The SLMan Culture List: February
©MUBI
THE CINEMA RELEASE: Bring Them Down
Christopher Andrews won the Douglas Hickox award for best debut director at the 2024 British Independent Film Awards for Bring Them Down. A story of feuding farming families in present-day Ireland, the film stars Bafta winner and Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin, Saltburn) and Christopher Abbott (Poor Things, Girls) alongside Colm Meaney (Layer Cake) and Nora-Jane Noone (Brooklyn). Michael (Abbott), the last son of a farming family, lives an isolated existence with his ailing father Ray. Haunted by a terrible accident in his past, Michael has isolated himself from the world and is dedicated to his prized flock. When the ongoing conflict with rival farmer Gary and his unpredictable son Jack (Keoghan) stirs old tensions and grievances, it triggers a chain of events that take increasingly violent turns, leaving both families permanently altered.
Out 7th February
Visit Picturehouses.com
THE THRILLER: Zero Day
Missing Slow Horses? This might help… Zero Day stars Robert De Niro as respected former US president George Mullen, who, as head of the Zero Day Commission, is charged with finding the perpetrators of a devastating cyber-attack that has caused chaos around the country and thousands of fatalities. As disinformation runs rampant and the personal ambitions of power brokers in technology, Wall Street and government collide, Mullen’s unwavering search for the truth forces him to confront his own dark secrets while risking all he holds dear. The series also stars (deep breath) Angela Bassett, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Joan Allen, Connie Britton, Matthew Modine, Dan Stevens, Bill Camp, Gaby Hoffmann and Clark Gregg.
Out 20th February
Visit Netflix.com
THE WAR DOC: Vietnam: The War That Changed America
Apple TV+ has just dropped this six-part documentary series narrated by Ethan Hawke. It commemorates the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, offering a deeply human look at the lives of those who lived through one of the most divisive conflicts in American history. Weaving together powerful first-person testimony, never-before-seen archival footage and emotional reunions between veterans – some of whom haven’t seen each other in nearly half a century – it aims to bring healing, remembrance and reconciliation. Across six episodes, a picture also builds of the profound changes to the US itself, and the very different country that emerged from the war.
Out now
Visit TV.Apple.com
THE SERIES: A Thousand Blows
Brought to the screen by Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight, this thrilling six-part series is set in the perilous world of illegal boxing in 1880s Victorian London. Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall), best friends from Jamaica, find themselves thrust into the criminal underbelly as they enter London’s thriving bare-knuckle boxing scene. Hezekiah finds fortune and fame through the art of pugilism, but he attracts the attention of the infamous Queen of the Forty Elephants, Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), who sets about exploiting his talents to further her criminal enterprise. Meanwhile, the menacing and self-declared emperor of the East End boxing world, Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham), determines to destroy Hezekiah, whose ambitions to fight in the West End threaten everything he has built. What ensues is a battle of the old world against the new.
Out 21st February
Visit DisneyPlus.com
THE TRUE STORY: Surviving Black Hawk Down
Surviving Black Hawk Down is a three-part 360º telling of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, whose events inspired Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning epic Black Hawk Down. Surviving Black Hawk Down tells a gripping real story of horror and heroism, blending raw, immersive storytelling with first-person interviews from both sides.
Out 10th February
Visit Netflix.com
THE SPORTS DOC: Court of Gold
For the first time, top medal contenders in men’s basketball granted behind-the-scenes access at last year’s Paris Olympics. Court Of Gold is the result, giving an unfiltered, insider look at Team USA, France, Serbia and Canada as they gear up and battle for gold in the French capital – where, for the first time, international basketball has caught up to the US and the competition is higher than ever.
Out 18th February
Visit Netflix.com
THE FILM FESTIVAL: Black Rodeo
This month’s BFI film season is dedicated to the Black stars of Westerns. Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western shows how African American Westerns carved out a niche as revisionist films, mirroring the innovations of New Hollywood. Early Hollywood westerns glorified manifest destiny and settler culture, relying on stark oppositions in their larger-than-life tales of ‘how the West was won’: courageous cowboys dispossessed ‘savage Indians’; Americans fought Mexicans for Texas; and schoolmarms shamed saloon hall girls. After 1955, even the great John Ford began to break free from this mythmaking. Over time, the genre elevated outcasts, women, Mexicans, Native Americans and Black heroes. Inspired by the 1960s counterculture, these films reimagined the West. The BFI’s season presents a wide selection of campy, revisionist westerns shaped by the civil rights era, Black Power politics, anti-war protests and women’s liberation, offering a valuable flipside to TV phenomenon Yellowstone’s rancher tales.
Various dates throughout February
Visit BFI.org.uk
THE A-LIST PLAY: The Seagull
It’s no longer unusual to see A-listers on the London stage, and 2025 is bringing some of the biggest stars to the city. That includes Cate Blanchett, who returns this month in Thomas Ostermeier's new production of Chekhov’s The Seagull. Blanchett is Arkadina, a celebrated actress whose larger-than-life presence dominates both the stage and her personal relationships. Arriving at her family's country estate for the weekend, she finds herself caught in a storm of conflicting desires. Her playwright son Konstantin (the excellent Kodi Smit-McPhee of The Power of the Dog) struggles to step out of her shadow as he pursues his own artistic ambitions, while her lover Trigorin (Tom Burke, Strike) becomes the object of affection for aspiring young actress Nina (Emma Corrin, The Crown). As their lives entwine and they each grapple with their desires, ambitions and disappointments, what unfolds is a gripping tale of vanity, power and sacrifices made in the name of art.
26th February-5th April
Visit Barbican.org.uk
THE MUSIC PLAY: The Score
Succession star Sarah Snook pulled off one of the performances of 2024 in The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Now her on-screen father, legendary actor Brian Cox, is playing Johann Sebastian Bach in Oliver Cotton’s new play at the Theatre Royal. In spring 1747, Bach reluctantly visits the Prussian court of Frederick II, Europe’s most ambitious and dangerous leader. The two men could hardly be more different, but Frederick is in awe of Bach’s genius, and has mischievously prepared a musical conundrum that he hopes will baffle the composer and amuse his court. The explosive events of the following days could not have been predicted by either man…
20th February-26th April
Visit TRH.co.uk
THE EXHIBITION: The Face Magazine: Culture Shift, National Portrait Gallery
This is a celebration of iconic fashion images and portraits from The Face, the trail-blazing youth culture and style magazine that shaped the cultural landscape in Britain. From 1980 to 2004, the mag played a vital role in defining contemporary culture. Musicians featured on its covers achieved global success and the models it championed – including a young Kate Moss – became the most recognisable faces of their time. It also launched the careers of many leading photographers and fashion stylists, who were given the freedom to radically reimagine the visual language of fashion photography and capture the spirit of their times. This exhibition will bring together the work of over 80 photographers, breathing new life into their work’s print beginnings.
20th February-18th May
Visit NPG.org.uk
Norman Watson
©Martin Parr Magnum Photos
THE ART FILM: I Am Martin Parr
British documentary photographer Martin Parr has created some of the most memorable images of the past century. Through an intimate and exclusive road trip across England with him, director Lee Shulman uncovers the life of the Magnum photographer. Drawing too on exclusive archival footage and interviews from various individuals in Martin’s life – close family, fellow photographers, artists and filmmakers, from artist Grayson Perry to musician Mark Bedford – I Am Martin Parr offers a portrait of someone who has revolutionised contemporary photography by inventing a political, humanist and accessible photographic language. As they journey from his hometown of Bristol to the seaside resort of New Brighton, where Parr reshoots his renowned work ‘The Last Resort’ 40 years later, the film revisits key moments in Parr’s career that shaped the way we view photography today.
Out 21st February
Visit MUBI.com
THE HISTORY PLAY: Richard II
Fresh from a tremendous 2024 – when he starred in Bridgerton, won a Critics Choice award for his work in Fellow Travellers and became A-list famous thanks to Wicked – Jonathan Bailey is taking on the role of Richard II in Nicholas Hytner’s new production at The Bridge. Richard is charismatic, eloquent and witty. He’s also a disastrous king – dishonest, dangerous and politically incompetent. Echoing down the centuries is the eternal problem: how to deal with a ruler who has a rock-solid right to rule but is set on wrecking the country he leads. Shakespeare’s subtle yet powerful play revolves round two startlingly modern figures: Richard, an autocrat who believes he is divinely sanctioned, and Henry Bullingbrook (Royce Pierreson), a hard-headed pragmatist who has genuine authority.
10th February-10th May
Visit BridgeTheatre.co.uk
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