York film preview: Theater Camp, Scrapper and The Blackening

Ah, Cinders, what might have been…

As Disney’s Cinderella returns to cinemas this week, this seems a good chance to bang the drum for the Camila Cabello-starring version from a couple of years ago which, like its titular heroine, feels like it’s still waiting for its moment to shine.

This funny, feminist and joyously silly jukebox musical take on the tale (from Pitch Perfect writer Kay Cannon) feels like it could have been a hit if it had got the cinema release it was clearly designed for – but, like a many a film in the Covid era, it ended up being snaffled by Amazon Prime for a streaming-only release, and largely seemed to sink without trace.

I’d certainly recommend it if you’re looking for a fun Bank Holiday watch this weekend – not least for scene-stealing turns from Pierce Brosnan and Minnie Driver as the bickering King and Queen.

Meanwhile, the animated version has plenty of company on the big screen this week – including an all-singing, all-dancing mockumentary, a satirical slasher, and a sunny-side-up slice of British social realism…

New releases

Theater Camp

A mismatched crew of amateur thesps band together to save their beloved summer camp from closure in this fun-sounding mockumentary.

When their beloved leader Joan (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma, the staff and students of a ramshackle New York theatre camp discover that their home-from-home is in dire financial straits – a situation not helped when Joan’s none-too-bright tech entrepreneur son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) takes over the running.

Fortunately, old hands and childhood best friends Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon, The Bear) and Amos (Ben Platt, Dear Evan Hansen) hatch a plan to save the day the only way any theatre kid knows how – by putting on a show right here in the barn!

Stage star Platt is no stranger to treading the boards in real life, while the film looks set to be a springboard for rising star Gordon (who also co-directs the film with Nick Lieberman), with plenty of critics charmed by its affectionate portrait of am-dram life.

Scrapper

Described by Variety as ‘(a) heightened blend of Ken Loach and Wes Anderson’, this tender, comic British drama sets out its stall as a colourful riposte to some of the big screen’s more avowedly downbeat portraits of working class life.

The story follows young Georgie (Lola Campbell), a quick-witted, resourceful 12-year-old who’s been surviving at home by herself since the death of her mum, finding ingenious ways to throw the authorities off the scent while bringing money in by means of selling stolen bikes – until her estranged father Jason (Harris Dickinson, Triangle of Sadness) turns up out of the blue.

As Georgie and her friend Ali (Alin Uzun) speculate on Jason’s mysterious past – Gangster? Ex-con? Vampire? – father and daughter begin to tentatively bond in director Charlotte Regan’s acclaimed debut feature.

The Blackening

Inevitably drawing comparisons to both Scream and Get Out, this self-aware comic slasher sees a group of Black college friends head out for a nice, relaxing weekend in, you guessed it, a cabin in the woods.

Things are going swimmingly until the discovery of a sinister board game puts the gang at the mercy of a masked killer, forcing them to play for their survival.

Directed by Tim Story (Barbershop, Ride Along) and starring Grace Byers (Empire) and Jermaine Fowler (Coming 2 America), the film promises a blend of social satire and pop cultural in-jokes – the tag line, ‘We can’t all die first’, refers to the likely fate of Black characters in many a horror movie – with a few gross-out gags thrown in for good measure.

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Other screenings

Summer holiday round-up

Glass slippers at the ready this week as the Disney centenary carousel arrives at Cinderella, with all four York cinemas affording you multiple chances to go to the ball.

It’s showing daily at Cineworld (tickets £5.00) and Vue (£6.99 – £9.99), while City Screen have a Kids’ Club screening on Sat 26th (£3.30) and daily general admission screenings from Mon 28th (£6.00 child, £8.00 adult); over at Everyman, there are two Toddler Club screenings on Fri 25th and Sat 26th (£6.10 child, £8.60 adult), followed by a general admission screening on Sun 27th (£9.40 child, £14.40 adult).

There are further fairytale shenanigans on offer in City Screen’s main Kids’ Club choice this week, as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish sallies forth once more (£3.30, showing daily; Sun 27th is an Autism-Friendly screening and Thurs 31st is subtitled), while Cineworld’s budget offerings are The Super Mario Bros. Movie (daily to Tues 29th, £2.50) and Norwegian adventure Just Super (daily all week, £2.50), the latter of which is also Vue’s Mini Mornings selection (daily, £2.49).

Of the newer, full-price releases, Mark Kermode-approved superhero jaunt Blue Beetle continues daily at Cineworld, Everyman and Vue, as does Pixar’s latest Elemental – a film which has pleasingly defied underwhelming early box office to become a slowburn hit.

Haunted Mansion continues its reign of mild peril (Cineworld and Vue, daily; Everyman daily from Mon 28th) while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem serves up more pizza-powered punch-ups (Cineworld and Vue, daily; Everyman daily except Sat 26th); plus there’s also still time to hang out with Miles Morales in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Vue, daily to Weds 30th; Everyman, Fri 25th) and make a splash with Ariel in the new take on The Little Mermaid (Vue, Sat 26th to Tues 29th and Thurs 31st; Everyman, Sat 26th, Sun 27th).

Other new releases and previews

You know that film last year where two women climbed up a really high thing and couldn’t get down? Well, imagine that, but instead of a really high thing they’re stuck in a really wet thing, and you’ve got The Dive (showing daily at Cineworld and Vue), an underwater disaster thriller about which Vue’s blurb helpfully tells us that ‘The threat is sustained, but not overt’ – so sort of like a Jehovah’s Witness ringing your doorbell three times before shrugging and moving on. And I think we can all cope with that.

Over at City Screen, French comic heist caper The Innocent (showing daily) – in which a young man sets out to prove that his mum’s ex-con new husband is up to his old tricks – sounds like just the ticket if you’re in the mood for some light-hearted screwball fun.

Meanwhile, head out to Vue to get your Bollywood action kicks courtesy of King of Kotha (daily), a Malayalam-language thriller about a town under mob rule.

You can also catch previews of two highly rated forthcoming releases in the form of Ben Whishaw-starring love triangle Passages (City Screen, Tues 29th) and Past Lives, a romantic tale of childhood sweethearts reunited (Everyman, Weds 30th).

De Niro drives cars and Arnie’s on Mars: old favourites back on the big screen

With the reunion of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro providing one of this autumn’s most eagerly-awaited releases in the form of Killers of the Flower Moon, City Screen are celebrating one of cinema’s greatest actor-director partnerships with a season of four of the pair’s classics.

Things kick off on Sun 27th with Taxi Driver’s murky trawl through the seedy underbelly of 70s New York – with Scorsese popping up in front of the camera at one point as a punter scarcely less unnerving than Travis Bickle himself.

Also back in cinemas this week is a film which has been on my watchlist for a long time – 2001 action thriller Training Day, which saw Denzel Washington thoroughly lay waste to his good guy credentials as a very bad cop indeed, bagging a Best Actor Oscar into the bargain – buckle up at Cineworld (Tues 29th) and Vue (Fri 25th to Sun 27th and Tues 29th).

City Screen’s Bruce Lee season concludes in style with 1972’s The Way of the Dragon on Mon 28th, while their year-long countdown of the Sight and Sound Top 10 films of all time reaches number five with In the Mood for Love on Fri 25th – director Wong Kar Wai’s swooning romance was brought to the attention of a whole new generation of cinemagoers last year when it served as the inspiration for one of Michelle Yeoh’s many multiversal alter egos in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Frodo and pals are on the home stretch as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King concludes Peter Jackson’s classic Tolkien trilogy at Everyman on Sun 27th and Tues 29th, while there’s another cinematic milestone at City Screen on Mon 28th as Christopher Reeve takes flight for the first time in Superman, which is this month’s Dementia-Friendly screening.

And finally, Friday night is cult night, with two late-night screenings competing for your attention on Fri 25th: City Screen’s Video Nasty Club (in collaboration with the good people of Dead Northern) revisits 1979’s enigmatically titled Zombie Flesh Eaters, while Everyman have an Arnie all-timer in the form of 1990’s sci-fi headspinner Total Recall – I don’t know about you, but I reckon “Consider that a divooooorce” knocks “I’ll be back” into a cocked hat…