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| Past Lives Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival |
Past Lives, Netflix, from Thursday, February 15
If you're looking for a film to watch at home for Valentine's, hang on a day late and catch Celine Song's wonderful debut. Featuring a perfect trio of performances, this is not about the love of simple once-a-year gesture but that which goes the distance. When Nora - then named Na Young - leaves South Korea as a 12-year-old for Canada, she also leaves behind her first crush. Fast-forwarding 12 years, Nora (Greta Lee) is now living in New York and finds a bit of Facebook curiosity leads her to reconnect with Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). This is just the start of Song's elegant drama, which will check in once again with the pair after another dozen years have passed and Nora is now married to Jewish American Arthur (John Magaro, putting in one of the best supporting performances of last year). Rather than big and blousy moves, Song instead holds the finer facets of love and friendship, hope and nostalgia up to the night where they glitter beguilingly.
Lady Macbeth, Netflix, from Thursday, February 15
Those in the market for an antidote to all that Valentine's loved up nonsense need look no further than this dark little period drama, which announced Florence Pugh as a talent to watch. William Oldroyd's film follows Katherine (Pugh) who decides to take drastic measures after being sold into a loveless marriage to the much older Alexander (Paul Hilton), fuelled by a burgeoning obsession with estate-hand Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis). The film has a spartan austerity that emphasises both the house's negative spaces and the emotional mental state of Katherine as she drifts through them. With its strong central performance, Oldroyd generates tension in every scene as Katherine's bleak plan plays out. The director told us: "Because so many films of that period are interested in the Victoriana – the heavy drapes, the dark wood, lots of ornaments – stuffy, really – I was interested in trying to portray a different sort of austerity."
The Eternal Memory, 10pm, BBC4, Tuesday, February 13
Love is also a central theme of this deeply moving documentary from Maite Alberdi, which was named best Ibero-American film at the Goyas this week. Filmed over four years, it charts the relationship between TV journalist Augusto Gongora and his actress wife Paulina Urrutia as they try to manage his decline due to Alzheimier's. The resulting film is strikingly intimate as we see how Paulina navigates Augusto's illness with care, making sure she continually includes and reassures him. Her playful attitude helps the pair to cope with the early years of the disease, though all her strength will be called for as it progresses. The irony lying behind the film is that Augusto was a clandestine news operation in the years of the Pinochet dictatorship, preserving the country's memory of those who lost their lives. A testimony to enduring love in the face of great loss. Read our interview with Alberdi.
Hot Fuzz, 11.05pm, ITV4, Thursday, February 15
This pacy comedy from Edgar Wright continued the impressive form he showed with his debut zombie spoof Shaun Of The Dead (we screens earlier on the same channel at 9pm) - and would ultimately become the second part of what's now known as the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy rounded out by World's End, thanks to a hangover cure gag in this film that resulted in free ice-cream. There's not just laughter but a genuine warmth to this parody of an American buddy cop movie that, like Shaun, finds much of its humour in eccentric Britishness. The film reunites Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as a hot-shot city cop sent to the countryside and his small town sidekick, who find themselves on the trail of a killer. Pegg and Frost spark off one another perfectly as Wright manages to inject just the right level of silliness while maintaining the action adrenaline.
Jackie, 1.40am, Film4, Friday, February 16
Jennie Kermode writes: Who was Jackie Kennedy-Onassis? She is remembered for her style, her graciousness, her courage under fire, both literal metaphorical - but perhaps that moment on Dealey Plaza, in the pink dress, under the glare of billions of strangers' eyes, was the only time we really saw her. Pablo Larraín's elegant, studiously formal film begins in that moment and takes us through the chaos of the days that followed, all in the company of a woman who was herself delivering what may have been one of history's greatest feats of acting. Natalie Portman is the perfect fit for the role, similarly mannered and unreachable, capturing the eternal First Lady's performance of grief in the wake of her performance of a happy marriage to a husband who was never there; her performance of support for an agenda she did not always agree with; the performance of femininity which endeared her to the nation. At the centre of it is a void, an unknowable thing; and yet whilst she lived her life as an accessory, Larraín shows us the tremendous strength that required. Read what Portman, Peter Sarsgaard (who plays Bobby Kennedy) and Larraín told us about the film.
Aloha, Scooby Doo, ITVX, now
Scooby-Doo's various adventures have not always been successful but this slice of Hawaian adventure is one of the better ones. The gang are kicking back their heels on holiday when a volcano on the island starts to get restless. Before you can say, "Yikes!" a monster called the Wiki-Tiki is on the scene wreaking havoc with a sideline in kidnap. Adults - and, no doubt, quite a few children - will quickly see who the bad guy really is but that doesn't stop this being a fun romp with some impressive animation and a decent sense of humour.
The Lighthouse, 1am, Film4, Saturday, February 17
Still looking for love? Find someone who looks at you the way Willem Dafoe's ravaged lighthouse keeper looks at his lighthouse lamp! That's just one of the many strange things in this trippy horror from Robert Eggers that pairs Dafoe's long-term island resident Thomas with Robert Pattinson as his newly assigned colleague Efraim. Soon the younger man too is being affected by the isolation as the pair's moods darken and the fog of madness blooms in the gloom. Shot in gorgeous black and white by Eggers' regular collaborator Jarin Blaschke, the sound design from Damian Volpe is also an oppressive treat.
It's not quite romance but what Valentine's set of films would be complete without a tale of cheating lovers? Dan Hodgson's short Love Is Blind is witty and nicely timed farce.
Love Is Blind from Dan Hodgson on Vimeo.
