Best Films to Watch in London This Week
All the best films to catch in the capital, including Quentin Tarantino's ode to Hollywood and a truly iconic rom-com...
Out and about this week? Fancy a film but can’t make your mind up what to see? Look no further: we’ve assembled the best of what’s on in London and gathered them here to make choosing a great movie as easy as possible. Whether it’s a surprisingly fun live-action film based on a children’s cartoon or a riotous comedy that could very well have been called Superbad Jr., WeLoveCinema has you well and truly covered…
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino recently said that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, his love letter to the end of Hollywood’s Golden Era, could be his last film. If so, it’s a hell of a picture to go out on. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a failing actor, and Brad Pitt as his faithful stuntman, the film plays out as a series of interconnected vignettes, Pulp Fiction-style, against a backdrop of fake television shows, star cameos (hello, Al Pacino), and hippie confrontations. Quasi-historical, à la Inglourious Basterds, Hollywood also features Margot Robbie as actress Sharon Tate, who was murdered by Charles Manson’s followers in 1969 (also here). Brilliantly funny, surprisingly personal and – by the end – deeply melancholy, it’s QT’s best film in close to a decade.
Get Once Upon a Time in Hollywood showtimes in London or read our full review here.
Blinded By the Light
Basically Bend it Like Beckham, albeit with Bruce instead of Beckham, Blinded By the Light – based on a memoir by Sarfraz Manzoor – is a inspired coming-of-age tale set in (ahem) Luton, chronicling a young Pakistani man’s obsession with everything Springsteen. The Bend it Like Beckham comparison is especially apt – the director of that film, Gurinder Chadha, also helms this one, and she does so with the same compassion and acute observation of British-Asian life, this time against a backdrop of Thatcherite England (a brilliant juxtaposition against the hopeful, freewheeling songs of Bruce Springsteen). Fans of the Boss will be delighted with the deep dive into his musical legacy – even if the film does hit the occasional bum note.
Get Blinded by the Light showtimes in London.
Leto
Not an unnecessary and premature biopic about movie star Jared Leto, but a love story set amongst the 80s rock and pop scene in Soviet Leningrad, partly based on true events, and directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, a man who is currently under house arrest in Russia (to say a film of this ilk doesn’t come along very often is very much an understatement). The events in Leto, depicted as a kind of nostalgic love letter, showcase a period of time that many of us probably never knew existed, as citizens tried desperately to import Western music – everything from the Beatles to the Velvet Underground. It’s a hangout movie, mainly, though so evocative of a specific time and place in history that it winds up feeling like a real original.
Get Leto showtimes in London.
Animals
“Girls are tied to beds for two reasons,” deadpans Alia Shawkat’s boozy Tyler, stumbling upon her friend, Laura, played by Holliday Grainger. “Sex and exorcisms. So which was it with you?” Animals, adapted from the novel of the same name, isn’t a horror film (exorcisms are out, then), but a tale of thirty-something debauchery set in Dublin and directed by Sophie Hyde – think Withnail and I, only with a lot more MDMA. As a wild romp of funny one-liners and extreme situations, it makes the most of both Shawkat and Grainger’s talents in a story of two friends whose non-stop partying is interrupted when Laura meets a pianist, played by Fra Fee. Perfect for those living – or those who once lived – a life of pure hedonism.
Get Animals showtimes in London or read our full review here.
Dora and the Lost City of Gold
Dora the Explorer made her name as a immensely popular cartoon on kids’ channel Nickelodeon, and now – somewhat belatedly? – she’s arrived in fully-fledged human form, played by Isabela Moner, in this live-action caper. Most surprising about Dora and the Lost City of Gold isn’t that the previously tiny Dora is now aged sixteen, but the fact the film is both watchable and works entirely independently of the original show (props to director James Bobin of Muppets movie fame). The story, which starts with Dora trying to get her head round high school in LA before shifting to the perilous jungles of Peru, is basically an affable stream of set-pieces, funny interactions, and goofy gags: good, old-fashioned fun, then, rarely afforded.
Get Dora and the Lost City of Gold showtimes in London.
Good Boys
Anyone who thought we’d exhausted the whole “teenagers trying to make it to an awesome party” premise perfected in Superbad and re-perfected in recent Olivia Wilde-directed comedy Booksmart is in for a treat: Good Boys – produced by Seth Rogen – reprises the foul-mouthed-cum-heartfelt combo of its predecessors, but ages down its protagonists to create something that – despite its familiar tropes – winds up feeling fresh. Jacob Trembley, Brady Noon, and Kenneth L. Williams are our three best friends who do everything together, desperate to find their way into their first “Kissing Party.” Despite their young age (they’re twelve), this isn’t aimed at kids, though (one of the big marketing jokes was that the actors weren’t old enough to see the film), resulting in a filthy, inventive slice of nostalgic fun.
Get Good Boys showtimes in London.
When Harry Met Sally…
Inarguably one of the great rom-coms, Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally… owes a clear debt to the playful, self-awareness of Woody Allen’s Annie Hall – a noted comparison amongst many critics when it first hit theatres back in 1989. Still, the film stands as its own thing thanks to the witty and relentlessly quotable script by the late Nora Ephron (though if we hear “I’ll have what she’s having” one more, we’ll burst), and two dynamite lead performances from Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. Both actors arguably never reached the charismatic heights they did here again, as we witness their messy, will-they-won’t-they? romance over a period of several years. Every scene is a little gem; the film only gets better with age.
Get When Harry Met Sally… showtimes in London.
Photograph
This romantic drama, written and directed by Ritesh Batra of The Lunchbox fame, hones in on a lowly photographer named Rafi – played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui – who makes a measly living taking pictures of tourists in Mumbai. One day, he stumbles upon a beautiful student named Miloni, played by Sanya Malhotra, who gets her picture taken but disappears before Rafi can hand it to her. The plot – contrived and yet ripe with comic potential, as was also the case with The Lunchbox – kicks into gear when Rafi uses the photograph to appease his mother, who is nagging him to find a wife. When she announces she’s coming stay, though, Rafi has no choice but to track down Miloni. A warm, if occasionally frustrating, romance.
Get Photograph showtimes in London.
Gaza
This documentary, stunningly shot and edited, depicts life in the infamous stretch of land known as Gaza, compared within the film as something of an “open prison.” The situation here, politically, is something of a quagmire, which is why filmmakers Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell mostly opt to focus on the human stories of its inhabitants, including a taxi driver, a fashion designer, a fourteen-year-old boy, and a tailor. Gaza is packed to the brim with fantastic images that stick with you long after you’ve seen it (you can really tell that one of its directors is a professional photographer), even if the film ultimately works far better as a chronicle of humans struggling against the odds than as an even-handed study of the region.
Get Gaza showtimes in London.
Transit
Adapted from Anna Seghers’ classic 1942 novel of the same name, Transit chronicles the incredibly tense plight faced by a man who assumes the identity of a dead author – and falls in love with his wife. Directed by Christian Petzold with skill and nuance (with just a little of Casablanca thrown in for good measure), the film stars Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer, who are caught in an increasingly disturbing series of events as a result of the charade. Here’s a movie that basically warns that living a life that is not your own is never a good idea, and the result is a strange thriller that isn’t afraid to bump heads with the surreal. Hitchcock fans rejoice.
Get Transit showtimes in London.
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