Cowboy Bebop (dir: Shinichiro Watanabe, 2001, cert 12A)
Classic anime that might be less renowned than the likes of Akira and Ghost in the Shell but stands as tall as those films and is just as venerated among genre fans. Brooding and mature filmmaking that juxtaposes kinetic action with philosophical meditation effortlessly, the cable car shootout is one of cinema’s greatest action set pieces, on the big screen newbies may find their eyes melting.
Wed 5 Sep 8.15pm at Electric, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY £10.50 www.theelectric.co.uk

Vagabond (dir: Agnes Varda, 1985, cert 15)
Any film that begins with it’s hero frozen to death in a ditch isn’t going to be an easy ride. Agnes Varda’s Vagabond is compelling and painful with the beautiful and tragic banality of life captured in minute detail, the documentary feel adds a horrifying piquancy to the flashback of Vagabond Mona’s life. A searing piece of feminist cinema that still resonates uncomfortably today.
Fri 7 Sep to Sat 8 Sep at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £9 macbirmingham.co.uk

Reservoir Dogs (dir: Quentin Tarantino, 1992, cert 18) + music, themed cocktails and Tarantino generation game.
Video store clerk Tarantino took cinema by the scruff of the neck in 1992 and smashed its tired face into a bloody pulp in a miasmic explosion of pop culture references and unflinching violence. Dialogue so sharp it will make your ears bleed and brutality so corrosive it made viewers gag. A perfect storm of script, soundtrack and casting. For this special Tarantino all-nighter audience members can take part in a special generation game, Can you dance like Michael Madsen, aim a Nerf Gun better than Christoph Waltz?
Fri 7 Sep 10pm at Electric, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY £12.50 www.theelectric.co.uk

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (dir: Nick Park, 2005, cert U) Scratch ‘n Sniff screening
Nowhere else in town is offering such incredible olfactory cinematic thrills this week as Wigan’s Wensleydale loving Wallace and his loyal canine sidekick Gromit tackling a plague of rabbits and saving the annual vegetable competition. Crammed to breaking point with a jackhammer assault of gags, Nick Park’s film is well deserving of its Oscar for best animated feature. As part of the Anim18 season enjoy the duo’s enduring eccentricity with a special scratch and sniff screening featuring such great smells as bunny burping and stinking bishop.
Sat 8 Sep 11.30am at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £4 macbirmingham.co.uk

Yellow Submarine (dir: George Dunning, 1968, cert U)
A subversive joy from start to finish, The Beatles’ fourth film, which actually had little input from the band, is a hyper-coloured romp through the fab four’s oeuvre mischievously littered with with puns, double entendres, and Beatles in-jokes. A psychedelic hippy fairy tale that still manages to delight and within which a myriad cultural waypoints for animation that followed can be discerned.
Sat 8 Sep 3.45pm at The Mockingbird, Custard factory, Birmingham B9 4AA £5 veezi.com

Reclaim the Frame: Faces Places (dir: Agnes Varda & JR, 2017, cert 12A) + Q&A 
One of cinema’s greatest living auteurs, see Vagabond also screening at the mac this week, 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. The screening is followed by a Q&A session with Birds Eye View Film’s Mia Bays and Jo Duncombe.
Sat 8 Sep 2pm at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £9 macbirmingham.co.uk

Mildred Pierce (dir: Michael Curtiz, 1939, cert PG)
Big screen Film Noir is always a joy and Casablanca director Curtiz’s explosive teenage brat tale of murder, indulgence and betrayal is one of the best. Joan Crawford delivers a towering performance as the forgiving titular matriarch and put upon social outcast, so many twists and turns as the film reaches an inevitable climax the viewer is left breathless and dizzy. This new 4k restoration is sumptuous, Mildred slapping ingrate Veda has never looked so good.
Sun 9 Sep to Tue 11 Sep at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £9 macbirmingham.co.uk

Weekend of Wednesday’s 
The consistently excellent weekly Yellow Wednesday screenings, that combine thoughtful cinema with inventive Q&A’s and discussion groups, occupy Impact for a whole weekend of sharp, intuitive and thought provoking cinema. Highlights include the powerful meditation on black radicalism the Black Power Mixtape that is followed by a discussion with academic Kehinde Andrews, the forward thinking Tomorrow that encourages community action to tackle global problems including a discussion (and lunch) with the Real Junk Food Project and the horribly pertinent refugee documentary Human Flow. Check out the link below for a full schedule and get involved with one of Birmingham’s most relevant two days of cinema in a long time.
Sat 8 Sep to Sun 9 Sep at Impact Hub, Oxford St, Birmingham B5 5NR £5 per film, £10 day pass, £20 wknd pass www.eventbrite.co.uk