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| Kokomo City Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute |
This candid documentary, shot in stylish monochrome, sees Black transgender sex workers offer observations about their lives and their occupation as well as expounding more generally on society's stance towards them. While documentarian D Smith captures a lot of the risks these women face, she also takes a playful approach that allows their humour to shine out. A spiky, fun eye-opener that never feels formulaic. The sad postscript to the film is that one of its vibrant contributors Koko Da Doll was shot dead just months after the film's premiere. At the time, Smith said: “I want people to get any opportunity they can to see her in her truth" - now's your chance.
Aliens, 11pm, ITV4, Tuesday, October 1
Sequels that are as good as the original film are few and far between but James Cameron's follow up to Ridley Scott's classic, delivers, not just in terms of action but also its carefully worked plot. Rather than simply going over the ground of the original it transports the elements – Ripley (Sigourney Weaver, kick-ass, of course) and the deadly xenomorph – into a new story as our heroine wakes up 57 years later and soon finds herself on a mission to help a colony who has suddenly dropped off the communication grid. Cameron carefully builds the tension, withholding even the sight of an alien initially. Once the action starts, it doesn't let up as there's no saying where a creature will spring from next as the marines with Ripley are picked off one by one. Action filmmaking at its finest lent additional heart and heft by a gentler surrogate mum subplot.
Summer Of Soul, 2.20am, Channel 4, Thursday, October 3
As the nights start drawing in and the weather cools, if you're finding yourself yearning for the days of sultry summer rock festivals then this joyous celebration of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival should chase the blues away. The festival took place in the same year of Woodstock and was a free, six-week concert series that saw 300,000 attend. Questlove's film is packed with many of the electrifying performances, including everyone from Stevie Wonder and Mahala Jackson through to Gladys Knight and the Pips. It's edited with verve, celebrating the music but also clueing us in to the politics, news and cultural developments at the time. Beyond the joy of the music itself, the film also raises questions about how much of the world's history is still being allowed to languish uncelebrated due to long term male, white dominance in terms of selecting what we watch.
Passing, 10.55pm, Film4, Thursday, October 3
Jennie Kermode writes: Rebecca Hall's directorial début, this consummate adaptation of Nella Larson's 1929 novel tells the story of two Black women navigating US society at a time when social boundaries were precarious but the risks involved in transgressing them remained huge. When one of the women, Irene, discovers that her old friend is passing as white and has married a white man, a catalogue of anxieties is exposed, exposing tensions which also concern perceptions of class and beauty. Irene worries that her friend, who misses Black culture, is going to steal her husband, but the story is complicated by her own sublimated queer desire. Hall - who would herself be classed as Black under the 'one drop rule' used in US law at the time - uses black and white photography and clever lighting to play with audience perceptions of colour at different moments, and draws out superb performances from Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga in the leading roles, creating an outstanding piece of cinema.
Joker, 9pm, ITV1, Friday, October 4
Joachim Phoenix is reprising his role as the damaged and unstable Arthur Fleck in cinemas this week so here's a chance to catch up with his character's slide towards the Joker. There's more than a whiff of The King Of Comedy about Arthur's desperation to make it as a stand-up, reinforced by the presence of Robert De Niro in support as a late-night TV host who fuels Arthur's obsession. Todd Phillips takes a sideswipe at a modern news cycle that loves villains more than heroes but this is Phoenix's show, and his physical, unpredictable dance of emotions is hard to look away from.
It Follows, Plex.tv, streaming now
Jennie Kermode writes: Premiered at Cannes in 2014, in the days when that festival was a lot more circumspect about genre films, It Follows is a different kind of horror film, one which brings folkloric weight to a story which encompasses terrors breathtakingly close to those of the real world. Its heroine, Jay (the always impressive Maika Monroe), finds out about the danger only when it's too late to retain any hope of a normal life. After having sex with her boyfriend for the first time, she is told by him that he has passed along a curse: she will now be hunted by a mysterious creature which only she and other afflicted people can see, which can take any form yet can only move at walking speed. The only way to buy time is to pass the curse to someone else: it will remain a threat, but will target that person first. The film is refreshingly natural and honest. Although she must constantly be on her guard - and viewers likewise - Jay doesn't stop living her life, and despite knowing the threat, others still find her desirable. In its sidelong way, the film explores the realities of life with a sexually transmitted disease with an unusually acute understanding, yet also delivers on thrills and scares. It's a bleak coming of age tale, its teenage protagonists fully alert to their mortality for the first time, yet it finds a kind of beauty in their continued appetite for life.
Official Competition, streaming now on All4.com
Familiar themes about competitive egos in the film world get a decent trot out in this Spanish language comedy that is definitely elevated by how much fun Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas are having as two of the leads. Cruz plays a film director - the wonderfully named Lola Cuevas - who is hired by an ageing pharmaceutical billionaire to direct a film to cement his legacy. E film is a melodramatic potboiler set to star mainstream hunk Felix Rivero (Banderas, joyfully sending up his own career) and arthouse luvvy Ivan Torres (Oscar Martinez). A triangulated battle of wills ensues as Cuevas provokes her stars. If some of the humour is familiar, the deadpan shooting style nonetheless pays dividends.
