Mad Max: Fury Road and (please god) the forthcoming Star Wars 7 aside, 2015 has seen no shortage of quantity for sci-fi fans – but quality has been a different matter. One man you might expect to deliver the goods is Ridley Scott – a name synonymous with great sci-fi (don’t mention Prometheus), even though he hasn’t actually made that many. His fourth sci-fi feature, The Martian, is at cinemas this week and reviewed this issue.
Also out this week is the animated spook-fest Hotel Transylvania 2, which starts our seasonal slide toward Halloween and half-term – Palads is screening the film with English subs.
For the older, more discerning viewer, there’s the phenomenally well reviewed 45 Years, a dramatic British take on The Seven Year Itch that features Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay as an elderly couple a week away from their 45th wedding anniversary.
Director Joe Wright falls a great height with Pan, his version of the boy that can fly.
And finally there’s Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, a dramedy concerning two schoolboys who befriend a girl with cancer. It’s bags of fun. Honest.
Until the 11th, Cinemateket plays host to MIX Copenhagen, a festival of exciting international film across all genres that celebrate sexuality and beauty in all forms.
On Sunday at 14:15, 2015 film Mænd & høns (Men & Chicken) is screening as part of the Danish on a Sunday series (with English subs). It’s an absurd black comedy directed by veteran Danish screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen. Two brothers are polar opposites: Gabriel is a worn-down university professor and Elias is a full-time masturbator. When they learn that their biological father is still alive, they set out to find him. Tickets are 45-70 kroner and an extra 40kr will get you coffee and a pastry. For Cinemateket’s full program, see dfi.dk/Filmhuset
Finally, on Wednesday the 14th, I recommend you see Roger Corman’s charming beatnik horror Bucket of Blood (1959) at Huset (huset-kbh.dk) – which is the perfect venue to see it. Corman famously shot this Edgar Allan Poe-inspired slasher about an artist-cum-killer in just a few days. It starts at 19:30, and admission is 50kr.
