We like to think that at No.6 we provide for audiences of every stripe and this week we’re doing it with a vengeance. This week we have a film for all the family to enjoy (The Goonies) and a decidedly adults-only erotic thriller (Babygirl); from the bittersweet and romantic (We Live In Time) to more serious relationship analysis (the aforementioned Babygirl); and from the dark underbelly of American society (Nickel Boys) to the lighter side of American youth (The Goonies). And if you think that’s wide ranging, just check out next week’s line-up. If the No.6 audience is, as we hope, a community, then it’s one that embraces everybody.
Nickel Boys
Thursday 6th February at 7pm
Colson Whitehead is one of the world’s greatest novelists, after The Underground Railroad then The Nickel Boys. Nickel Boys, an adaptation of the latter, directed by RaMell Ross, brings the full Pulitzer Prize-winning power of the book to life in this uncompromising historical drama. Based on real life events at the notorious Florida School for Boys (the ‘Nickel Academy’), closed in 2011 after the brutal abuse of its students was uncovered, the film follows the experiences of two boys (Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson) sent to the school at the height of the Civil Rights struggle. Shot using an unusual POV technique, Vanity Fair comments that it “all but reinvents the language for movies about a particular, dark, historical chapter”.
We Live In Time
Friday 7th February at 7pm
Unusual technique also characterises comedy drama We Live In Time, written by Nick Payne, directed by John Crowley and starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. In this case, the decade-long love story between Tobias and Almut is told in non-linear fashion. As with other experiments of this type (e.g. Pinter’s reverse time Betrayal) the jumping back and forth to different stages of the relationship adds a different kind of poignancy to the story. Rotten Tomatoes notes that, “Garfield and Pugh’s palpable chemistry will snatch audiences' hearts before breaking them”, while the Guardian calls it, “a big, full-throated romantic drama that knows exactly how to make us swoon as well as how to make us sad”.
Babygirl
Saturday 8th February at 7pm
Implausibility corner: Nicole Kidman’s Romy is dissatisfied with being married to (wait for it) Antonio Banderas! That out of the way, Babygirl is a highly charged erotic thriller in which Kidman’s CEO starts an affair with a young intern (Harris Dickinson), prompting a discourse on the nature of power differentials in both sex and business and how the two interact. Lest that sound too philosophical, rest assured this is a thriller with the tension ramped up via illicit liaisons, getting caught out and confessing. Director Halina Reijn explores a fascination for women’s relationship to their own bodies and pays homage to the 80s era of Verhoeven and Adrian Lyne along the way in this wildly entertaining and superbly acted thriller.
The Goonies
Sunday 9th February at 3pm
The Goonies is a brat pack a go-go 80s favourite, directed by Richard (Superman) Donner, with a screenplay by Chris Columbus (Gremlins, Home Alone, discovered America) based on a story by Steven Spielberg (insert film title here). High concept cinema at its best, brothers Mikey (Sean Astin) and Brand (Josh Brolin) try to save their soon to-be-demolished home by finding a long-lost treasure, taking them and their friends (including Corey Feldman and Martha Plimpton – collectively the Goonies) on a subterranean journey, encountering pirates, galleons and crime families along the way. Fast paced, action packed and fun, The Goonies is a perfect for-all-the-family adventure for a Sunday afternoon at the cinema.
Up Next Week:
We Live In Time (matinee), Maria, Valentine’s Night Audience Choice: Before Sunrise, No.6’s Greatest Films Of All Time: Once Upon A Time In America