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| George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in Wham! Photo: Courtesy of Netflix © 2023 |
This breezy and warm-hearted look at the brief but bright career of Wham! Is a perfect slice of summer entertainment. Focused on the friendship between Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael from childhood on up, voiceover from the two of them flows over well-edited archive footage, including home video and more familiar concert film. While Chris Smith’s film doesn’t shy away from Michael’s personal struggles at the time, its main focus is on the fast development of his talent. It also gives Ridgeley his due as a vital part of the band and their success. As is fitting for the bubblegum pop outfit, it fizzes along with plenty of fun details and, of course, all the hits.
It Follows, 9pm, HorrorXtra (Freeview Channel 69), Monday, July 9
Jennie Kermode writes: Premiered at Cannes in 2014, in the days when that festival was a lot more circumspect about genre films, It Follows is a different kind of horror film, one which brings folkloric weight to a story which encompasses terrors breathtakingly close to those of the real world. Its heroine, Jay (the always impressive Maika Monroe), finds out about the danger only when it's too late to retain any hope of a normal life. After having sex with her boyfriend for the first time, she is told by him that he has passed along a curse: she will now be hunted by a mysterious creature which only she and other afflicted people can see, which can take any form yet can only move at walking speed. The only way to buy time is to pass the curse to someone else: it will remain a threat, but will target that person first. The film is refreshingly natural and honest. Although she must constantly be on her guard - and viewers likewise - Jay doesn't stop living her life, and despite knowing the threat, others still find her desirable. In its sidelong way, the film explores the realities of life with a sexually transmitted disease with an unusually acute understanding, yet also delivers on thrills and scares. It's a bleak coming of age tale, its teenage protagonists fully alert to their mortality for the first time, yet it finds a kind of beauty in their continued appetite for life. It will be coming to Blu-ray next month in a special edition with lots of extras.
Brooklyn, 10.40pm, BBC1, Thursday, July 13
John Crowley's achingly romantic drama charts the story of small-town Irish lass Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) who heads for a new life in New York and finds herself torn between the old and the new and between American Tony (Emory Cohen) and Irishman Jim (Domnhall Gleeson). With old-school romance pumping through its veins, fans of the genre will find this a pleasing indulgence that builds up a head of emotional steam. The film is also beautifully crafted, particularly in terms of the colour palette used by Odile Dicks-Mireaux in the costuming, which helps to underline the emotional transition of Crowley's heroine.
The Second Best Marigold Hotel, 11.05pm, BBC4, Thursday, July 13
Putting the words "second best" in the title of your film is always a bit of a risk, but John Madden pulls off a solid sequel thanks to his all-star cast and some immersive and colourful camerawork from Ben Smithard. We're back in India with the cantankerous Muriel (Maggie Smith) and the gang, as Evelyn (Judi Dench) embarks on a tentative relationship with the newly single Douglas (Bill Nighy) and hotel owner Sonny (Dev Patel) prepares for marriage to Sunaina (Tina Desai) as well as hotel expansion. Thanks to the characters all being established in the first film, the ensemble-driven plot is able to develop in unexpected ways, as the gang face up to their late-life chances with the clock of mortality ticking. Strong performances bring plenty of emotional heft, while Ol Parker's script also laces in a decent smattering of humorous one-liners.
Happening, 11.40pm, Film4, Thursday July 13
Audrey Diwan's film about a student facing an unwanted pregnancy in 1960s France - an era when abortion was outlawed - has garnered sharp relevance in the wake of recent court decisions in the US. Diwan takes a clear-eyed look at what happens to Anne (Anamarie Vartolomei) as her actions become increasingly desperate in the face of a system and society that has no empathy for her situation. Diwan avoids melodrama in favour of letting the hard, cold reality of Anne's position speak for itself in a drama that is tense and compassionate in equal measure.
The House of Usher (billed as The Fall Of The House Of Usher), 9.05pm, Talking Pictures TV (Freeview channel 82), Friday, July 14
Jennie Kermode writes: The great Vincent Price inhabited the works of Edgar Allan Poe like no-one else. Although Jean Epstein’s 1928 version of this tale, scripted by Luis Buñuel, also has much to recommend it, it’s in the hands of Roger Corman that this work attains its classic form. While the director’s brushstrokes may be big and bold, he also has an eye for detail - the books in Roderick Usher’s library are an occult scholar’s dream, some of them very hard to get hold of - and the house itself has tremendous presence. Price explores the intersection between hereditary madness and aristocratic remoteness as a man desperate not to let his sister marry, plundering many of Poe’s favourite obsessions before the true reason for his own is exposed.
The Guard, 12.50am, Channel4, Sunday, July 16
If you enjoyed Brendan Gleeson's recent turn in Banshees Of Inisherin, on Netflix, then this film directed by Martin McDonagh's brother John Michael is likely to be up your street. This debut is fuelled by a similar black comedy to the other McDonagh's work, although perhaps a fraction less bleak. Gleeson plays Sergeant Gerry Boyle, a small town cop whose relaxed attitude is at odds with newly arrived partner Aidan McBride (Rory Keenan). When McBride goes missing, Boyle finds himself on the case with FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle). A neatly worked tale that dances on the edge of absurdity, but also subverts a fair number of clichés.
This week’s short selection is Maximilien Van Aertryck and Axel Danielson’s Ten Metre Tower, a documentary that watches as people who have never been on a high-dive board decide whether or not they will jump. The directing partners have gone on to make the excellent Fantastic Machine, which is continuing to enjoy a strong festival run.
