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| Royalty Hightower in The Fits |
The sort of film that used to cause big waves at Sundance (where it did eventually screen), Anna Rose Holmer's debut is all the more impressive for having been made as part of Venice's Biennale College, which helps directors turn around their microbudget features in a year. It sees Royalty Hightower make an exceptional debut as Toni - a youngster who is exploring her identity. She finds herself torn between the boxing world she has become immersed in via her brother and the very sort of different camaraderie that is offered by the all-girls drill team - a type of group dance that is popular in the US. Holmer explores the way that people adopt an identity or an attitude according to their chosen tribe, showing how Toni's different 'look' keeps her on the fringes while, as the film progresses, exploring the psychological pressures at play as first one girl and then more begin to experience to "the fits" of the title. Beautifully choreographed with the help of movement consultant Celia Rowlson-Hall, the emphasis is on the physicality of what is happening, reinforced by a strong clapping beat in the score from Dani Bensi and Saunder Juriaans as Toni decides to what degree she wants to fit in. Read our interviews with the composers and Holmer.
Late Night With The Devil, Shudder, streaming now
Jennie Kermode writes: If you know anything about live television, you'll understand that it's natural territory. Those amicable, smiling strangers you let into your living room and feel as if you know - like Jack (David Dastmalchian), a late night chat show host with a beige suit and an easy smile - are, behind the scenes, engaged in ruthless competition, the tension spiralling as they struggle to beat competitors' numbers, with little room for real humanity or moral concern. Late Night With Devil sees Jack at his most desperate (and Dastmalchian at his very best) as he presents the Halloween special which could make or break his career, and on which he plans to have a child supposedly possessed by a demon hypnotised live on stage. Directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes keep us guessing as to whether or not there's anything supernatural happening. We can never be sure how much is staged - but then there is the tremendous irresponsibility of it all, the exploitation, and Jack's crumbling mental health. It's an exquisitely composed tale in which no-one escapes culpability - and that includes the audience.
Mission: Impossible, 6.50pm, Film4, Wednesday, April 24
As Tom Cruise continues to defy the laws of gravity and ageing, here's a chance to see where his ongoing action franchise got started. Cruise's Ethan Hunt has weathered down the years when you consider his much cockier turn in Brian De Palma's first instalment. Beginning with a sting gone bad in Prague, which takes down his team, Hunt finds himself forced to go rogue after he is held responsible in order to track down the real villains. De Palma draws on the original Sixties series in terms of style but adds a slickness that's all of his own and even though the stunts are not as outlandish as they are in future episodes, they're delivered with a precision tension that grips just as tight. Catch the second instalment the next night at 6.40pm
I Am Not A Witch, 1.45am, Film4, Saturday, April 27
Welsh-Zambian filmmaker is heading to the Un Certain Regard section of this year's Cannes Film Festival with her second film On Becoming A Guinea Fowl, and Film4 are helping giving you the chance to catch her debut, even if they are screening it ridiculously late at night. A young Zambian girl, Shula (Maggie Mulubwa) finds herself accused of being a witch in this satire that has sexual politics in its sights. Packed off to a witch camp, she is forced to work, alongside her fellow "witches" all tethered on gigantic cotton bobbins, which adds an edge of the surreal to Nyoni's tale. Shula's self-declared state guardian Mr Banda (Henry PJ Phiri) embodies the ludicrous elements of the patriarchy as well as the danger, as he brags to the women about how much longer their tethers are since he took office. There are plenty of laughs here but also poignancy as Nyoni slowly tightens the focus on Shula's plight.
No Country For Old Men, ITVX, streaming now
This stripped back cat-and-mouse thriller - adapted by the Coen Brothers from Cormac McCarthy's novel - plays out against the arid empty landscapes of Texas in 1980. A man (Josh Brolin) finds a suitcase of cash tough to resist and is soon on the run from a psychopathic killer (Javier Bardem, never better than here), while the murderer is, in turn, being chased by a sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) and a bounty hunter (Woody Harrelson). Playing around with archetypes – the saint, the abject sinner and someone hovering in between – this is a tense and blackly comic ride. Props too to Kelly Macdonald and Garret Dillahunt putting in small but excellent supporting turns.
Three Minutes - A Lengthening, BBC iPlayer (as part of the Storyville series), streaming now
The snooker is eating up a whole chunk of the BBC's schedule this week, so it seems like a good opportunity to recommend some of the great stuff you can catch on iPlayer. Storyville is one of the BBC's best ongoing strands with Oscar nominees aplenty in its documentary selection. Among those on offer is this impressive essay film from Bianca Stigter, which draws on archive in exacting fashion. The three minutes of the title refers to a piece of home movie, shot in the Polish town of Nasielsk in 1938. In it, we see the smiling faces of children, eager to be in the frame, older people curious and, in one shot, a stream of worshippers leaving a synagogue. All but 100 of the town's 3000 Jewish residents would go on to be murdered in the Holocaust and Stigter's film aims to divine all it can about those on the camera and what would happen to them. Fascinating not just in terms of what it tells us about the place and time but in the way it considers our relationship to archive films like this and what we can gain from them.
To Kill A Mockingbird, Plex TV, streaming now
Beyond all the pay-per-view streamers and main channel's catch-up services, the UK also boasts a host of other free streaming services, including Plex. It's a mixed bag, of course, but this 1963 court case cracker is well worth hunting out. Based on Harper Lee's classic, this is an enjoyably straightforward adaptation as Gregory Peck's lawyer defends African American Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), who has been accused of rape. The procedural aspect of the film is balanced by the adventures of the children Dill Harris (John Megna), Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Phillip Alford) and their fascination with the local boogeyman. An old fashioned but elegant and enjoyable drama, that also features Robert Duvall in his first film role.
Our short selection this week is DA Pennebaker's Baby. Even back then, it's possible to see him learning the ropes of capturing the moment that would go on to be crucial in the likes of Don't Look Back.
