Shaftesbury Arts Centre

Cold War

• 
• 2018
• Poland / France / UK

• Directed by: Pawel Pawlikowski
• Cast: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc, Jeanne Balibar

In 1949 Poland, Wiktor (Kot) is given the job of starting a folk music and dance academy, where he falls for Zula (Kulig). Pawlikowski’s film, dedicated to his own parents, is shot in ravishing black and white and is a stunning love story, steeped in song and emotion and exquisitely crafted.

Colette

• 
• 2018
• UK / US
• 1h 51min
• 15

• Directed by: Wash Westmoreland
• Cast: Keira Knightley, Eleanor Tomlinson, Fiona Shaw
• UK release: 11 January 2019

Biopic of French writer Colette (Knightley), focusing on her early years and her wild days in fin-de-siecle Paris after her marriage to Henry Gauthier-Villars (West). Knightley is fantastic as the bisexual icon and the film becomes more playful as it goes on. A pleasurable rite of passage about a woman striving for…

Kind Hearts and Coronets

• 
• 1949
• UK
• 1h 46min
• PG

• Directed by: Robert Hamer
• Cast: Dennis Price, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood, Alec Guinness

Blacker than black Ealing comedy has a suave and sophisticated Price killing off an entire family tree (all played by Guinness) in order to move himself closer to the d'Ascoyne family title. Low-key cynicism and disarming callousness make it a true gem of British post-war cinema.

Leave No Trace

• 
• 2018
• US
• 1h 48min
• PG

• Directed by: Debra Granik
• Cast: Ben Foster, Thomasin McKenzie
• UK release: 29 June 2018

Tom (McKenzie) is the teenage daughter of Will (Foster), a traumatised military veteran who sells on his own PTSD medication and takes her from place to place, refusing to settle down. Sensitive and non-judgmental picture of a capable young woman and her well-meaning but troubled father, with gorgeously subtle performances.

Shoplifters

• 
• 2018
• Japan
• 2h 1min

• Directed by: Hirokazu Koreeda
• Cast: Kirin Kiki, Lily Franky, Sakura Andô
• UK release: 23 November 2018

A family in Tokyo lives by shoplifting, and then Osamu (Franky) and Shota (Kairi) bring home a little girl who seems to be homeless. The humanity of the performances and the loving attention to visual detail are of a piece in what’s ultimately a film about love.

Vice

• 
• 2018
• US
• 15

• Directed by: Adam McKay
• Cast: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jesse Plemons, Sam Rockwell
• UK release: 25 January 2019

The rise of Dick Cheney (Bale), from electrical worker in Wisconsin to US vice-president, presented as cheeky, dark, inventive comedy. Bale gives a compelling, shape-shifting performance and Adams as his ambitious wife Lynne is scintillating, as are Carell and Rockwell. A super-smart and disconcerting history lesson.

Yesterday

• 
• 2019
• UK
• 1h 52min
• 12A

• Directed by: Danny Boyle
• Cast: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon

Singer-songwriter Jack (Patel) is knocked unconscious when a bus hits his bike, and he wakes up in a world where the Beatles are unknown. There’s some fine comedy (including from Sheeran, playing himself) but it gets less surefooted; Patel can’t stop Jack from being rather morose and it’s neither a classic Curtis rom-com…