OUR PICKS OF THE WEEK
Films
The Visit
C4 12.20am - 1.55am HHH
CHILLER⊲This entertaining
chiller – with a thick slice of black
humour cut through it – sees siblings
Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould
visit grandparents they have never
met (Deanna Dunagan and Peter
McRobbie) at the behest of mum
Kathryn Hahn. It turns into a different
kind of ordeal to the one the kids were
expecting. Are their grandfolks’
‘quirks’ products of old age or
something more sinister? With its
clammy unease, its fairy tale echoes
deliver a particular frisson when this
Hansel and Gretel get into the
kitchen... Dir: M Night Shyamalan 2015, 15, 95min
SEX ) VIOLENCE @ LANGUAGE!Midnight Special
BBC2 11.00pm - 12.45am HHHH
PREMIERESCI-FI⊲This
genre-bending sci-fi chase thriller
takes us on a very strange trip,
beginning with Michael Shannon
snatching his young son Jaeden
Lieberher from the cult that regards
the kid as a prophet. They then take
urgent flight, pursued both by the
cult and also by the FBI, who have
taken an interest in the strange
powers the boy appears to possess.
With Joel Edgerton as Shannon’s
best friend, Kirsten Dunst
(Shannon’s wife), and Adam Driver
(a sympathetic NSA analyst) also
caught up in the chase, things get
very weird. What grounds the movie,
though, is the fervent, emotionally
credible bond between father and
son. Dir: Jeff Nichols 2015, 12, 105min
SEX ) VIOLENCE! LANGUAGE )
The Third Man
BBC2 12.40pm - 2.20pm HHHHH
THRILLER⊲In this classic
thriller, Joseph Cotten is in early
post-war Vienna looking for old
friend Orson Welles. Director Carol
Reed’s all-time great movie will
always be remembered for two
things: the catchy zither music
score and Welles’ perfect first
appearance. As black marketeer
Harry Lime, he’s only on screen for
around 10 minutes yet he dominates
this tangled tale of corruption and
intrigue. Dir: Carol Reed 1949, PG, 100min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )Smallfoot
Sky Cinema Premiere 6.15pm - 8.00pm HHH
SatellitePREMIEREANIMATION⊲This
boisterous animated fantasy finds a plucky young
Yeti (voiced by Channing Tatum) setting out from his
isolated Himalayan village to prove to his fellow
Abominable Snowmen that there is such a thing as a
Smallfoot (that’s a human to you). Who should he
encounter, but self-seeking TV wildlife host Percy
(James Corden)... The animation is fairly insipid, but
the movie still works thanks to its frenetic energy
and charm. Dirs: Karey Kirkpatrick, Jason Reisig 2018, U, 105min
SEX ) VIOLENCE ) LANGUAGE )SATU R DAY
SATU R DAY
S U N DAY SATU R DAY
Behind you:
DeJongeThe heroes
reach for
the skyLime’s not
green: WellesStranded:
WhiteheadOn the run:
Shannon and
LieberherFILM
OF THEWEEKDunkirk
Amazon Prime HHHHH
PREMIEREWAR DRAMA⊲Defying
war movie convention and Hollywood heroics,
Christopher Nolan’s immersive epic about the
Dunkirk evacuation plunges us straight into the
action as the Allies race to rescue their troops
from the beaches of 1940 France – putting us in
the shoes of Fionn Whitehead’s teenage soldier
on the beach; at the helm of Mark Rylance’s
small boat as it crosses the Channel to help the
rescue effort; and in the cockpit of pilot Tom
Hardy’s Spitfire. No one gets a traditional
narrative arc. No one gets a backstory or a loved
one waiting anxiously at home. And no one gets
to make a heroic speech, not even Kenneth
Branagh’s stoic officer in charge of the
evacuation. By interweaving their stories,
though, the film brilliantly conveys the panic,
terror, endurance and resolve of the people
involved. Dir: Christopher Nolan 2017, 12, 106min
SEX ) VIOLENCE! LANGUAGE!FROM MONDAY
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