SCREEN TIME
PICTUREHOUSE PICKS August’s cinema experience is set to alter our perspectives, as Cambridge Arts Picturehouse duty manager and events coordinator Chloe Kelly explains
T his year, the summer film programme has been designed to reshape us. Opening on 7 August, A24 and Picturehouse Entertainment bring forth Tony , starring Dominic Sessa, Leo Woodall and Antonio Banderas. It follows a 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain (later to become a beloved chef, author and television personality whose work and message was rooted in exploring international cuisine and cultures) as he travels to Provincetown, Massachusetts, and stumbles into the chaotic world of a restaurant kitchen. The film’s Canadian director Matt Johnson has just celebrated the theatrical release of the highly acclaimed Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie and is also responsible for the 2023 film Blackberry , showcasing his talent for unconventional retellings. Therefore, it feels natural that he has set himself up to change the current pace of biopics flooding the industry. From the trailer, we can see that Tony interprets Bourdain’s sharper sides and focuses solely on one transformative summer that had remained unknown by the wider public and unspoken about by Bourdain himself. The Bourdain estate even released a heartfelt endorsement stating that they hope ‘this film serves as a reminder that every journey has a start, and that audiences see the beginnings of The summer film programme has been designed to reshape us
THE MIND’S EYE This summer presents two intimate works, with Tony (above) offering a journey of discovery and Bitter Christmas a self-reflexive portrayal of creativity and hardship
the man who taught us how to be better explorers on our own paths’. On the theme of free and creative spirits, late August marks the return of Spanish director and writer Pedro Almodóvar, with his newest feature film Bitter Christmas opening on 28 August. Bitter Christmas feels like two films rolled into one, as the narrative draws parallels between two individuals while time-travelling between 2004 and 2026. In classic Almodóvar melodramatic style, we are introduced to filmmaker Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a character that’s an extension of Almodóvar himself. Finding himself entangled in a creative crisis in the present day, Raúl draws inspiration from the story of bereaved advertising director Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) 22 years earlier. Using work as a coping mechanism to distract herself from the recent passing of her mother over the Christmas period, Elsa begins to suffer with debilitating migraines and panic attacks and is forced to take a break, travelling to Lanzarote with a friend. Bitter Christmas is an auto-fictional dive into the darkness that comes from being a storyteller, and makes the audience question the healing properties of art.
Visit picturehouses.com/arts for the full programme, special screenings and events
28 AUGUST 2026 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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