The Neon Demon, Elvis & Nixon and The Legend Of Tarzan: Your Week In Film (October 31-November 6)

Fashion beast: The Neon Demon is a transgressive treat

DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and TV highlights for the next seven days...

Nicolas Winding Refn is at his most fuck-you divisive in The Neon Demon (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) WWWW, a film that merges horror, satire, high camp and the occult to thrillingly transgressive effect. Elle Fanning plays Jesse, newly arrived in Los Angeles with big ambitions to make it in the cutthroat world of fashion modelling. Her disarming youth and rabbit-in-the-headlights innocence prove an instant hit with photographers, agents and stylists, and it isn't long before she's beating more experienced models to the top jobs. How they loathe and envy her.

Refn takes his time showing Jesse's career ascent but there's an unease tick, tick, ticking away in the background that no amount of cloudless LA skies or beautifully composed tableaux can eradicate. Death and danger permeate every frame here - from the opening shots of Jesse covered in blood for an amateur photo shoot to the recurring images of predatory big cats. You know something bad's coming, it's just a matter of when and how. And when Refn eventually turns up the batshit crazy to maximum, it's well worth the wait - a final half-hour involving cannibalism and necrophilia that fair takes the breath away (Jena Malone will still be asked about one particular scene if she lives to be a hundred).

Gratuitous? No, simply the perfect conclusion to the themes and ideas Refn (Drive) has laid out so masterfully throughout the rest of the film. We live in a culture that chews up and spits out youth and beauty - quite literally in The Neon Demon's case.

Elle for leather: Jesse is drawn into danger in LA

Necrophilia of a different kind now as The Pelvis and Tricky Dicky are dug up and put centre stage for the umpteenth time in Elvis & Nixon (DVD and VOD) WW. Loosely based on a true story and a famous photograph, Liza Johnson's film imagines what really happened when the King of Rock 'n' Roll turned up at the White House one December morning in 1970 to directly petition the president to make him an 'FBI agent at large' (Elvis thought he could go undercover to turn the kids of America away from drugs and radical politics). A broad comedy from which neither character emerges unscathed, it has a certain breathless pantomimic appeal, and Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey acquit themselves well in the titular roles.

The Legend Of Tarzan (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) WW features another blast from the past as Fantastic Beasts director David Yates becomes the latest filmmaker to have a go at adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs's most famous creation for the big screen. The main problem, I suspect, is that the idea of a white English posho lording it over black Africans is, in these more enlightened times, seen as somewhat racist. Yates and his team tackle this obstacle head on and make a decent fist of repositioning Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) as an honourable cove with nothing but love and respect for the tribes he and wife Jane (Margot Robbie) encounter. Putting the iniquities of the 19th Century slave trade front and centre – and giving Samuel L Jackson a sizeable role in proceedings – help too. Skarsgård is suitably butch and brooding as the titular character and Christoph Waltz adds another bravura villain turn to his CV. In a year that has given us the visual delights of The BFG, Doctor Strange and The Jungle Book, some of the CGI wasn't always convincing though.

TV-wise this week you could do a lot worse than check out Joy (from Friday, Sky Cinema Premiere, 13:45 and 20:00) WWW, David O Russell's underrated biopic of Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano, an American celebrity who isn't particularly well known in the UK. It boasts a great cast (Jennifer Lawrence as the titular character, Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper) and has some interesting things to say about the entrepreneurial spirit and American capitalism too. Far from being an unalloyed endorsement of the latter, as some critics suggested, Russell's film explores the murky side of business and how dipping your toes into that world can make a person not just tenacious and determined but utterly ruthless too. It's a story of lost innocence in which Lawrence is, of course, terrific.

Strictly business: Joy Mangano gunning for success

Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens is all ripped abs and convincing Yank accent in The Guest (Saturday, Film4, 21:00) WW as David, a soldier with a very dark secret. It’s one of those “stranger-danger” thrillers so popular in the ’80s in which an innocent family, couple or person is first befriended then menaced by some insidious outsider (see Fatal Attraction, Single White Female, Pacific Heights etc). Action-packed and genuinely funny in parts (Stevens, it turns out, can do comedy too), The Guest lands a couple of slyly satirical jabs square on the jaw of the US army which is probably what I liked about it most.

There's nothing remotely funny or satirical about the soldiers featured in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (Friday, More 4, 21:00) WWW. The film, which details the CIA's decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks on New York, was rightly hauled over the coals upon its release for implying information obtained by torture had been utilised successfully in the investigation (it hadn't). However, if you can get over that fairly large obstacle, a slow-burning but genuinely gripping piece of work is your reward.

The excellent Jessica Chastain is Maya, a CIA black ops agent who becomes slowly more obsessed with tracking down the Al Qaeda bogeyman (if Zero Dark Thirty is about anything, it's about obsession). Chastain's role is an astonishingly unglamorous one as she spends the entire film either angry, exhausted or both. Maya is given no external life to speak of - her mission defines her utterly. That kind of narrative austerity is of a piece with the rest of the movie which, far from being the gung-ho spectacle I'd anticipated, lays out the ugliness of the 'Get Bin Laden' operation in some detail.

We see alleged terrorists tortured and brutalised, we see men and women gunned down in cold blood by US Navy SEALS, we see young children terrified for their lives - all in the name of bringing down one man. It's nasty, tawdry work and Bigelow offers up little to cheer, even after Bin Laden's elimination. The Hurt Locker may have won her an Oscar but this is a much better film.

Manhunter: Bin Laden is the target in Zero Dark Thirty

A couple of quickies to end with: Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley in James Cameron's thrill-a-minute Alien sequel, Aliens (Sunday, Syfy, 21:00) WWWW, while online subscription service MUBI have just the thing for that Halloween night binge-watch - the original Scream trilogy WWW, which does the meta horror thing better than anything before or since.

What I'll be watching this week: Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner I, Daniel Blake must be doing something right as reactionary pond life (Camilla Long, Toby Young and Iain Duncan Smith) are queuing up to condemn it. Also, Film 2016 (Wednesday, BBC1, 23:15) returns for a new run of eight shows. Presenter Claudia Winkleman is gone, to be replaced, Have I Got News For You-style, with a different host each week. Zoë Ball kicks things off, with Danny Leigh and The Independent's Ellen E Jones on hand to provide critical insights into the week's new releases, which include Nocturnal Animals and The Light Between Oceans. Plus, director Damien Chazelle talks about his new musical, La La Land (which is marvellous).

Ratings

WWWW - Wonderful

WWW - Worthwhile

WW - Watchable

W - Woeful

The Last 5 Films I've Seen

Bloody Elle: Fanning plays ingenue Jesse in The Neon Demon 

1. The Neon Demon (2016) Nicolas Winding Refn is at his most fuck-you divisive in a film that merges horror, satire, high camp and the occult to thrillingly transgressive effect. Elle Fanning plays Jesse, newly arrived in Los Angeles with big ambitions to make it in the cutthroat world of fashion modelling. Her disarming youth and rabbit-in-the-headlights innocence prove an instant hit with photographers, agents and stylists, and it isn't long before she's beating more experienced models to the top jobs. How they loathe and envy her. Refn takes his time showing Jesse's career ascent but there's an unease tick, tick, ticking away in the background that no amount of cloudless LA skies or beautifully composed tableaux can eradicate. Death and danger permeate every frame here - from the opening shots of Jesse covered in blood for an amateur photo shoot to the recurring images of predatory big cats. You know something bad's coming, it's just a matter of when and how. And when Refn eventually turns up the batshit crazy to maximum, it's well worth the wait - a final half-hour involving necrophilia and cannibalism that fair takes the breath away. Gratuitous? No, simply the perfect conclusion to the themes and ideas he has laid out so masterfully throughout the rest of the film. We live in a culture that chews up and spits out youth and beauty - quite literally in The Neon Demon's case. Rating: WWWW

Angels and demons: Director Refn at his most divisive

2. Born To Be Blue (2015) Boyhood's Ethan Hawke stars as Chet Baker in a "semi-factual, semi-fictional" biopic focussing on the legendary West Coast jazz trumpeter/vocalist's long road to redemption after a drug dealer he owes money punches out his front teeth. The injury badly affects the star's ability to play his instrument and he has to start again from scratch, while also fighting heroin addiction. The only bright spot in his life? Girlfriend Jane (Carmen Ejogo), who is trying to kickstart her acting career while helping the '60s jazzman battle his demons. I suspect the 'reimagined' nature of some of the material will put off Baker purists but Robert Budreau's film is no hagiography. The musician is depicted as driven and incredibly talented but weak and selfish, his addiction both a blessing and a curse. I know little of Baker or his oeuvre but still thought it terrific - a powerfully redemptive tale of a man who loses everything and moves heaven and earth to win it back, with no sacrifice too big. In a 30-year film acting career, I'm not sure Hawke has ever been better. Rating: WWW

Kind of blue: Ethan Hawke stars as Chet Baker

3. The Informant! (2009) Bourne star Matt Damon shows his impressive range as Mark Whitacre, the Ned Flanders-esque vice president of an American agricultural corporation accused of widespread price fixing. Seeing himself as some kind of super-spy, Whitacre turns informant but his FBI contacts (nicely played by Scott Bakula and Joel McHale) soon grow frustrated, and ultimately exasperated, by their inside-man's increasingly tall tales and bizarre behaviour. Steven Soderbergh's '90s-set comedy (based on a true story) is both funny and farcical, with every new twist and turn ratcheting up the absurdity to new levels. It's worth seeing alone for Whitacre's thoughts on a host of subjects (delivered in an amusingly monotone voiceover), including polar bear noses, Tokyo 'panty dispensers' and an unfortunate horse-related incident at a Renaissance Festival. Rating: WWW

Spy hard: Matt Damon is The Informant!

4. Elvis & Nixon (2016) Loosely based on a true story and a famous photograph, Liza Johnson's film imagines what really happened when the King of Rock 'n' Roll turned up at the White House one December morning in 1970 to directly petition the president to make him an 'FBI agent at large' (Elvis thought he could go undercover to turn the kids of America away from drugs and radical politics). A broad comedy from which neither The Pelvis or Tricky Dicky emerges unscathed, it has a certain breathless pantomimic appeal, and Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey acquit themselves well in the titular roles. Ageing and culturally all but irrelevant at this point, there's a real melancholia to Presley, his boredom and capriciousness as obvious as his wealth. Perversely, the script lands more jabs on Elvis than it does Nixon, particularly the former's alleged appropriation of black music. At times it feels like there isn't enough material to justify its 86-minute running time (Elvis wants to meet Nixon, has to wait to meet Nixon, meets Nixon) but the film's undeniable wit and charm just about get it over the line. Rating: WW

Elvis is in the building: Tricky Dicky meets The King

5. Possession (1981) It's been a while since I've seen a film as odd or disturbing as Andrzej Zulawski's Possession. Set in Cold War Berlin, Mark (Sam Neil) returns home from a lengthy business trip to find his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) is about to leave him for another man (kung-fu libertine, Heinrich). However, neither is aware there is a fourth presence in their relationship - a terrifying tentacled creature that Anna keeps hidden away elsewhere in the city and visits for sex. Is Anna being controlled by a genuine Lovecraftian beastie from beyond or is the monster really just a metaphor for the ugliness that infects her relationships? Possession is a big shouty melodramatic pantomime with Neil and Adjani overacting for all they are worth, the film's grim mood made even more oppressive by its Berlin setting. There is a scene in which Anna has a violent fit on her way home from a shopping trip that is genuinely upsetting as is a later sequence in which we see her 'coupling' with the creature. It might be brilliant, it might be terrible, I really have no idea, to be honest with you. Rating: WW

Drowning in Berlin: Possession is odd and disturbing

Ratings
WWWW - Wonderful
WWW - Worthwhile
WW - Watchable
W - Woeful

Elvis & Nixon, Trumbo and, um, Up Pompeii: Your Week In Film (June 20-26)

The King and I: Shannon and Spacey in Elvis & Nixon

Monday 20th: Trumbo (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) is a thoroughly enjoyable biopic of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Roman Holiday, Spartacus), who was blacklisted and jailed for being a communist during the McCarthy 'witch hunts' of the 1950s. Jay Roach's film was damned with faint praise on its cinema release but deserves better as it boasts a sharp script (as you'd expect) and uniformly top-notch performances (Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston is gloriously OTT in the title role, but it's Dean O'Gorman's uncanny turn as Kirk Douglas that really caught my eye). Although the film's main theme - freedom of speech - is one well trodden, it never once tries to duck Trumbo's political affiliations; he was an unapologetic red who, even when subjected to the most heinous pressure, refused to renounce his beliefs. I'm not sure Hollywood has ever properly faced up to this particularly shameful episode in its history but Trumbo is a pretty good start. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has all got a bit too slick and soulless of late so Guardians Of The Galaxy's debut on Netflix UK is a timely reminder of how to do a big, blockbusting superhero movie right. Director/co-writer James Gunn's film is an action-packed treat that is also joyous, wildly inventive and laugh-out-loud funny. Like most Marvel movies it's slightly hobbled by an underwhelming villain (Ronan The Accuser) but you'll be too busy mainlining the manic pop thrill of the rest of it to care too much. Over at MUBI, Molly Ringwald stars in John Hughes' teen classic Pretty In Pink, in which she has to choose between two potential suitors - one called 'Duckie', the other named 'Blane'. I can't remember how it ends but I hope to god she opted to stay single.

Red menace: Bryan Cranston is communist Trumbo 

Tuesday 21st: In Cop Land (01:45, Film4) Sylvester Stallone gives probably his best performance as the bumbling sheriff of a New Jersey town populated by New York City police officers. When Robert De Niro's internal affairs officer shows up to investigate a murder, Stallone - overweight and partially deaf - slowly discovers his patch is a little more than a front for the mob and riddled with corruption. James Mangold's film remains an under-appreciated crime thriller.

Police and thieves: Stallone lights up Cop Land

Wednesday 22nd: I know everyone has Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and a dozen other ways of accessing movies these days but that's still no reason for terrestrial TV channels to schedule their best films at such inconvenient times. Blue Valentine (01:30, Channel 4) is the latest to be dumped in a post-midnight slot which is a shame, as Derek Cianfrance's drama not only boasts fine performances from Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling, but also a refreshingly unvarnished approach to the subject of marriage and what happens when one starts to unravel. Cutting between time periods, we see the evolution of working class couple Dean and Cindy's relationship from their initial courtship to ultimate parting in a melancholic movie well worth the space on your PVR.

Bad romance: Blue Valentine's star-crossed lovers

Thursday 23rd: Independence Day: Resurgence hits cinemas. No Will Smith this time, so you'll just have to make do with Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth and Bill Pullman teaming up to save the planet from aliens with a penchant for blowing stuff up. They're doing it in 3D this time, you'll no doubt be delighted to hear. Due to the EU referendum result and its aftermath, Kermode And Mayo's Film Review (14:00, BBC Radio 5 Live) is a day earlier this week. Actor Eric Stonestreet chats to Mayo about The Secret Life Of Pets, a new animated movie from the makers of Despicable Me. In The Film Programme (16:00, BBC Radio 4), Nell Dunn talks about her screenplay for Ken Loach's ground-breaking drama Poor Cow, which is back in cinemas from tomorrow. Fantasy and reality merge in Blind (01:05, Channel 4), an extraordinary Swedish film from first-time writer/director Eskil Vogt. Chronicling a young, visually-impaired woman's struggle to come to terms with isolation and paranoia, it boasts a great central performance from Ellen Dorrit Petersen.

Out of sight: Ellen Dorrit Petersen stars in Blind

Friday 24th: Elvis & Nixon is probably your best bet in cinemas this week and purports to tell the true story of the pair's famous Oval Office meeting in 1970. Michael Shannon is the king of rock'n'roll, Kevin Spacey is Tricky Dicky and, judging by the trailer (below), it looks an absolute hoot. Two films released simultaneously in cinemas and on VOD from today are Italian mob thriller Suburra and intriguing memory-loss drama Remainder - I shall be checking out both. Irrational Man (09:15 and 18:15, Sky Movies Premiere, also available on NOW TV) is another of Woody Allen's late-period lesser works but at least Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone can be relied upon to turn in fine performances, even if the script is merely passable. Phoenix plays a depressed philosophy professor given a new lease of life after he kills a corrupt judge. Stone is the optimistic, love-struck student trying to save the professor from himself.

Double Trouble: Elvis & Nixon hits cinemas today

Saturday 25th: In the mood for a bit of music but not keen on sitting through the Argos Alison Moyet (aka Adele) at Glastonbury? Allow me to again point you in the direction of MUBI who are still showing excellent Talking Heads concert flick, Stop Making Sense. Filmed in 1983, Jonathan Demme's film captures the band - rumoured to be reforming for a new tour and album - at the height of its powers. Miss You Already (Amazon Prime Video) is an over-the-top but engaging dramedy about two best friends whose relationship is threatened when one (Drew Barrymore) gets pregnant at the exact same time the other (Toni Collette) is diagnosed with breast cancer. Its melodrama is set to 11 throughout and Morwena Banks' script is hardly cliché free, but Collette is always worth watching, even when she plays a selfish pain in the arse as she does here. L.A. Confidential (23:20, BBC1) is Curtis Hanson's noirish tale of police corruption in 1950s Los Angeles, starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce as cops with very contrasting styles but only one goal: root out the bad guys. Based on the James Ellroy novel of the same name, it's intricately plotted, nicely acted and just as hard-bitten as you'd expect.

Good cop, bad cop: Stakes are high in L.A. Confidential 

Sunday 26th: Lots of good stuff on today, including Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 (22:10, Sky Atlantic), enjoyable Nick Hornby adaptation High Fidelity (23:15, BBC One), superior supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense (23:20, Channel 4), and Bruce Robinson's wonderfully-quotable Withnail & I (23:00, Gold). If your tastes are a little more down market, there's profoundly un-PC Frankie Howerd comedy Up Pompeii (21:15, Gold). Despite its innumerable shortcomings, any film that includes Howerd, Patrick Cargill, Michael Hordern, Bernard Bresslaw, Madeline Smith and Lance Percival amongst its cast can't be all bad.

Let's be Frank: Up Pompeii is an un-PC treat

UK box office top 10
1. Me Before You
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows 
3. Alice Through The Looking Glass
4. Warcraft: The Beginning R
5. X-Men: Apocalypse R
6. The Nice Guys R
7. The Boss
8. Angry Birds 
9. Mother's Day 
10. The Jungle Book R

R = Recommended

All information correct at time of publication