I adore the cinema. I know that’s not exactly a revolutionary statement in a film magazine, but the cinema has been my happy place ever since I first set foot into a ratty old Queens AMC in 2004. There truly is nothing like going to sit in a dark room for two hours and getting lost in another world. In 2025, I’ve seen more films in the cinema than ever before – 205 as I type this. Out of all of those trips, though, these are the three that best demonstrate why the magic of the movies still has me in a chokehold.
Amadeus (70mm), Warwick Student Cinema
There are only ten cinemas in the UK that are capable of 70mm projection. The fact that one of those ten is a university film society still completely blows my mind. Warwick Student Cinema had been on my radar for years thanks to their frequent celluloid screenings, and I finally got to make the trip when they announced they were showing one of the all-time greats in 70mm. I dragged along two people who had never seen it, walked into the lecture theatre they use as a screen and was met with “Rock Me Amadeus” on loop and an audience member dressed as Mozart. Fantastic first impression. Then the lights went down, the old-timey BBFC card went up, and that magnificent 6-track mag soundtrack thundering through speakers that could barely handle it made for an absolutely transcendent three hours. The volunteers that run the show kept that high going even as the credits rolled by inviting my group, completely unprompted, to tour the projection booth! And to top it all off, I paid less than it costs to breathe in some areas of London, with the ticket only being £4. The passion WSC’s team have for their craft shines through in literally everything they do, and their dedication to making films on film as accessible as possible is deeply admirable. They’re a truly special group, and I’m long overdue a return.
Sing Street, Glasgow Film Theatre
I haven’t shut up about Sing Street since the moment the credits rolled on my first viewing in 2016. The PCC probably wish I would stop writing it on their request board. And yet, I genuinely had no idea my trip to Scotland had coincided with the GFT showing it until literally the day before the screening, when I rocked up to the cinema for a different film and found a flyer advertising it. I’d been dying to see Sing Street with a big crowd since my very first viewing of it, and being sat in that room laughing, crying and bopping along with almost 300 other people was everything I could’ve hoped for. However, I’ve chosen to write about this screening because of what happened after the movie. Lead actor Ferdia Walsh-Peelo made an appearance with his band The Fynches, performing some of their newest songs and two numbers from Sing Street. Once I’d composed myself after their set ended with the film’s beautiful “slow song” To Find You, I went over to tell him just how much his film had changed my life. My heart was racing and what I was saying probably sounded like gushy word vomit, but in the middle of it Ferdia pulled me in for a hug, and to paraphrase the film, I felt like a fucking jet engine.
Tuner (LFF Surprise Film), Royal Festival Hall
Being accredited as press for this year’s BFI London Film Festival was was truly one of the greatest experiences of my life. I saw 32 films over the course of the festival, but no single screening could quite sum up the joy of those weeks like the Surprise Film, Tuner, the standby queue for which I decided to join on a whim. From meeting so many incredible people in that queue (some of whom are featured elsewhere in this magazine), to the adrenaline rush once we finally got the tickets and raced to Festival Hall, to literally none of us correctly predicting the surprise, I’d had an absolute ball before the film had even started! Then the film did start, and experiencing that nerve-shredder alongside the people with whom I’d just spent the previous two hours wondering if we’d even get tickets was the cherry on top of an evening that reminded me exactly why I do what I do, and just how lucky I am to be in that position.
