Tell us your top 3 films of 2023!

Small independent cinemas are always going to struggle against the bigger players and this year has been no different as we all try to work out what kind of fall-out we are still experiencing from the pandemic. Audiences are definitely returning to cinemas but we are still a way off pre-Covid attendance figures even in the year that delivered Barbie and Oppenheimer slap bang in the middle of summer.

There have been difficult times. Our Open Air Cinema season was an almost total wash-out, quite literally, as we struggled against high winds and rain and had to cancel most of the screenings. In the 12 years we have been running OAC, we’ve never experienced a summer like it. The disappointment for audiences and the PAC team is only one part of the story too. When events are cancelled, holes start to appear in budgets and when you are a small Indy cinema, that can start to look very frightening.

Given all of the above, there have also, happily, been far more highs than lows. The Crowdfunder that we launched in November has shown us just how much people care what we do and how the PAC audience is officially The Best. We have been astounded by the response, it means so much. The campaign is running until the 10th January and we have set a stretch target of £12,500. We support the National Living Wage and want to give our wonderful and dedicated front of house staff the recommended increase from April 2024. Any pledges towards our stretch target will go towards funding this pay increase. You can make a donation by clicking below, and we still have lots of lovely rewards, including tours of Plymouth Gin Distillery, and PAC mugs!

Donate to our Crowdfunder 

In October we had the absolute privilege of being invited to Brest (Plymouth’s twin European city) to present Ken Loach’s film The Old Oak as part of the British Film Festival there. The trip was such a lot of fun and we were looked after incredibly well by the Brest Twinning group. We made some wonderful friends and can’t wait to invite them back to see us at PAC next year.

We have worked with some wonderful partner organisations around the city on a huge range of different projects. From Arts University Plymouth’s Fashion department to University of Plymouth marketing students, from Fotonow and Plymouth Youth Justice Team to Hidden Figures of Plymouth. We worked with The Box and The Arts Institute, UoP on a series of films and talks for the Joshua Reynolds exhibition, with the Urban Tree Festival, Cornwall Climate Care. We hosted festival films with the Japan Foundation, Safar Arabic Film Festival, the French Film Festival and Cinesisters SW. The Ocean Conservation Trust came in to introduce all of this year’s Into Film schools screenings and the children loved hearing about some of the badly behaved animals living on our doorstep at the National Marine Aquarium. The year is ending on a major high with screenings of some gems as part of the national BFI funded season, Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger where we have rediscovered the beauty and power of their films.

This year, we hosted 552 screenings, with an attendance of over 12,750 and no end-of-year review would be complete without picking film favourites. Just for fun, you can tell us your top 3 films at PAC of the year by clicking below:

Tell us your top 3 films of 2023  

The PAC team of staff and volunteers voted for their top 3 films. Many of the votes were tied, so there wasn’t a clear winner, but our top films of the year are: 1. Past Lives, Killers of the Flower Moon 2. Barbie, The Fabelmans and Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

On a personal note, when I tried to pick my top 5 films, I found it almost impossible to narrow it down from an initial list of 22 but, if absolutely pushed, here are my top 5: 1. Aftersun 2. Rye Lane 3. Anatomy of a Fall 4. Brainwashed: Sex Camera Power 5. Smoke Sauna Sisterhood 6. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom 7. Enys Men (with Mark Jenkins introducing it – pictured) I know that’s 7, I cheated!

Finally, the most important thing. Without our small team of staff and trustees, and our huge team of volunteers who give their time for free, we wouldn’t be able to keep showing all of these wonderful films and events. They all deserve a big thank you.

Thank you to the organisations who have affirmed the place of independent cinema in Plymouth by funding Plymouth Arts Cinema this year: The British Film Institute, Plymouth City Council, The Garfield Weston Trust and the Foyle Foundation. Chris Kallis Solicitors for their sponsorship and The Art Side for sponsoring our printed brochure.

Thank you to our Open Air Cinema sponsors who stuck with us through a very soggy summer: Arts University Plymouth, Plymouth Gin, Chris Kallis, Summerskills, Sandford Orchards, 24/7 Event Crew, Plymouth Citybus, Navas Drinks, Service Design Solutions, Plymouth Marjon University. Thank you to our brilliant suppliers and cultural partners across Plymouth who donated rewards to our Crowdfunder: Salcombe Dairy, Summerskills Brewery, Canton Tea, wine from Tolchards, Ocean Studios, Plymouth Gin Distillery.

But the biggest thank you of all, this year in particular, goes out to the PAC audience who continue to support, surprise and encourage us to keep going and to look forward to all of the cinematic treats in store for 2024.

What’s On In January 

See you in the New Year!

Anna Navas and the Team at PAC

The post 2023 – What a Year! appeared first on Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth..

The screening on Saturday 9th December featured a special dance performance. Celebrating the intoxication of dancing feet, Barbican Theatre presented a new dance featuring Tap, Flamenco and Street dance – the footwork led the audience through the bar and into the cinema – toward the brilliance of Powell and Pressburgers’ Red Shoes.

Borrowing from the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, The Red Shoes turns away from its gothic (and gory) origins and transplants the story into the world of ballet. A theatre in Covent Garden is about to show a production from Ballet Lermontov, a company led by the enigmatic, world-weary Boris Lermontov (played by Anton Walbrook). Dance and music students, having queued for hours, eagerly pile into the cheap seats. Among them is composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring). As the students cheer on their music professor, who has written the score for Lermontov’s new ballet, Hearts on Fire, Julian realises that the music being played, is his. 

Powell and Pressburger are establishing plot and motive. The camera sears into the face of a young woman, watching the ballet intently. Socialite and ballerina Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) already dances professionally, but has her eye on the next rung of the ladder. At an after-party, she introduces herself to Lermontov and gets herself an invite to the next rehearsal. In a fit of rage, Craster hastily writes a letter to Lermontov regarding the music. The next day, he interrupts Lermontov’s breakfast to ask for the letter back. Instead, Craster is offered a job, coaching the orchestra. He takes it.

A great film about the precarious nature of showbusiness, The Red Shoes brutally illustrates Ballet Lermontov’s revolving-door policy, when the prima ballerina announces that she is engaged. Lermontov fires her on the spot. One cannot, in his view, commit to both art and love. Victoria and Julian meet with the impresario and his team. There is a new ballet on the books, a female principal is required, and the score needs work. Within moments, The Red Shoes intertwines the lives of Lermontov, Page and Craster. 

The Red Shoes takes us from backstage to the best seat in the house. As the company perform the new ballet, Powell and Pressburger play with scale and perspective: we move from a panoramic view of the stage, to intensely-lit close-ups. The mise-en-scene, exuberant in three-strip Technicolour, is styled along expressionist lines. The outline of the ballet is simple enough: an ambitious young girl is offered a pair of enchanted red ballet shoes. She will become, on wearing them, a great dancer. As Shearer’s character jumps into the shoes in that iconic moment, she realises, too late, that she is doomed to dance forever. The red shoes never get tired. 

The ballet – a show within a show – is a hallmark of Powell and Pressburger’s style. We follow Shearer through giddying changes of scenery, into a dream-like, kaleidoscopic state. Art forms collide: hand-painted screens interlink with super-imposed images of a crashing sea roaring over the floodlights, contrasting the tradition of theatre with the innovation of early cinema. As the fantasy becomes a nightmare, the dancer’s psychological torment is actualised by ghoulish creatures surrounding her. It is a nod to the roots of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories; a primal, indecipherable terror. The emotive, Oscar-winning score from Brian Easdale completes the concept Powell and Pressburger wanted to articulate as film-makers. The Red Shoes not only explores how cinema can represent psychology, but its drawing of female characters is a real step forward. The lure of fame, the sweat and toil that goes into making an ‘effortless’ performance, Shearer’s heroine does not evoke the genteel post-war world of high culture: she is unashamedly pushing herself to the very top. The jewelled coronet she wears to parties isn’t so much a declaration as a disguise. Page may have started the film as a society belle, but while she has elegance, she’s also got grit. As the film enters its final act, Page will have to decide between art and love. It is an impossible choice.

For all its pyrotechnics, The Red Shoes works so well as a dance film because of its authenticity. Shearer was already an experienced ballerina by the time she was cast as Page. The two male dancers who work with her also represent the best in the business. Leonide Massine (playing Grischa Ljubov) was a principal at the Ballets Russes by the time he was 19, and Robert Helpmann (Ivan Boleslawsky) also had a background in dance, but is best remembered for scaring generations of children as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s Child Catcher. It is this grounding, in technique and discipline, that makes the heightened emotional moments so disturbing. There are elements of horror and spectacle within this film, and much of The Red Shoes feels like a fever dream. But the organisation of ideas: a building sense of dread, the giddying highs and humiliating lows of success and failure in the arts, means that the film is more finely tuned to our waking thoughts. 

As The Red Shoes reaches its ambivalent conclusion, the uneasiness that lingers feels like it should belong to a more contemporary film. It is Powell and Pressburger’s refusal to make easily-defined films that has given their body of work such longevity. The Red Shoes escapes the confines of a traditionally-told story, and takes us into a psychological narrative of unresolved ambition and unnamed desire.

Reviewed by Helen Tope

Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger is a major UK-wide celebration of one of the greatest and most enduring filmmaking partnerships. Supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network. bfi.org.uk/powell-and-pressburger

The post Event Review: The Red Shoes appeared first on Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth..

Loosely based on the family featured in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, this later-generation story begins in 2006, and owes as much to cinematic references as Waugh’s examination of Britain’s class structure: think Kubrick’s chancing hero Barry Lyndon meets The Talented Mr Ripley.

Director Emerald Fennell uses her own experiences to depict life at an Oxford college. A scholarship boy, Oliver Quick (played by Barry Keoghan), arrives at the university, very much a fish out of water. His first introduction to the privileged side of Oxford is when his classmate arrives 20 minutes late for their tutorial. Farleigh Start (an excellent Archie Madekwe) is the cousin of Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), heir to Saltburn.

A chance encounter has put Oliver in Felix’s orbit. As Oliver begins to integrate himself into Felix’s group, the film notes how the air around them is a little headier: the insults are more cutting; the Jagerbombs at the pub, eye-wateringly expensive. Fennell, a graduate of Greyfriars, casts a satirical eye on university life for those who will never need the benefit of a university education. Oliver – so conscientious he ploughs through the entire summer reading list when his tutor hasn’t even read half of it – starts to learn that the set of rules that got him through the college gates simply don’t apply to Felix. Tall, classically handsome but sensitive, Felix takes an interest in Oliver, especially when Oliver reveals his tragic home life. An alcoholic mother, and a drug-addicted father who has recently died (the character’s background darkly mirrors Keoghan’s own), he is invited to spend the summer break at Saltburn.

The scenes at ancient, beautiful Saltburn – Oliver adjusting to life at the manor; gloriously sunny days by the pool with Felix and his sister, Venetia (Alison Oliver) – are overlaid with an indulgent early Noughties soundtrack. Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Girls Aloud drop you into a moment. Pre-Brexit, pre-Covid, surrounded by beautiful artefacts and second-rate Rubens, Fennell really sells us the dream. Coupled with the double-act that is Sir James and Elspeth Catton (Richard E Grant, Rosamund Pike playing the parents, and having the time of their lives), Oliver can easily be forgiven for having his head turned. Held at arms’ length by Farleigh, and the Catton’s butler, Duncan (a superb Paul Rhys), Oliver is welcomed in by the rest of the family. His sexual longing for Felix – a source of tension between the friends – begins to spill over, and (getting a little too comfortable) Oliver finds a more amenable partner in Venetia. Fennell reveals the third act as Elspeth throws Oliver an extravagant birthday party: the gothic tones, in the shade of a blistering summer, now come to the fore. The Dionysian delights start to leave a bitter taste.

With the release of Saltburn, there have been criticisms aimed at Fennell: can someone so immersed in this social class really view it with any disparity? But it is in the attention to detail that Saltburn really comes to life. For example, the breakfast scene, where Oliver has to be told how breakfast works for the upper classes (eggs served separately); and the surprising equation that the bigger the stately home, the smaller the telly. Oliver’s confusion at everyone crowding around a tiny telly in the library is shared by the audience. The social satire is perfectly pitched, because it’s delivered by someone ‘in the club’. As the daughter of jeweller Theo Fennell; born into wealth and privately educated, Emerald shouldn’t excel at the nuanced observation and empathy required for film-making. But the sharp eye, the survival instinct: Fennell aligns herself far more closely with Oliver than Felix or Venetia. Even as the film reaches its darkest phase (and this is a film that does not shy away from controversy), the Cattons find themselves overwhelmed by events; Quick naturally rises to the occasion.

Saltburn merges riotous comedy with acidic, noir satire. The blending of genres largely succeeds, but the resolution – the tying-up of loose ends – feels messy and incoherent. However, it’s not enough of a fault to undo the rest of the film. The performances, across the board, are sensational. Keoghan’s amoral anti-hero pulls us in, and then reviles us. Rosamund Pike as silly but glamorous Elspeth nearly steals the show with her one-liners. Paul Rhys’ watchful butler is far from dispassionate: his range of emotion provides Saltburn with much-needed depth.

While not a perfect film, Saltburn grabs your attention and refuses to let go. Fennell’s portrait of the outsider is just as compelling as her depiction of a class frozen in time. Fennell answers her critics by demonstrating that she is able to see both sides of the coin. It feels like this subject isn’t fully done for her, either. Saltburn initially dazzles, the visuals entice, but the cracks soon appear when everyone stops having fun. There is a better film to be made, once Fennell decides it’s time to revisit.

Saltburn is showing at Plymouth Arts Cinema from Friday 24th – Wednesday 29th November with a Bringing in Baby Screening on Thursday 30 November. 

Reviewed by Helen Tope

The post Film Review: Saltburn – “grabs your attention and refuses to let go” appeared first on Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth..

More than this though, cinema should be accessible to all, no matter what the barriers are. In the current cost-of-living crisis we recognise that it is getting harder for people to afford to see films in cinemas. Your support will help us to be able to continue to offer our low ticket prices to those most in need. We don’t want people to break the habit of coming to the cinema because they can’t afford it. We introduced a £4 Budget ticket in a trial period in the last quarter of 2022. We sold 242 tickets and welcomed 53 people to the cinema for the first time with this price. Plymouth Live named PAC as one of Plymouth’s kindest businesses for this initiative.

“I really appreciate the concession prices, otherwise I just wouldn’t be able to afford to see such a range of films. My son is studying film production at Uni and every time he comes down we book a film with you!” – PAC Audience Member

It is widely proven that engagement with the arts alleviates anxiety, depression and stress, boosting feelings of wellbeing, and building communities. Everyone should be able to afford cinema tickets to benefit from this.

2) climate change, by investing in our equipment to make it more energy efficient, supporting greener modes of transport to the cinema and continuing to raise awareness with the events we put on.

Our projector and coffee machine are coming towards the end of their life. We need to invest in order to improve, maintain and even replace some of these things, and we want to do it sustainably, in more energy efficient ways.

We want to be a sustainable, affordable venue which can continue to put audiences at the heart of everything it does.

“Excellent way of connecting ideas through films. Loved that there was a workshop, film intro and a screening, all related to the subject. You really wouldn’t get this kind of cinema event happening anywhere else.” – PAC Audience Member

“I love the warm friendly welcome from the staff and volunteers, the comfort of the seats (as I’m disabled), the coffee and the amazing programming – we get to see some films we wouldn’t otherwise see.” – PAC Audience Member

By supporting this Crowdfunder you will:

We have some amazing rewards on offer from our some of our brilliant suppliers and cultural partners across Plymouth: Salcombe Dairy, Summerskills Brewery, Canton Tea, wine from Tolchards, Ocean Studios, Plymouth Gin Distillery. You can also get Plymouth Arts Cinema mugs, tote bags, pin badges, film posters, memberships and cinema hire.

The post Crowdfunder: The Future Of Plymouth Arts Cinema appeared first on Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth..

Tara (Mia KcKenna Bruce), Em (Enva Lewis) and Skye (Lara Peake) are smart and confident teenagers let loose for a week. They prove their mettle early on by wrangling a room upgrade at their resort, and putting down a chump who dares to chat them up. Underneath the bravado though, they are still children. They play football, eat cheesy chips, mess around, and at crucial moments, are faced with the impossibility of putting terrible events into words.

The film is a super-realistic depiction of their earnest quest to have sex, free from the constraints of home. The director also provides vivid material that would be suitable for a year 11 PSHE lesson on sexual consent.

The mood at the start of the film is wholesome and playful. The genre demands of a disaster movie are present too, and for the first third of the film you are waiting for the bad thing to happen. Stakes are raised when one character reveals she is still a virgin. It is hopefully not a spoiler to say that bad things do happen. The skill of the director is that she takes us right there in forensic detail when they do.

This is a technically accomplished piece of film making – moods are communicated clearly through shaky cameras, high energy music from dubstep star Jakwob, the claustrophobic setting of the resort, and the crowded hedonism of the night club scene. Mia McKenna Bruce (Tee Taylor, in Tracey Beaker Returns) gives an outstanding big screen performance as Tara. She demonstrates a great range of feeling from elation to mute trauma. I also liked Shaun Thomas (Gerry Roberts, in Emmerdale) as ‘sexy clown’ Badger. His character is warm, respectful, yet also conflicted over his allegiances. 

Much of the action is rinsed through with torrents of alcohol, and if you are a parent you may start to wish these girls a good night’s sleep and some green vegetables. 

How to Have Sex is a thoughtful and sympathetic film from a talented team of millennial actors and crew about what really goes on in the negotiations around sex – where it occasionally goes right, and where it can go very wrong. For one of the characters, the ending of the film feels really just the beginning of her problems. It was a wise decision to keep the BBFC classification to 15. This means the post-GCSE pupils it depicts can watch along and engage with the issues shown. A must-see for teenagers, their parents, and anyone in between who is troubled by the power imbalances that persist between the genders six years after #metoo.

Bad Sex Writing Workshop with Laura Horton

Following the matinee screening of How to Have Sex on Saturday 18th November, Plymouth playwright Laura Horton led a special “Bad Sex” writing workshop. Taking inspiration from the idea that creativity flourishes when offered permission not to be perfect, Laura led us on a series of prompts to produce short fictional passages of deliberately bad erotica. Mine involved a runny fried egg and a knee-trembler under a Formica café table! The workshop was funny and liberating. 

Laura, the former Plymouth Laureate of Words, runs a Bad Sex Writing podcast, and has written for Vogue magazine about the cathartic effects of writing humorously about sex. In her article she says, “Ultimately, this sort of camaraderie makes sex less intimating – and makes us all feel less alone.”

Plymouth Arts Cinema would like to thank Laura for a wonderful and playful afternoon.

Find out more about Bad Sex Writing on Instagram @badsexwriting

How To Have Sex is screening at Plymouth Arts Cinema from Friday 17 – Thursday 23 November.

Reviewed by James Banyard

The post Review: How to Have Sex + Bad Sex Writing Workshop appeared first on Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth..

Dear Reader, Subscriber, Cinemagoer, Friend,

I am writing this on the road in an electric car with producer Cairo Cannon, as we preview our road movie TYPIST ARTIST PIRATE KING before its theatrical release this Friday. We are handing the film over to you, the audience: a film is nothing without you – for by watching the film you complete it.

“A FILM IS NOTHING WITHOUT YOU – FOR BY WATCHING THE FILM YOU COMPLETE IT” As we navigate the roads, I ponder how the archive of a real woman – the artist and mental health survivor Audrey Amiss – has brought us to this point. How lucky I was to get a Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship and become the first researcher to get such significant access to her fifty thousand wonderful sketches; her brilliant paintings; her erudite diaries; logbooks and scrapbooks.

But what kind of movie was I going to make? I didn’t feel a documentary was the right form. Audrey had left so many words behind – I wanted to make a film where she spoke for herself!

“AUDREY HAD LEFT SO MANY WORDS BEHIND — I WANTED TO MAKE A FILM WHERE SHE SPOKE FOR HERSELF”

Audrey loved to travel and rather saw herself as Don Quixote. And so, the idea of the road movie emerged, with Audrey going on a journey with her psychiatric nurse, Sandra Panza, in search of an art exhibition. Along the way, Audrey misidentifies many of the people she comes across as those from her past. This was something I drew from her real-life diaries – it enabled me to unfold Audrey’s past in the present without the need of flashbacks. Oh, and Audrey also gave me the title of the film; when I found her old passport, she had written as her occupation: Typist Artist Pirate King.

It was important to me that I made a film with comedy running through it, as Audrey Amiss was funny. She prided herself on her sense of humour. She wrote of returning from the hairdresser with her hair like Reggie Kray, she sent numerous letters to the Sherlock Holmes Society about her missing sock.

Every single person who collaborated on the film loved Audrey’s art and wanted passionately to bring Audrey to filmic life. Monica Dolan, playing the spirit of Audrey Amiss, is extraordinary and brings Audrey, a person pushed to the margins, to the very centre of the world. And Kelly Macdonald offers an incredible portrait of a nurse on the frontline – no longer able to move forward, though with Audrey’s help she does. Becoming friends, they help each other.

“EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO COLLABORATED ON THE FILM LOVED AUDREY’S ART AND WANTED PASSIONATELY TO BRING AUDREY TO FILMIC LIFE” The brilliant Gina McKee plays Audrey’s sister, Dorothy, who she met in her preparation for the film. (Dorothy got into trouble with her family for not taking a photo of herself with Gina!) The film is dedicated to Dorothy, who sadly died while we were editing. She was very happy that Audrey was going to get the recognition she and her mam Belle believed she deserved. And when Dorothy read the screenplay she wrote me a note, which touched me deeply: “Thank you for giving me my Audrey back.”

It also seems poignant that the Saturday of our opening weekend would have been Audrey’s 90th birthday – so I hope you will seek out TYPIST ARTIST PIRATE KING this weekend and discover and complete the film in your own way.

With love and respect to you all from the road, Carol

The post A Letter From Carol Morley, Director of Typist Artist Pirate King appeared first on Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth..

Here is a quote from Allen, after covering last weeks’ film, The Great Escaper:

“I have been somewhat unwell of late but as I started as a volunteer way back in October 1978 I was determined to cover yesterday’s matinee… The whole experience made me feel so much better and confirmed the fact that cinema-going can still be a wonderful way to spend an afternoon in a world fraught with hostility and sadness especially as the two main stars were so brilliant in their roles in a lovely film.”

In the past we have interviewed Allen about his memories of many years of cinema going, and you can watch/ read these here:

The post Celebrating 45 Years at Plymouth Arts Cinema with Allen Pollock appeared first on Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth..

The oil wells not only bring work and prosperity for the Osages and white men, they also bring criminals and those who seek to rob them by manipulation, stealth and murder.

William King Hale, played by Robert De Niro, is shown to be a friend of the Osages and knows about their customs and even speaks their language. He is the uncle of Ernest Burkhart, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who takes Ernest under his wing when he returns from serving in the First World War.

Ernest makes a living as a taxi driver and he falls in love with a regular passenger, Osage Mollie Kyle, played by Lily Gladstone. Hale is pleased with and encourages this relationship, as she is in line to inherit a share of the oil-rich mineral rights on the land.

With his younger brother, Byron played by Scott Shepherd, Ernest carries out armed robberies in the area, and is seduced by the power of money beyond anything else. Once married to Mollie, in a combined Osage/Catholic ceremony, Ernest is persuaded by Hale to kill off members of her family to inherit their wealth.

Ernest and his fellow murderous conspirators are relatively inept, yet the local law enforcement officers and the two local doctors, brothers Dr James and David Shoun, turn a blind-eye. As the murder toll escalates the Osage are forced to seek help from Washington and the Bureau of Investigation.eventually comes to their aid.

Hale and Ernest are arrested, and Ernest is torn between testifying for or against his Uncle. Will he make a choice to support his uncle or will his love for Mollie win out?

Leonardo DiCaprio as the gullible and morally challenged Ernest, Lily Gladstone as the steadfast and savvy Mollie, and Robert De Niro as the duplicitous Hale make for perfect casting.

The cinematography of the vast beautiful landscape contrasted with the congested township gives a real sense of being immersed in the Wild West of the 1920s, where the attitudes of the old west are still alive and kicking.

Based on true events, under Martin Scorsese’s direction this is an epic story that skillfully shows how Hale uses his power to control and manipulate both the criminal underworld and the local authorities. Ernest is just one of his puppets that he uses to steal the property rights of the Osage, despite his outward appearance of being an advocate and friend of the people.

In the past you knew who the enemy was, says one of the nation’s leaders, now with their new wealth anyone can be an enemy. Killers of the Flower Moon chillingly shows how a localised genocide of a people is perpetuated using stealth, rather than an outright attack, and as such presents a microcosm of how indigenous people were regarded and robbed in the USA.

Killers of the Flower Moon is screening at Plymouth Arts Cinema from friday 3 – Saturday 11 November.

The post Film Review: Killers of the Flower Moon appeared first on Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth..