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The Oswestry Film Society programme will appear on this site once films are scheduled. Keep checking back to find out what's being screened and when, and please come out and support us.
Thank you to our long-term hosts in Oswestry, the Kinokulture cinema. We have now moved just round the corner to the Hermon Chapel Arts Centre. You can check out their own varied range of music and arts events at their separate website, www.hermon-arts.org.uk
WED Sept 4th 2024, 7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
Chaplin (15) 129 mins
Robert Downey Jr takes the lead role magnificently in this award-winning masterpiece on the legendary Charlie Chaplin, tracing his life from poverty-stricken childhood in London all the way through to a phenomenally successful film career. But although he was able to reflect wondrous, magical humour in his work, his private life was afflicted with infamy, sadness and a growing sense of loss.
The story of Chaplin is the story of cinema, as we watch him grow from developing silent-era slapstick to becoming one of the most important, pioneering fathers of film making, the art-form of a new century.
Chaplin’s complex and dramatic career is brought to life by a stunning array of actors, with Downey supported by top-notch performances from the likes of Anthony Hopkins, Dan Aykroyd and Kevin Kline - with perfect pitch from director Richard Attenborough.
Wed Sept 18th 2024, 7.30pm
The Guard (18),
at Hermon Chapel - 96 mins
The Guard has the always characterful Brendan Gleeson on fine form in this black comedy thriller as an unorthodox garda (Irish policeman) - special interests: Russian literature, swimming, drinking, swearing and womanising - whose quiet corner of coastal Connemara becomes an international crime hotspot.
A big drugs deal is coming down, and he’s forced to pair up with visiting fish-out-of-water American agent Don Cheadle as he tries to arrest a tough trio of hoodlums.
Gleeson’s impish performance - is he corruptible or not? - is bolstered by the sparkling dialogue, which marries Irish blarney to Tarantino-lite philosophising. If you enjoyed In Bruges (Gleeson and Colin Farrell) – and who couldn’t? - this Anglo-Irish caper is right up your street too.
Top critic Roger Ebert: "The Guard" is a pleasure. I can't tell if it's really (bleeping) dumb or really (bleeping) smart, but it's pretty (bleeping) good...
WED Oct 2nd 2024, 7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
First Man (12A) 139 mins
Everyone knows who Neil Armstrong was. And why he has such a place in history. But nobody really knows much about Neil Armstrong the man himself. Not least because the first man to step on the moon was a very private individual.
This biopic covers the decade before the Apollo 11 mission. During which time Neil Armstrong flew many different craft, often coming very close to catastrophe in some primitive and dangerous experimental machines. When he suffered personal loss. And when he became part of a mission that kept the whole world spellbound.
Ryan Gosling is a fascinating watch as Armstrong in all his intensity. Claire Foy also stands out as his under-pressure wife Janet manning the home front.
And even though you know how the sequence will go, the lunar landing ends up being one of the most tense bits of cinema you will ever see.
This is a portrayal - fantastic on the big screen - of one remarkable man who was at the centre of one remarkable achievement, and it brings it all to life in a manner you will never forget.
Wed Oct 9th, 2024
7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
Back To Black (15) - 122 mins
Back to Black is no sugar-coated biopic, but rather a truly sympathetic and overdue antidote to the harsh tabloid treatment Amy Winehouse often received in life. The director Sam Taylor-Johnson has chosen to focus on Amy’s relationships with her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, and her father Mitch. Marisa Abela is terrific as Amy, reminding us how young she was in spite of her tough image and extraordinarily mature voice. Remarkably, Abela did her own singing. Jack O’Connell is well-cast to portray the charisma of her much demonised husband Blake. Eddie Marsan gives us a bullish Mitch and the wonderful Lesley Manville plays Amy’s beloved nan.The score is by the great Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, adding a melancholic edge.
Wed Oct 16th 2024,
7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
Funny Cow (15) - 102 mins
Maxine Peake is superb in this unflinching drama about a standup comedienne on the 70s northern club circuit.
Stepping into the backstreets of her past, the now successful adult meets her childhood self. Having embraced her outsider status as a child, Peake’s misfit only feels at home on stage. “I can’t be a civilian,” she tells Alun Armstrong’s Lenny, the miserable “master of mirth” who assures her that “women aren’t funny”, and suggests she try singing or stripping instead.
Fleeing the nest, she moves in with angry and violent Bob (Tony Pitts), whom she faces with a deadpan defiance learned at the wrong end of her father’s belt - later picking up with the bookish Angus (Paddy Considine).
The supporting roles are solid, from Stephen Graham's twin turn as brutal father and cowed brother, to Lindsey Coulson’s heartbreaking performance as an increasingly lonely mum, driven to drink by the sheer coldness of life. There are some eye-catching cameos too, from comedians such as John Bishop and Jim Moir (AKA Vic Reeves).
It’s an intimate portrait of an often abrasive character - a challenging role to which Peake rises magnificently.
Wed Oct 23rd, 2024,
7.30pm, at Hermon Chapel
The Fall Guy (12A) - 2' 5"
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He's a stuntman, and like everyone in the stunt community, he gets blown up, shot, crashed, thrown through windows and dropped from the highest of heights, all for our entertainment. And now, fresh off an almost career-ending accident, this working-class hero has to track down a missing movie star, solve a conspiracy and try to win back the love of his life while still doing his day job. What could possibly go right?
From real life stunt man and director David Leitch, the blockbuster director of Bullet Train, Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde and Fast Furious: Presents: Hobbs Shaw and the producer of John Wick, Nobody and Violent Night, comes his most personal film yet. A new hilarious, hard-driving, all-star apex-action thriller and love letter to action movies and the hard-working and under-appreciated crew of people who make them: The Fall Guy.
Temporarily postponed,
Capernaum (15) - 108mins, subtitled
Survival on the streets of Beirut: Capernaüm ("Chaos") tells the story of Lebanese boy Zain as he journeys from gutsy, streetwise child to a hardened 12-year-old "adult" fleeing his negligent and abusive parents, and surviving through his wits on the streets. Here he meets migrant worker Rahil, who provides him with food and shelter as Zain takes care of her baby son in return. But when she is picked up by police, he has to head off back to the streets, taking the baby with him – and is confronted by some terrible choices. Later he takes his parents to court, to protest against the path of life they led him down. Capernaum was nominated for a best foreign language Oscar, and this heart-wrenching film has received a host of other accolades. (This is the latest screening in our new 'world and independent' evenings - they'll be on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month).
Postponed: awaiting
UK screening licence
Smoke (15) 112 mins
In this inventive and highly-acclaimed original film, a terrific all-star cast brings to life a story that's unpredictably fun and unforgettably entertaining. It's the summer of 1990, and a group of colourful characters with nothing in common outside of a New York cigar shop and its manager, Auggie (Harvey Keitel), find their lives inexplicably intertwined. Among them is a novelist (William Hurt) with a crippling case of writer's block, a one-armed man (Forest Whitaker) running from his past, and Auggie's long-lost ex-girlfriend (Stockard Channing) who unexpectedly returns with some shocking news. Sparks fly as these complete strangers strike up the most unlikely relationships... and end up learning each others' deepest secrets.