Defending Your LifePG

Directed by Albert Brooks | USA | 1991 | 1h 51m | Starring Starring Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, Michael Durrell, James Eckhouse

An acerbic LA advertising executive dies in a car accident and is sent to Judgement City, a purgatory where he must defend his actions on Earth in order to ascend to a higher plane of existence. Albert Brooks finds a perfect balance between satirical bite and romantic-comedy charm as the writer, director, and star of this wonderfully imaginative existential fantasy.

Our screening on Friday 1 July will be introduced by comedian Matthew Chadourne, part of the Oxford Comedy Festival.

Reviews

‘The movie is funny in a warm, fuzzy way, and it has a splendidly satisfactory ending, which is unusual for an Albert Brooks film.’
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed Defending Your Life between July 1, 2022 and July 4, 2022.

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What else is on?

Today (Saturday 27th July)

15:15

Sleep 15
1h 35m | Korean w/ English subtitles
Late one night, a young woman is awakened by her husband's sinister mutterings in his sleep. As the nights pass, his behavior becomes increasingly disturbing in Jason Yu's suspenseful horror debut.

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17:30

The Conversation 12A
1h 54m
A surveillance expert is hired to follow a couple and becomes obsessed with their cryptic conversations in Coppola's neo-noir thriller exploring technology and privacy. Palme d'Or winner, now restored in 4K for its 50th anniversary.

Book here

20:00

Kinds of Kindness 18
2h 44m
A man takes control of his life. A woman searches for a spiritual leader with a unique ability. A man's missing wife returns. Three stories come together in Yorgos Lanthimos' dark comedy, starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, and Willem Dafoe.

Book here


Tomorrow (Sunday 28th July)

14:00

The Conversation 12A
1h 54m
A surveillance expert is hired to follow a couple and becomes obsessed with their cryptic conversations in Coppola's neo-noir thriller exploring technology and privacy. Palme d'Or winner, now restored in 4K for its 50th anniversary.

Book here

16:30

Kinds of Kindness 18
2h 44m
A man takes control of his life. A woman searches for a spiritual leader with a unique ability. A man's missing wife returns. Three stories come together in Yorgos Lanthimos' dark comedy, starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, and Willem Dafoe.

Book here

20:00

Orlando, My Political Biography 12A
1h 39m | French w/ English subtitles
Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando acts as an inspiration in filmmaker and philosophers Paul B. Preciado’s award-winning documentary illustrating how life, poetry, and gender converge in the lives of trans people from past and present.

Book here


Plan your visit

Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road. We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We don’t show adverts, just a couple of trailers, so don't be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!