High Fidelity (dir: Stephen Frears, 2000, cert 18)
Nick Hornby’s London based novel is successfully transposed to Chicago and Rob Gordon’s (John Cusack) record shop Championship Vinyl. A hangdog Cusack is perfectly cast as the unlucky in love music obsessive but the real stars are ‘the musical moron twins’ Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black). Black’s merciless haranguing of customers with deficient musical taste is hilarious. Screened as part of the summer long season Cans Film Festival.
Thu 15 Jun 8pm at Electric, Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY £9.50 www.theelectric.co.uk

The Other Side of Hope (dir: Aki Kaurismäki, 2017, cert 12A)
Finnish director Kaurismäki has been ploughing a uniquely leftfield vision for decades and his films are always touched with a gleeful wink to the surreal and unusual. We’ve been big fans since the hilarious ‘Leningrad Cowboys Go America’. In ‘The Other Side of Hope’ Kaurismäki expounds the relationship between a Syrian refugee and a curmudgeonly Finn, their relationship beginning in typical Kaurismäki style with a fist fight. It’s a seriously prescient film that delights throughout.
Fri 16 Jun to Thu 22 Jun at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £9 macbirmingham.co.uk

Fear Eats The Soul (dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974, cert 12A)
Career highlight for the outrageously prolific doyen of The New German Cinema Movement of the seventies, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Some forty feature films in fifteen years before his untimely death in 1982 aged just 37. The touching tale of a relationship formed between an elderly woman and a Moroccan immigrant still possesses an uncomfortable prescience in these uncertain times. A masterpiece of cinema that was shot at Fassbinder’s usual breakneck speed in just two weeks. Highly recommended.
Sat 17 Jun 6pm at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £9 macbirmingham.co.uk

The Crow (dir: Alex Proyas, 1994, cert 18)
Tragically proving to be Brandon Lee’s swansong, The Crow is a high octane powerhouse of a film that embarasses most of the superhero drivel clogging up your local multiplex.  Eric Draven (Lee) rises from the grave to avenge his murder in a barrage of stylishly realised bloody violence. A jackhammer soundtrack features some mighty cover versions including a Nine Inch Nails version of Joy Division’s ‘Dead Souls’.
Sat 17 Jun Midnight at Mockingbird, The Custard Factory, Gibb St, Birmingham B9 4AA £5 veezi.com

Heavy Metal + Q&A (dir: Gerald Potterton, 1981, cert 15)
A dazzling portmanteau collection of adult animation influenced by the sci-fi fantasy comic of the same name. The sex, violence and nudity comes viscerally thick and fast with all stories linked by the mysterious green orb The Loc-Nar. What’s that? ‘The sum of all evils’ obviously.  The kinetic nature of the unfolding madness was exacerbated by having several different studios responsible for different segments. One tip, do not force Harry Canyon to get out his disintegrator.
Sun 18 Jun 6pm at mac, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH £9 macbirmingham.co.uk

The Colossus of Destiny: A Melvins Tale (dir: Bob Hannam, 2016, cert 15)
There is no band on Earth possessed of the brutalist power wielded by the almighty Melvins, as Josh Homme opines in the film they are without peers. Big hair, big riffs, big sound, big influence on Kurt Cobain. The progenitors of the whole Seattle grunge scene, their concrete chainsaw guitar buzz is relentless. If you are lucky enough to have a Supersonic Festival ticket you can see this for free.
Sun 18 Jun 2.30pm at Vivid Projects, 158 Fazeley Street, Birmingham, Digbeth B5 5RS £5 supersonicfestival.com

El Nino Pez (dir: Lucía Puenzo, 2009, cert 15)
A beautifully realised mystery-noir from Argentine director Lucia Puenzo sourced from her own novel. Wealthy Lala (Ines Efron) plans to run away to Paraguay with maid Ailin (Mariela Vitale) but of course things don’t go to plan. Murder; intrigue, exploitation and a dash of surrealism, El Nino Pez is a darkly engaging thriller. An Imaginative screening from Birmingham Arthouse Cinema.
Sun 18 Jun 6.30pm at Cafe Ort, 500-504 Moseley Rd, Birmingham B12 9AH £5 www.meetup.com