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| Miles Teller as a young jazz drummer under the tutelage of a maestro of jazz played by JK Simmons in Whiplash. |
Whiplash, 9pm, Great Movies, Tuesday, August 16
Expanded from the short film that won the top prize at Sundance, Damien Chazelle repeated the feat with the feature and then went on to snag three Oscars to boot. The film, about a single-minded drummer Andrew (Miles Teller) who finds himself locking horns with a bloody minder conductor (JK Simmons, soon to be seen in thriller Glorious) uses the drum beats and jazz rhythms of Chazelle's regular composing partner Justin Hurwitz thrum through the film as the intensity, both of Andrew's performance and his war of wills reaches crisis point.
The Conversation, 11.15pm, BBC2, Tuesday August 16
Regular readers of this column will know this is one of my personal favourites but, if anything, Francis Ford Coppola's film only gets better with rewatching. The director was on a serious roll when he made this gripping psychological thriller between his Oscar-winning Godfathers. Its subject of surveillance is ever-green, while its anti-hero Harry Caul (Gene Hackman, at the top of his game here as a haunted surveillance expert whose troubled conscience drives the film) is also one for the ages. From the opening slow zoom sequence on the conversation of the title to the sound design from Walter Murch and the jazz-inflected score from David Shire, the craft is classy all round. Look out for Harrison Ford in an early role as a slimeball and a small and uncredited but noticeable appearance by Robert Duval.
The Assistant, 11pm, Film4, Wednesday, August 17
Kitty Green built a name for herself on the festival circuit with challenging documentaries, including Casting JonBenet (available on Netflix) - a slippery example of the form that blends fiction with fact to fascinating effect - and she brings a documentary feel to this, her debut feature, which focuses on a single day in the life of Jane (Jennifer Garner), an office assistant of a high-powered film executive. Green keeps on the focus on the psychological implications of this toxic workplace - which brings striking echoes of the Harvey Weinstein scandal - as Jane faces the trickle down of sexism, shining a light on the emotional blackmail that exists in these spaces. Garner deserved a lot more awards plaudits for her performance, which is as much physical as scripted, as she dances her character on the emotional edge.
Raging Bull, 12.45am, Film4, Thursday, August 18
Robert De Niro's work may have become decidedly less punchy in the past decade or so but this classic is a reminder of just how great he can be at his most intense. He inhabits the hulking figure of Jake La Motta in Martin Scorsese's tale of the self-destructive boxer, who can't keep his violence in check, working for the first but not the last time against Joe Pesci, who plays as La Motta's brother-cum-manager Joey, in the role that brought him to prominence. There's an operatic quality to the action both inside and outside the ring, with cinematographer Michael Chapman (reteaming with Scorsese after Taxi Driver) using the crisp black and white to great effect both inside and outside the ring.
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, 9pm, Film4, August 20
Jake Kasdan's adventure is a franchise reboot that's hard to resist, mixing action set pieces with body-swap comedy as four high school kids (Madison Iseman, Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner and Ser'Darius Blaine) find themselves trapped inside the jungle of a video game. The adult stars - the avatars the kids have chosen to be in the game - have enormous fun channelling the spirit of the teens, with The Rock embodying a nerdy gamer, the diminutive Kevin Hart representing a beefy football star, Karen Gillan taking on the personality of an introvert and Jack Black personifying a vain teen queen. The comedy may be broad but it also has broad family appeal, meaning that kids and parents can sit down and enjoy this slice of jungle jinks together. The sequel Jumanji: The Next Level is also worth a look.
Foxtrot, 12.30am, BBC2, Sunday, August 21 and then on iPlayer
Samuel Maoz's drama takes us on a dance that wrong-foots the viewer's expectations almost every step of the way. Young Israeli soldier Jonathan Feldman is dead to begin with and we see his mother (Sarah Adler) and father (Lior Ahkenazi) being told the news. But all may not be as it seems in this often surreal, always gripping journey into family tragedy - reflecting the state of a nation - that plays out across three parts, each as visually daring and thematically challenging as the last. How it failed to make the Oscar International Film shortlist (losing out to the likes of the solid but inferior Loveless and The Insult) is a mystery of our times. Read our interviews with Maoz, Maoz and Ashkenazi and Ashkenzai.
Grease, Film4 on Demand
Presumably prompted by the sad news that Olivia Newton-John has died, her sweet-centred musical hit is back on Film4's on-demand service. It might be a bit risque at the edges and, if we're honest, not the most emancipating story in terms of sexual politics but this retro high school musical is still a fun slice of entertainment that can be enjoyed by multiple generations. John Travolta and Newton-John offer a pair of charming performances in the will they/won't they romance at the film's heart, while Stockard Channing's edgier Rizzo adds a bit of zing - even if she was, at 33, somewhat older than your average school student. The plot is wafer thin but the songs, from the opening Bee Gees number to sing-along Summer Nights and the crazy Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang style ending with foot-tapper We Go Together are undeniably infectious.
You'll have to nip over to Vimeo and log in for this week's short selection, which is Joseph Briffa's Narrow Gauge. The filmmaker has gone on to make a number of television documentaries and you can read about those on his website.
