Beast (dir: Michael Pearce, 2018, cert 15)
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside. It’s a decidedly different kind of holiday in Michael Pearce’s debut feature, set in contemporary Jersey with a serial killer running amok. The fairy tale plot revolves around Moll, played with a deliciously mysterious edge by Jesse Buckley, things are never as they seem with the borders between dreams and reality blurring regularly. It’s a bloody journey, with one particular scene involving a rabbit’s head having us grimacing, told in the best tradition of Grimm’s, an exciting and challenging debut.
Mon 21 May to Thu 24 May at the mac, Cannon Hill Park, Queen’s Ride, Birmingham B12 9QH £9 macbirmingham.co.uk

My Neighbor Totoro (dir: Hayao Miyazaki, 1988, cert U)
The perfect sunshine Miyazaki film, with the great director seeming more relaxed (in holiday mode?) and a little less grandiose than usual. The film recounts the story of Satsuki and Mei’s summer visit to their ailing mother, charming and delightful and in Totoro, Ghibli have created one of the greatest and most recognisable animated characters in movie history, who remembers the Totoro cameo in Toy Story 3? Beautifully realised and sweetly evocative, Totoro’s candy resonance is impossible to resist.
Mon 21 May 6pm at Electric, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY £10.50 www.theelectric.co.uk

Filmworker (dir: Tony Zierra, 2017, cert 15)
When Leon Vitali starred as the vicious stepson Lord Bullingdon in Stanley Kubrick’s peerless drama Barry Lyndon, he forged a working relationship with the esteemed director that saw him give up acting and become the maverick filmmaker’s right hand man until Kubrick’s death in 1999. Zierra’s fascinating study of that relationship is a compelling insight into friendship and the unique working practices of a directorial genius.
Mon 21 May to Thu 24 May at The Mockingbird, The Custard Factory, Gibb St, Birmingham B9 4AA £10 veezi.com

Spirited Away (dir: Hayao Miyazaki, 2001, cert PG)
Sumptuously animated throughout in the beautiful Studio Ghibli style, the ideas and imagination expressed in the Land of the Spirits is breathtaking. Nothing is as it seems and nothing can be trusted. Do not accept gold from No-Face, beware of stink spirits and leave your parents at home unless you want them turned into pigs. A film that improves with every viewing. Now you must excuse us, we’re off to Yubaba’s bathhouse.
Tue 22 May 8.30pm at Electric, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY £10.50 www.theelectric.co.uk

Candyman (dir: Bernard Rose, 1992, cert 18) *cancelled*
Go on admit it, you’re too scared to stare into a mirror and say Candyman five times, one of the Wire crew threatened to do it last year and he hasn’t been seen since. In Tony Todd’s Candyman, Bernard Rose created one of cinema’s most iconic boogeymen. It’s generic horror fare but served with a bloody flourish and a maliciously unsettling scowl from the titular villain and his shiny hook.
Wed 23 May 8.30pm at The Kitchen Garden Cafe, 17 York Rd, Birmingham B14 7SA £5 www.kitchengardencafe.co.uk

Redoubtable (dir: Michel Hazanavicius, 2018, cert 15)
Set during the Paris riots of 1968, that almost brought capitalism to its knees, comes this rollicking adventure about  one of it’s most vocal participants, Jean-Luc Godard. The great New Wave director experiences an existential crisis as France’s capital city burns, shot in an explosively imaginative style that recalls Godard’s own excesses, the film veers from reverence to hatchet job but manages to captivate throughout.
Wed 23 May 5.45pm at Electric, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY £10.50 www.theelectric.co.uk

The King and I (dir: Walter Lang, 1956, cert U)
The wonderful Rodgers and Hammerstein musical came to define Yul Bryner’s career, winning an Oscar for his role as the curmudgeonly King Mongkut of Siam, he reprised the role on stage 4,625 times. Filled with iconic songs and delightful performances from Bryner and Deborah Kerr, The King and I is perfect Sunday afternoon viewing.
Sun 27 May 2pm at The Lighthouse, The Chubb Buildings, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1HT £7.20 light-house.co.uk