will happen, because Saturday Night is actually about the creation of US comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live, a miniscule dot on the cultural horizon compared to the towering Eurodance colossus. Well, boo to that.
We’ll just have to wait a little longer, folks. I hear Christopher Nolan is in talks. Dee-dee na-na-na…
New releases
Hard Truths
Following his acclaimed period dramas Mr. Turner and Peterloo, Mike Leigh’s latest sees him cast his piercing gaze over contemporary Britain in all its mundane, bickering beauty for the first time since 2010’s Another Year.
The story centres on Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a wife and mother whose deep-seated unhappiness makes life a challenge both for her and those closest to her – in marked contrast to her easygoing sister Chantal (Michele Austin), whose hairdressing salon brims with love and laughter.
Impressive reviews suggest that it’s another clear-sighted, compassionate portrait of everyday life from the veteran director, with a tour-de-force central performance from Jean-Baptiste.
Cert 12A, 97 mins | |
Cineworld, City Screen | |
From Fri Jan 31 |
Saturday Night
Lights! Camera! Friction! This frenetic comedy drama takes place during the chaotic 90 minutes prior to the broadcast of the first episode of Saturday Night Live, the iconic US TV show that’s launched the careers of everyone from Bill Murray to Tina Fey.
Gabriel LaBelle (who played the young Spielberg-alike in The Fabelmans) stars as SNL creator Lorne Michaels, who must soothe the egos of warring writers and crazed comedians whilst dealing with innumerable first night catastrophes – not to mention the sceptical studio execs willing him to fail.
There’s an appropriate choice of director in the form of Jason Reitman, who (as the son of Ghostbusters director Ivan) spent his childhood around SNL royalty such as Murray, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi – and also parlayed his breakout success with Juno in 2008 into a brief sketch-writing gig for the show.
Cert 15, 109 mins | |
Cineworld, Vue | |
From Fri Jan 31 | |
More details |
Companion
Fresh from popping round Hugh Grant’s for a cuppa in Heretic, Sophie Thatcher burnishes her scream queen credentials in this comedy horror about a young woman who exacts a righteous revenge on her controlling boyfriend.
The twist in this tale (produced by the team behind 2022’s word-of-mouth hit Barbarian) is that Iris (Thatcher) is a robot whose every move – and whose very personality – is dictated by her seemingly charming ‘boyfriend’ Josh (Jack Quaid), via the means of an app on his phone.
When Iris discovers the truth on a weekend away with Josh’s friends, she overrides her programming in spectacular style, unleashing what Time Out calls ‘a whirlwind of campy, comedic mayhem’.
Cert 15, 97 mins | |
Cineworld, Everyman, Vue | |
From Fri Jan 31 | |
More details |
Family-friendly films
“Smile, darn ya, smile!” Toontown opens its doors once more at City Screen, as their Kids’ Club showcases an 80s classic in the form of Who Framed Roger Rabbit on Sat 1st.
Everyman’s Toddler Club offers thrills and chills with Frozen (Sat 1st/Sun 2nd, £6.25 child/£9.80 adult plus toddler), while Cineworld’s Movies for Juniors selection is Disney’s more recent fantasy adventure Raya and the Last Dragon (Sat 1st/Sun 2nd, £2.50), plus they have an Autism Friendly screening of Mufasa: The Lion King on Sun 2nd (£7.49 child/£9.99 adult).
Over at Vue, Panda Bear in Africa pretty much does what it says on the tin, and chucks a dragon and a wisecracking monkey in for good measure (Sat 1st/Sun 2nd, £2.49), while younger viewers can enjoy a Julia Donaldson double bill courtesy of Tabby McTat & Stick Man (Sat 1st/Sun 2nd, £3.99), as well as the further adventures of Sarah & Duck on the Big Screen (Sat 1st to Mon 3rd, £3.99).
Other new releases
Paging all lovers of classic rock: you’ll want to plant yourself down at Cineworld on Weds 5th and Thurs 6th, as Becoming Led Zeppelin tells the inside story of the hirsute riffmongers’ rise to fame – surprisingly, it’s the first official doc to do so.
And at the other end of the spectrum, both in terms of musical genre and comprehensibility of title, we have (G)I-DLE World Tour (iDOL) in Cinemas (Cineworld, Sat 1st), a concert film of the K-Poppers’ 2024 live extravaganza.
Something wicked this way comes on Weds 5th, as David Tennant and Cush Jumbo’s hugely acclaimed take on Macbeth comes to the big screen – filmed live during its run at the Donmar Warehouse, you can catch it at all four York cinemas (with encore screenings on Thurs 6th and on into next week at Vue).
And if you’re looking to celebrate the Year of the Snake, Vue’s the place to be, with a selection of Mandarin-language films to mark the Lunar New Year including crime thriller (and Title of the Week winner) Octopus with Broken Arms (Fri 31st, Sat 1st, Sun 2nd, Tues 4th), buddy comedy Detective Chinatown 1900 (Fri 31st, Mon 3rd) and fantasy epic Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force (Sat 1st, Weds 5th; also at Cineworld on Sat 1st, Mon 3rd).
Keyser Söze and a big Bogie: old favourites back on the big screen
Also showing to mark both the Lunar New Year and its 25th anniversary is Ang Lee’s martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the film which became a surprise box office hit on its release in 2000 – grab a slice of the action at Cineworld on Fri 31st.
That film’s gravity-defying acts of heroism aside, it’s something of a down and dirty week for re-releases, with killers, crooks and crime lords lurking in every corner.
If, like me, you’ve never seen The Usual Suspects and have somehow managed to make it 30 years without finding out who Keyser Söze is, it might be a good idea to head down to Everyman before our spoiler-dodging luck runs out – it’s showing in their Throwback strand on Sun 2nd and Tues 4th.
As any film trivia buff will tell you (whether you want them to or not), The Usual Suspects takes its title from a line in Casablanca, and that movie’s MVP is the star of this week’s film noir offering at City Screen: Humphrey Bogart plays Raymond Chandler’s hard bitten gumshoe Philip Marlowe in 1946’s The Big Sleep on Sun 2nd.
Over at Vue, their David Fincher season continues apace with screenings of Se7en on Sat 1st and Sun 2nd and the director’s real-life serial killer mystery Zodiac on Sat 1st, Mon 3rd and Weds 5th.
Let’s finish, though, with the lighter side of noir, as City Screen hosts a relaxed screening of Who Framed Roger Rabbit on Fri 31st – and here to sing us out is the bungling bunny’s better half. (Surely the time is ripe now for her to make a comeback and reclaim her crown from all those pretenders. Glastonbury Legends slot this summer maybe? She’d wipe the floor with Dolly…)