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| Megamind Photo: Dreamworks |
Megamind, 12.15pm, Film4, Monday, August 14
It’s a well known fact that the Devil gets all the best tunes and villians have a lot more personality than goodie-goodie heroes, especially in animation. After all, who wouldn’t take a night out with Dick Dastardly and Muttley over Peter Perfect and Penelope Pitstop? There's a complexity to Tom McGrath’s animation, however, that goes beyond hijinks and arguably makes it superior to the similarly themed Despicable Me. For all that he hates heroes blue bad guy (Will Ferrell) discovers it's tricky to be an evildoer if there's no superhero trying to stop you. Beyond a surprising amount of depth, there's some solid slapstick gags on offer and the action has plenty of verve but it's the excellent voice cast - also featuring Jonah Hill and Tina Fey - and strong storytelling that really make it a winner.
The Piano, 11.15pm, BBC2, Monday, August 14
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.
The Founder, Netflix, streaming from Tuesday
John Lee Hancock's biopic of McDonald’s entrepreneur Ray Kroc - written by Robert Siegel (Big Fan, The Wrestler) benefits enormously from the presence of Michael Keaton in the lead as he never lets his anti-hero performance slip into caricature. The story is not quite what you might expect as far from being a burger flipper, Kroc was actually a salesman who knew a good thing when he saw it. And that good thing was the fast-food assembly line created by the McDonald Brothers’ (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch, both excellent). What follows is opportunism and the birth of an empire, with Kroc viewing himself as the hero of the piece while we can see a much more nuanced story of ambition and corporate disregard for others.
The Untouchables, 1.40am, Film4, Wednesday, August 16
With its all-star cast, including Sean Connery and Robert De Niro, and a cleverly worked script by David Mamet, Brian De Palma's Thirties-set gangster tale is up there with the best. Costner - who was far from being the household name he would go on to be - plays Eliot Ness, a US Treasury Agent who is determined to end the lawless career of Chicago kingpin Al Capone (De Niro). Famous for its staircase nod to Battleship Potemkin, Palma's film is also packed with original set-pieces and offers an enjoyably mythic quality to some of the characters, including Connery's beat cop, which earned him his one and only Oscar for his supporting turn.
The Others, 9.55pm, BBC3, Friday, August 18
Alejandro Amenabar’s atmospheric ghost story remains unsettling even if you’ve seen it before and know what’s coming. The tale is set in an old mansion, with plenty of dark corners that get to hold sway because the two children who live there, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley), are very light sensitive and have to avoid the sun. They live with their brittle mum (Nicole Kidman), who is on edge from the start, not least because she is waiting for news from her husband (Christopher Eccleston), who has been off fighting the Second World War. Amenabar builds the mood with the staples of gothic horror, but his bumps in the night and creaking floors and doors never feel gimmicky or over-used and the underlying emotion of the script packs an unexpected punch even on repeat viewings.
Heat, 10.40pm, BBC1, Friday, August 18
Michael Mann's top notch thriller is as much a stone cold classic now as it was on release in 1995. It's achieved cult status since then, even inspiring the ultimate dissection - One Heat Minute, which you can read more about (and listen to) here. Propelled on release by the fact that it was the first time A-listers Robert De Niro and Al Pacino had shared the screen, it fortunately does not disappoint. Pacino takes on the role of serious career cop Vincent Hannah, who finds himself in a cat-and-mouse situation with De Niro's thief Neil McCaulley. There's a lot more to this than wham-bam action and with both actors - and their characters - at the top of their game, it's a riveting watch.
Mulan, 6.40pm, BBC1, Saturday, August 19
Disney’s live action remakes have been very hit and miss - for every Pete’s Dragon and Jungle Book there’s an Alice In Wonderland and an Aladdin. This is definitely among the best, swapping the song and dance numbers of the animation for action and adventure and, arguably a lot better for it. Yifei Liu makes a great young hero as Mulan, who disguises herself as a man to save her ageing father from battle. While the animation aimed for the low-hanging fruit of gender difference for laughs, this version instead emphasises the camaraderie which grows as the youngsters prepare to fight and suggests perceived differences matter little when you’re acting as a unit. Even the villain - played by the fabulous Gong Li - is shown to have a nuanced background that brought her to evil-doing. Beyond the enjoyable complexity of the characters, the martial arts action is impressive while remaining family-friendly in terms of violence.
You’ll have to nip across to Vimeo and log in to watch this week’s animated short selection. Iain Garnder’s The Tannery, which sees a fox have a life after death experience. Gardner continues to work in animation, most recently working on Ethel & Ernest and The Amber Light, with his own film, A Bear Named Wotjek also in the pipeline.
