Parky At the Pictures (22/8/2025)

(Reviews of The Regulars; The Ceremony; Bambi: A Tale of Life in the Woods; and Super-Charlie)

THE REGULARS.

Anyone hearing that Fil Freitas's The Regulars is set in London's iconic Prince Charles Cinema could be forgiven for fearing that this will be another dollop of smug, back-slapping cliqueness like Ali Catterall and Jane Giles's Scala!!! Or, the Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits (2023). However, this monochrome debut, which was filmed after hours for about £6000, is a workplace comedy closer in spirit to Kevin Smith's Clerks (1994), Allan Moyles's Empire Records (1995), and Dylan Moran's Channel 4 sitcom, Black Books (2000-04).

Fil (Fil Freitas) oversleeps with girlfriend Dusty (Dusty Keeney), but it made even later for work on 7 March 2019 because someone has left an oven against his out-opening front door. He's made to sign the late book by Sam (Ricardo Freitras), the manager of the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square in London. Already setting up for the day are projectionist Dan (Kevin Johnson) and front of house staff Flavio (Sergio Barba) and Caroline (Lisa-Marie Flowers Larsen), who restock the concessions stand, while playing Rock, Paper, Scissors over who gets to watch the lunchtime presentation.

While Sam tries to record the day's listings, Fil deals with a customer who doesn't seem to understand the concept of opening times. He grumbles about this and much else in the staffroom, where he's reminded that the day will conclude with a sing-a-long screening of The Sound of Music. Having been welcomes to paradise, new recruit Sophie (Bronte Appleby) gets a half-hearted tour of the storerooms before having her first encounter with the paying public, who are presented as inconveniences who are invariably wrong, whether they're trying to use expired membership cards or struggling to find their tickets while carrying popcorn and a drink.

General manager Becca (Lauren Shotton) arrives and everyone tries to look busy while she passes. Jon (Jonathan Lee Foster) tries unsuccessfully to rope Dan into participating in the podcast he is recording, but he is busy avoiding walkie-talkie alerts about the picture/sound quality in the various screens. During a break, Flavio complains about having to move again and needing to get a fourth job to help pay his bills. Caroline is sympathetic, as she would leave herself as the cinema wage goes nowhere in London. In the downstairs office, Becca seems to hear their gripes and tells Sam that the staff don't know how lucky they are, as they're getting double what she used to earn for the same job.

He reckons they have a point, as there aren't the shifts to go around and London prices are forever increasing. And there's always the public making life difficult, such as the impatient woman who throws her newspaper over an unattended counter to ask if she can sneak into a film that had started an hour earlier. The perfect morning ends when Fil drops a box of popcorn while carrying a delivery down a narrow staircase and he spills what he has swept up while trying to deposit it in a flip-top bin.

By teatime, Dusty has joined Becca on the desk and they circle their background information while dealing with a trendy woman taking out a membership and a couple who can't decide what popcorn flavour they want. Fil finds a dead rat as he sweeps the auditorium, while Flavio has to mop the Gents floor while a constipated customer curses his bowels. He shares his disgust with Rob (Robert Smith), who is opening the bar for the evening. Sam has just warned him about his bad attitude towards customers, but he seems unrepentant as his shift starts.

Rob soon needs a smoke, as does Flavio, who keeps trying to light up while changing the marquee posters as Becca dallies over going home. She is furious (in her own quiet way) that a customer left because of the dead rat and Fil denies all knowledge when quizzed by Becca and Sam. Sophie finds a piano at the back of the empty auditorium and sits down to play, as she's a music student. Meanwhile, Fil is mortified when university classmate Stevie (Edward Mannion) breezes in to check the cinema as a possible venue for a cast and crew screening of his debut feature. Caroline sympathises with Fil's annoyance at having to show the swaggering Stevie around, but Dusty accuses him of being lazy when he kvetches about customers who ask for room temperature water (which requires him to walk a few paces to the cabinet in which it's stored). She's even less impressed when he shows no empathy when she misses out on a promotion to stage manager

Around 8pm, Becca copes on her own with the cosplaying customers shuffling in for The Sound of Music. Caroline consoles Dusty about being overlooked for someone who has been at the cinema for a month, while Dan recalls the time he masturbated on the back row of a multiplex screen during the pod race in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). He leaves with Sam and Rob when Fil has problems with a drunk (Shaun Stone), who is forcibly ejected.

Routine chores over at closing time, Rob outlines his theory that Kylo Ren was subjected to the equivalent of gay aversion therapy, while Flavio keeps interrupting Sam as he tries to cash up. Dan and Fil have a smoke outside and discuss why the latter is so down. He accepts that he could have a worse job and smiles at the thought of being around Dusty all day. Dan also tells Fil about The Beatles doing acid in the building during the recording of Revolver (1966) - actually John Lennon and George Harrison at the Ad Lib Club on the fourth floor of 7 Leicester Place - and he's so suitably that he agrees to be a guest on Jon's podcast.

As they pick litter, Fil apologises to Dusty for being pre-occupied and Dan beams a spotlight on the glitter ball as Fil tells Dusty that he loves her. In the foyer, Sam has a contretemps with a guy (John Pitr) who has lost a slice of the pizza he hadn't been allowed to take into auditorium. When he leaves it behind, Sam gives it to Petr the programmer (Bo Keeney), who has passed unspeakingly through the odd scene. Outside, as Sam locks up, Dusty tells Fil she loves him, and they kiss before telling a punter wandering up to the cinema that they're closed.

`More than just a cheap ticket' reads the illuminated marquee outside the Prince Charles and this is much more than just a cheap home movie that was filmed after hours. Although Fil Freitas is duty manager at the cinema and the staff members are playing variations on themselves, this is an acutely observed day-in-the-life comedy that amusingly riffs on the demotivating impact of toiling for buttons in the capital, workplace relationships, and how the quality of customer service largely depends upon the clientele's ability to listen.

Many of the topics touched upon are easily relatable. But a surprising thing that's given short shrift is the love of cinema that brings people to the Prince Charles. Nothing is said about the distinctive programming, which might have been a good idea given the need for around 165,000 people to sign a petition to save the venue when its future looked bleak back in January. A couple of Star Wars gags seems a meagre return for a picture set in what Sam calls a `waiting room of ambition'.

But this is a minor quibble with a fondly affectionate and cannily scripted chronicle of plausible situations and interactions that are staged in an appealingly matter-of-fact manner. A film school graduate who found his way into front-of-house work, Freitas also makes a splendidly hangdog lead, with the rest of the excellent cast taking their cues from his deadpan naturalism, as ennui sets in during the downtime when the movies are actually playing. Ben Rolph's camera similarly seems to have to drag itself from office to snack bar to auditorium and projection booth, as the day wears on and home time gets no closer.

Anyone who regularly patronises an independent cinema, such as the Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford, will soon find themselves on the film's wavelength. As more people stay home and stream features, the very future of cinema as a communal experience will increasingly come to depend upon venues devoted to arthouse masterpieces, timeless classics, and cult curios. To do your bit, you just need to become a regular yourself.

THE CEREMONY.

Having made his mark with such shorts as The Crossing (2016) and Predators (2023), Bradfordian writer-director-editor Jack King leaves a favourable first-time feature impression with The Ceremony. Potently photographed in widescreen black and white by Robbie Bryant, this migrant thriller - which would make a fine companion piece to Ben Sharrack's Limbo (2020) - won the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Zully (Hemin Omar) runs a car wash and valeting service in Bradford. His staff are all illegal migrants and he relies on a Romanian named Cristi (Tudor Cucu-Dumitrescu) to keep people working and obeying his rules. When a customer accuses Nassar (Mo'min Swaitat) of stealing a Rolex from his glove compartment, he denies it vehemently. However, Zully considers Nassar more trouble than he's worth and tells Cristi to throw him out of the staff house.

Nassar insults Cristi in his own language when he gives him notice and he can tell from the timbre of the laughter that he has said something personally insulting. Charging up to Nassar's room, Cristi packs his belongings and shoves him out of the door, ignoring his pleas that he has nowhere to go and needs the job. The other residents resent Cristi for being Zully's cohort, but they know they can't get involved if they want to keep a roof over their heads.

Next morning, when he opens the garage, Cristi discovers that Nassar has committed suicide. Yusuf (Erdal Yildiz) wants to call the police, but the Romanian reminds the Kurd that they can't get the authorities involved, as none of them have papers. Instead, Cristi persuades Yusuf to help him bundle Nassar into the back of a white van so they can drive into the Yorkshire Dales and dump his body somewhere where no connection can be made with the car wash.

After driving through the freezing rain into the wilds, Cristi manages to get the back wheel stuck in mud and has to go searching for a rock to place beneath it. He finds a deep well in a field and tells Yusuf that their problems are over. But he has discovered that Nassar is a Muslim and he insists on giving him a proper burial and steals a couple of shovel from a remote sheep farm. Despite being a Christian, Cristi can't see the point of digging in the icy damp and complains vociferously, as Yusuf keeps digging.

When they take a smoking break, Yusuf reveals that the moors remind him of home and he shares the Kurdish saying that the mountains are their only friends. Cristi tells him to trust Zully and smuggle his wife to the UK, but he refuses to trust him. As it's bitterly cold, they return to the van. Deciding against staying in the same spot, Yusuf drives to a pub, where Cristi clings to the bathroom radiator while Yusuf orders him a meal.

As he gobbles down the food, Cristi joke-boasts about his culinary skills and compares himself to Gordon Ramsay. Yusuf is confused and asks about Cristi's family. He explains that his mother is in Austria, but he wants nothing to do with her, as she left him with his grandmother. Sipping coffee, Yusuf reveals that his son was killed and claims he will have no dealings with Zully because he's an exploitative crook and that Cristi is fooling himself if he considers him a friend.

Angry, Cristi goes outside to smoke, only to return inside when he's teased about his muddy trousers by a farmer. As Yusuf is in the bathroom, Cristi goes through his pockets and finds the Rolex that Nassar had been accused of stealing. Pulling a knife he had stolen from the table, Cristi forces Yusuf to hand him the keys. He drives to a remote spot and orders him to help dump Nassar so they can go home.

But Yusuf grabs a shovel and threatens Cristi, as they edge into the distance away from the van on a remote stretch of road. Cristi urges Yusuf to cool down, but charges past him to speed off in the van with the low sun blazing in the grey sky behind him, causing Yusuf to pull Nassar's corpse out of the van and on to the ground. While he struggles to haul the body to the shallow grave, Cristi runs out of petrol and falls in the darkness when he tries to flag down a man on a quad bike. At that moment, the goat that Yusuf had seen at the farm wanders towards him and he seems to recognise it - or his son's spirit within the animal. Following to the well that Cristi had found, Yusuf kneels and cries out when he hears his son calling out in fear that he is going to be killed.

The farmer on the quad bike (Liam Thomas) finds Cristi dozing in the van and takes him home for tea and some petrol. He recognises the Romanian accent from having had farmhands and hints that there would be a place for him should he return. Grateful, Cristi goes in search of Yusuf and finds him huddling by a fire against a stone wall. He sings a Kurdish song that prompts Cristi to tell him how he had tried to help Nassar when he first came to Bradford by tracking down a lost uncle. However, he turned out to be a bad man and Cristi asked Zully to find Nassar a job and shelter. In repayment, he stole the only keepsakes that Cristi had of his grandmother and he realised that there is no such thing as friendship in the migrant world.

Praying in their own way, the bury Nassar and drive back to the city. Yusuf refuses the Rolex to pay for his wife's transit and Cristi pulls away, with his eyes being reflected in the mirror as we're left to wonder whether he returns to Zully, takes up Farmer Alan's offer, or strikes out on his own as a wiser, but sadder man.

Although this is creditably cinematic - the monochrome imagery is exceptional, with the

dazzling sunset being the standout shot of the year so far - there's a Play For Today feel about Jack King's debut. That's no bad thing, as he seeks to explore pressing social issues with terse dialogue and plenty of realist grit. But, with Yuma Koda's skittish score adding to the sense of sullen unease, this also feels like a Dales Western, as two taciturnly macho strangers negotiate hostile terrain and ethno-cultural suspicion in order to complete a fraught mission.

Trapped within the claustrophobic confines of a white van, Tudor Cucu-Dumitrescu and Erdal Yildiz excel, as Cristi and Yusuf circle each other looking for signs of weakness, threat, and connection and, amidst the tension, there is genuine poignancy in the moments when the two men far from home share precious details about their lives and families. The entrance of the mystical goat might leave a few scratching their heads, while some will be disappointed by the rather deflated denouement. Others might echo the criticism Sharrock that faced about tackling the plight of undocumented migrants from a outsider's humanist perspective (however sincere or well meaning). Nevertheless, coming at a time when positions on the subject are becoming increasingly entrenched, this is a worthwhile attempt to say something different and it's entirely to King's credit that it evokes memories of Hiner Saleem's exceptional road movie, Kilomètre Zéro (2005).

BAMBI, A LIFE IN THE WOODS.

So fixed is Disney's Bambi (1942) in the popular imagination that it can never be replaced. But Austrian Felix Salten's classic story about a deer fawn discovering the world around him has been charmingly retold by French director Michel Fessler using live-action footage in Bambi: A Tale of Life in the Woods. Narrated in English by singer Mylène Farmer, this blend of timeless tale and Nature documentary would make an irresistible treat for younger children during the last week of the holidays.

Almost as soon as he is born, Bambi tries to stand on his spindly legs, as his mother licks him clean. Within a day, he is walking and is curious to explore the woods. The narrator informs us that he is a prince who has an inner ancestral voice to guide him when he strays from the mother who will raise him, while his kingly father rules over the herd.

A watchful crow perches on a nearby branch, as Bambi snuffles a hedgehog. But the bird swoops down to warn him away when he shows too much interest in a slithering snake.

Bambi relies on his sense of smell and the aromas seem fresher than ever after a downpour. He gambols in the meadow with his mother, pausing occasionally to peer at a beavering insect before he frolics off in pursuit of a butterfly. This activity catches the attention of a grey rabbit, who allows Bambi to give him a good sniff to confirm that he poses no threat.

They are interrupted, however, when an eagle swoops down and both fawn and rabbit scamper away through the trees. The rabbit takes shelter in a hollow trunk and Bambi pokes his snout into a hole to check on his new friend after having experienced fear for the first time. It's a useful emotion, as it will help keep him safe from potential predators.

Although Bambi sees little of his father, he is curious about the way in which the male deer butt their antlers in establishing the herd's pecking order. But he is even more interested in the good things to eat that his mother shows him. The rabbit joins in the munching, while the crow keeps a nosy racoon at wing's length. Having plucked up the courage to follow his mother into the still waters of the lake, Bambi learns the lesson that diversity is good and that our differences make us what we are.

Similarities are good, too, and Bambi befriends a young doe when their mothers meet in the golden meadow. The pair romp around in the long grass and dash into the woods, only to stop short when they come across a man loading firewood on to a donkey, who bears the burden patiently. This is Bambi's first brush with humans and he senses that they can't entirely be trusted.

As summer comes, Bambi and the doe splash in the water under the gaze of some wallowing boars. At night, fireflies come out to lighten the darkness, while a vigilant owl hoots warnings. When morning comes, the crow takes over the watching brief, with a flashback showing how his claw was damaged while escaping from a wire snare. He guides Bambi away from a trap hidden in the undergrowth and flies overhead, as the deer is forced to flee from a Chocolate Labrador. Pausing on the bank, the dog spots the racoon in the long grass and plunges into the water that Bambi has just crossed. But he turns back on hearing his master's whistle and the danger passes.

Threats come in all guises, however, and a wolf stalks Bambi before his father appears protectively behind him when he gets cornered in a thicket. As the wolf slinks away, the narrator explains that the fawn will need to develop self-confidence if he is to become king of the forest. For the moment, though, he can enjoy the feeling of the family being together, as each parent has lessons to impart.

Now six months old, Bambi no longer has the white camouflage spots on his coat and, as autumn comes, he spends more time with his doe friend. But the crow continues to hover and the deer still sees the grey rabbit, who has to be freed by Bambi's father when his paw gets caught in a snare and it takes antler power to snap the wire.

The rabbit is none the worse for the experience and competes for dropping acorns with a busy red squirrel. A greedy boar rumbles into view and starts hoovering up the nuts. But Bambi's mother is forever on the alert and she ushers his son and the doe out of the clearing when she hears hunting hounds barking in the distance. However, a gunshot rings out and Bambi is left to fend for himself and deal with his gnawing sense of loss. As the narrator sombrely intones, `Sadness is a deep coldness on the inside, and he doesn't know yet that it will last for ever.'

Despite dustings of snow, Bambi and the other animals make it through the winter. As spring comes, however, he scrapes his leg in narrowly avoiding a springed claw trap and has to seek out his father, who shows him where to find the plants he needs to help him recover. They have a trippy effect that the camera attempts to replicate. But the wound heals and Bambi is soon watching boar piglets playing on some discarded antlers.

One day an Old English Sheepdog bounds into the woods and the doe runs away. Bambi misses her, but a field mouse joins his companions in searching for her. One day, Bambi reaches a road at the edge of the wood and he tentatively crosses it. He sees the doe in a pen with the donkey and watches the crow, as it pecks at the string loop holding the gate closed. Once free, the doe follows Bambi back across the tarmac and they splash into the lake together, just as two frogs swim past and the racoon falls in love at first sight with a female peering out of the long grass.

Two years pass and Bambi is forced to leave his friends so his father can teach him how to be a fully grown male. This is a key moment in the deer's life, as his antlers start to grow and he has to learn how to assert himself over other bucks. At the age of four, however, he returns to find his doe and their fawn becomes the next prince who will have to learn how to be the king of the forest.

Not everyone will approve of the use of trained animals, but it's hard not to warm to the creatures from the Animal Contact Park involved in this thoughtful version of the familiar circle of life saga. The fawn playing Bambi has an adorable snout that seems to convey curiosity and determination in equal measure, while there is an innocence behind the eyes that allows Fessler to manufacture reaction shots through adroit cross-cutting. With his mischievous stare, the grey rabbit also exudes character, while the crow remains inscrutable in coaxing and chiding the young deer when he's out of sight of his mother.

Fessler wisely keeps her demise off screen to avoid distressing younger viewers (or older ones, for that matter), while he frequently succeeds in conveying danger without making the action so disconcerting that it has to be watched through fingers. Editor Laurence Buchmann is to be much commended for his Kuleshovian heroics and for one exceptional moon match shot, but he has excellent material to work with, as cinematographer Daniel Meyer's wildlife footage of worthy of a David Attenborough documentary. Whether capturing the changing seasons in the Lorient forest or recording the behaviours of insects, reptiles, mammals, and birds at close quarters, the imagery is inviting and instructive.

Laurent Perez Del Mar's score also plays its part, as is flits between the playfulness and the profundity in Fessler's imaginative interpretation of Salten's text. Most tinies will still prefer the Disney, but it wouldn't do any harm to let them see both films and discuss which one they prefer and why.

SUPER-CHARLIE.

From Jack-Jack in The Invincibles (2004) to Theodore Templeton in The Boss Baby (2017), all screen infants with (super)power aspirations kneel before Stewie Griffin from Family Guy (1999-). The latest to pay fealty is the title character in Jon Holmberg's Super Charlie, which has been adapted from a series of books by Swedish crime writer, Camilla Läckberg. However, the tot with an `S' on his chest isn't actually the protagonist in a treatise on sibling envy that wastes a promising premise to focus on a wacky plot about a supervillain and his envious inventor sibling.

Opening with what one suspects is an accidental homage to Monty Python's Bicycle Repair Man, the story lands in the present day to introduce 10 year-old Willie, who lives with his cop father (Luke Griffin), writer mother (Karen Ardiff), and teenage sister (Emma Jenkins). He feels ignored when baby Charlie (Lucy Smith) is born and he has to sleep in his dad's study because there's a cot in his room. Unable to sleep, however, Willie reads the notes to an unsolved case of technology thefts and spots a pattern that the police have missed.

Stumbling on to a robbery in action while wheeling Charlie in his pram, Willie discovers that his sibling can talk and has superpowers that were bestowed by a green cloud generated by a passing comet on the day he was born. Eccentric inventor Anton (Paul Tylack) had hoped to harness these himself, as he confides to Sidekick (Marcus Lamb), who also works for Inferio (Brendan McDonald), who had been similarly enhanced five decades earlier when Anton had tried to cheat him in a cycling race.

When a plan is hatched to sell exoskeleton suits to the police, Willie's dad is chosen to be the guinea pig. More by luck than judgement, he saves the day by defusing a bomb at the fairground. But Willie and Charlie had already discovered its source when they had followed a suspicious bin lorry to the depot, with Charlie pushing the pram at super speed having beaten up the bully who had been making Willie's life a misery.

With dad hailed a hero, the news programme claims that the crimewave is over. But Willie knows the suits and the souped-up weapons are a scam and he is frustrated that no one will listen to him. Sensing his weakness, Anton tries to befriend him, while Willie listens to the voice of his favourite comic-book character, The Flying Muscle (Marcus Lamb), who tells him to take the credit for Charlie's deeds because no one will believe a baby could have superpowers. Unfortunately, Charlie learns of Willie's jealousy and stops speaking to him, just as Anton slips Willie a baby bottle full of a chemical that will enable him to extract Charlie's powers with a special chair.

Realising too late what he's done, Willie tries to prevent Anton from activating the process during a ceremony to celebrate their father's heroism. Just as Anton siphons off the green fluid, however, he is interrupted by Inferio, who thinks it's coffee and demands a drink. This enables Willie to switch the cups and replenish Charlie's powers in time to confound Inferio, who turns out to be Anton's scheming sister, Kerstin (Karen Ardiff), who had been hit by the comet dust five decades earlier and had hidden her dual identity using a belt buckle that facilitates an instant transformation.

As Inferio describes how they had devised the weapon scheme as a kind of protection racket, he grabs Willie and flies into the clouds with him to silence him with a long plunge back to Earth. But Charlie's powers are in full working order again and he not only saves his brother, but also shrinks Inferio, dumps him in the de-activation chair, and locks him in a cat basket. Job done - apart from mom turning the whole adventure into a bestselling book and Willie and Charlie planning future escapades as the credits roll.

Despite Camilla Läckberg having published 12 Super-Charlie books over the last 14 years, chances of there being a sequel seem slim. Nevertheless, there will be those of a certain age who will be cheerfully swept along by this brisk and ambitiously convoluted story. Even some grown-ups will struggle to tie up the loose ends from the opening flashback, although they will get the occasional dollop of adult humour that will fly over the heads of their charges, notably a breastfeeding gag dropped by competitively nursing neighbour, Pernille (Doireann Ní Chorragáin).

The 3-D animation is capably done, with The Flying Muscle being amusingly rendered two-dimensionally as he has leapt from a poster on Willie's wall. The backdrops are as slick as the editing during the action sequences, which have been deftly cut to avoid showing anything more than cartoonish violence. By contrast, the voiceovers are more capable than inspired, with Charlie's lisping speech pattern sometimes feeling a little creepy. But, while it muffs the opportunity to say something significant about sibling bonds and could do with a bit more wit, this is not a bad time-passer for the last week of the school hols.