SCALA!!! Or, the Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-Up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits

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SCALA!!! Or, the Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-Up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits

2024,

1h 36m,

Documentary/

History

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21 Reviews

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Popcornmeter

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Tomatometer

21 Reviews

Popcornmeter

An anarchic, uproarious, and ultimately heart-breaking documentary telling the riotous inside story of London's legendary Scala cinema, 1978-1993.

Matt Zoller Seitz

RogerEbert.com

Jul 21, 2024

3/4

It's a treat to see so much energy expended to recall a venue and a community that was unknown to most, but felt like the center of the universe to the merry few who were part of it.

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Mark Kermode

Kermode and Mayo's Take (YouTube)

Jan 9, 2024

If you've never known about the Scala... it will make you interested, because it's a story about something... a kind of weird artistic eruption that just happened almost spontaneously.

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Wendy Ide

Observer (UK)

Jan 7, 2024

4/5

What elevates the story is the matter-of-fact delivery: for most people, it would be the stuff that nightmares are made of, but it’s just another night at the Scala.

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James Kendrick

Q Network Film Desk

Jan 13, 2025

3/4

A nostalgic trip down the sticky corridor of offbeat and eccentric cinema in the heart of London from the late 1970s through the early 1990s, it will provide cinephiles with a thrilling reminder of how exhilarating the theatrical experience could be

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Dec 16, 2024

3.5/4

This excellent documentary looks at the history of the beloved London movie theater that screened over 4,000 flicks between 1978 and 1993.

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Diane Carson

KDHX (St. Louis)

Aug 7, 2024

“SCALA!!!” is, therefore, a most welcome tribute to a landmark London cinema, one, quite astonishing in terms of its history.

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Jane Giles

Director

Ali Catterall

Director

Ali Catterall

Writer

Jane Giles

Writer

Alan Marke

Producer

Jim Reid

Producer

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Synopsis

An anarchic, uproarious, and ultimately heart-breaking documentary telling the riotous inside story of London's legendary Scala cinema, 1978-1993.

Director: Jane Giles, Ali Catterall
Producer: Alan Marke, Jim Reid, Andrew Starke
Screenwriter: Ali Catterall, Jane Giles
Distributor: BFI Distribution
Production Co: Channel X, Fifty Foot Woman, Anti-Worlds
Genre: Documentary, History
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 28, 2024, Limited
Runtime: 1h 36m

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