The Courier

A gripping spy thriller which tells the true story of an unassuming businessman who is recruited into The Cold War in an effort to provide crucial intelligence needed to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Shown: 2 February 2022

Exminster Film Club Rating: 92%

BBFC Ratings Badge 12A

The Courier Plot Synopsis

A true-life spy thriller. The Courier is the story of an unassuming British businessman who is recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history. At the behest of the UK’s MI-6 and a CIA operative, he forms a covert, dangerous partnership with a ​Soviet officer in an effort to provide crucial intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Film Reviews

The Courier is a tense, well-executed spy drama that wisely focuses on character and performance more than thrills, knowing that if we actually care about these men it will drastically heighten every narrowed glance, near miss, and frightful chase. It’s not always the freshest adventure, but that’s when the acting carries the piece and breathes life into these unlikely heroes.

Matt Fowler, IGN

A triumphant, inspiring movie about the heroism of human decency, Ironbark is a rock solid spy drama that, if it came out 20 years ago, would have easily become a mainstay on TNT or TBS. Hollywood doesn’t make movies like this very often anymore, and if does prove to be part of a last gasp of character-focused period thrillers, at least the genre is going out with some style.

Ben Pearson, Slash Film

Official Film Trailer for The Courier

Review From an EFC Member

The film based on a true story about an English salesman who was recruited by British intelligence to work with a soviet spy in the USSR during the Cold War.

It was an absorbing film and the acting all very convincing which is all I personally want from a film .

I don’t think I appreciated the seriousness of the whole affair at the time but I suppose as a teenager at that time there were other things to think about!

Chris


< January 2022

March 2022 >

Misbehaviour

In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London. Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the newly formed Women’s Liberation Movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage.

Shown: 6 October 2021

Exminster Film Club Rating: 80%

BBFC Ratings Badge 12A

Misbehaviour Plot Synopsis

In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by US comedy legend, Bob Hope. At the time, Miss World was the most-watched TV show on the planet with over 100 million viewers. Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the newly formed Women’s Liberation Movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition. Not only that, when the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite but Miss Grenada, the first black woman to be crowned Miss World. In a matter of hours, a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head.

Film Reviews

If there is a tonal uncertainty in this comedy, then that’s because there was a tonal uncertainty in the real-life events, and the movie nicely conveys how they were at one and the same time deadly serious and Pythonically silly.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Well written, -acted, -cast and -produced, this wholly entertaining yet stingingly relevant story of the 1970 Miss World finals should have been a smash hit when it opened in UK theatres on March 13, but events overtook its release.

Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily

Official Film Trailer for Misbehaviour



< September 2021

November 2021 >

Hidden Figures

The March 2020 Exminster Film Club Film is the story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who rose through the ranks at NASA during the early years of the American space program.

Shown: 4 March 2020

BBFC Ratings Badge PG

Hidden Figures Plot Synopsis

As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as “human computers”, we follow these women as they quickly rose the ranks of NASA alongside many of history’s greatest minds specifically tasked with calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, and guaranteeing his safe return. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Gobels Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.

Film Reviews

Hidden Figures, both a dazzling piece of entertainment and a window into history, bucks the trend of the boring-math-guy movie.

Stephanie Zacharek, Time

Its positive message about education, the value of hard work, and the power of social commitment make it a must-see for parents and kids alike.

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Equirer

Official Film Trailer for Hidden Figures



< February 2020

September 2020 >

Peterloo

Peterloo was Exminster Film Club’s second film screening. This historical drama by acclaimed British director Mike Leigh takes us back to Manchester in 1819. Peterloo chronicles the events leading up to one of the bloodiest days in British history.

Shown: 2 October 2019

BBFC Ratings Badge 12A

Peterloo Plot Synopsis

An epic portrayal of the events surrounding the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manchester turned into one of the bloodiest and most notorious episodes in British history.

From The EFC Committee

Well the Film Club Committee did agree that we should show films of various genres and Peterloo was certainly a bit different from our showing of Fishermen’s Friends!

Those looking for a happy ending were clearly always going to be disappointed. However, the escalating tensions between the impoverished Mancunians and the government (supported by debauched royalty and the viciously strong arm of the law) were graphically depicted and made this a compelling film to watch. As with all films of historic events, Peterloo had to end at some point in time, so we were left without information about whether those horrific events in Manchester actually achieved any lasting result. But perhaps that will be covered in some future film production?

Film Reviews

Mike Leigh brings an overwhelming simplicity and severity to this historical epic, which begins with rhetoric and ends in violence. There is force, grit and, above all, a sense of purpose; a sense that the story he has to tell is important and real, and that it needs to be heard right now.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Leigh’s visceral staging, especially in the climactic moments — brilliantly shot by his longtime collaborator/cinematographer Dick Pope — brings home the significance of a 200-year-old bloodbath that still speaks urgently to the disenfranchised.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Official Film Trailer for Peterloo


This Screening Is Supported By

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Other Films …


< September 2019

November 2019 >