The Sunday Times - UK (2021-12-19)

Monroe gets a small cameo.

Forget The Devil Wears Prada,

this is the grande dame of

grande dame pictures.

7

Back to the Future

(Christmas Eve, ITV2,

3.45pm)

Robert Zemeckis and

Bob Gale’s Oedipal time-travel

tale, which took five years to

write, is what happens if you

cross Oscar Wilde with a

Rubik’s Cube. Thanks to

the deliriously enjoyable

performance of Christopher

Lloyd as Doc Brown — an

explosion of hair and limbs

like a lanky Einstein

— it is not just a

delicious screwball

comedy, but the

story of an enduring

friendship: wherever and

whenever Marty sets down

in his DeLorean, he can

always look up the Doc.

8

Casablanca

(Christmas Day,

BBC2, 11.10am)

Not just any old

movie, but the old movie.

Cultural ubiquity has not

dampened the power of

5

North by Northwest

(Christmas Eve,

BBC2, 3.20pm)

Maybe Alfred

Hitchcock’s most purely

enjoyable thriller, with Cary

Grant as an advertising

executive mistaken for

another man and pursued

by Martin Landau’s goons

across a series of American

landmarks, and a sleeper

carriage containing Eva Marie

Saint. It’s the most fantastic

film about a big nothing ever

made. If you’re looking for the

template for the modern-day

action film, from Bond to

Bourne, look no further.

6

All About Eve

(Christmas Eve,

Talking Pictures TV,

12.40am)

Has Hollywood made a more

entertaining film? Bette Davis

stars as Broadway legend

Margo Channing, who is

beginning to feel her crown

slipping; Anne Baxter is her

number one fan, whose hero

worship of Margo cloaks far

darker desires. Joseph

Mankiewicz’s script sparkles;

Davis dazzles; and Marilyn

BUCKET LIST...

Movie night From left to

right: the wrong trousers,

Doctor Zhivago, et, north By

northwest, All About eve,

Back to the Future,

casablanca, inside out.

Below, far left: Die hard.

Below: singin’ in the Rain

Mary Poppins Returns

the sequel to the 1964

classic finds the now

grown-up Banks children

on the verge of losing their

house. luckily, magical

nanny mary Poppins (emily

Blunt) is on hand.

Christmas Day, BBC1

The Meg

Jason statham takes on a

75ft prehistoric shark in this

epic monster romp.

Dec 28, Channel 5

A Star Is Born

Bradley cooper and lady

Gaga star in this story of

fame and doomed love. it

received eight nominations

at the oscars, winning best

original song.

Dec 29, BBC1

Judy

in an oscar-winning

performance, Renée

Zellweger shines as the

ailing Judy Garland. the

film centres on the singer’s

series of shambolic

concerts in 1968 and 1969,

months before her death.

Dec 30, BBC2

The Power of the Dog

in her first feature film in 12

years, Jane campion makes

a western, with Jesse

Plemons, kirsten Dunst and

Benedict cumberbatch in

a thorny love triangle on a

ranch in 1920s montana.

Netflix

In the Heights

Jon m chu’s screen version

of lin-manuel miranda’s

2008 Broadway musical

is an exuberant tale set

among new york’s latino

community.

Sky Cinema/Now

The Last Duel

Ridley scott’s latest

medieval epic is the

account of a rape, told from

three perspectives, set in

14th-century France. Adam

Driver, Jodie comer and

matt Damon star in this

gripping film with peculiar

hairdos.

Disney+

Jake Helm

Michael Curtiz’s tale of love

in the time of wartime

evacuation. Nearly all of the

100-plus actors in the film,

save Humphrey Bogart, were

immigrants from more than

34 countries. When the time

came for a defiant rendition of

La Marseillaise, one character

actor noticed everyone was

crying: “I suddenly realised

they were all real

refugees.”

9

Singin’ in

the Rain

(Boxing

Day, BBC2,

12.40pm)

“What a

glorious feeling!”

ran the posters

for Stanley

Donen’s musical

about — what

else? — the

coming of sound

to motion

pictures,

starring Gene

Kelly, Donald

FILM PREMIERES

ON TELEVISION

— and explains why they’re worth watching again and again

O’Connor and 19-year-old

Debbie Reynolds. The movie

feels giddy with pleasures,

from O’Connor’s Make ’em

Laugh, to Kelly’s soaking-wet

Singin’ in the Rain, in which he

shrugs off a downpour because

he’s in love. A perfect movie.

10

Inside Out

(Wednesday,

Dec 29, BBC1,

1.40pm)

Only Pixar could make an

animated feature about the

neurological basis of pre-

adolescent emotions and

bring it off. Amy Poehler,

Lewis Black and Mindy Kaling

are among the voices

crowding the control panels

of 12-year-old Riley’s head, but

the movie belongs to Sadness

(Phyllis Smith) and the place

everyone else finds for her. c

19 December 2021 39