Whenever you head to the cinema these days, there’s always an advert asking audiences to be vigilant against video pirates: making sure anyone with a camcorder can’t buckle their swash.The one thread that runs between them all is an emphasis on the value of the ‘cinematic experience’. Pirates, we’re told, are a threat to that experience. Well certainly those big hats must be blocking somebody’s view. But however much we cinema-goers care, or don’t, about internet piracy, we do all care about having a good Saturday night at the movies, whatever picture we see. But how connected, really, are those two things? Is internet piracy really the biggest threat to our cinematic experience, and if not, what else is?

Police, Adjective is the latest in what we Brits would call “Romanian New Wave Cinema”. However, director Corneliu Porumboiu would dismiss us in true Eastern European fashion, perhaps by waving a shawl in our face and spitting “ptooey” at the phrase, which he calls “problematic”. Regardless of genre, Police, Adjective (winner of the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival) is the antithesis of a cop film, replacing running about with batons with endless trudging round Eastern Europe in the same old jumper.

To celebrate the triumphant re-release of Back to the Future, the time travel comedy which changed our perception of DeLoreans forever, we’re taking a look back at our favourite trilogy and desperately trying to work out what was going on. What’s going to happen in 2015? Why don’t hoverboards work on water (unless you’ve got POWER)? And did Robert Zemeckis have any idea what sort of four-dimensional can of worms he was opening way back in 1985? That’s the power of BTTF…

Taking up direction duty for first time since his impressive debut, Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck makes his second contribution to the ever expanding sub-genre of Boston crime films. Giving a romantic charm to a story of master criminal versus determined cop that Michael Mann would be proud of, it follows the plight of bank-robber Doug MacRay. Desperate to get out, but hopelessly locked in, will Doug get the girl like Will Hunting, or bite the dust like John Dillinger? Most importantly, will he ever get to leave The Town?

Following a customer focused Facebook campaign, September 18th saw Glasgow’s Grosvenor Cinema stage the first of their new “Lock-In” nights. Slumber parties with a cinema atmosphere, these events will allow people to see their favourite trilogies in on the big screen, watched all in one go and in the company of like minded fans. With the votes counted and verified, the winner that would claim the honour of launching night one was clear – and what a winner it was! This was going to be one night to rule them all…

Everybody loves a freebie. Just ask Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross. And whilst I wouldn’t say that ALL of the best things in life are free, The Scoop is offering something truly great. Outside film screenings. And I’ve got the windswept hair to prove it. So forget about the rubbish giveaways; like flyers through your letterbox, a dress ten sizes too small that your pal gave you because she lost weight, or the free drink that ain’t alcohol (yeah thanks) because this is GOOD stuff!!

At the invitation of the Swedenborg Society, Best For Film is publishing a special series of reviews to follow its ‘Images of the Afterlife in Cinema’ film season, which will be exploring life, death and everything in between. This week we’re looking at the Japanese classic; Afterlife.

Horror film stroke revenge drama Red White and Blue is a dark jewel; a cinematic feast of suspense and sleaze with an ending that, though shot off camera, leaves you speechless. Hell isn’t just you and your weird little brain. Hell is other people…

Jonah Hex is arguably what you’d get if you transposed Van Helsing to 1876 Virginia, stripped every joke and ironic line out of the script, replaced the mediocre CGI vampires with dreadful CGI corpses and then forcefully raped John Malkovich’s reputation with a branding iron. It’s spectacularly awful.

At the invitation of the Swedenborg Society, Best For Film is publishing a special series of reviews to follow its ‘Images of the Afterlife in Cinema’ film season, which will be exploring life, death and everything in between. This week it’s the turn of Adrian Lyne’s harrowing supernatural classic Jacob’s Ladder. Hold onto your sanity…