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| Frozen |
Frozen, 12.25pm, BBC iPlayer
It might follow the traditional rules but Elsa and Anna have a lot more going on than a lot of drippier princesses. Elsa exiles herself after accidentally plunging her kingdom into permanent winter making her sister Anna determined to get her back. Sure, watching this might lead to your youngsters subjecting you to renditions of Let It Go for the next six hours but it's hard to beat as a family film. All the classic elements are here, including a sisterly bond that refused to be broken by exile, some beautifully animated action sequences and the inevitable quirky sidekick - in this case Olaf the snowman who dreams of summer. It's been made with a love for the Disney back catalogue but with an eye to more modern ideas about relationships.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Netflix
The latest murder mystery comedy from Rian Johnson takes a while to get going but once the first murder finally happens, the film picks up considerable pace as Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc tries to get to the truth of the cloak and dagger dealings of a group of old friends (and a foe) who have been invited to spend a 'murder mystery' weekend at a luxury mansion by Edward Norton's Miles Bron. The cast includes some sweetly worked comedy cameos - including Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim - and the case itself has a few twists up its sleeve.
1917, 9pm, BBC1, Tuesday, December 27
There might be some trickery involved in this ‘single take’ film but the visceral immediacy of the end result certainly feels as though it was shot all in one go. That’s perhaps no surprise given that top cinematographer Roger Deakins is behind the camera - and he finally won an Oscar for his troubles after 13 previous attempts. Sam Mende’s gripping drama follows a pair of soldiers (George MacKay and Dean-Charles Champan) as they attempt to deliver a letter across no man’s land as lives, including their own, lie in the balance. Beyond the strong central performances there are also notable cameos from Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Scott.
Finding Dory, 2.20pm, BBC1, December 28
This little slice of undersea adventure from Pixar is family animation at its finest. The story hinges on forgetful Dory's sudden realisation that she lost her parents years ago, which sends her on a quest to find them along with Nemo and a surfer dude turtle. Inevitably things don't go to plan and, with the party split up, a whole new band of characters come into play including territorial sealions Fluke and Rudder - who shriek Off! Off! every time someone encroaches on their rock - and a group of seagulls whose rallying call is "Mine! Mine! Mine!". The story itself offers an insight for smaller children about what it is like to live with a disability that is also likely to gently prompt adults to consider the way they treat older people with memory loss. With a fine voice, including Ellen DeGeneres, Idris Elba, Diane Keaton and Andrew Stanton, plus an upbeat finale, there's no excuse not to jump in.
Dances With Wolves, 12.25pm, 5 Action, Thursday, December 29
Kevin Costner proved he was more than just a pretty face in front of the camera when he stepped behind it to make this epic western about a Union soldier who leaves his life behind to join a Sioux community. Costner shows no signs of nerves as he takes on the sweeping vistas of America as well as the central role, alongside Mary McDonnell, avoiding the saccharine in favour of more adult and measured considerations of sacrifice and love that finds strength in simplicity.
White Noise, Netflix, from Friday, December 30
Anne-Katrin Titze writes: Noah Baumbach’s firm grip on White Noise, Don DeLillo’s masterpiece, starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, is vibrantly disturbing and joyously faithful to the source. The Gladney household consists of Jack (Driver) and Babette (Gerwig), his two children from previous marriages, Heinrich (Sam Nivola) and Steffie (May Nivola), Babette’s daughter Denise (Raffey Cassidy) and the wise, wordless Wilder (played by twins Henry Moore and Dean Moore). When an accident produces a black billowy cloud, soon to be upgraded to “Airborne Toxic Event” by the media, the family priorities become scrambled anew. The kids begin to have symptoms they heard on the radio. Or did they have them already before? Husband and wife keep competing over who is more obsessed with death. During a stroll in the supermarket, Jack, founder and chair of the department of Hitler Studies at a small Middle-American college, introduces Babette to his colleague Murray Jay Siskind (Don Cheadle), whose specialties include movie car crashes and Elvis and many other fascinating subjects. Baumbach's uproarious finale, an all- encompassing supermarket dance number is set to new body rhumba, a new song by LCD Soundsystem, all ready to show the Grim Reaper what we humans are up to.
Get Out, 10pm E4, Friday December 30
Jennie Kermode writes: Jordan Peele’s blistering directorial debut, which draws on classic science fiction traditions but is absolutely up to the minute, presents the viewer with several layers of trap to try and escape from. As the opening sequence reminds us, simply being a young black man in a white supremacist society means it could be necessary to escape from a pursuer at any time, but for Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), life seems pretty sweet. He’s happy with his white girlfriend and not too worried about getting along with her parents – until, that is, a little incident with a teacup which takes him to an unexpected place. All is not what it seems and the danger here goes beyond the physical. Though he will still need to run and fight in order to follow that titular advice, there are also psychological and emotional hurdles to be overcome in a film that blends black comedy with sharp social observation.
The Remains Of The Day, 1.05pm, BBC2, Hogmanay
For some reason this film has become particularly associated with Christmas scheduling, but whenever you watch it this adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker prize-winning novel will require you to have a good box of tissues by your side. A buttoned up butler (Hopkins) whose job comes before everything else finds his life changing after his former lord and master Lord Darlington (James Fox) - a man who might be rather too sympathetic to the Nazis - dies and the estate is taken over by an American millionaire (Christopher Reeves). Essentially a will they/won't they romance between Hopkins' butler and Emma Thompson's young housekeeper, it rides on the pair's delicately worked performances and comes with all the sumptuous period trappings you'd expect from full Merchant Ivory.
Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Channel 4, New Year’s Day
Indiana Jones could certainly lay claim to being one of cinema's most famous archaeologists and his entertaining, boy's own style adventures returned to funny, exciting form in this third instalment of Steven Spielberg's series after the slight dip of Temple Of Doom, which you can catch at 6.40pm on Hogmanay. This time around Indy (Harrison Ford) is back battling those troublesome Nazis (arguably more scary than in the first film) in a bid to find the Holy Grail - more importantly, he's brought his dad (Sean Connery) along for the ride. Thanks to Ford and Connery, the film packs double the charisma and the pair have great fun as the sparring dad and son. There's also a lovely little origins story - complete with breakneck chase - to kick the whole thing off, featuring River Phoenix as the young archaeologist. The trailer for the fifth instalment of the franchise - Dial Of Destiny - was released at the start of this month, watch it here.
Gremlins, 9pm, 5Star, New Year’s Day
"Keep him away from sunlight. Don't get him wet. Don't ever feed him after midnight." Simple rules to follow in order to look after a cute little Mogwai but, of course, new owner Billy (Zach Galligan) is about to break them all leading to an outbreak of havoc-wreaking Gremlins and some spiky satire as writer Chris Columbus and director Joe Dante take aim at American consumerism. The horror content in what was originally considered "a kids' film" gave it a lasting cache with children at the time - whether they had seen it or not - and while the action itself just about descends into anarchy by the end, there's fun to be had in the skewering of the commercialisation of Christmas that happens along the way. Columbus has been working on a second sequel to the film for some years now, so the critters might still be back.
Our short this week is a scary little number from Andyde Burgh, revolving around a New Year's Eve party - Just One Drink
