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| Train Dreams Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute |
Train Dreams, Netflix, from November 21
Every year there’s at least one Netflix film that you feel really deserves to be seen on the big screen. This year, Clint Bentley’s gorgeously shot and decades-spanning film about the life, love and loss of logger and labourer Robert (Joel Edgerton) is it. An all-American epic, it charts his life in rural Idaho in the early days of the 20th century, as he falls for Gladys (Felicity Jones) and they build a home and life together. Bentley, adapting Denis Johnson’s novella, shows the march of US progress as the backdrop to Robert’s own life, which is marked by tragedy. There’s much to enjoy here in the dreamy, elegiac sweep and, for once, the narration from Will Patton feels fitting more than irritating. Full review coming soon.
The Escapist, 9pm, Legend Xtra (Freeview Channel 69), Monday, November 17
A slick film debut from Ruper Wyatt (also co-writing with Daniel Hardy), who would go on to burnish his CV with Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes three years later. When Cox's Northern Irish convict Frank Perry receives a letter saying his junkie daughter is gravely ill, he sets in motion an escape plan, but must contend with the prison kingpin as well as masterminding the breakout. Cox, who was an executive producer on the film described it as a "love project" - and it shows. Tough and absorbing, the escape itself is intercut with the build up to it, resulting in double the tension.
The Piano, midnight, BBC2, Tuesday into Wednesday, November 18/19
Jennie Kermode writes: The story of mute Scotswoman Ada (Holly Hunter), who is dispatched, along with her daughter (Anna Paquin), to the other side of the world as a mail-order bride, Jane Campion's assured and visually stunning drama made her the first woman to win the Palme d'Or and only the second to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar, while Paquin became the youngest ever winner of a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Robbed of her voice when her inconvenient instrument is sold to plantation owner George (Harvey Keitel), Ada seems to speak for thousands of women whose stories have been erased by history. She suffers constant verbal abuse and rejection by her new husband, but there's a formidable, resilient quality about her, and when she makes a deal with George, allowing her to gradually recover the piano, what begins as something ugly and exploitative unexpectedly blooms into romance. The female-centred erotic narrative shocked cinemagoers back in 1993 and made a significant contribution to the eventual shift in how women's experiences are represented onscreen. An uncharacteristically melodic score by Michael Nyman seals this film's classic status.
Moon, 9pm, Film4, Wednesday, November 19
Duncan Jones' debut centres on Sam Bell – an astronaut at the end of a three-year solo mission to harvest Helium-3 energy from the Moon. He begins to think he may be losing it just as he is on the verge of being sent home to his family, but soon he becomes convinced that his paymasters may have a more sinister agenda. It is hard to talk too much about Rockwell's performance without spoiling a key element of the plot but it allows him to show the full extent of his range. The focus is on plot rather than special effects but the ones that are used are seamless. As Jones told us: "We found an approach that allowed Sam to be his improvisational best, while still making sure I got the technical discipline I needed."
‘71, 12.10am, 4 Seven, Friday, November 21
Black Watch playwright Gregory Burke invites us to spend a night at the 'hellmouth' that was Belfast Falls Road in 1971, as seen through the eyes of young British squaddie Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell) on his first tour of duty. Things go wrong fast and he finds himself trapped in no-man's land with all hell breaking loose. Burke is interested in people not politics, keeping the focus on the sudden outbreaks of inhumanity and humanity in the madness, expertly crafting his thriller from the swirling fog of war, while O'Connell and first-time director Yann Demange keep us bolted to the squaddie's naked fear.
Cyrano, midnight, BBC1, Saturday into Sunday, Nov 22/23
Jennie Kermode writes: The famous nose is almost absent from Joe Wright's musical adaptation of Edmond Rostand's play. We see it only briefly, on stage, on another character. Why bother with it when Peter Dinklage's height can fulfil the same narrative purpose? He seems born for the role of the hesitant lover and celebrated wit in what is otherwise a remarkably faithful take on the original work, and it's hard to think of many actors better suited to the role of Roxanne than Haley Bennett. Intelligence is something famously difficult to imitate, but neither of them needs to, and Bennett also demonstrates a fine singing voice. Caught between them is Kelvin Harrison Jr's Christian, equally smitten with Roxanne's beauty, though the rest is lost on him, with Cyrano, who dare not make a move on his own account, ghostwriting the love letters which win her heart. Wright is too smart to rely heavily on either romance or farce to carry the tale, and delves more deeply into the complex character dynamics, including the bond which develops between the two men as they find themselves with a common enemy. It's his finest film to date.
No Bears, BBC2, 1.35am, Sunday, November 23
With It Was Just An Accident being released by MUBI on December 5, here’s the chance to catch Jafar Panahi’s earlier hybrid drama that sees him play a version of himself. He stars as a director who, due to a travel ban (something Panahi was also under until at the time) is in a border town directing a docufiction film remotely. A playful outing that skewers ideas of tradition and rules, while also examining notions of freedom and fear. Like much of Panahi’s outfit, this is a film in which reality's little absurdities also make themselves felt with a dreadful bite.
This week’s short selection is Terminal Communication by Michael Fortune
