Empire March 2021

It began with a tweet from director Edgar Wright in November — “Saw Fatal Attraction again & remembered when I’d seen it with a packed crowd, Anne Archer’s line: ‘If you come near my family again, I’ll kill you’, made the place ERUPT in applause. Made me miss the roar of the audience. Name some scenes that memorably brought the house down.” It’s a tweet that took on a life of its own as film fans, actors and filmmakers alike shared their own amazing movie moments experienced in packed picturehouses. In a time of such uncertainty and difficulty, it was wonderful to take a few moments to pay tribute to something that, yes, we missed, but we didn’t mourn. For we knew, know, it’ll be back again. Edgar approached us…

It began with a tweet from director Edgar Wright in November — “Saw Fatal Attraction again & remembered when I’d seen it with a packed crowd, Anne Archer’s line: ‘If you come near my family again, I’ll kill you’, made the place ERUPT in applause. Made me miss the roar of the audience. Name some scenes that memorably brought the house down.” It’s a tweet that took on a life of its own as film fans, actors and filmmakers alike shared their own amazing movie moments experienced in packed picturehouses. In a time of such uncertainty and difficulty, it was wonderful to take a few moments to pay tribute to something that, yes, we missed, but we didn’t mourn. For we knew, know, it’ll be back again. Edgar approached us about…

CHADWICK FOREVER I’m sitting on a beach in Barbados reading your tribute to Chadwick Boseman. You are correct when you say his legacy will be more profound than we know. As a ‘young’ Black man his life and his death touched me. It has forced us to look at how we view our health, our discipline and our commitment. It also made me put my own story of cancer to paper, which I hope will help other young Black men. (https://link.medium.com/zswNLOEcqcb). Thank you for shining a light. MATTHEW WILSON, VIA EMAIL Thanks, Matthew, we’re so happy you’ve made it through your battle with cancer, and that Chadwick has inspired you. He was one of a kind. Picture house Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, plus one for a friend!…

CHADWICK FOREVER I’m sitting on a beach in Barbados reading your tribute to Chadwick Boseman. You are correct when you say his legacy will be more profound than we know. As a ‘young’ Black man his life and his death touched me. It has forced us to look at how we view our health, our discipline and our commitment. It also made me put my own story of cancer to paper, which I hope will help other young Black men. (https://link.medium.com/zswNLOEcqcb). Thank you for shining a light. MATTHEW WILSON, VIA EMAIL Thanks, Matthew, we’re so happy you’ve made it through your battle with cancer, and that Chadwick has inspired you. He was one of a kind. Picture house Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, plus one for a friend! Valid for one year at…

INDIANA JONES AND his old man; John McClane and John Jr; Peter Quill and a planet-sized Kurt Russell... the father-son action film is a fairly well-worn trope in Hollywood. Its mother-daughter variant, less so. Which is precisely what makes Gunpowder Milkshake so intriguing — and borderline radical. Told largely over one ultra-violent night, the film is the English-language debut of Israeli director Navot Papushado, whose darkly comic thriller Big Bad Wolves was hailed as 2013’s best film by no less than Quentin Tarantino. And happily, that movie’s blend of sharp humour and brutal fisticuffs is still very much in place in his follow-up. The film’s genesis lies in the director’s fascination with “the gun for hire, the samurai ronin figure”, and a desire to put that character into situations we…

INDIANA JONES AND his old man; John McClane and John Jr; Peter Quill and a planet-sized Kurt Russell... the father-son action film is a fairly well-worn trope in Hollywood. Its mother-daughter variant, less so. Which is precisely what makes Gunpowder Milkshake so intriguing — and borderline radical. Told largely over one ultra-violent night, the film is the English-language debut of Israeli director Navot Papushado, whose darkly comic thriller Big Bad Wolves was hailed as 2013’s best film by no less than Quentin Tarantino. And happily, that movie’s blend of sharp humour and brutal fisticuffs is still very much in place in his follow-up. The film’s genesis lies in the director’s fascination with “the gun for hire, the samurai ronin figure”, and a desire to put that character into situations we wouldn’t normally…