PROGRAMME HIGH-RISE APRIL 2016 “possibly Britain’s most beautiful cinema..” (BBC) Britain’s Best Cinema – Guardian Film Awards 2014 APRIL 2016 • ISSUE 133 www.therexberkhamsted.com 01442 877759 Mon-Sat 10.30-6.30pm Sun 4.30-5.30pm BEST IN APRIL CONTENTS Films At A Glance 16-17 BOX OFFICE: 01442 877759 Mon to Sat 10.30-6.30 Sun 4.30-5.30 Hail, Caesar! The Coens triumph with this minutely detailed comic tribute to SEAT PRICES 1950’s Hollywood. Page 19 Circle £9.00 Concessions £7.50 FILMS OF THE MONTH Table £11.00 Concessions £9.50 Royal Box Seat (Seats 6) £13.00 Whole Royal Box £73.00 All matinees £5, £6.50, £10 (box) Disabled and flat access: through the gate on High Street (right of apartments) Director: James Hannaway Orchestra Seats The Pearl Button 01442 877999 A beautiful French fancy. Delicious Guzman knits beauty, horror and Advertising: Chloe Butler and heart-warming loss into one seamless ode 01442 877999 Page 14 Page 20 Artwork: Demiurge Design 01296 668739 The Rex High Street (Three Close Lane) Berkhamsted, Herts HP4 2FG www.therexberkhamsted.com “ Unhesitatingly The Rex Disorder The Wind That Shakes is the best cinema I have Rising Matthias Schoenaerts in this The Barley taut, brooding Euro thriller Ken Loach’s beautifully measured ever..” (STimes Culture) Page 22 story of Irish loyalty conflict and family. Page 23 OCTOBERAPRIL FILMS FILMS 8 THE REX - APRIL BOX OFFICE: 01442 877759 The Big Short Fantasia Both Margin Call and Wolf of Wall Street showed Regarded by many as Walt Disney’s best, Fantasia just how the financial crash of 2008 could make is the 1940 Disney original, back on the big for gripping drama and/or a riotous comedy. The screen seventy six years after its original release. Big Short shoots for both, and the results are mostly An animated classic arranged into nine segments successful. of well-known pieces of classical music; Fantasia Based on the non-fiction book of the same name, drifts through the work of Bach, Tchaikovsky, Dukas, director Adam McKay lets his all-star cast have a Stravinsky, Beethoven, Ponchielli, Mussorgsky and Shubert. Mickey Mouse stars iconically as the little fun. The Big Short tells the story of the financial sorcerer’s apprentice. crisis from the perspective of financiers who grasped Fantasia was a passion project for Walt Disney, the implications of the toxic, parasitic waltz of Wall bringing together the “high art” of classical music Street and property lenders before anyone else. with animation (a lofty premise indeed for an The film alternates between an energetic, comic animated children’s feature). Despite its high brow documentary style and realist re-enactments from the intent, Fantasia has endured. Featuring the work of book. Explanatory interludes are intended to enable the Disney studio’s artists at the height of their old- viewers to make sense of all the financial arcana. style hand-drawn powers, coupled with conductor McKay, whose tomfoolery with regular Will Ferrell in Leopold Stokowski’s musical arrangements; Fantasia’s the Anchorman films, makes him an interesting choice fanciful visual interpretations make for a true to tackle grounded material. There are nods and masterwork. winks to the camera as characters break the fourth A splendid treat for eyes and ears. Challenge the wall. The effect is jarring at first a la David Brent, but short attention spans of your millennial offspring with the devise starts to work here as an absorbing, easily this one. Essential viewing for anybody who is, or digestible method of condensing all the madness. ever once was, a wide-eyed child. (research Jack Whiting) Money players will get a smug “One of Disney’s greatest achievements.” (Telegraph) kick out of it. Bring one of your own, to kick. “Fantasia persists. It is icon, uplift, art of the future, nostalgia, psychedelic journey, Americana, technological triumph, classic.” (Washington Post) Director: Adam McKay. Cast: Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell Duration: 130 mins Director: Norm Ferguson Origin: USA 2015 Cast: Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor Certificate: 15 Duration: 125 mins Company: Paramount Origin: USA 1940 Certificate: PG Company: Walt Disney When... When... Sat 2 2.00 Fri 1 7.30 Tue 5 2.00 www.therexberkhamsted.com THE REX - APRIL 9 The Revenant Spotlight Alejandro Iñárritu’s inspiring tale of revenge Director Tom McCarthy, redeeming himself from and human survival is a stone cold classic in the Adam Sandler, puts together a strong ensemble in making. Leading a fur-trapping expedition through this gripping true-life expose. Michael Keaton is in peak form as Walter Robinson, the swallowing wilderness of 1823 Midwest an editor with determination and Spotlight’s stalwart America, tracker Hugh Glass (a superb DiCaprio) who leads a team including Michael Rezendes and his band of hunters are suddenly attacked by a (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and Native American tribe. researcher Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James). Robinson When his former confidant John Fitzgerald (Hardy) is skeptical that his newspaper, whose readers and then leaves him for dead following a brutal bear staffers are largely third/fourth generation Irish- attack, Glass must call upon his inner strength and Catholic, can tackle the Boston Archdiocese. harness his survival skills to forge a way back home The harsh lesson for the folks at Spotlight comes from across 200 miles of icy wasteland and track down outsider: Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) the paper’s new editor-in-chief; a Floridian and the first Jew to the man who betrayed and abandoned him. call the shots at the Globe. Baron rightfully suspects An Oscar for endurance would have been more apt a conspiracy by the church to cover up the abuse of than acting but carelessly not included. young boys. “It is a mad, visionary and quite often preposterous McCarthy’s televisual approach means that, while not survival tale, very bloody, very violent and full of having the cinematic panache of All The President’s murky religious symbolism.” (Independent) Men (ATP’sM) it allows the narrative to take centre “Frontier epic takes cine-suffering to new levels of stage: no flashy camerawork or over-editing. agony and, most importantly, veracity.” (Times) Occasional over the top acting but unforced dramatic Real light/dark, real bitter cold and real endurance. tension? By comparison, ATP’sM was measured, unhurried and dispassionate, hence more powerful. What for? It’s only pretending. Spotlight has its tense moments and builds naturally “DiCaprio’s raw performance helps elevate what to its eventual, disturbing revelations (Just as did could have been just another man-versus-nature ATP’sM). (research Jack Whiting) NB Liev Schreiber drama” (Empire) (research Chris Coetsee) You’ll be scripted and directed Everything Is Illuminated, so wishing for a nice cup of tea, a hot bath and clean come for him. sheets long before it’s over. Director: Tom McCarthy Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy Duration: 129 mins Duration: 156 mins Origin: USA 2015 Origin: USA 2015 Certificate: 15 Certificate: 15 Company: Entertainment One UK Company: Twentieth Century Fox When... When... Mon 4 7.30 Sat 2 7.00 Sun 3 6.00 Wed 13 2.00 10 THE REX - APRIL BOX OFFICE: 01442 877759 Alvin & The Chipmunks: Mavis! The Road Chip A heart-lifting documentary film and charting the history and career of living soul legend Mavis Another instalment, another bad chipmunk pun Staples of The Staples Singers. Director Jessica (the squeakquel remains king). This time, as the Edwards entwines archival material, newly filmed title suggests, Alvin and his cohorts are travelling interviews and live performances resulting in a warm cross-country. cinematic portrait of the musician. In this case it’s from LA, where they live with their Mavis! traces back to the singer’s childhood in record producer Dave (Jason Lee) to Miami, where Chicago’s South Side, drawing on her musical father, he’s about to launch a new album. Our gang is Roebuck ‘Pops’ Staples and his background in blues determined to prevent Dave from proposing to his and gospel. Pops gathered his family: Mavis and her new girlfriend, a heart surgeon who absentmindedly siblings to form The Staple Singers in the 1952s. goes everywhere with a stethoscope around her The legendary group sustained a slow, steady climb neck so the kids in the audience don’t forget she’s a through the 1960s and 70s boasting chart-topping positive role model. hits like I’ll Take You There, If You’re Ready (Come Go Her son Miles is at first mean to the three With Me) and Respect Yourself. chipmunks, but they join forces on the quest to Mavis looks back at her upbringing and candidly prevent the union. Big jerk Miles, still reeling from discusses an early romantic relationship with a young the departure of his biological father, has convinced Bob Dylan, who pops up periodically throughout the Chipmunks that with a new marriage, Dave will the doc as a relaxed and forthcoming interviewee. A just dump the three singing rodents back into the personal narrative refreshingly free of darkness and forest. demons, Mavis’ story is potent and thoroughly joyous Road Chip tries awfully hard to be current, but from start to finish. somewhere underneath the Twitter jokes there is “A spirited and captivating bio-doc that richly a charm. And they are, dare I say it, marginally less deserves the exclamation mark in its title” (Variety) annoying than Satan’s spawn that are the Minions? “An expansive and inspiring portrait” (Washington (Jack Whiting) Minions lovers: all hate-trolls go direct Post) More than just for Soul/Gospel fans.