Climax (dir: Gaspar Noé, 2018, cert 18)
The arrival of a new Gaspar Noé film is sure to repel the faint of heart and weak of stomach but for many, including us, it’s cinematic joy. One of the most daring filmmakers today, Noé’s oeuvre appalls and delights in equal measure, challenging audiences with a miasmic cuteness that is unrivalled. Climax is a wild ninety six minute acid trip as a group of hip hop dancers drink alcohol spiked with lsd unleashing a spiralling cacophony of dayglo visuals and noise, just like Tito, you will be fried.
Tue 9 Oct to Thu 11 Oct at Electric, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY £10.50 www.theelectric.co.uk
Mon 8 Oct to Thu 11 Oct at The Mockingbird, The Custard Factory, Gibb St, Birmingham B9 4AA £5 veezi.com

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (dir: Philip Kaufman, 1988, cert 18)
Kaufman’s film is a beautifully realised mix of eroticism and political commentary, unfolding under the grim shadow of the Russian tanks that came rolling into Prague during 1968. Long meandering and poetic, with exquisite performances from Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin and Daniel Day Lewis, this is a modern classic. Screened as part of the excellent Eastern Bloc Songs: Party, Pop and Politics and #Uprising68 series of events at Centrala.
Thu 11 Oct 6pm at Centrala, Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley St, Birmingham B5 5RT Free www.facebook.com

Frankenstein (dir: James Whale, 1931, cert PG)
It’s always a source of great pride for us that the director of the most iconic screen monster ever created is from Dudley, you really should go and see the statue in his honour at Castle Gate. The unforgettable sight of Boris Karloff’s monster stomping around in murderously heartbreaking confusion is one of cinema’s most renown visions, an essential part of film history. It’s Alive.
Thu 11 Oct 6pm & 8.20pm at Lighthouse, Chubb Bldg, Fryer St, Wolverhampton WV1 1HT £8.40 light-house.co.uk

Generation Revolution (dir: Usayd Younis & Cassie Quarless, 2016, cert unrated)
An energising documentary that focuses on a new wave of radical activists attempting to change the representation of people of colour in London. Taking two years to make, Younis and Quarless’s film examines the approach of the London Black Revolutionaries (Black Revs), R Movement and The Black Dissidents. It’s an intoxicating, if very insular, mix of methodology and anger which successfully engenders debate, and that’s the point.
Thu 11 Oct 7pm at Friends of the Earth, 54-57 Allison Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5TH £5 www.facebook.com

Faces Places (dir: Agnes Varda & JR, 2017, cert 12A)
One of cinema’s greatest living auteurs, Agnes Varda, collaborates with the mysterious photographer and artist JR on a road trip through the French countryside, capturing a series of stunning images and meeting a randomly disparate group of interesting individuals in the villages they visit. It’s a wonderful journey made sweeter by the good natured bickering of its protagonists.
Fri 12 Oct to Tue 16 Oct at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £9 macbirmingham.co.uk

Skate Kitchen (dir: Crystal Moselle, 2018, cert 15)
A thrilling movie that artfully blurs the lines between documentary and fantasy in its adoring portrayal of the Skate Kitchen Crew, a real all female skateboarding crew from New York. It’s at its best as a freewheeling board hogging feminist ride through the hazardous streets of Long Island, Moselle’s female spin on the teenage coming of age trope lends Skate Kitchen a powerful voice.
Fri 12 Oct to Wed 17 Oct at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £9 macbirmingham.co.uk

Halloween (dir: John Carpenter, 1978, cert 18)
The granddaddy of the slasher genre it laid the blue print that all slasher films subsequently followed. Don’t want to get murdered by the evil bad guy? Then don’t be promiscuous kids. There is very little actual on screen violence in Halloween but there are copious unsettling scares. It maliciously pricks away at the proverbial fear of the dark and the unknown in all of us. Was that a cat outside? Or was it a lumbering vengeful psychopath with a machete? John Carpenter’s simple score effectively grates on the psyche and sticks in the imagination. A perfect horror.
Sun 14 Oct 2pm at Mockingbird, Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Birmingham B9 4AA £5 veezi.com