T H U R S D A Y 1 3 N O V E M B E R -
W E D N E S D A Y 1 9 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 5
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The Wellington Film Society: Embassy, Monday 17 November at 6.00pm and 8.30pm:
VICTIMS OF SIN Emilio Fernandez, Mexico, 1951
As one of the quintessential cabaretera films from the golden age of Mexican cinema, this moves at the quickening pace of the Afro-Cuban rumba dances we witness throughout. These dances, and the music supporting them, underscore the sensuality that seems to run beneath almost everything in the seedy little corner of Mexico City where the film takes place, as well as set up the female characters as objects of male lust and jealousy. The film centers on Violeta (Ninon Sevilla), an almost heroically resilient cabaret dancer who doesn't put up with any nonsense from her demanding boss. The vibrancy of Sevilla's performance is a consistent marvel, especially when Violeta takes the stage, dancing as if trying to transcend the cruel determinism of fate. But it's her ferocity, which seems incongruous to her small frame, that makes Violeta such an iconic character. Indeed, her unbridled passion is evident off stage as well as she directly confronts a world that wants to diminish her and refuses, time and again, to ever back down.
- Derek Smith, Slant Magazine.
Members only.
Film Society Memberships available at any time on line.
Film Festivals to note:
British and Irish Film Festival 2025: Embassy, all Lighthouse, Penthouse 29 October - 19 November.
Italian Film Festival 2025: Roxy 19 November - 14 December. Find the programme
here
If you have a festival due to run in Wellington and it's not listed here, contact the Cinemaster.
This site relies on the various cinemas having their own websites up to date to access their screening times.
The paragraphs describing the films starting this week are in most cases adapted from the linked reviews.
For comments and movie news, contact the Cinemaster at
filmster@gmail.com.
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s t a r t s t h i s w e e k!
HAMILTON -
This is a filmed theatre performance. Director Thomas Kail allows his camera to drift across the stage from character to character, and mixes in some overhead shots to highlight the show's extraordinary choreography and close-ups to enhance the drama's powerful moments. The camera often finishes in the footlights, tilted slightly up, adding to the monumental stature of its characters. The artificiality of the show's devices - the minimalist staging and continually moving cast - takes a little getting used to on film, as does the fact that the soundtrack is not precisely the same as the cast recording.
Also Queensgate and Monterey.
THE RUNNING MAN -
Director Edgar Wright, alongside fellow screenwriter Michael Bacall, has taken the iconic Stephen King novel and adapted it in their own way. The result is a cutting narrative that shines through its phenomenal anti-authoritarian themes, with story choices that are brave, topical, and will inevitably strike too close to home for many in modern-day Western society, particularly those in the United States. This may come as a surprise to many because a wild dystopian story like this should not, for one second, feel so strikingly relatable to the here and now.
Also Roxy, Lighthouse, Queensgate, Monterey, Reading, Coastlands and Shoreline.
NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON'T -
The movie opens with an inevitable exposition dump to bring newcomers to the franchise up to speed with who everyone is, both old and new. Unlike most movies, this exposition is at least centered around the film's first grand magic trick, which is, after all, what audiences want to see. The franchise has built itself on far-fetched heist plots, which are fine in their own right, but there is also a level of believability that gets lost at times. Hardcore fans and defenders of the series will have a blast.
Also Queengate, Monterey, Reading and Coastlands.
KEEPER -
Osgood Perkins has constructed what amounts to a big bowl of horror movie stew, a film that keeps changing and shifting throughout its runtime yet feels of a piece when it's all over. While it remains to be seen what general audiences will think of Perkins' new experiment, horror buffs will at least appreciate its ambition and variation.
Also Queensgate.
SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES -
You needn't be a Taphead to enjoy this. The movie serves the nostalgia set by rehashing classic gags, the way any legacy band might riff on favorite tunes, even as it aims to bring younger viewers into the fold. Here, we get a fresh version of Stonehenge with appropriately scaled druid decor (for once), as well as some gratuitous flatulence to accompany the band's fanny-fetish staple, Big Bottom, inspiring Nigel to deliver a philosophical monologue on the merits of the fart joke. From the BIFF.
All Lighthouse, Monyerey and Shoreline..
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