Bristol’s week in film: December 19-24 2020

Aaaand we’re back! Again. But probably not for long. The good news is that if you crave a socially distanced cinematic fix, there’s plenty to choose from in the run-up to Christmas. Wonder Woman 1984 is the box office biggie, relatively speaking, but a backlog of new films has been building up. So catch ’em while you can.

Perhaps wisely, cinemas have concluded that festive feelgoodery and schmaltz is what audiences crave at the end of this strangest of years, so that’s what they’re serving up. We’ve never seen quite so many screenings of It’s a Wonderful Life. Should this not be to your taste, we’re also getting the very first quickie Covid-19 exploitation thriller this week: the Michael Bay-produced Songbird. Shame it’s had such shitty reviews.

On the event cinema front, there’s a panto and two versions of The Nutcracker on offer.

We fully expected wall-to-wall James Bond right now, but the Daniel Craig incarnation is still running scared of the virus. So the Showcase chain is bringing back the first two films in the franchise, in tribute to the late Sean Connery.

The Watershed, Everyman, Curzon and both Showcase cinemas (Avonmeads and the Cinema de Lux in Cabot Circus) are all open. The Cineworld, Odeon and Cube didn’t reopen after Lockdown 1 and they’ve now been joined by both Vues (Longwell Green and Cribbs Causeway). Fingers crossed that at least some of these will eventually open their doors again.

Follow the links below for further information and screening times.