Ilkley Cinema: Blinded By The Light, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Playmobil: The Movie, Apollo 11

BASED on the memoirs of Sarfraz Manzoor, Blinded By The Light catapults audiences back to 1987’s divide-ridden reign of Margaret Thatcher. One teenager learns how to live his life and build a bridge between himself and his family as he finds his voice through the legendary music of Bruce Springsteen. Tackling the turmoil of racism, poverty and segregation, Blinded By The Light remains buoyant and uplifting as it tells the story of British Pakistani Teenager, Javed, as he navigates a world of division and discovers the music that makes him feel wholly understood. This is a sincere coming-of-age tale about the escape route music can provide to those stuck in a suffocating world.

Don’t miss this unprecedented cinematic event, 50 years in the making, as we delve into the legendary Apollo 11 space mission which saw mankind set foot on the moon and return safely to earth. It comes, appropriately timed, in the year marking the 50th anniversary of the landings, celebrated earlier this year in July. The mission, led by commander Neil Armstrong and pilots Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, marked a mind-blowing historical milestone as we achieved what had previously been deemed too dangerous to undertake. The final product is crafted from a newly discovered trove of 65mm footage, providing a vast array of new perspectives on the event we know so well including that of the astronauts and Mission Control. After the surfacing of over 11,000 hours of uncatalogued audio recordings, Todd Douglas Miller’s genre-defining documentary takes us straight into the heart of NASA’s most celebrated and ground-breaking mission which catapulted us one giant leap into the future.

Back for another week in the next instalment in Quentin Tarantino’s extraordinary catalogue of success. His career sky-rocketed after his first-time written and directed film, Reservoir Dogs, earned him immediate critical acclaim at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival. Since then his films have only got more and more notorious, including the cult classic ‘Pulp Fiction’. The 9th instalment in his cinematic collection is a black comedy thriller about 1960’s Hollywood. Los Angeles television star, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), and his long-time stunt double (Brad Pitt) navigate a changing industry they no longer recognise. Tarantino artfully reflects on the transformational decade which shaped the industry in which he spent his life; with stunning performances from DiCaprio, Pitt and Robbie, this film is the jewel in the crown of an incredible career.

Based on the much-loved German building toy Playmobil, this perfect family adventure-comedy prizes the importance of family as a sister strives to find her younger brother, discovering things about herself along the way. To bring him back home, she must embark on a thrilling adventure, meeting a plethora of hilarious characters as they twist and turn around the colourful and chaotic world of Playmobil, allowing us to see our childhood favourites come to life. With an action-packed, comedy centred plot and a wonderfully sentimental message at its heart, Playmobil: The Movie is set to delight children throughout the holidays.

by Melissa Johns-Watson