National Science and Media Museum

Ad Astra

• 
• 2019
• US
• 2h 2min
• 12A

• Directed by: James Gray
• Cast: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland
• UK release: 18 September 2019

In the near future, Roy McBride (Pitt) is an astronaut searching for his father Clifford (Jones), himself a pioneering space explorer. But Roy’s classified mission turns deadly. Gray’s stellar third film is a huge step up, mixing horror and action with deeper themes and anchored by a dazzling turn from Pitt, who has never…

Aladdin

• 
• 2019
• US
• 2h 8min
• PG

• Directed by: Guy Ritchie
• Cast: Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari, Navid Negahban, Nasim Pedrad, Numan Acar, Billy Magnussen, Alan Tudyk, Frank Welker
• UK release: 22 May 2019

Disney’s live-action version of 1992’s Aladdin features a fun, fast-talking and scene-stealing Smith and terrific work from Massoud and Scott as Aladdin and Jasmine, but against that there’s some weird VFX, odd directorial choices and a well-intentioned but clunky female empowerment number. Enjoyable and entertaining…

The Angry Birds Movie 2

• 
• 2019
• UK
• 1h 36min
• U

• Directed by: Thurop Van Orman
• Cast: Dove Cameron, Awkwafina, Peter Dinklage

When Eagle Island villain Zeta (Jones) starts lobbing ice bombs at Piggy Island, ruler Leonard (Hader) bonds with angry birds (Sudeikis, McBride, Gad) to try and clip her wings. Half-knowing and half-derivative, it’s cheerful but gaudy and relentless and the story isn’t strong enough to support all the half-baked set…

Apollo 11: First Steps

• 2019
• US
• 40min

• Directed by: Todd Douglas Miller
• UK release: 17 May 2019

A big-screen experience with never-before-seen 70mm footage and newly discovered audio recordings showcasing the moments of the moon landing. A shortened cut of Apollo 11 intended for IMAX screenings.

Bait

• 
• 2019
• UK
• 1h 29min
• 15

• Directed by: Mark Jenkin
• Cast: Edward Rowe, Isaac Woodvine, Mary Woodvine, Simon Shepherd

Martin (Rowe) is a boat-less Cornish fisherman trying to restore his family fortunes by catching fish any way he can. Jenkin uses silent cinema techniques to turn the tensions in a fishing village into riveting drama, shooting in black and white on a clockwork Bolex. A pertinent, leftfield take on class warfare.

A Beautiful Planet

• 2016
• 45min
• U

• Directed by: Toni Myers

A breath-taking portrait of the planet captured from the International Space Station.

Billy Connolly: The Sex Life of Bandages

• 2019

• Cast: Billy Connolly

Iconic comedian Billy Connolly's last stand-up tour comes to the big screen.

Born to Be Wild

• 2011
• US
• 40min
• U

• Directed by: David Lickley
• Written by: Drew Fellman
• Cast: Birute Galdikas, Daphne Sheldrick, Morgan Freeman (voice)

Nature documentary set in an animal rescue and rehabilitation centre in the rainforests of Borneo.

Downton Abbey

• 
• 2019
• UK
• 2h 2min
• PG

• Directed by: Michael Engler
• Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Michelle Dockery, Joanne Froggatt, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith
• UK release: 13 September 2019

A big screen outing for Downton Abbey and its inhabitants.

Gauguin From The National Gallery, London

Documentary on the life and work of Paul Gauguin.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

• 
• 1953
• US
• 1h 31min
• U

• Directed by: Howard Hawks
• Written by: Anita Loos (novel and play), Joseph Fields (play), Charles Lederer
• Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell

Howard Hawks' beloved 1953 comedy musical starring Monroe and the late Russell.

Hercules

• 1997
• US
• 1h 33min
• U

• Directed by: Ron Clements, John Musker
• Cast: Tate Donovan, Susan Egan, James Woods, Danny DeVito

British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe's designs marry his customary grotesquery with Uncle Walt's softer characterisations. Hades (a magnificently splenetic James Woods) wants to exact revenge on Zeus by destroying his son Hercules, but luckily our hero has Pegasus as his steed and Phil the grumpy satyr (Danny DeVito) as his…

Hitsville: The Making of Motown

• 2019
• 1h 52min

• Directed by: Benjamin Turner, Gabe Turner
• UK release: 4 October 2019

Documentary following the early history of Motown, from its birth in 1950s Detroit until its move to LA in the early 1970s.

Judy

• 2019
• UK
• 1h 58min
• 12A

• Directed by: Rupert Goold
• Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jessie Buckley, Rufus Sewell

Biography of legendary singer-actress Judy Garland and her iconic 1968 London tour directed by Rupert Goold. With Oscar-winner Renée Zellweger in the leading role, Judy tells the story of fame, age and love.

The Killers

• 1946
• US
• 1h 45min
• 12

• Directed by: Robert Siodmak
• Written by: Story:, Ernest Hemingway, Screenplay:, Anthony Veiller, Richard Brooks, Uncredited:, John Huston
• Cast: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Sam Levene

All the markers of the classic film noir are here in abundance as insurance investigator O'Brien looks into the mysterious death of Burt Lancaster. Better than the Don Siegel remake, if only for the atmospherics.

Mary Poppins Returns

• 
• 2018
• US
• 2h 10min
• PG

• Directed by: Rob Marshall
• Cast: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Colin Firth, Meryl Streep

Michael Banks (Whishaw) is facing ruin after the death of his wife, and his sister Jane (Mortimer) can’t help—but then Mary Poppins (Blunt) sails down from the sky. Blunt is suitably brusque and radiant and a fine songstress, and while it’s a sliver of a story it’s impressively imaginative and unashamedly, triumphantly…

Messy Goes to Okido

• 2016
• U

• Directed by: Liz Whitaker
• Cast: Adam Buxton, Kate Harbour, Shelley Longworth, Rob Rackshaw

Educational comedy adventure, following a curious, lovable monster called Messy.

Metropolitan Opera: Manon

• 2012
• US
• 4h 5min
• E

• Cast: Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczala, Paulo Szot

Join the New York Metropolitan Opera for Massenet's Manon, in which the eponymous heroine has little trouble attracting the attentions of men, but only has eyes for one young chevalier, and he's got his sights set on taking holy orders.

Metropolitan Opera: Turandot

• 2016

A live screening of Puccini's opera.

Mrs Lowry & Son

• 
• 2019
• UK
• 1h 31min

• Directed by: Adrian Noble
• Cast: Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Spall, Wendy Morgan

LS Lowry (Spall) is a meek Salford rent collector dominated by his bedridden mother Elizabeth (Redgrave), but his secret passion for painting is about to bring him success. Hesford’s clichéd script feels more like a stage or radio play but Spall and Redgrave manage to bring substance to the bickering; still, it’s glum…

The Mule

• 
• 2018
• US
• 15

• Directed by: Clint Eastwood
• Cast: Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Dianne Wiest

Earl (Eastwood) is a prize-winning horticulturist who, when his business faces foreclosure, becomes a drug mule for the cartels. Despite a clumsy script (based on a true story), Eastwood the director keeps the whole thing humming along to a quietly satisfying conclusion.

National Theatre Live: A Midsummer Night's Dream

A feuding fairy King and Queen of the forest cross paths with four runaway lovers and a troupe of actors trying to rehearse a play. As their dispute grows, the magical royal couple meddle with mortal lives leading to love triangles, mistaken identities and transformations… with hilarious, but dark consequences. "The…

National Theatre Live: Fleabag

• 15

• Directed by: Vicky Jones
• Cast: Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Live broadcast of Fleabag, written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

• 
• 1993
• US
• 1h 16min
• PG

• Directed by: Henry Selick
• Written by: Tim Burton (story), Michael McDowell (adaptation), Caroline Thompson (screenplay)
• Cast: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Ken Page
• UK release: 25 November 1994

Jack Skellington, the skinny trickster king of Halloweentown, is restless with success and needs a new challenge, so he hatches a plot to kidnap Santa and creates a mixed-up Yuletide which isn't quite what the kids expected. Produced and based on a story and characters by Tim Burton.

NT Live: One Man, Two Guvnors

• 2011
• UK
• E

• Directed by: Nicholas Hytner
• Cast: David Benson, Oliver Chris, James Corden

English version of Goldoni's classic Italian comedy.

Pain and Glory

• 
• 2019
• Spain
• 1h 53min

• Directed by: Pedro Almodovar
• Cast: Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz, Leonardo Sbaraglia

Retired director Salvador (Banderas) reflects on his life while one of his older movies is being restored. This is Almodóvar on subdued, melancholic form, and while the film’s standoffish tone prevents us from feeling fully involved, the director’s sense of cinema remains undiminished.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

• 
• 1975
• UK
• 1h 40min
• 15

• Directed by: Jim Sharman
• Written by: Richard O'Brien, Jim Sharman
• Cast: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Jonathan Adams, Peter Hinwood, Meat Loaf, Charles Gray

The cult film to end all others, this rock spoof on old horror movies has created a breed of Rocky Horror crazies, and packs them in at late shows everywhere. The film has its moments, and Curry is splendidly camp as the bisexual Frank N Furter.

Roger Waters  Us + Them

• 2019

• Directed by: Roger Waters, Sean Evans

The co-founder and creative force behind Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, collaborates with director Sean Evans for this film about music, human rights and love.

Room on the Broom

• 2012
• UK
• 25min
• U

• Directed by: Jan Lachauer/Max Lang
• Cast: Simon Pegg, Gillian Anderson, Rob Brydon, Timothy Spall, Martin Clunes, Sally Hawkins, David Walliams

Charming kids' tale about a witch who lets too many creatures onto her broom, much to the annoyance of her cat.

The Shining

• 
• 1980
• US
• 2h 26min
• 18

• Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
• Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall, Philip Stone.

Kubrick's overwrought, overlong horror film dispenses with much of the psychic apparatus of Stephen King's novel to concentrate on the deeper horror of a family turning in on itself. Nicholson, with all the stops out, is bug-eyed and demonic as the writer cracking up violently in an isolated hotel, and the final scenes…

Sunset Boulevard

• 1950
• US
• 1h 50min
• PG

• Directed by: Billy Wilder
• Cast: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim

An unsuccessful screenwriter is drawn into the fantasy world of Norma Desmond, a silent movie star who dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Widely accepted as a classic of US cinema, and rightly so.

To Kill a Mockingbird

• 
• 1962
• US
• 2h 9min
• PG

• Directed by: Robert Mulligan
• Cast: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton

Sturdy film adaptation of the classic Harper Lee novel which won an Oscar for Peck as a liberal lawyer in the Deep South defending a black man accused of rape. The material is delicately handled as Peck attempts to explain the situation to his children, and Duvall makes his screen debut as their friend, a man with…

To Sleep With Anger

• 1990
• US
• 1h 41min
• 12

• Directed by: Charles Burnett
• Written by: Charles Burnett
• Cast: Danny Glover, Richard Brooks, Paul Butler, Mary Alice

An ambitious and charming attempt by black director Burnett to confront racial tensions in the US. Based on an old Georgian legend, it tells the story of traditionalist shit-stirrer Trickster, who visits friends in LA and causes everyone a lot of bother. Keenly political yet warm-hearted, this is a kind of Southern/West…

Touch of Evil

• 
• 1958
• US
• 1h 48min
• 12

• Directed by: Orson Welles
• Written by: Novel:, Whit Masterson, Screenplay:, Orson Welles, Uncredited on screenplay:, Paul Monash, Franklin Coen
• Cast: Orson Welles, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich

In a sleazy border town, the murder of a Mexican bigwig causes friction between corrupt local detective Hank Quinlan (Welles himself) and upright Mexican narcotics agent Vargas (Heston). Amidst a gallery of Wellesian grotesques and expressionist camerawork the dialogue between truth and justice becomes progressively more…

Toy Story 4

• 
• 2019
• US
• 1h 40min
• U

• Directed by: Josh Cooley
• Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Joan Cusack, Blake Clark, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Jodi Benson, Michael Keaton, Jeff Pidgeon, Kristen Schaal, Bonnie Hunt, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, Laurie Metcalf, Lori Alan
• UK release: 21 June 2019

Woody (Tom Hanks) joins new owner Bonnie at kindergarten where he finds a new purpose in protecting her improvised toy Forky (Hale). Pixar manages to further the story with fine new characters and a satisfyingly teary conclusion, for a fine last chapter in the saga.

Volver

• 2006
• Spain
• 2h 1min
• 15

• Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
• Cast: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas

IBLAS Talks Film- Lecturers from the Iberian and Latin American Studies department of the University of Liverpool present a series of films & talks from the wide Luso-Hispanic world that address historical and contemporary issues. Revered Spanish director Pedro Almodavar is known to create rich worlds that revel in…

Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet

• 2016
• 42min
• E

• Directed by: Richard Dale, Barry Cook, Neil Nightingale
• Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch

This BBC Earth film follows the story of a herd of large, plant-eating dinosaurs. Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Wise Children

Based on the novel by Angela Carter Adapted and Directed for the stage by Emma Rice Filmed live at York Theatre Royal in March 2019 Multi-award-winning director Emma Rice brings her unique, exuberantly impish vision to Angela Carter’s great last novel in this brand-new theatre production. A big, bawdy tangle of…