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| Hell Drivers |
Andrew Robertson writes: Tom Yately (Stanley Baker) is an ex-con caught up trying to scrape by. As a trucker in the 1950s his attempts to keep to the straight and narrow are sometimes not the shortest path. There's romance, racism, recklessness. Hell Drivers tells its story with efficient abandon. The cargo may be ballast but it's well balanced. A cast of not-yet-famous faces bring to life a tale of machismo and machinery. Machinations too, in a scheme involving 'getting' and 'quick' but not everyone will be rich. Near everyone involved would go on to higher heights. Unlike many shared early works this holds up well. It may at times look clumsy to modern viewers but this is robust film-making. Six decades and change have not slowed its pace, nor dulled its anger. Sorry We Missed You covers similar ground. Hell Drivers clatters along by putting its foot down. Catch it if you can.
The Italian Job, 6.55pm, Film4, Monday, February 13
Some heists are played for thrills, others put an emphasis on laughs and Peter Collinson's 1969 gem is likely to steal your heart with its balance of the two. Michael "I only told you to blow the bloody doors off" Caine is on top form as cheeky charmer Charlie Croker, who is planning a gold heist in Turin. You might come for Caine's stylish patter but you'll want to stick around for the masterful Mini Cooper car chase through the narrow Italian streets, not to mention down flights of stairs - and don't forget the wonderful Noel Coward, as a jailed Mr Big, in what would be his final role. The Job's a good one.
Four Weddings And A Funeral, 9pm, Film4, Tuesday February 14
Film4 is turning the romance levels up to stun this Valentine's Day, with an evening line-up to cosy up to that includes Hugh Grant at his bumbling best in Mike Newell's comedy drama. You could argue that Richard Curtis has applied a similar formula with diminishing returns since (Notting Hill, for example, which screens at 10.45pm on ITV the same night, should you fancy it). Four Weddings whips along at pace as romance rises and falls in the English upper middle-classes. It marked the first big-screen role for John Hannah and is especially worth seeing for the lovely supporting turn by Charlotte Coleman, who sadly left us all too young in 2001, aged at just 33. Stick around for Guillermo Del Toro's more off-beat romance immediately after.
The Shape Of Water, 11.20pm, Film4, Tuesday, February 14
Jennie Kermode writes: A marvellous tribute to the creature features of yore, Guillermo Del Toro's Oscar-winning spectacular upends the conventional morals of Fifties America to find heroes in unlikely places. The ever reliable Sally Hawkins won a league of new admirers with her performance as mute cleaning lady Eliza, very much at the bottom of the hierarchy on the secret government base where a mysterious creature is brought at the behest of Michael Shannon's sinister federal agent. Whereas everyone else is horrified by the creature, Eliza finds him strangely beautiful and, as the two develop an unexpected romance, hatches a plan to break him out with the aid of fellow cleaner Zelda (Octavia Spencer) and gay best friend Giles (Richard Jenkins). There are quite a few stereotypes here, but that's the nature of fairy tales. With Cold War drama playing out in the background and a strange secret buried in Elia's own past, there's a lot to engage with here - plus, in one of its most delightful comic scenes, you'll get a hint of how the young Del Toro once destroyed his parents' bathroom.
The Orphanage, 11.35pm, Film4, Wednesday, February 15
The themes of Peter Pan - a boy who never grew up and a girl who did - are used to chilling effect in this ghostly tale from Juan Antonio Bayona, who netted seven Spanish Goyas with this debut feature. Laura (Belén Rueda) has returned to the orphanage where she spent time as a child, along with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and young son Simon (Roger Princep), who is HIV positive. When Simon acquires a new imaginary friend and asks to bring him home, it's Laura who finds herself in a sinister game between the real and fantasy, the past and the present. Tension thrums through just about every moment of this exploration of loss as we come to believe, as Geraldine Chaplin's medium Aurora, “Seeing is not believing. It’s the other way around”.
Ninjababy, 1.45am, Film4, Thursday, Wednesday, February 16
This Norwegian comedy drama uses animation to accentuate the emotional experience of the hard partying Rakel (Kristine Kujath Thorp), who gets a shock when she discovers she is heavily pregnant. She starts chatting to her "stealthy ninjababy", who appears in animated form as she grapples with what to do next in a film that offers comedy and poignancy in equal measure. Loosely adapted with an offbeat fluidity from the graphic novel by Inga Sætre, Yngvild Sve Flikke's film has a thoroughly modern take on potential motherhood that isn't scared to acknowledge it is not for everyone. If you liked Baby Done or Saint Frances, it offers a similar vibe.
Shaun The Sheep: Farmageddon, 2.15pm, BBC1, Sunday, February 19
When it comes to animation that can be enjoyed by the entire family, Aardman's Shaun the Sheep stands out from the flock. His silent-movie style humour means his adventures are easily accessible no matter what age or nationality you are - just one of the reasons his franchise has proved so successful. This time out, Shaun finds himself trying to help an alien who has crash-landed near the farm. It might not be peak Shaun, but there's plenty here to enjoy and, as always for Aardman, the laughter is balanced nicely with some moving emotional moments.
We're stepping back in time to 1959 for this week's short. Refuge England charts a Hungarian refugee's first day in London, which urges empathy in ways that feel as vital now as when it was made.
