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| Knives Out Photo: © 2018 MRC II Distribution Company L.P. All rights reserved. |
If you missed this when it had its network premiere on Channel 4 last week - as I did when I was writing last week's column, to be honest - there's still time to catch up with it on 4's free on demand service. Rian Johnson's whodunnit murder mystery is very much in the Agatha Christie vein - complete with a sprawling country pile and a star-studded cast. When an author is found dead just as his family have gathered to celebrate his 80th birthday, everyone, of course has a motive, and there's also an unexpected detective (Daniel Craig) in attendance. Johnson is basically having a lot of fun, not to mention the field day Craig has with his accent, and you are likely too as well, even if mystery veterans are likely to be able to take a stab at the outcome.
Total Recall, 9pm, ITV4. Tuesday, March 1
We included this in our Valentine's Day spotlight earlier in the month, but now here's your chance to cast it on terrestrial telly. If anything, the idea of having to make do with memories of travel has only come more sharply into focus during the course of the various pandemic lockdowns - and it's something that the hero of Paul Verhoeven's film, Doug Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) buys into courtesy of tech company Rekall Inc. They specialise in implanting false holiday memories but his virtual trip to Mars is anything but restful when things go wrong and Quaid starts to suspect he may not be the person he thought he was. Philip K Dick's mazelike science-fiction blends to potent effect with satire and style in the hands of Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger has rarely been better than he is as Everyman Quaid, in a role that flirts with self-parody without pushing completely over the edge.
Writing With Fire, 10pm, BBC4, Wednesday, March 2
Jeremy Mathews writes: This documentary offers a unique look into the leadership and staff of an Indian newspaper run entirely by women from the Dalit (“untouchable”) caste. While there’s not a robust narrative thrust, the brave and ambitious reporters are great subjects, and their reporting offers a window into a rarely seen part of India. The news they report can be quite bleak, but it’s inspiring to get to know these marginalised women as they find success speaking truth to power. "They’ve really changed the framing of language around what a Dalit women woman can do, or what she looks like," co-director Sushmit Ghosh told us. Read the rest of the interview with him and Rintu Thomas here.
Three Days Of The Condor, Netflix
One of a raft of conspiracy theory thrillers that came out in the wake of Watergate it features Robert Redford at the peak of his box office prowess. He stuns up his smile to stun as the anti-establishment Joseph Turner, who works for a bookish CIA backwater and is out buying lunch when his team are targeted by a murder squad led by Max Von Sydow's Joubert and finds himself cut adrift from his higher ups and on the run. Although the plot is a bit on the clunky side compared to the best of the genre and a romance with Faye Dunaway is borderline laughable in places, there's decent spark between Redford and Sydow and a welcome ambivalence more modern movies too often shy away from. Also, it's nice to see older films turn up on Netflix - watch it and encourage them!
Slow West. 2.20am, Friday, March 4
John Maclean's debut feature is part boy's own adventure, part fable, part buddy comedy and a whole lot of fun as we follow lovelorn Scot Jay (Kodi Smit-McPhee, who has been back in Western action recently in The Power Of The Dog) as he heads to the New World in search of his love. He finds himself heading west with outlaw Silas (Michael Fassbender). Loss of innocence is on the horizon and there will be bullets before bedtime. Read our interviews with John Maclean, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Ben Mendelson.
The Levelling, 2.10am, BBC2, Sunday, March 6
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.
You Were Never Really Here, 11pm, Sunday, March 6
Lynne Ramsay delivers a viscerally tense consideration of abuse wrapped up inside this taut thriller, starring Joaquim Phoenix as a suicidal hitman. The plot may be familiar turf - an assassin hunts for a missing girl - but Ramsay dives into the psychological waters of hitman Joe's past and present at the same time as he is going through the motions of his job. Phoenix has rarely been better than here, damaged and determined, with scenes alongside Joe's mother (Judith Roberts) achieving a particularly heartbreaking poignancy. As Ramsay and Phoenix burrow deeper into the psyche of Joe, the mood intensifies - and it is us who find ourselves struggling to breathe.
You'll have to pop over to Vimeo for this week's short, but with Glasgow Film Festival on the horizon - where Ruth Paxton's A Banquet will screen, before it goes on UK release - why not catch up with her haunting 2010 short Paris/Sexy, which stars big-hitter Martin Compston among others.
