Nayma G.
Yelp
I'm into serious "art cinema", meaning that I go to the movies many times a week expecting to see films from all over the world. Coming from a massive city with plenty of options in this regard, Manchester's art cinema options left me unsatisfied. As a student I used to see "world cinema" several times a week, and this rhythm remains more or less the same nowadays, if I have the time. Sometimes I have a compulsion and I get to see up to three movies a day, meaning that I spend a lot of time and MONEY buying cinema tickets. This is affordable in a city like mine (Mexico City), but it left me broke and heart broken in Manchester, where I had to stick to a film per week.
I knew what the deal with HOME was as soon as I approached the building, coming from Whitworth St. HOME is a hipster building with a fancy gourmet section and some cinema theaters added to the equation. You can guess the tickets have the same over-priced logic, although I have to say a lot of the locals consider this place "cheap". I guess it is if you compare it with blockbuster type of cinemas, but it's simply not affordable for serious and compulsive cinephiles, even if you acquire the membership.
The theaters are inexcusably small for such a large building, with only 6 or 7 rows, and small screens, following the architectural logic of huge cinema complexes that want to add as many rooms as possible, instead of building a proper cinema room with a properly sized screen, like the good old days.
The good thing is that the programmers know their business, and I got to see some really good movies, such as the late great Chantal Akerman's No Home Movie. Apart from HOME, I was never able to find a good place for movies, not even the student unions.