Stay-At-Home Seven: August 9 to 15

Streaming and TV suggestions for the coming week

by Amber Wilkinson

Menashe Lustig and Ruben Nyborg in Menashe - Within Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community, a widower battles for custody of his son. A tender drama performed entirely in Yiddish, the film intimately explores the nature of faith and the price of parenthood.
Menashe Lustig and Ruben Nyborg in Menashe - Within Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community, a widower battles for custody of his son. A tender drama performed entirely in Yiddish, the film intimately explores the nature of faith and the price of parenthood. Photo: Federica Valabrega

Here's our selection of films to catch on the telly this week, if you're looking for more inspiration, check out our Streaming Spotlight on indigenous filmmakers.

Menashe, Film4, Tuesday, August 10, 2.20am

Joshua Z Weinstein takes a clear-eyed approach to the Hasidic community, crafting an engrossing drama about a man who faces losing custody of his son following the death of his wife if he doesn't remarry quickly. Comic Menashe Lustig plays the lead and the story carries all the more heft because it is loosely based on his own life. Weinstein captures the everyday rhythms of Menashe's daily routine without overly romanticising them or feeling the need to pick them apart, so that we are drawn into the fabric of this Orthodox community as well as Menashe's attempts to reconcile his feelings. Young Ruben Niborski also puts in an impressive performance as Menashe's young son Rieven, who is also grappling with grief. Read our interview with writer/producer Alex Lipschultz and our full review.

Night Of The Eagle, 1.05am, Talking Pictures TV, Wednesday, August 11

This genuinely creepy black and white horror had the more lurid alternative title Burn, Witch, Burn in the US - which feels all wrong for the understated chills offered up by Sidney Hayers' film. The story centres on a sceptical academic (Peter Wyngarde, making a big impression in his first leading role on the big screen), who discovers his wife (Janet Blair) is a practising witch. His career has been going swimmingly, but when he takes her to task for her spells and protections, trouble starts to brew - with Hayers retaining an impressive ambiguity as to whether the rational or the supernatural holds the upper hand. The suburban setting adds to the oppressive atmosphere, and this and its scrutiny of gender politics may well put you in mind of later horror hits like Rosemary's Baby and Stepford Wives. With sharp chiaroscuro and use of a reel-to-reel recorder in the unsettling sound design, this is the perfect movie to enjoy just past midnight. Read our full review here.

The Bling Ring, 11.15pm, BBC2, Wednesday, August 11

If you've been tempted to catch the twitter-thread inspired Zola at cinemas this week and are looking for more realiity-inspired fare then you could do a lot worse than check Sofia Coppola's tale of fame-obsessed teenage thieves. Based on a Vanity Fair article and featuring strong performances from the likes of Emma Watson, Georgia Rock and Taissa Farmiga (who can be seen Stateside in John And The Hole this week), Coppola looks beyond the flash and sparkle of this story of teenagers planning celebrity robberies - to consider the dirt of the details of celebrity culture and modern morality. Actions may have consequences here but it's what is going on in the heads of the teenagers that Coppola wants us to think about. Read the full review.

Shame, Film4, 1.20am, Friday, August 13

After winning the BAFTA for best newcomer for his film debut Hunger, and before finding serious international acclaim with 12 Years A Slave, Steve McQueen (writing with Abi Morgan) reteamed with Michael Fassbender for this story of a man who finds his life begin to spiral out of control after his sister (Carey Mulligan) moves in. Like hunger this film hinges on a mind/body tug of war, only this time it is sexual appetite that Fassbender's Brandon is struggling to control. If Brandon is all about the physical and fears intimacy, his sister Sissy is his polar opposite, desperate for emotional connection. Although the lack of a straightforward arc may be a turn-off for some, for others McQueen's refusal to offer easy answers will be as magnetic as the performances from Mulligan and Fassbender. Read what Fassbender and McQueen said about costuming and addiction, plus our article on the myth of sex addiction in film - and our full review.

The Truman Show, 6.55pm, Great! Movies, Friday, August 13

Watching Peter Weir's 1998 film now, you can only marvel at how much life has come to mimic art with our schedules drenched in reality television. Jim Carrey is on top form as the central character, who begins to wonder if all might not be quite as it seems in his idyllic picket fence life, reining in his more exuberant tendencies in favour of a more subtle style. Andrew Niccol's script is sharply satirical regarding the state of the media in the modern world but it never forgets the single man's emotional journey at its heart. Read our full review.

How To Train Your Dragon, 2.10pm, E4, Saturday, August 14 and on Netflix

This first instalment of the DreamWorks trilogy about a young viking who forges an unlikely friendship is by far the best. Teenager Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) finds the forever war his viking settlement's adults are waging with dragons might not be the best way forward after discovering one of the creatures injured in the woods. There's plenty of smart observational comedy about what it means to be a teenager confronted with an adult world of recalcitrance in the script to lift above its more formulaic elements, while the dragon flight scenes deliver the adventurous goods. Read our full review.

Cartel Land, 10.45pm, BBC4, Saturday, August 9

Matthew Heineman was Oscar-nominated for this documentary which considers the complex situation surrounding drug cartels from both sides of Mexico's border with the US. Shot with an eye with a strong image - including meth cooking by night - by Heineman and cinematographer Matt Porwoll, the film zeroes in on the border between what people consider to be a vigilante or a saviour as he follows two men, on either side of the divide who have taken things into their own hands. Tim "Nailer" Foley, a veteran and recovering addict himself is the leader of Arizona Border Recon, who initially patrolled the Border with a view to halting illegal emigres but now focus on stopping the cartels running drugs to the US. Meanwhile over in Mexico, Dr Jose Manuel Mireles is doing much the same thing with his Autodefensas movement. A gripping watch that raises questions about how blurred the lines can become for those who take the law into their own hands.Read our full review.

Simon Hynd has gone on to be a prolific television director, with series including everything from Motherland and Two Doors Down to Bob Servant. Like many successful filmmakers, he started out in short film and this week's short selection is his first, the creepily effective Virus.

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