Leeds Cinema Crawl: Reel Journeys
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
There’s a movie marathon designed to get you moving in Leeds this September, as four venues combine to showcase the breadth of the city’s film culture and community. Leeds Cinema Crawl starts at Cottage Road Cinema, taking in Hyde Park Picture House and Archive, en route to the final destination at Howard Assembly Room. The day-long event features a screening at each venue, with each film on show featuring a journey of some kind. In between the films there’s time for a few pit stops, and additional activities, including selfie bingo, a mini quiz, cheerleading demo and an optional fancy dress catwalk.
Starting bright (but not too early) at 11am, Cottage Road Cinema starts the crawl with a screening of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. Featuring youngster’s Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman as a pint sized Bonnie and Clyde on the run from the authorities, and the Eagle Scouts, in 1960s New England, this tender deadpan love story also boasts the talents of Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Edward Norton and Bruce Willis in supporting roles. It’s one of Anderson’s best, and a perfect beginning to the day’s journeys.
Starting bright (but not too early) at 11am, Cottage Road Cinema starts the crawl with a screening of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom
Heading over to Hyde Park Picture House for 2pm, and it’s time for something a little more grown up as Alfonso Cuarón’s Y tu mamá también turns up the heat. The film sees Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna star as two horned up teenagers from Mexico City who find their road trip to a faraway beach spiced up by the addition of an attractive older Spanish woman, played by Maribel Verdú. The love triangle gets hot, sweaty and complicated very quickly, in this memorable breakout hit for the director and two young actors.
Next stop is Leeds Archive for an Albert Brooks satirical comedy classic in Lost in America, presented by Scalarama Leeds at 5pm. Taking their cue from Easy Rider, David (Brooks) and Linda Howard (Julie Hagerty) are two LA yuppies who quit their jobs and sell their house, seduced by the idea of life open road in a Winnebago. Their perceptions are hilariously shattered when a moment of madness relieves them of most of their savings, and the middle class pair are forced to contend with the realities of life outside of the soft corporate bubble.
The final destination of the day is Howard Assembly Room where there’s another comedy in the form of Jamie Babbit’s 1999 But I’m A Cheerleader at 8pm. A candy-coloured queer romance set at a conversion therapy camp, Babbit’s broad, absurdist comedy features Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall and Ru Paul has morphed into a cult favourite thanks to its distinctive, irreverant — and very funny — approach to difficult subject matter.
The film will be preceded by a short cheerleading demonstration from the Carnegie Aviators, while afterwards all Cinema Crawlers are invited to end their night with a post crawl quiz.
