Films in English from Friday 28 January

To check for further information click on the locations here. Ocimax, Rivoli, Festival Park and CineCiutat. Also showing in Minorca.

Belfast (2021)

Showing daily at Rivoli... 18.00...20.10

Showing on Thursday at Ocimax Mahon... 20.00

Showing on Sunday at Festival Park... 12.30
Showing on Tuesday at Festival Park... 19.25

Plot summary: A wondrously nostalgic look at his childhood, Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast is a heartfelt and emotionally powerful piece of cinema. Branagh has crafted a film where whimsy and realism sit side-by-side so the viewer can visit a Belfast which is as much a figment of the filmmaker’s 50 year-old memory as it is a document charting the start of Northern Ireland’s violence and civil unrest in the late 1960s. As a writer and director, Branagh wants to show his childhood from the perspective of his ten year-old self. The filmmaker’s on-screen proxy, Buddy (Jude Hill) shows us the story with wide-eyed wonder. Be that the moments of flash mob violence, to the joys of afternoon’s watching movies, there’s an exuberance to how young Buddy sees the world. Yes, there is danger, but Buddy never fully realises its true extent. With financial troubles and local violence on the rise, Buddy’s Ma and Pa (Caitríona Balfe and Jamie Dornan) begin to believe that life might be better for their young family if they leave Belfast and start new lives elsewhere.This seems like a lot of upheaval for young Buddy who doesn’t want to leave his home or his grandparents (Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench). This imagery is perfectly accompanied by the choice selection of Van Morrison’s music which punctuates the onscreen action – the city’s most successful musical son and its most famous filmmaker working together. The film is never cloying and young Jude Hill manages to perfectly capture a wide-eyed sense of wonder. The adults in the cast also impress, all matching the tone that Branagh sets as director. A wonderful film.

Starring: Jude Hill, Lewis McAskie and Caitriona Balfe

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Duration: 1 hour and 38 minutes

Rated: 12

King Richard (2021)

Showing daily at *Augusta... 16.40
*Augusta is open Wednesday to Sunday

Showing daily at CineCiutat... 16.25
Showing on Friday at CineCiutat... 18.20...21.10
Showing on Saturday at CineCiutat...18.25...20.00
Showing on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at CineCiutat...19.45
Showing on Monday at CineCiutat...20.30

Showing on Sunday at Festival Park...12.10
Showing on Tuesday at Festival Park...18.50

Plot summary: An arrogant man full of self belief and he definitely passed that quality onto his daughters. King Richard is the story of a father who devoted his time to coaching his daughters to be the two of the best tennis players ever. And that against all odds as the movie references the racial roadblocks and challenges they encountered both from inside and outside their Los Angeles, Compton ghetto. This is a feel good story about a man and his five daughters who are on an adventure. A man who is trying to help his daughters have better futures outside of the ghetto. A man who is trying to teach them humility and life values and as well as drive them on to be the best in the world. Will Smith is very good in this fine movie. His devotion to his daughters is likeable but he is also a very frustrating man whose company you do not always particularly want to be in. He always knows best and interferes with the coaches. When he is convinced they will make it, he begins to fear that success will be damaging for them and starts to encourage them to have fun. Many tennis players have pushy parents - Andy Murray for example (although his mother Judy denies this) and it is interesting to learn more about how the story behind the Williams sisters. We all know how the story ends but many of us did not know how it starts and that is what this movie does.

Starring: Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis and Jon Bernthal.

Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Duration: 2 hours and 24 minutes

Rated: PG-13

See above trailer

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Now showing daily at Rivoli... 16.00... 18.45

Showing on Tuesday at Festival Park.... 19.10

Showing daily at CineCiutat...19.00... 21.00
Showing on Friday at CineCiutat... 16.10
Showing on Saturday at CineCiutat... 17.10
Showing on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at CineCiutat... 17.00
Showing on Monday at CineCiutat... 16.15

Plot summary: By the time Bradley Cooper utters his first line of dialogue as Stan Carlisle, several minutes into Guillermo del Toro’s lavishly configured take on “Nightmare Alley,” we’ve already seen the character drag a corpse and set a house on fire. A fugitive, not yet from the law but from his own unresolved resentment, the man lands at a 1930s traveling sideshow populated with curious acts of benign mentalism and bizarre cautionary tales.Those first words said with hesitation are aimed towards the operation’s geek, an alcoholic man dehumanised for vicious entertainment, on the loose from his captor inside a disturbing attraction that warns visitors of damnation. What Stan can’t foresee from this point in the arc of his hasty rise to top-billing enchanter and thunderous downfall, is that he is in fact looking at a mirror. That we can infer exactly where Stan’s road leads isn’t just because of Edmund Goulding’s 1947 film adaption of the original novel. His “Nightmare Alley” is a movie of psychological tunnels and downward spirals. In entering them, Stan risks getting lost and never coming out the other side. If you have ever seen one of Guillermo de Toro’s movies, you will know exactly what to expect from Nightmare Alley - if you haven’t, you will either love this film or hate it. No middle way!

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett & Toni Collette

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Rated: R

Spider-man: No Way Home (2021)

Now showing daily at Ocimax...*12.10...15.30
*Saturday and Sunday only

Showing on Tuesday at Festival Park... 18.35

Plot summary: The best of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” reminded me why we all used to love comic books, especially the ones about a boy named Peter Parker. There was a playful unpredictability to them that has often felt was lacking from modern superhero movies in the way they feel so precisely calculated. Yes, of course, “No Way Home” is incredibly calculated, a way to make more headlines after killing off so many of its event characters in Phase 3, but it’s also a film that’s often bursting with creative joy. Director Jon Watts and his team have delivered a true event movie, a double-sized crossover issue of a comic book that the young me would have waited in line to read first, excitedly turning every page with breathless anticipation of the next twist and turn.

Starring: Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Holland

Director: Jon Watts

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Rated: 7