This week’s film section and quiz

This week sees a detour from traditional blockbusters with Asteroid City and I Am Kevin, I am hoping to bring you an interview with the team behind I Am Kevin in the coming weeks.

On the subject of interviews please check out my monthly CHAOS TV interviews for the latest cinema news and general behind the scenes chats, available on our social pages and at CHAOS TV where you can learn such insights as to whether you should keep your shoes on in the cinema.

For booking details, visit wtwcinemas.co.uk

The latest offering from Wes Anderson and fans of his films will be aware of the fun quirky complexity of his plots and fear not because Asteroid City lives up to previous offerings with an even stellar cast assembled.

He does have a devoted band of actors (more on those later) and his films do always offer some originality which is sometimes lacking in the marketplace.

Set in mid 1950s USA and a large group of stargazing enthusiasts descend on a crater down in a remote desert town. The area was once hit by a large asteroid and has emerged as the go to place for astronomy enthusiasts.

The Junior Stargazer Convention is bringing children plus their families for this amazing convention. However not everything is as it seems and there are plenty of little stories within the main narrative as you would sometimes expect with the fish out of water and road journey movies, there are plenty of difficult scenarios and unexpected events for our leading characters to overcome. There is a large twist which is pretty quirky even for Anderson but I will leave that for you to discover.

I could spend the next dozen paragraphs detailing the stars within the movie but I will just pick out a few – Scarlett Johannsson, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Steve Carrell, Bryan Cranston, Willem Defoe etc… An all-star cast to say the very least.

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty is coming to the big screen as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations. Now established as a firm favourite in the New Adventures repertoire, this award-winning production has enchanted audiences throughout the UK and across the globe.

Enter a wondrous world of magical fairies and vampires, where the timeless tale of good vs evil is turned upside-down, creating a supernatural love story that even the passage of time itself cannot hinder. Will Princess Aurora ever find her true love again?

With an unforgettable score, sumptuous sets and costumes, evocative lighting and masterly storytelling, the beloved fairy tale is brought to life by the uniquely talented New Adventures company. Get ready to be transported in time from the halcyon days of the late Edwardian era through to the modern day in this gothic romance.

I am Kevin plus Q&A Wildworks Theatre Company

A young boy creates a make believe world to escape his truth, a world where, at the water’s edge, beneath the shade of an ancient tree, a mother forms a perimeter to protect herself and her child from an unspeakable darkness. The tide ebbs and flows, the years pass, and the boy is taught stories of the dangers that lay beyond the safety of his mother’s embrace.

But one day the boy awakes to find she is gone and a stranger arrives at the perimeter’s edge. The boy must walk out into a new world. A world of gods and monsters.

‘Full of unexpected humour and profound emotional truth’ and is ‘dark, humorous, fiery and honest’. This is a story about imagination and grief. It is about being lost in the dark, and realising you are not alone.

Captured during its live performances on Carlyon Beach, Cornwall 2022 and reimagined for Film, ‘I AM KEVIN’ is a genre-defying, theatre/film hybrid debut, from the UK’s leading landscape theatre company Wildworks.

After multiple sold-out shows at The Lighthouse Cinema in Newquay, Cornish entertainer and radio presenter Johnny Cowling makes his first visit to The Plaza Cinema at Truro for an evening of live entertainment on Saturday, July 1.

Johnny Cowling has been delighting audiences for many years. His Cornish charm and quick wit make him an obvious choice of entertainment for his vocal talent and humour.

Johnny is an entertainer who likes to get amongst the people during performance with a wealth of tales and yarns to spin. Johnny has a natural warmth that makes him popular to family audiences and adult audiences alike. His clear Cornish voice make every word (and song when singing) easy on the ear, yet still invigorating.

His topics including – The ever changing face of Cornwall, Cornish Family life, holiday makers and much much more…have his audiences laughing with tears running down their faces or running for the loo!

Who has Johnny Cowling been compared to….? Well, mix a pinch of Jethro, a spoonful of Tommy Cooper and a hunk of Elvis and standing before you would be 6ft 1 Cornishman Johnny Cowling.

Regular readers will know this part features a memory or interview.

This week got me thinking and it is 20 years this month since I started managing at WTW cinemas. It is strange when I have been asking people about their first cinema visits and favourite moments, now I can recall my first day starting on the floor in 1997 with ease. However I can not recall my recommencement in June 2003 with such clarity.

I suppose I was returning to a familiar setting and the role seemed perfect for me, twenty years later and that has been confirmed. That is not to say everything has been plain sailing over the years but those details are in another book.

Looking at releases in June 2003 and 2 Fast 2 Furious was released, considering that franchise and myself are still in cinemas are pretty big achievements, but without wanting to blow my own trumpet looking at the last film I know which is aging better.

Quiz time and carrying on from earlier we are looking at Wes Anderson’s regular collaborators.

With Asteroid City, Jeff Goldblum will be featuring in his fourth Anderson movie but one of his best known roles was playing David Levinson in which 1996 movie? 

Owen Wilson and his brother appear a lot with Wes, he is also known to appear with another actor and they played lead characters Starsky and Hutch in a 2004 movie, but who played Starsky to Wilson’s Hutch?

A fifth Anderson outing for Edward Norton this week. Norton also played neo-nazi Derek Vinyard in which 1998 movie?

Adrien Brody won the 2002 Best Actor Oscar for his role in which movie?

Bill Murray has had a long and varied career and has appeared in the most Anderson movies but which of the following films has he received his only Oscar nomination to date?

Anjelica Huston who was a narrator in The French Dispatch played a ‘witch’ character in two films in 1990 and 1991, can you name these two movies?

Tilda Swinton has had a long running collaboration with Anderson but one of her early big screen roles was in the 2000 movie The Beach, but who played the characters Richard and Daffy in Danny Boyle’s film?

Jason Schwartzmann has worked with Anderson from the beginning starring in Rushmore and they will be on their eighth movie together, he voiced Ash in Fantastic Mr Fox but which Hollywood A-listers voiced Mr and Mrs Fox?

Willem Defoe reprised his role as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home but which three actors appeared as Peter Parker in the 2021 movie?

Frances McDormand is one of this generations finest actors with three Academy Award wins as Best Actress but can you names these three films?

1 – It was summer mega hit Independence Day.

2 – Ben Stiller was Starsky. Wilson and Stiller have appeared in numerous films including Meet the Parents and Night at the Museum.

3 – Edward Norton wowed in the powerful drama American History X.

4 – The Pianist, Brody played talented musician Szpilman and his struggles in Nazi occupied Poland during World War II.

5 – C) Lost in Translation in which Murray starred alongside Scarlet Johannsson.

6 – It was The Witches that was filmed at Newquay’s Headland Hotel and The Addams Family. The latter character Morticia is difficult to pinpoint but many sources say she is a witch.

7 – Leonardo Di Caprio was Richard and Robert Carlyle played Daffy.

8 – George Clooney and Meryl Streep were the Fox spouses.

9 – In order of original appearances as Spider-Man Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland all played the Web slinger.

10 – McDormand’s first win was 1997 for Fargo and followed up with wins in 2018 for Three Billboards and Nomadland in 2021.