You Were Never Really Here
Film4 HD, 11pm/Film4+1, 12m’t 5
Sex OOO Violence OOO Language OOO
Playing a haunted military veteran who rescues kidnapped girls from
sex-traffickers, Joaquin Phoenix is absolutely mesmerising in this brutally
compelling art-house thriller, adapted from Jonathan Ames’ pulp-noir
novella by Scottish director Lynne Ramsay. Phoenix’s suicidal loner exudes a
bone-weary anguish, but he sets about his business with a grim determination
and ruthless efficiency. Ramsay keeps much of the violence off screen, but still
manages to sustain a mood of intense tension and menace. 2017, 15, 90MIN
CRIME THRILLER
Friday 4 October
SUBMARINE THRILLER
Crimson Tide
ITV4 HD, 9pm/ITV4+1, 10pm 4
Sex OOO Violence OOO Language OOO
Director Tony Scott abandoned many
of his usual stylistic devices for this
engrossing and hugely entertaining
Boy’s Own-style adventure. Much of the
film’s success is down to authoritative
performances by Gene Hackman as
a trigger-happy nuclear submarine
commander and Denzel Washington
as his more measured first officer, who
enter into a war of wills over instigating a
nuclear strike against a group of Russian
army dissidents. 1995, 15, 116MIN
REAL-LIFE DRAMA
Hotel Mumbai
Sky Premiere HD, 10.15pm/
Sky Premiere+1, 11.15pm 4
Sex OOO Violence OOO Language OOO
This respectful and empathetic
dramatization of the November
2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai is
unimaginably tense, putting us in the
shoes of the staff and guests of the city’s
luxurious Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, and
inviting us to ask what we would have
done in their place. Among those caught
up in the attacks are Armie Hammer and
Nazanin Boniadi’s new parents and Dev
Patel’s waiter. 2018, 15, 123MIN
CRIME THRILLER
Only God Forgives
Sony Movies, 11.10pm/
Sony Movies+1, 12.10am 3
Sex OOO Violence OOO Language OOO
Ryan Gosling reunites with Drive director
Nicolas Winding Refn for this ultra-
violent, ultra-slow-moving Bangkok-set
revenge thriller, whose unflinching gore
and crawling pace may prove equally
off-putting. There is plenty of style on
offer, though, as Gosling’s American drug
dealer seemingly sleepwalks through a
series of neon-soaked interiors, urged
by his ruthless mother to avenge the
death of his brother. 2013, 18, 90MIN
ALSO ON FRIDAY
Mamma Mia!
Sky Comedy HD, 6.10pm 4
Who’s the daddy?
Out of Sight
Sky Heists HD, 6.45pm 4
Jennifer has her sights set on George.
Widows
Sky Premiere HD, 8pm 4
Viola has a job to finish. See review, page 18.
2 Guns
E4 HD, 9pm 3
Denzel and Mark have to choose sides.
The Rock
5Star, 9pm 4
Sean Connery breaks into prison.
Joaquin felt he
had the weight
of the world
on his shoulders
MUSIC BIOPIC
Rocketman
Available from Monday 3
Sex OOO Violence OOO Language OOO
Looking to repeat the box-office bonanza of
2018’s all-conquering Queen biopic Bohemian
Rhapsody, this splashy musical biopic charts
Elton John’s career, from his days as shy Reggie
Dwight from Pinner to extravagantly costumed
international stardom. Taron Egerton plays
Elton, with Jamie Bell as his song-writing
partner Bernie Taupin. The film is full of colour,
spectacle and wall-to-wall hits. 2019, 15, 121MIN
PREM
IERE
ON-DEMAND HIGHLIGHTS
Taron hoped they
wouldn’t shoot
the piano player
The pick of the
week’s films on
Sky, Virgin &
other platforms
Aladdin
3
Disney gives the magic lamp
another rub with Guy Ritchie’s
colourful live-action remake
of the Arabian Nights tale.
A startlingly blue Will Smith
sings and raps as the Genie,
while Mena Massoud is the
ducking-and-diving street kid
who unwittingly conjures him up
and shares a magic carpet ride
with Naomi Scott’s Princess
Jasmine. PG, 123MIN
Amazing Grace
4
Unseen until now, this fascinating
documentary captures Queen
of Soul Aretha Franklin at her
musical peak, performing the
songs for her best-selling gospel
album of the title at a Baptist
church in Los Angeles in 1972.
Shot over two days by Hollywood
director Sydney Pollack and his
crew, the film turns out to be a
veritable time capsule, though it
is the intensity of the singing, that
really lives on. U, 88MIN
Apocalypse Now
5
Forty years after its release,
Francis Ford Coppola’s epic
Vietnam War drama resurfaces
in a newly restored cut that has
used state-of-the-art technical
wizardry. Inspired by Joseph
Conrad’s classic novella Heart
of Darkness, the movie remains
terrifying, exhilarating and
surreal, and possibly the best
ever depiction of the horror and
madness of war. 15, 180MIN
Avengers: Endgame
4
Only a handful of the Avengers
- including Robert Downey
Jr’s Iron Man, Chris Evans’
Captain America and Scarlett
Johansson’s Black Widow –
were left standing at the end
of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity
War, thanks to Josh Brolin’s
intergalactic despot Thanos.
As the epic story arc reaches its
conclusion, there are surprises
galore, not to mention some
whopping action. 12, 181MIN
Booksmart
5
PREMIERE (Available from
Mon) Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie
Feldstein are terrific as two high-
school swots who belatedly
decide to let their hair down
for the first time on the eve of
graduation. The directing debut
of actress Olivia Wilde, this
coming-of-age comedy is an
absolute joy – raucously funny,
fond and touching in equal
measure. Refreshingly, the film’s
generous spirit extends to all its
characters, whether geek or
jock or cool kid. 15, 102MIN
Eighth Grade
4
Elsie Fisher’s socially awkward
13-year-old schoolgirl tries to
navigate the choppy waters of
adolescence and survive the last
week of middle school, beset by
the perils of pimples, impossible
crushes and social media. Your
heart will go out to Fisher’s lonely,
anxious, misfit of a heroine in this
terrifically charming coming-of-
age comedy drama. 15, 94MIN
High Life
4
Director-star Robert Pattinson
and French art-house darling
Claire Denis boldly go into outer
space in a smart, puzzling sci-fi
adventure. The pair play
death-row prisoners who have
traded their sentences for a
seemingly suicidal mission to the
further reaches of the solar
system. There are some
shocking images and lots of
stimulating ideas. 18, 113MIN
John Wick: Chapter 3
- Parabellum
4
Keanu Reeves’ indestructible
hero John Wick is back in the
third instalment of the action
thriller series. He is now on the
run with a $14million bounty on
his head, still cutting a swathe
through scores of disposable bad
guys who are out to get him and
claim the prize. Ian McShane
returns as the manager of the
splendid Art Deco hotel used by
New York hitmen, while Halle
Berry joins as the hunted Wick’s
much-needed friend. 15, 131MIN
Long Shot
4
Gorgeous Charlize Theron and
schlubby Seth Rogen won’t strike
you as an obvious romantic
comedy couple, but they hit
it off hilariously here. She is a
high-flying US politician who is
about to announce a run for the
presidency, and he is a bolshie
journalist who is recruited to
punch-up her speeches. The
result: some outrageous laughs
and a lot of heart. 15, 125MIN
Rocketman
3
PREMIERE (Available from Mon)
See review, above. 12, 121MIN
Tolkien
4
This beautiful, deeply moving
biopic about the early life of The
Lord of the Rings author JRR
Tolkien traces the emotional
roots of the mythical world he
would go on to create back to his
rural Worcestershire childhood,
his schooldays in turn-of-the-
century Birmingham, and the
trenches of World War One.
Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins
shine as the writer and his
QFull listings start on p93 lifelong love, Edith. 12, 112MIN
Films day-by-day