Tag: schoolchildren

Arco
(Arco)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 17 March 2026
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(Arco)
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Director – Ugo Bienvenu – 2025 – France – Cert. PG – 82m

French with subtitles (not in UK cinemas) *****

English dubbed version (in UK cinemas) ****1/2

A boy from the far future attempts time travel too young and gets stranded in an earlier time – animated SF feature is out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 20th

Somewhere in the distant future, above the clouds where the birds fly, in semi-spherical houses constructed on supports rising through the clouds, live the likes of Arco (English voice: Juliano Krue Valdi; French voice: Oscar Tresanini) with his mother (voices: America Ferreira; Sophie Mas) and father (Roeg Sutherland; Oxmo Puccino), and his elder sister (unknown; Joséphine Mancini). His daily routine includes feeding the hens and the pigs, but not flying because he’s not yet 12 and, as his dad constantly reminds him, that’s the law.

The house is powered at least in part by small water wheels. It would appear to be self-sustaining. The family grow a lot of plants as part of their self-sufficient diet, and the daily flights of Arco’s father, mother and sister take them to other times to gather samples of new plant species to grow as nutrients.… Read the rest

Tags 2075, above the clouds, absent parents, Academy Award, Academy Awards, Academy Awards 2025-26, Academy Awards 2026, accused of lying, age limit, Alma Jodorowsky, America Ferreira, Andy Samberg, another time, architecture, Arco, baby brother, balcony, bedtime story, boundaries, calling the police, cape, car, carer, cave shelter, children struggling to cope, Cinerama, crash-landed, daily routine, database, diet, dinosaurs, distant future, drawing, elder sister, falling, family, Flea (actor), flying, forest, forest fire, France, future societies, gangs of robot workman, gather samples, gemstone, grow plants, hens, holographic projection, house in the clouds, inclement weather, insurance, insurance bots, Joséphine Mancini, Juliano Krue Valdi, law, livestock, Louis Garrel, Margot Ringard Oldra, Mark Ruffalo, memory loss, Natalie Portman, Nathanaël Perrot, new plant species, nutrients, Oscar, Oscar nominations, Oscar Tresanini, Oscars, Oscars 2025-26, Oscars 2026, Oxmo Puccino, panning shot, parents and children, permission to be excused, pigs, protective bubbles; garden, rainbow trails, rainbow-coloured suit, reading aloud to children, rebellion, repair, robot, robot nanny, robotics, Roeg Sutherland, Romy Fay, school, school. class, schoolchildren, sci-fi, science fiction, self-sufficient, self-sustaining, SF, sky houses, small water wheels, software crash, Sophie Mas, storm, stranded, Swann Arlaud, teacher bots, the far future, thunderstorm, time travel, too young, Ugo Bienvenu, underwater, Vincent McCaigne, weightless sleep, Will Ferrell, William Lebghil, work pressures, wreckage, Wyatt Danieluk, yellow red and blue

Features Live Action Movies

A Pale View of Hills
(Toi Yamanamino Hikari,
遠い山なみの光)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 12 March 2026
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(Toi Yamanamino Hikari,
遠い山なみの光)
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Director – Kei Ishikawa – 2025 – UK, Japan, Poland – Cert. 12a – 123m

From the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro

***1/2

An aspiring journalist in 1982 England delves into her mother’s past life in 1952 Nagasaki and unearths dark family secrets – out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 13th

As will be seen from the above logline description, this essentially plays out in two timelines.

One is in Nagasaki, Japan in 1952, less than a decade after the dropping of the atomic bomb, where the married and barely visibly pregnant Etsuko (Suzo Hirose from Lupin III the First, Takashi Yamazaki, 2019; The Third Murder, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2017; The Boy and the Beast, Mamoru Hosoda, 2015; Our Little Sister, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2015) befriends Sachiko (Fumi Nikaido from River’s Edge, Isao Yukisada, 2018; Himizu, Sion Sono, 2011), the mother of local waif Mariko (Mio Suzuki), who lives in an isolated shack near the river and plans to emigrate to the US with a man named ‘Frank’.

The other is in a town in England somewhere near Greenham Common, Berkshire, in 1982, where aspiring journalist Niki (Camilla Aiko from Dr.… Read the rest

Tags 1952, 1982, A Pale View of Hills, aspiring journalist, atomic bomb, bad dream, bedroom, bereavement, Berkshire, box, bullied, Camilla Aiko, cassette recorder, cat, Chess, consent, drop out, editor, emigrate, England, family history, family secrets, father, fathers and sons, flashback, Fumi Nikaido, Greenham Common, Greenham protests, guilt, headmaster, home life, isolated shack, Japan, journalist, journalistic integrity, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kei Ishikawa, kittens, Kohei Matsushita, leave his wife, London-based, married, memories, militaristic attitude, Mio Suzuki, mother’s house, mothers and daughters, Nagasaki, night, old letters, old photos, parents and children, past life, pregnant, publisher, radiation, rescue, researching Greenham, retired, river, running, schoolchildren, schoolteacher, selling the house, Shogi, sibling bereavement, sister bereavement, sitting room, stories, Suzo Hirose, Tomakazu Miura, UK, unable to sleep, university, US, violin, waif, wartime service, writer, Yoh Yoshida

Features Live Action Movies

The Wicker Man:
The Final Cut

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 27 September 2013
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The Final Cut
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Director – Robin Hardy – 1973 – UK – Cert. 15 – 94m

*****

A Christian police sergeant investigating a missing child on a remote Scottish island meets a terrible fate – out as a Collector’s Edition UHD / Blu-ray /DVD from Monday, September 25th following its release in UK cinemas in a 4K restoration from Wednesday, June 21st, 2023

(Originally reviewed for cinema release in a 2K restoration on Friday, September 27th, 2013)

Originally released forty years ago in the UK in a cut down version its director disliked, The Wicker Man now reaches our cinema screens in a longer, restored version which he says fulfils his original vision. Its plot is deceptively simple. A Christian police sergeant flies to a remote Scottish island in response to a letter about a missing child. But when he arrives on Summerisle, no-one seems to have heard of that child. It gradually emerges that the policeman has stumbled into an intricate web of lies and deceit wherein a terrible fate awaits him….

Using material from a recently discovered, longer US release print – rechristened The Final Cut by Hardy who assembled this cut in 1979 – it’s a provocative work on a number of levels.… Read the rest

Tags angel, Britt Ekland, cavort, celebration, charismatic leader, child, child sex abuse, Christ, Christian, Christian faith, Christianity, Christopher Lee, community, country matters, daughter, deceit, dogma, drinking song, Edward Woodward, engaged, estate, evening meal, faith, filth, folk song, grounds, indigenous, island, islanders, isolated, landlord, law, lies, life, Lord, mainland, May Day, maypole, missing, missing child, missionaries, naked, outsider, Pagan, phallic symbol, police, police sergeant, profession, pub, religious cult, remote, resurrection, ritual, Robin Hardy, scandal, scapegoat, schoolchildren, Scottish, seasons, sergeant, sex before marriage, sexual mores, socio-cultural model, Sodom, song, Teeside, traditional, UK, Victorian, visitor