Time Out review: Stanley Ipkiss is a likeable schmuck, a bank teller who wouldn't say
'boo' to a goose. Men don't give him a second glance, women look right
through him - until, one night, Stanley happens across an ancient mask.
Wearing it, he's transformed into a lime-faced bundle of mischievous
energy, part man, part loony tune. 'I could be a superhero,' he muses,
'a force for good...' But first for some fun: he wreaks vengeful havoc
at his local garage, robs the bank where he works, and sweeps lovely
nightclub chanteuse Tina (Cameron Diaz) off her feet. This is a treat, a classic
Jekyll and Hyde story for the '90s. Director Chuck Russell brings a lowbrow
pulp rigour to the material that's reminiscent of vintage Roger Corman
and pays lavish homage to animator Tex Avery. The design is bright as a
button and the transformation scenes real eye-poppers, but the film's
best special effect is putty-faced Jim Carrey with his razzle-dazzle star
turn as the affable Stanley and his manic alter ego. Hip, flip and fly. Tom Charity
Chicago Reader review: Jia Zhang-ke’s second feature (2002) is his best work to date and one of
the greatest of all Chinese films. Its subject is the great theme of
Chinese cinema, the discovery of history, which links such otherwise
disparate masterpieces as The Blue Kite, Blush, Actress, The Puppet Master, and A Brighter Summer Day.
The story charts the course of the Cultural Revolution’s aftermath for
about a decade, noting shifts in values and lifestyles, culture and
economy, as China moves inexorably from Maoism to capitalism, as
witnessed by five actors in a provincial traveling theater troupe. Many
episodes unfold in single long takes, with offscreen sound playing an
important role, and the beautifully choreographed mise en scene recalls
the fluid Hungarian pageants of Miklos Jancso in the 60s and 70s.
Originally 192 minutes long, the film was recut by Jia to its current
155 minutes and improved in the process. Jonathan Rosenbaum
Mulholland Drive is the cinematic re-release of the decade so far. There was
a terrific piece on the movie written to coincide with the re-release
you can find here by Robert Bright in The Quietus. This presentation (also screening till May) is on 35mm.
"Like Billy Wilder’s film named after another iconic Hollywood street, Mulholland Drive
tells a sordid tale of the industry of illusion and its boulevards of
broken dreams – but for David Lynch, these dreams fold into dreams within
dreams within dreams. Originally intended as a pilot for a television
series, Lynch’s möbius riddle was rejected by TV executives. In
restructuring it for the silver screen, Lynch crafted one of his finest
masterworks. When the perky, wholesome Betty Elms lands in Hollywood
for what could be her big break, she meets “Rita,” an ostensible femme
fatale who is rendered identity-less because of amnesia from a car
accident. Lynch’s (and Hollywood’s)
dazzling dream factory sets to work with mysterious objects, startling
visions, amusing detours and revelatory alterations in acting styles and
character identities. The noir cracks open and gives way to a
multi-toned, terrifyingly beautiful hallucination that is as much a
complex reflection on Hollywood
as it is an endlessly transforming psychological puzzle. Cinematic
archetypes – including all versions of the female presented or rejected
by Hollywood
– double, reflect and regenerate into uncanny metaphors in Lynch’s
subconscious minefield where the fluid layers of identity, nostalgia,
desire, deception and projection could be in the minds of the
characters, the audience, or a complete fabrication by dark, unknown
forces behind the scenes … or well beyond." Harvard Film Archive
ICA introduction: A Palme d’Or winner and indie classic, sex, lies, and videotape
(Steven Soderbergh, 1989) examines intimacy, deception and performance
within contemporary relationships. The film centres on confession and
voyeurism, revealing how desire is mediated through speech, surveillance
and withholding. Reworking the logic of the ‘bed trick’ for a modern context, sex, lies, and videotape
replaces physical disguise with emotional concealment. Characters seek
intimacy through misdirection and revelation, turning acts of confession
into forms of erotic performance. In doing so, the film unsettles
distinctions between truth and fabrication, consent and manipulation,
exposing desire as something staged, deferred and negotiated.
This screening forms part of a wider film programme exploring the 'bed
trick' – one of the oldest narrative devices in myth, literature and
cinema – in which characters go to bed with one person and wake up with
another. Across three films and a book launch, the programme examines
how cinema uses disguise, secrecy and revelation to probe desire,
fantasy and the entanglement of sex and lies.
Time Out review: Ann (Andie MacDowell) is not happy: her husband John (Peter Gallagher) is a lawyer
who, unbeknownst to her, is having an affair with her virtually
estranged sister (San Giacomo). The deception only comes to light with
the arrival of John's old friend Graham (James Spader), a shy, impotent
eccentric who gets his kicks from watching interviews he has taped with
women about their sexual experiences... Steven Soderbergh's first feature is
impressively mature, less concerned with actions per se than with
the gulf between deed and motivation, between what we feel and what we
say we feel. Despite the title, there is almost no explicit nudity or
sexual activity; by avoiding sensationalism, Soderbergh leaves himself
free to focus unblinkingly on moral and psychological complexities. No
character is entirely without dishonesty or hang-ups; all initially
shrink from taking full responsibility for their actions. The actors are
superb; working from Soderbergh's funny, perceptive, immaculately
wrought dialogue, they ensure that the film stimulates both
intellectually and emotionally. Geoff Andrew
This is a 35mm presentation and part of Bob Fosse day at the Prince Charles Cinema. You can find full details here.
Prince Charles Cinema introduction: Controversial
comedian Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman) begins his career telling bad
jokes to bored audiences in the 1950s, but can't repress his desire to
unleash edgier material. When he does, he begins a one-man campaign to
break down social hypocrisy, and his groundbreaking stage act propels
him to cult-hero status. When authorities ban Lenny's act for obscenity,
he begins a downward spiral of drugs, sex and debt, aided by his
bombshell wife, a stripper named Honey (Valerie Perrine).
The Liberated Film Club is running twice monthly from July 2025 to July
2026. No film titles are announced in advance of the screenings but we feel sure writer Sophie Sleigh-Johnson's choice will not disappoint. For
more information on the year-long season click here
Close-Up Cinema introduction: Welcoming Sophie Sleigh-Johnson. Sleigh-Johnson’s book Code: Damp - An Esoteric Guide to British Sitcoms
(2024, Repeater Books) brings 1970s comic actor Leonard Rossiter into
communion with the Hierophantic mystical tradition, extruded through the
spagyric material and metaphor of damp. Here, the magnetic field of the
television image bids occult artefact and memory to coagulate one to
another. “I didn't get where I am today without recognising ‘promising
inroads’ when I see them,” she says, pace C.J. Her ongoing work is
distributed across spoken word, sonic environments, printmaking, props,
and local newspapers, and is written in periodicals including Darkside magazine, Faunus: The Journal of Arthur Machen Society, and The London Drinker. Recent projects include her curation of a special 'Code: Damp' Experimenta Mixtape series at the BFI. She lives in Southend-on-Sea.
This rare screening of Yanks – presented from a 35mm print held in the Cinema Museum’s own collections – takes place as part of The Consummate Professional: John Schlesinger at 100, a UK-wide celebration of one of Britain’s greatest directors in his centenary year and feels This rare screening of Yanks – presented from a 35mm print held in the Cinema Museum’s own collections – takes place as part of The Consummate Professional: John Schlesinger at 100, a UK-wide celebration of one of Britain’s greatest directors in his centenary year. There will be a special introduction by Yanks aficionado Carole Sharp.
Cinema Museum introduction: During the Second World War, over a million American soldiers were
stationed in cities and towns the length and breadth of Britain. At the
end of the war, some 70,000 ‘GI brides’ would return to America with
them. Director John Schlesinger tells how the lives of three women (Vanessa
Redgrave, Lisa Eichhorn, Wendy Morgan) were indelibly changed by three
such ‘Yanks’ (Richard Gere, William Devane, Chick Vennera) who were all,
as the saying went, ‘overpaid, oversexed and over here’. Colin
Welland’s story, set in a typical Lancashire town in the years between
Pearl Harbour and D-Day, draws on a range of the real-life
Anglo-American romances that were all too familiar during the war, yet
have rarely been depicted in films before or since. A powerful ensemble
drama, it features outstanding performances from, amongst many others,
Rachel Roberts in a deservedly BAFTA-winning role.
