Home Comforts (Monday July 6 - Sunday July 12): Still Alice

Okay, I think I've finally decided how this regular weekly section of the blog is going to look from now on. I'm going to call it Home Comforts and as well as focusing on all the usual TV and View on Demand stuff, I'm going to be talking about new DVD and Blu-ray releases too. The idea is to give you a fairly comprehensive idea of what is available to watch in the comfort of your own home each and every week. Let's see how it works out, shall we?

FILM OF THE WEEK: STILL ALICE

Julianne Moore is every bit as fantastic as you'll have heard in Still Alice (DVD, Blu-ray and various streaming services) but I was surprised at how sniffy some critics were about the rest of the movie. Following the Oscar winner’s language professor (the titular Alice) as she fights a losing battle against early onset Alzheimer’s, it is certainly a simple, subtle, perhaps even low-key affair, but is far removed from some of the “TV movie” jibes aimed in its direction. For a start, all the performances are good, particularly Kristen Stewart as Lydia, Moore’s wannabe actress daughter, and Alec Baldwin as husband John, a character who becomes less and less sympathetic as Alice’s condition worsens. It’s a work that eschews melodrama or directorial/screenplay pyrotechnics in an attempt to properly, soberly show us the affect of a terrible disease on both its sufferer and their family. And it does so very effectively indeed.

Rating: WWW

Streaming & View On Demand highlights...

Everyone’s Going to Die (various streaming services) Quirky British drama with more than a hint of Lost in Translation about it. It charts the relationship between a directionless young woman and an enigmatic older man.

Second Coming (VSS) Idris Elba and Nadine Marshall star in a powerful British 'immaculate conception' drama. Social realism with a supernatural twist.
The Walking Deceased (VSS) Mentioned only for the utter shamelessness of its title. It's a zombie spoof, apparently.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Netflix UK, from Tuesday) Classic western starring Paul Newman and Robert Radford as the titular outlaws.
'71 (Amazon Prime Instant Video, from Thursday) Jack O'Connell is a British soldier lost in the madness of sectarian Belfast during the Troubles. A dark but utterly gripping drama. 

Terrestrial highlights...

Somewhere (01:15, Wednesday, Channel 4) Stephen Dorff is the weary and dispirited Hollywood actor, Elle Fanning the 11-year-old daughter who turns his life upside down in Sofia Coppola's charming drama.

Hard Target (23:10, Friday, ITV) Jean-Claude Van Damme takes on a sadistic gang that hunts humans for sport in John Woo's kickass thriller.

Ted (21:00, Saturday, Channel 4) Hilarious, filthy and utterly un-PC tale of a talking teddy bear (Seth McFarlane, who also writes and directs) and his human best friend (Mark Wahlberg).

Hot Tub Time Machine (23:05, Saturday, Channel 4) Nostalgia-drenched, time-travel comedy starring John Cusack. 

Dracula (00:45, Saturday, BBC2) and The Curse of Frankenstein (02:05, Saturday, BBC2) Hammer horror double bill shown as a tribute to Sir Christopher Lee, who recently passed away at the grand old age of 93.

Cable & Satellite highlights...

Jaws 2 (23:00, tonight, ITV4) Not so much a case of needing a bigger boat, this soggy sequel to Steven Spielberg's 1975 original was in sore need of some bigger ideas. At least the great Roy Scheider was persuaded to reprise his role of police chief Martin Brody.

Animal Kingdom (23:15, tonight, Film4) Superb Aussie drama directed by David Michôd (The Rover) chronicling the lives of a Melbourne crime family as seen through the eyes of 17-year-old "J" (James Frecheville). Guy Pearce also stars.

Attack the Block (21:00, Friday, E4) A gang of south London hoodies takes on the might of an alien invasion in Joe Cornish's enjoyable sci-fi romp.

Magic in the Moonlight (10:00 and 22:00, Friday, Sky Movies Premiere) Lightweight Woody Allen romantic comedy starring Colin Firth as a pompous debunker of the supernatural. 

Unforgiven (21:00, Sunday, ITV4) Director and star Clint Eastwood is the retired gunslinger coming out of retirement for one last job in this magnificent western. Gene Hackman, Richard Harris and Morgan Freeman co-star. 

DVD and Blu-ray highlights...

Mona Lisa (Blu-ray) Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson and Michael Caine star in Neil Jordan's classic crime drama from 1986. The late, great Hoskins as former jailbird/chauffeur George was probably never better. No, not even in The Long Good Friday. This is a newly restored version sourced from the original camera negative.

Black Coal, Thin Ice (DVD) An ex-cop and his former partner return to the murder case that ended their careers in this taut Chinese crime thriller. 

Hippocrates (DVD) Dark comedy-drama about a young intern battling to earn his stripes at a chaotic French hospital.

Roaring Currents (Blu-ray) South Korean war drama based on the Battle of Myeongnyang which took place in 1597.

Return to Sender (DVD and Blu-ray) Rosamund Pike stars in a psychological thriller.

Please note: Films starting after midnight are always considered part of the previous day's schedule, e.g. Dracula begins at 00:45 - technically Sunday morning - but is still part of Saturday's listings. All times in 24-hour clock.

Ratings

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

Shorts

Sadly, I simply don’t have time to write lengthy reviews of every new film I see, so here’s a catch-up on some of the other stuff I’ve enjoyed most in the last few weeks…

In cinemas

Still Alice

Director: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland

Starring: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart

Running time: 101 mins

Moore (as Alice) is every bit as fantastic as you'll have heard but I’ve been surprised by how sniffy some critics have been about the rest of the film. Following the Oscar winner’s language professor as she fights a losing battle against early onset Alzheimer’s, it is certainly a simple, subtle, perhaps even low-key affair, but is far removed from some of the “TV movie” jibes I’ve seen. For a start, all the performances are good, particularly Stewart as Lydia, Moore’s wannabe actress daughter, and Baldwin as husband John, a character who becomes less and less sympathetic as Alice’s condition worsens. It’s a work that eschews melodrama or directorial/screenplay pyrotechnics in an attempt to properly, soberly show us the affect of a terrible disease on both its sufferer and their family. And it does so very effectively indeed.

Rating: WWW

Chappie

Director: Neil Blomkamp

Starring: Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Ninja, Yo-Landi Visser

Running time: 120 mins

“Short Circuit meets Robocop” seems to have become Chappie’s unofficial tagline although it’s probably an accurate one. In a future Johannesburg, policing has been turned over to robotic "Scouts" but when the architect of the project (Patel) manages to make one of them – Chappie – fully sentient trouble soon comes a knocking as the AI is kidnapped by a gang and forced to commit criminal acts. Blomkamp can always be relied upon to give good dystopia and this, his third feature, is a thrill-a-minute joyride not a million miles off the quality of District 9. Copley doing the motion-capture thing as Chappie is meant to be the star of the show but I enjoyed  South African rap group Die Antwoord (Ninja and Visser) just as much. The pair play members of the kidnap gang (also called Ninja and Yolandi) and over the course of the film bring both intensity and sensitivity to the roles. One criticism? Sigourney Weaver is sorely underused.

Rating: WWW

On VOD and DVD

Obvious Child

Director: Gillian Robespierre
Starring: Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffman

Running time: 84 mins

Slate plays Donna Stern, a scatological young Jewish comedian whose life is turned upside down when her boyfriend absconds with her best friend, and she gets knocked up by a guy she barely knows (Lacy). It’s hugely refreshing to see a film which deals with the subject of unwanted pregnancy without recourse to melodrama or cloying sentiment while Slate’s terrifically funny as Stern. She’s a loveable walking disaster whose difficult transition to adulthood makes for painful – but entirely relatable – viewing. The script is fresh, funny and packed with decent one-liners; first-time writer/director Robespierre is clearly one to watch.

Rating: WWWW

Coherence

Director: James Ward Byrkit 

Starring: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon

Running time: 89 mins

Made for a reported $50,000, Coherence is a clever bit of sci-fi set, for the most part, in a single Los Angeles home. Eight fractious friends have gathered for a dinner party on the night a comet passes overhead but the cosmic fireworks somehow bend reality, and the film suddenly becomes an intriguing mash-up of Sliding Doors (referenced in the script) and Another Earth. We’re talking alternate realities and writer/director Byrkit has great fun with the idea that there might be more than one of us out there – like us but not us in important, perhaps troubling, ways. It reminded me a little of Primer, another film that serves up a single thought (time travel is possible) and then just pushes it and pushes it to see how crazy things can get. If there’s a problem it’s that Coherence’s characters aren’t nearly engaging enough but you’d have to be a contender for curmudgeon of the year to let that spoil what is an intriguing and thought-provoking piece of work.

Rating: WWW

The Skeleton Twins

Director: Craig Johnson
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Luke Wilson

Running time: 93 mins

This bleak comedy/drama stars former Saturday Night Live pair Wiig and Hader as the titular siblings. Maggie and Milo are two lost souls, left bereft and suicidal after their father jumped off a bridge when they were only teens. It’s a gloomy, autumnal film at times but one leavened with sharp wit and enjoyable character moments. The leads are both excellent as is Wilson as Lance, Wiig’s dull but thoroughly decent husband. Writers Craig Johnson (who also directed) and Mark Heyman deserve great credit for their ability to mine laughs from such difficult subject matter.

Rating: WWW

Ratings

WWWW = Wonderful

WWW = Worthy

WW = Watchable

W = Woeful