 |
| Boiling Point Photo: Vertigo Releasing |
Boiling Point, 9pm, Film4, Tuesday, August 20
If you like your films to keep you on the edge of your seat then this film from actor-turned-director Philip Barantini - expanded from his short of the same name - should hit the spot. Stephen Graham is a chef about to embark on a tough night in the kitchen that starts with a stressful conversation with his estranged wife and a visit from a hygiene inspector and just keeps getting worse. Shot in a single take, the technique is much more than a gimmick, adding enormously to the tension as we watch events unfold in the kitchen and at the tables. You're likely to find yourself admiring the choreography more than more after the event - once you've got your breath back.
Bad Times At The El Royale, 10.55pm, Tuesday, August 20
Drew Goddard's puzzle box of a thriller absolutely nails the same sort of mystery appeal as a satisfying Agatha Christie. A group of seven strangers arrive at a rundown hotel with a dark past. The hotel is carved in two between California and Nevada and the action also unfolds across more than one time period - and some unexpected spaces. As secrets begin to be revealed the surprises keep coming and if the scripting is occasionally on the baggy side, you can only forgive Goddard for feeling that he didn't want to lose a minute with this cast, which includes Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Bridges and John Hamm and Chris Hemsworth. Erivo also gets to show off her excellent singing skills with a beautiful rendition of Unchained Melody.
The Levelling, 12.05am, BBC2, Tuesday, August 20
Hope Dickson Leach's distinctive debut follows Clover (Ellie Kendrick), a young woman who returns to her father's farm after her brother commits suicide. Dickson Leach explores the everyday judgments people can make about their nearest and dearest with care and attention, as bottled up emotions begin to spill out. She also makes beautiful use of the countryside setting, showing that it's much less idyllic than townies might imagine and emphasising the pressures of farming life. Kendrick - who many will recognise from her role as Meera Reed in Game of Thrones - continues to impress in any setting and deserves more big-screen work.
Psycho, 10.35pm, BBC4, Thursday, August 22
Jennie Kermode writes: There's an underlying theme in Hitchcock's famous thriller which concerns people doing monstrous things because of the strain placed on them by the disapproval of others. Heroine Marion (Janet Leigh) just wants to be able to live with the man she loves, but the attitudes of the time mean they would need to marry, and that would require money, and he isn't earning much. The only way she can see to make a new life for them is to steal a large sum of money temporarily left in the care of her employer. The plan goes awry when, during her subsequent flight, she stops off at the Bates Motel, where a conversation with the manager, Norman (Anthony Perkins) – who also longs for a new life, beyond the control of his mother – alters her perspective. As it turns out, she never gets to return the money, nor to tell her boyfriend why she took the action she did, because of an incident in the shower which you're probably already familiar with, but alongside the horror that made this film famous is wistful speculation on what might have been.
Calendar Girls, BBC1, 10.40pm, Friday, August 23
There's a reason why there's a formula for this sort of crowdpleasing mixture of true story happiness and heartache - because it works. That's particularly true when the cast is as stuffed with famous names as this one, with the "girls" in question including Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Geraldine James, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie and Annette Crosbie. They take on the real-life tale of a Women's Institute group who decided to bare all for a charity calendar. Director Nigel Cole is good at this sort of thing - and went on to repeat the trick with Made In Dagenham. There's plenty of humour to be had in the camera shoot itself, but this is also a film that isn't scared to tackle grief. Mirren and Walters prove a winning double act and the story rattles along at a decent pace. Tissues, inevitably, required.
The Promised Land, 9pm, BBC4, Saturday, August 24
Jennie Kermode writes: Loosely based on real historical events, filtered through an adaptation of Ida Jenssen’s novel The Captain And Anna Barbara, The Promised Land is the story of Denmark's most challenging colonial project: not taking control of a particular people or nation, but taming the vast, semi-frozen marshes of Jutland. Two things made that possible: the potato, and the determination of agricultural surveyor and military lieutenant Ludwig van Kahlen, who hoped, in the process, to win himself a title and improved social opportunities. He's played here by Mads Mikkelsen, who won Best Actor at the European Film Awards for his success in capturing his strength and brittleness, the ruthless approach he took to his work and the tenderness which gradually emerged as he found himself caught up in the (largely fictional) struggles of the region's few inhabitants. There are serious moments as it addresses the cruelty of Danish serfdom and the still worse fate faced by the Tatere travelling people whom the country was trying to force into exile, and more fantastical elements as, despite the remoteness of the region, our hero somehow manages to find himself caught between two women, but that powerful central performance holds it all together, and it's a must for Mikkelsen fans.
BlackKklansman, 10pm, BBC2, Sunday, August 25
This Cannes Grand Prix winner was inspired by the unlikely true tale of an African American police officer (John David Washington) who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s, with the help of his white Jewish colleague (Adam Driver). This isn't just a period satire but a commentary on the racism that still exists in society. Lee's message may be delivered with humour but it's no less of a stinging indictment on the state of the world for that. “This rightwing bullshit is going on all over the world. We have to wake up and we cannot be silent. It is everybody, not white, black or brown” Spike Lee said, when he spoke about the film in Cannes.
I just discovered this week that the BBC has a little treasure trove of shorts tucked away on iPlayer, so you can take your pick from this little lot.
