July 2023 – recommended film and TV releases

Get ready for an entertainment feast in July 2023, with the Snacks Not Included handpicked recommended film and TV releases for the month. We have a packed month to enjoy on the big screen and the comfort of your home, with the latest film festivals, meet ups, special events, new TV releases, talks, and more.

Lets get in it…..

 

Film Festivals & Special Events

First up, get ready to be transported to new worlds are a host of new film festivals and special events in London.

 

SAFAR Film Festival 2023

The UK’s largest festival of Arab cinema returns with releases from Palestine, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria, plus its annual shorts programme exploring the festival theme A Journey Through Space and Time of Arab Cinema. Mapping the region across a new axis and showcasing films which traverse territories and historical periods.

The programme hones in on films with distinct locations and settings rarely seen on screen. Several filmmakers venture into uncharted geographies to bring their tales to life, while others spin fresh perspectives on the domestic and the familiar. Some revisit the past to better understand their present, using archive, oral history, pop culture and period costume to uncover forgotten or unheard stories.

Documentaries and fictions transport the public through time to Cairo, Damascus and Beirut: as they were filmed in the 80’s and 90’s by revered filmmakers Youssef Chahine, Borhane Alaouié and Mohamed Malas, and as they are filmed today through new lenses.

A focus on contemporary Moroccan filmmaking presents a cinema not shying away from exploring queerness, classism and segregation, and a special programme of screenings and talks with Palestinian filmmakers and artists commemorates 75 years since the Nakba.
29 June — 09 July
Various locations – tickets available here – https://www.safarfilmfestival.co.uk/2023-festival/

 

Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl + Party 7 double bill with Katsuhito Ishii Q&A at the Prince Charles Cinema

This is a rare double bill of auteur Katsuhito Ishii’s Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl + Party 7 with a Q&A from the man himself in between.

Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl was his debut based on the manga of the same name. It tells the story of a yakuza played by Tadanobu Asano and woman escaping her depraved uncle who are both on the run and team up to escape gun crazy, deadpan gang members dressed in over-the-top, high-end fashion. They are also being followed by Yamada, an amateur hit man, who was hired by Michio to bring Toshiko back.

Party 7 is Katsuhito Ishii’s follow-up to Shark Skin Man once again brings back Tadanobu Asano to play one of his strangest roles, that of a peeping pervert who is one of 7 wild characters who find themselves in 1 hotel room with a stolen suitcase of Yakuza money, each on the run from their own past!

This is a double bill not to be missed if you’re a fan of his style of are new and like what you see. The double DVD is also up for release soon on Third Window Films.

5th July at the Prince Charles cinema
Tickets – https://princecharlescinema.com/PrinceCharlesCinema.dll/Seasons?e=26957118

 

Sundance Film Festival at the Picturehouse Central

Sundance Film Festival: London 2023, taking place from 6 to 9 July at Picturehouse Central. The Festival will present 11 feature films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Resort in January, specially curated for London by the Sundance Institute programming team in collaboration with Picturehouse. The festival will open with the UK premiere of Scrapper, written and directed by Londoner Charlotte Regan. Charlotte is a Sundance Ignite Fellow and was named as a 2020 Screen International Star of Tomorrow, and will close with the UK premiere of You Hurt My Feelings, from acclaimed filmmaker Nicole Holofcener.

Between this will be a plethora of features and documentaries continuing the Sundance tradition of supporting original work from established and emerging voices in filmmaking.
6 July to 9 July and the Picturehouse Central, Piccadilly Circus
Tickets and line up – https://www.picturehouses.com/sundance

 

Anime and Chill – Hot Geek Summer at Four Quarters

Anime and Chill – have been providing an all-inclusive space for lovers of anime and gaming for the past 3 years. This month they move to south London to the Four Quarters in Elephant & Castle.

This event is perfect for all OG and new anime lovers out there who want to celebrate their passion with like-minded people. We have prepared an amazing program that will keep you entertained all night long. Some of the highlights include cosplay contests, networking, a game room, DJs, an anime quiz, photo booth and a marketplace with artists and small businesses from within the community.

Grab your friends and join us for a night of unforgettable fun. Tickets are limited, so don’t wait too long to get yours!

9 July at The Four Quarters, Elephant & Castle
Tickets – https://shoobs.com/events/83670/hot-geek-summer-23

 

A Bright Nowhere: Journeying Into Improvisation at The Rio Cinema

Café Oto is one of my favourite music venues in London, there are few venues that have a line up of artists quite like what put on here, its an eye opening place to visit.

A new documentary about a remarkable series of concerts of improvised music at London’s Café OTO. Filmed across four Saturday nights in July 2022 when over 30 musicians joined improviser, percussionist and animateur Eddie Prévost on stage for a residency marking his 80th birthday.

The film offers a candid look at improvisers who create music in the moment, free from the authority of a composer, score or conductor. The musicians focus entirely upon real-time collective exploration and as their compelling music unfolds the cameras take us to the heart of the action with revealing yet unobtrusive intimacy.

A Bright Nowhere opens the door to a rich world of unorthodox sounds, inviting doubters to reappraise the music and handing existing devotees the valuable opportunity to commune with the art form they love. Improvisation – that unruly, irrepressible and vital music which persists, in the words of David Toop, “as anomaly, as conscience, as critique and as refuge.”

This is one for music fans.

9 July at The Rio Cinema, Dalston

Tickets – https://riocinema.org.uk/movie/a-bright-nowhere-journeying-into-improvisation

 

South by South: Memory at The South London Galley

South by South is a quarterly film screening at the South London Gallery. The programme, which is now in its twelfth year, focuses on presenting bold and innovative cinema from Africa and the diaspora to audiences in the UK.

This month they present three short films that explore memory, experience and Black subjectivity. Each film experiments with slowness and ‘errantry’, a state of wandering or travelling.

Ibrahim Shaddad’s Jagdpartie (Hunting Party) (1967) is a study on racism told through a white mob’s hunt for a Black farmworker in Germany. Shaddad plays with light and shadow to disrupt the image of the forest as imagined by the German Romantic movement.

In República (2020), playwright and director Grace Passô undermines dominant narratives in Brazil that structure society. Passô’s film centres a woman who has woken up from her sleep to a city engulfed in violence. The film speaks to the experiences of the Black diaspora in Brazil.

Life on the Horn (2020) by Mo Harawe explores devastation in the region through a dying father and his son. The film brings together slow-paned and lingering shots of the Somali coastline to recall violent histories of resource exploitation and ecological damage.

12 July at the South London Gallery, Camberwell
£6
tickets – https://www.southlondongallery.org/events/south-by-south-memory/

 

20 Banned Black Films you need to see. 16 years of African Odysseys

Black History Walks present a history of Black films that have been suppressed and denied audiences. The African Odysseys film programme has been screening fantastic Black films once a month with Q&A’s for 16 years. It is the only such programme in the country and was initiated and maintained by community activists.

Some of the films they have shown have been literally banned and this presentation will go through 20 of them explaining what these films were about, why they were banned and the current methods of suppressing Black films that challenge Hollywood stereotypes.

20th July at the BFI Southbank, Waterloo, BFI blue room
Free
Tickets – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/20-banned-black-films-you-need-to-see-16-years-of-african-odysseys-tickets-669155481057

 

Screenings

Here are the Snacks Not Included recommendations for the new cinema releases for the month of July.

 

The Wicker Man – 50th Anniversary

To mark the 50th anniversary of the release of this classic, The Wicker Man has been re-released and remastered in 4K with an additional 66 minutes of unseen footage and specials clips shown before the film. The Wicker Man has achieved true cult status as one of the most revered horror films in cinema history, despite a difficult production and heavily cut original theatrical release.

On general release now.

 

Barbenheimer

July 21st marks the cinematic event of the year, talked about for over a year now, two polar opposite films released on. the same day which have inspired much internet chatter, memes and even merchandise.

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Many are doing the double bill on opening weekend. There is much chat about what order they should be watched in and at what time. Apparently the best way is to start with a morning screening of Oppenheimer with coffee and cigarettes and then go for brunch followed by a Barbie screening early evening followed by dinner, drinks and a club.

We’ll report back on our Barbenhiemer experience which will officially launch the Snacks Not Included podcast.

On general release 21 July

 

Talk to Me

This buzz from this movie has been huge following screenings at festivals earlier this year. Picked up by A24 this Australian horror movie is centered around Mia, a lonely teenager who finds out she can conjure spirits through an embalmed hand, per the synopsis. She gets excited about doing this, and brings her friends in on it.

The trailer looks so good and we’re looking forward to checking this one. It is also showing as part of the earlier mentioned Sundance Film Festival together with a director Q&A.

On general release 28 July

 

TV and Streaming

Here are the Snacks Not Included recommendations for new and returning shows for the small screen.

 

Hell’s Paradise

For my anime heads, Hell’s Paradise is the third part of the Shonen Dark trilogy (together with Chainsaw Man and Jujitsu Kaizen). Set in the Edo period of Japan, it follows the ninja Gabimaru and the executioner Yamada Asaemon Sagiri as they search for the elixir of immortality.

For those who like their with darker twist and are a fan of of the other Shonen Dark shows this is the one for you!!!

Streaming now on Crunchroll with new episodes weekly.

 

Foundation Season 2

Apple Tv are really coming with the goods recently. Their unlimited budget have allowed for shows like Foundation to exist. Created by David S. Goyer and loosely based on the science fiction novel of the same name by Isaac Azimov it chronicles a thousand-year saga of The Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it.

It can be overly drawn out in parts but the pay off at the end of the first season is worth it and has really set the scene for what will be a much faster paced second season.

Its one to watch if you love your space science fiction epics.

July 14 on Apple TV

 

They Cloned Tyrone

A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy in this pulpy mystery caper.

This science fiction comedy which stars Jamie Foxx (wishing him a speedy recovery), Keifer Sutherland, John Boyega and Teyonah Parris about an unlikely trio uncovering a government cloning conspiracy.

Science fiction, mixed with comedy, conspiracies and blaxploitation, what not to love about this one. I can’t wait for it.

21 July on Netflix

 

Twisted Metal

Peacock are on fire at the moment with Ms Davis and Poker Face. Their next release is Twisted Metal, an upcoming American post-apocalyptic action comedy television series developed by Michael Jonathan Smith. Based on the vehicular combat video game franchise of the same name published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the series stars Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz, Thomas Haden Church, Will Arnett, Richard Cabral and Samoa Joe. The half-hour series is about a driver who takes a job to deliver a package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland while being chased by marauders.

This looks like some b-movie goodness. Its been a good year for video game adaptations with The Last of Us and Super Mario, let hope this one follows suit.

27 July on Peacock

 

So, what are you waiting for? Grab some snacks, get comfortable, and get ready for a month of unforgettable entertainment.

Be sure to check out the previous months versions of this article. Whist the date has past there are still some great TV and film recommendations in there:

March 2023

June 2021

February 2021

January 2021

September 2020

June 2020