My pick for the film of the summer hits this week and it is joined by Christopher Nolan’s most powerful film to date.

This week’s memories is a shared collection as a number of WTW staff were honoured recently with long service recognition, more on that later.

Let’s get on with two of the summers big hitters.

★ For booking details, visit wtwcinemas.co.uk

Margot Robbie is perfectly cast as the title character and she is supported by Ryan Gosling as ‘Ken’. We aren’t 100% what to expect from this film but we know this is colourful, original and hugely anticipated.

We start proceedings in bubble-gum pink inspired Barbie Land. But our heroine starts to question her life and what the wider world may hold and she sets off with Ken to our somewhat drab and much more cynical real world.

With encounters along the way including Weird Barbie and toy creators, Barbie’s life and existence becomes even more complex and confusing and a return to Barbie Land cannot come soon enough.

The cast is eclectic and star-studded including Helen Mirren, Will Ferrell and Emma Mackey. At the helm is Greta Gerwig, the triple Oscar nominee has delivered exceptional projects including Lady Bird and Little Women so expect great things from this film.

Christopher Nolan’s latest offering and stars Cillian Murphy as the credited father of the atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Historical accuracies and those familiar with the story know there was more than one man behind the Manhattan project and a whole team of the world’s finest scientists worked together to deliver this new ‘necessary’ evil.

Major General Leslie Groves jr. heads up the military side of the project and works with Oppenheimer to create an atomic bomb to strike fear into their enemies and also to be ahead of the Nazi’s in creating this new super weapon.

They create a town in the New Mexico desert Los Alamos and from here they enlist the greatest physicists of the time to develop the bomb.

Bringing their families and living in a make-believe world whilst constantly surrounded by this huge presence soon takes its toll emotionally on all involved.

What started off as a project for good and to save lives soon changes and after the creation of the bomb, the moral questions really start. Should it be used, how should it be used and have they created a real Pandora’s box in which the race is now on to create bigger and more bombs of this type.

Early reactions from the film have been spellbinding and the film has left audiences in emotional shock so be prepared for the most powerful film certainly of this year. The cast is amazing and includes Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt and Kenneth Branagh.

The Plaza and Lighthouse Newquay will be bringing a heavy metal musical experience with Metallica M72 World Tour Live from TX#1 on August 19.

The first of two nights broadcast live from Arlington in Texas, Metallica’s M72 World Tour bursts onto the big screen in cinemas worldwide.

This unprecedented global theatrical event will see the band playing two nights with two completely different setlists, with songs from across the group’s 40+ year career, ranging from 1983’s classic Kill ‘Em All to 2023’s new release 72 Seasons. You won’t see the same song twice for a total of over 30 songs across both nights.

The M72 tour will feature a bold new in-the-round stage design that relocates the famed Metallica Snake Pit to centre stage so that fans will have a complete 360 view of the show. With a state-of-theart multi-camera set up, you will feel like you’re right in the middle of the action, no matter where you are in the world.

This is a two-night event.

Get your tickets for both nights to enjoy the full experience.

Please note some international screenings will be shown later to suit local time zones.

Metallica M72 #2 will be broadcast on the Monday 21st August.

The surf movie festival continues at Newquay cinema with a big preview last week and one of the upcoming features is Girls Can’t Surf on August 13.

It’s the 1980s and the world of professional surfing is a circus of fluorescent colours, peroxide hair and radical male egos. Girls Can’t Surf follows the journey of a band of renegade surfers who took on the male-dominated professional surfing world to achieve equality and change the sport forever.

Featuring surfing greats Jodie Cooper, Frieda Zamba, Pauline Menczer, Lisa Andersen, Pam Burridge, Wendy Botha, Layne Beachley and more, Girls Can’t Surf is a wild ride of clashing personalities, sexism, adventure and heartbreak, with each woman fighting against the odds to make their dreams of competing a reality.

Visit the Lighthouse website for the full programme of surf films this summer.

Last week WTW cinemas celebrated the 25th anniversary of Truro cinema The Plaza and we also celebrated the long service of a number of cinema employees with Matthew Humby and Mark Connaughton celebrating 25 years at The Plaza.

Robert Williams, Matthew Philp and myself also celebrating but we have worked at various venues across the WTW chain.

We were treated to a delightful meal, a celebration at the Plaza with cake and flowers for partners.

It was also a time to reminisce and one of the old Plaza Stalwarts Percy Webber was in attendance. Percy started work in the Truro cinema in 1946 and was shipped around the south west cinema circuit but was a Truro boy at heart.

I had the pleasure of working with Percy and his unique sense of humour in my time at the Plaza and I am pleased to say that fifteen years on his wit and cheekiness has not diminished.

I would like to say a big thank you to the WTW company for their support over the years and it was a wonderful day to mark our many experiences in cinema over the past quarter of a century.