Stay-At-Home Seven: March 30-April 5

Our weekly round-up of films to catch on UK streaming services and television

by Amber Wilkinson

Bait
Bait
As lockdown life continues, we bring you to week three of our Stay-At-Home seven, offering ideas for you to watch on television and streaming services to transport you away from your sofa. You can read our week two recommendations here, plus our recent streaming spotlight on Shakespeare. and don't forget to let us know on Facebook or Twitter if there's any specific subject or genre you'd like us to cover in future weeks.

Bait, Curzon Home Cinema, £4.99, Tuesday, March 31

This week's interactive screening comes courtesy of Curzon Home Cinema, which last week announced it will be hosting a live series of Q&As. Shot on hand-processed 16mm with a Bolex camera - allowing only 28 seconds per take  - Mark Jenkin's debut paints a portrait of the social tensions and familial tensions that spring up in a Cornish fishing village. Heralded by critic Mark Kermode as looking "set to become one of the defining British films of the year, perhaps the decade", it seems fitting that he will host the Q&A with the director. Our reviewer Andrew Robertson wrote: "The mix of the new and the nostalgic is as delicate a synthesis as actual film chemistry." Read the full review here.

The live Q&A will begin at 8.30pm (GMT), with viewers invited to watch the film together from 7pm, although it is already available on the service

Captain Underpants, BBC iPlayer until Friday, April 3

This anarchic animation from David Soren, who was also responsible for speedy snail tale Turbo, sees the director really hit his stride in this story about two boys who hypnotise their teacher and take on evil-doer Dr Poopypants. Silliness is the strength of this film that revels in its schoolyard humour - something that'll likely to have your under-sevens in a fit of giggles. Adults, meanwhile, should listen out for the tones of Us and Get Out director Jordan Peele as the voice of school nerd Melvin Sneedly. Read the full review here.

All Is Well (Alles Ist Gut), Netflix

This German film is another distinctive debut that offers a complex psychological portrait of a woman in the aftermath of rape. Eva Trobisch dismantles many of the stereotypes around sexual assault to show the quiet devastation that happens to Janne (Aenne Schwarz) following an attack that she feels she can't or doesn't want to talk about. Anchored by a strong central performance by Schwarz and marked by the restraint of the director, this is a gripping film that challenges expectations. Read the full review here.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service, YouTube/Google Play, £7.99

In an earlier version of this column, I touted the fact that Amazon Prime is releasing all the pre-Daniel Craig films about Britain's most famous super-spy. Unfortunately, a spokesman told Tech Radar that territories where the films will screen do not, in fact, include the UK after all. Not only No Time To Die but no time to stream either, apparently. Still, this solitary outing by George Lazenby as 007 is worth seeking out to rent elsewhere. Sean Connery - who had been Bond five times - was a hard act to follow but Lazenby proves adept at the action sequences and has a vulnerability that Connery never showed - which helps the film's dramatic and unexpected ending pay off. The film is one of the most faithful in the franchise to the Ian Fleming books and is also notable for its more fully written than normal Bond Girl (Diana Rigg). Read the full review here.

Billy Liar, Talking Pictures TV (Freeview channel 81), Tuesday, March 31, 10pm

Featuring a knockout performance from Tom Courtenay - who took on the role that Albert Finney had played on stage - this story of a young man torn between his family and his future still resonates more than 50 years on. Billy (Courtenay) is Walter Mitty sort, trotting off into flights of fancy as he pictures a more exciting life in the imaginary land of Ambrosia, although the person he most deludes is himself. Juggling stories, ambitions and multiple women - including Julie Christie's Liz - the film satirises a society caught between post-war grit and modernising spirit of the Swinging Sixities and, despite its kitchen sink setting, holds out the possibility of hope. Read the full review.

Leaning Into The Wind, Film4 (Freeview Channel 14), Wednesday, April 4, 1.40am

The wee small hours on Film4 often hold some gems - and this documentary is one of them this week. Thomas Riedelscheimer's portrait of artist Andy Goldsworthy is every bit as elemental as the title suggests - watching the artist work with nature in what emerges as an engaging dialogue between the documentarian and his subject. In a world where the emphasis on our environment is hitting the headlines, this is a chance to see an artist collaborating with the natural landscape - often with surprising results. Listen out for the great jazz-inflected score by Fred Frith, which adds greatly to the film's mood. Read the full review.

Sand Storm, Netflix

Elite Zexer's debut film - which took home the World Cinema Dramatic prize at Sundance back in 2016 - transports us to a Bedouin village. It is there were Layla lives with her family and where she finds herself mired in cultural traditions as she tries to forge her way ahead. Zexer's nuanced film isn't looking to simply paint the patriarchal system as 'the bad guy', exploring instead the way that everyone can become trapped in tradition. Read the full review here.

This week's short recommendation came to my attention thanks to Edinburgh's Cinemaatic - which hosts regular short film events in the city, when, of course, we're not all in lockdown. They're currently publishing groups of short films to celebrate their 10th anniversary, including an audience vote, on their website.

Among them is this 2007 short from Madrid director Daniel Sánchez Arévalo - whose latest charmer Seventeen can currently be caught on Netflix. The short sees family secrets spill out when a family ends up in a hospital emergency room on the day of a wedding. The cast is packed with some of Spain's top acting talent, including Antonio de la Torre (The Candidate, available to rent on YouTube) and Raúl Arévalo (Marshland, available to rent on YouTube), and the comedy is enjoyably dark.



Traumalogía from Kimuak on Vimeo.

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