Home Comforts: The best in TV, VOD, DVD and Blu-ray (Monday October 19 - Sunday October 25)

14 films to check out on TV, VOD, DVD and Blu-ray in the coming week...

1. Back To The Future (16:30, ITV2, Wednesday)

2. Back To The Future Part II (18:50, ITV2, Wednesday)

3. Back To The Future Part III (22:30, ITV2, Wednesday)

All three films showing (almost) back to back on October 21, 2015, the exact date 30 years in the 'future' to which Marty McFly and Doc Brown famously travelled in the trilogy's second installment. Celebrating 'Back To The Future Day' marks a clever bit of programming from ITV2 but it's spoiled somewhat by the unwanted arrival, at 21:00, of Keith Lemon's Back T'Future Tribute. Ninety fucking minutes of joke-free idiocy from a man so unfunny he makes Dapper Laughs look like Louis CK. Maybe just splash out on those gorgeous new Blu-rays instead...

4. AAAAAAAAH! 

(various streaming services, from today)

Steve Oram (who you might remember from Ben Wheatley's mighty Sightseers a few years ago) makes his debut as writer/director with probably the most peculiar and challenging film you'll see all year. Imagining a world in which people behave and communicate like apes (there's no spoken dialogue), Oram - who also stars - has enormously scabrous and satirical fun revealing how beastly behaviour forever lurks just below the surface of modern, supposedly civilised, society. Julian Rhind-Tutt and Toyah Wilcox co-star.

5. Boyhood 

(21:30, Sky Movies Select, Wednesday)
Not only a great film but also a genuine feat of dedication, organisation and sheer bloody-mindedness. Filmed at various stages over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater’s movie follows Ellar Coltrane’s Mason as he grows from a tousle-haired six-year-old into a talented and likeable young man just starting college. Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette – as Mason’s mum and dad – are both superb. Low on melodrama, this is just life as it’s lived and it’s never less than fascinating. Please don’t let the film’s 165-minute running time deter you.

6. The Selfish Giant 

(01:45, Film4, Tuesday)

Based very loosely on Oscar Wilde's 19th Century children's fable of the same name, Clio Barnard's film is a bleak but brilliant drama chronicling the lives of two teenage boys - Arbor and Swifty - whose friendship is tested to the limits after they go to work for Kitten (the excellent Sean Gilder), an unpleasant local scrapdealer.  

7. Theeb 

(various streaming services, from Saturday)

Powerful coming-of-age tale, set in the years before WWI, about a young Bedouin boy marooned in the desert with an injured bandit after the death of his brother. It's a beautiful-looking film (shades of Lawrence Of Arabia at times) and effortlessly carried by youngster Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat as Theeb. Naji Abu Nowar's film is refreshingly unpredictable, too, managing to totally wrong-foot me twice. 

8. Pasolini 

(various streaming services, from today)
Willem Dafoe is terrific as Italian filmmaker, writer and intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini in Abel Ferrara's sort-of biopic chronicling the final day of the Salo director's life. 

9. The Wild Bunch 

(23:25, ITV4, Tuesday)
William Holden's band of ageing outlaws are out of time and out of luck in a masterful – but brutal – western from director Sam Peckinpah. 

10. The Jerk 

(01:10, ITV4, Friday)

“Poor black child” and hopeless idiot Navin R Johnson (Steve Martin) searches for his "special purpose" in one of the finest film comedies ever made. "I'm gonna buy you a diamond so big, it's gonna make you puke!"

11. A Clockwork Orange 

(Midnight, Sky Movies Select, tonight)
Stanley Kubrick's controversial adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel is still vicious, disturbing and utterly mesmerising. Malcolm McDowell stars as ultra-violent Beethoven fan Alex DeLarge, a performance he's never bettered.

12. Tucker & Dale vs Evil 

(21:00, Syfy, Friday)
If you're a fan of Scream, The Cabin In The Woods or this year's The Final Girls, this horror-comedy is for you. Cleverly playing with the slasher movie stereotype of 'chainsaw-wielding, murderous hillbillies', it turns the usual script on its head. Tucker and Dale are just a couple of good old boys looking to drink beer, go fishing and repair their cabin. But their peace is shattered by the arrival of a bunch of paranoid college kids convinced the pair wants to kill them. A hoot. 

13. The Falcon and the Snowman 

(DVD/Blu-ray)

From 1985, John Schlesinger (Marathon Man, Midnight Cowboy) directs a gripping espionage thriller based on a true-story. Timothy Hutton is the all-American boy who becomes disillusioned with the US government and starts selling secrets to the Russians, Sean Penn the friend who aids and abets him.

14. Love is All 

(DVD)

A history of romance and courtship as seen on the silver screen over the last 100 years, directed by Kim Longinotto and soundtracked by Richard Hawley. The DVD boasts a host of special features, including a Q&A with the director and a fully-illustrated booklet listing all the clips used in the film.

And one to avoid...

Total Recall 

(22:00, Channel 5, Thursday)

Not Paul Verhoeven's hugely entertaining take on Philip K Dick's original story, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the other version. The one from 2012 we don't talk about.

Please note: Films starting after midnight are always considered part of the previous day's schedule, e.g. The Selfish Giant begins at 01:45 - technically Wednesday morning - but is still part of Tuesday's listings. All times in 24-hour clock.

Review overload!

A dozen short reviews of films I've seen in the last couple of weeks - ranked from best to worst (although there isn't a single stinker among them). I've seen 116 of the many hundreds of movies released in UK cinemas in 2015 and am hoping to reach 150 by the end of the year... 

Love & Mercy

(director: Bill Pohlad)

Bravura biopic of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, concentrating on two crucial periods of his life. Paul Dano plays the songwriter as a young man at the height of his musical powers (Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations) but teetering on the brink of mental illness, while John Cusack is the older Wilson, under the perfidious spell of Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti), a quack psychologist who took his money and cut him off from his family. Love & Mercy boasts superb performances (Dano has to get an Oscar nod), smart storytelling (the two strands are beautifully weaved together) while the music is, of course, simply gorgeous.

Rating: WWWW

Released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 16

A Syrian Love Story

(director: Sean Armitage)

Bruising but timely documentary from British filmmaker Armitage chronicling the lives of a Syrian family - Amer, Ragdha and their three sons - as they flee to France after suffering under the oppressive Assad regime. The film is both uplifting and heartbreaking, as elation at Ragdha's release from prison (she had written a book critical of the regime) soon gives way to pain and disillusion as her marriage to Amer starts to unravel. Refusing to offer any easy answers to Syria's myriad problems, Armitage's film shows how oppression seeps into every single area of a person's life - even a seemingly rock-solid marriage isn't safe from it.

Rating: WWWW

In cinemas and on BFI player now

Catch Me Daddy

(director: Matthew Wolfe)

Atmospheric and brutal British 'honour killing' drama about a young couple on the run on the Yorkshire Moors from the girl's vengeful father. First-time director Wolfe blends elements of social realism, thriller and the western (The Searchers has been mentioned as an influence) to great effect while newcomer Sameena Jabeen Ahmed is a revelation as Laila. Be warned, though, this is anything but an easy watch.

Rating: WWWW

Available now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD

The Martian

(director: Ridley Scott)

Sci-fi blockbuster starring Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars when a manned mission to the planet goes tits up. It's MacGyver in space, it's Cast Away meets Apollo 13, and although the final 20 minutes strain credulity and Damon's character never seems bothered enough by his predicament, I enjoyed it a lot more than other recent SF blockbusters such as Gravity or Interstellar.

Rating: WWW

In cinemas now

The Goob

(director: Guy Myhill)

Gloomy coming-of-age drama set in the Norfolk Fens and focused on the titular Goob (Liam Walpole), a teenage boy struggling to come to terms with not only impending adulthood but also the behaviour of his step-dad, a deeply unpleasant bully played to evil-eyed perfection by Sean Harris. Writer/director Myhill conjures a potent but dispiriting vision of what it is to be young and trapped by poverty and circumstance.

Rating: WWW

Available now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD

The Reunion

(director: Anna Odell)

Clever film-within-a-film from provocative Swedish artist Odell. In real life, the director (who also writes and stars) wasn't invited to her high school reunion so the first half is a fictionalised account of what might have happened if she had attended (short answer: nothing good). In the second half, she recreates interviews she conducted with former class-mates - many of whom had tormented her - after showing them the film and recording their reactions. Beneath the art-project posturing, there's a powerful film with plenty to say about bullying, betrayal and the horrors of high school.

Rating: WWW

Available now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD

Pasolini

(director: Abel Ferrara)

Ferrara (Driller Killer) dials back the histrionics after last year's gloriously over-the-top Welcome To New York with this sober, elegaic sort-of-biopic of late Italian filmmaker, writer and intellectual, Pier Paolo Pasolini (Willem Dafoe). It focuses on the last day of the Salo director's life (it isn't a spoiler to say he was murdered in 1975) as he writes, eats with friends and family, is interviewed for a newspaper article, discusses a new film project and, ultimately, is led to his doom after picking up a rentboy. Ferrara also visualises scenes from both Pasolini's novel in progress and what would have been his next movie in a film that sidesteps hagiography to reveal a complicated man full of contradictions but with a huge cultural contribution still to make. Dafoe - despite his American accent - is terrific.

Rating: WWW

In cinemas and on VOD now, and released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26

Macbeth

(director: Justin Kurzel)

The last 20 minutes are probably the most visually stunning of any film I've seen all year as Birnam Wood does indeed come to Dunsinane and Michael Fassbender's Macbeth (pictured at the top of the page) faces off against his nemesis Macduff. Elsewhere, Snowtown director Kurzel's adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Scottish play' is a broodingly gothic, brutal and nightmarish affair, buoyed by suitably intense performances from Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth. Kurzel has an interesting take on the central character - he isn't just an ambitious monster spurred on by a pushy wife - but a battle-weary warrior unhinged by the death of his young son. It's a nice twist but one that fails to humanise the character as much as the director would clearly like it to. 

Rating: WWW

In cinemas now

The Emperor's New Clothes

(director: Michael Winterbottom)

Comedian-turned-activist Russell Brand shines a light on the 2008 financial crisis and asks, not unreasonably, why the bankers who caused the crash got away with it scot-free. It's enjoyable, rabble-rousing stuff for the most part, and Brand is an articulate, passionate narrator who clearly loves people, but I couldn't shake the feeling Michael Moore and Mark Thomas not only did this stuff first but did it rather better. 

Rating: WWW

Available on DVD and Amazon Prime Video

Samba

(director: Olivier Nakache)

Likeable drama chronicling the travails of the titular Senegalese immigrant (Omar Sy) as he battles to stay in France while slowly but surely falling for Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the charity worker helping him with his case. Some of the plotting is a bit clunky and at two hours Samba goes on a bit, but the film nevertheless boasts some fine moments, especially when shining a light on the hand-to-mouth experience of immigrants in France. Both leads (Gainsbourg is a criminally underrated actress), as well as the film's supporting cast, are excellent.
Rating: WWW

Available now on DVD and VOD

Results

(director: Andrew Bujalski)

Off-beat and deceptively clever romantic comedy starring Guy Pearce (The Rover) and Cobie Smulders (Avengers: Age Of Ultron) as Trevor and Kat, personal trainers and former 'fuck buddies' whose relationship is put back under the spotlight with the arrival of wealthy depressive Danny (Kevin Corrigan). In truth, Corrigan - a perfect storm of self-loathing and emasculated manhood - steals the show while the two leads - for all their skills as actors and comic performers - never quite convince as a couple. It's a shame because writer/director Bujalski's film is, for the most part, charming and funny while offering an interesting spin on a tired genre.

Rating: WW

Available now on DVD and VOD

Mia Madre

(director: Nanni Morretti)

Nanni Moretti might be one of Italy's most celebrated directors but this semi-autobiographical drama about a filmmaker emotionally unraveling as her mother's health deteriorates is a bit of a slog. Mia Madre (My Mother) has some perceptive things to say about grief and mortality, and John Turturro works overtime to lighten the mood, but overall this is a ponderous piece of work that is easy to admire but difficult to like.

Rating: WW

In cinemas and on VOD now

Ratings

WWWW = Wonderful
WWW = Worthwhile
WW = Watchable
W = Woeful

5 for Friday (September 11): Trailers, new releases and box office

This week's most intriguing cinema releases, including The Visit (pictured above)...

1. Pasolini 

What is it? Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salo, The Gospel According To Matthew) was murdered in 1975. This mix of fiction and reality from Abel Ferrara (Welcome To New York, Bad Lieutenant) seeks to document his final day. Willem Dafoe is Pasolini.

Critical consensus? A healthy, if not spectacular, 69 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Where in the UK can I see it? Key cities only but it is also available right now via Curzon Home Cinema. Also released on DVD and Blu-ray next month.

My take: Welcome To New York was one of my favourite films of last year and I’ve been curious to see what maverick director Ferrara would do next. Pasolini – a poet, playwright, novelist, critic, communist and defiantly ‘out’ gay man, as well as the director of one of the most controversial movies ever made (Salo) – is a fascinating choice of subject. That Dafoe fella can act a bit, too.

2. Irrational Man 

What is it? Writer/director Woody Allen’s 3,016th film (I may be out a couple there). Joaquin Phoenix is Abe, a tormented philosophy professor conducting affairs with both a colleague (Parker Posey) and one of his students (Emma Stone). In a bid to give his existential angst meaning, Abe decides to murder an unethical judge. As you do.

Critical consensus? A highly irrational 41 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Where in the UK can I see it? This is getting a wide release so should be fairly easy to track down.

My take: I doubt Woody (80 this year) has another Crimes And Misdemeanors or Hannah and Her Sisters in him but, every now and again, he pops up with something roughly in the same ballpark quality-wise. The sublime Blue Jasmine proved that, although last year’s Magic In The Moonlight felt like something he’d dashed off in an afternoon. To be honest, I’m just happy he’s still out there making movies – we won’t have him forever.

3. In Cold Blood (reissue)

What is it? Richard Brooks’ 1967 adaptation of Truman Capote’s controversial non-fiction novel gets a swanky new 4K restoration. A docu-drama, it tells the story of a Kansas family’s brutal murder at the hands of the gunmen who invade their home looking for cash. Robert Blake (Baretta, Lost Highway) stars.

Critical consensus? A mighty 89 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Where in the UK can I see it? It’s only getting a limited release, including at the BFI Southbank. Presumably, a Blu-ray release will be forthcoming.

My take: Brooks’ film is a critically-adored noir classic but, these days it’s impossible to think of it without also contemplating the fact its star, Blake, was tried and acquitted of murdering his wife in 2005. Later the same year, though, he was found liable in a California civil court of her wrongful death. In cold blood, indeed.

4. Containment 

What is it? This intriguing slice of low-budget British sci-fi sees a man awake to find the doors and windows of his flat sealed shut, and his power and water switched off. At first he thinks it’s someone’s idea of a prank but then notices the foreboding figures outside his window wearing Hazmat suits. His nightmare is only just beginning…

Critical consensus? Only four reviews on Rotten Tomatoes so far but they’re all positive. Even Sight and Sound likes it!

Where in the UK can I see it? It’s only getting a limited cinema release but is out on DVD early next month.

My take: I do like a bit of dystopian Brit SF so will definitely check out Neil Mcenery-West’s debut as writer and director. The fact it’s set in a tower block immediately made me think of JG Ballard’s High Rise, an adaptation of which directed by Ben Wheatley (The Kill List, Sightseers) is out later in the year.

5. The Visit

What is it? M Night Shyamalan discovers found-footage horror a squillion years after everyone else as two rosy-cheeked kids go to stay with grandparents they’ve never met for a week. Unfortunately, for the children, it turns out the golden oldies have a deep, dark secret. Scary stuff ensues…

Critical consensus? A just-about fresh 62 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Where in the UK can I see it? Everywhere!

My take: Yes, we all know Lady In The Water, The Last Airbender and The Happening were terrible but let’s not forget, way back when, Shyamalan gave us The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, and that one about the aliens invading a planet covered in water even though it was poison to them. What I’m saying is, as surprising as it sounds, this looks pretty good.

                                                      

Also in cinemas this week…

Brahmin Bulls

Hero

La Famille Belier 
The Master Mind Kinda Sukha

Swimming Pool (from Saturday)

The World Of Astley Baker Davies

Yatchan
Zoran, My Nephew The Idiot 

UK box office top 10

1. Straight Outta Compton
2. Inside Out
3. No Escape
4. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
5. Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
6. Pixels
7. The Transporter Refuelled
8. American Ultra
9. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
10. Hitman: Agent 47 

US box office top 10

1. War Room
2. Straight Outta Compton
3. A Walk in the Woods
4. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
5. The Transporter Refueled
6. No Escape
7. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
8. Un gallo con muchos huevos
9. Sinister 2
10. Inside Out