Deadpool, Tale Of Tales and Straight Outta Compton: Your Week In Film (June 13-19)

Breaking bad: Ryan Reynolds brings infectious energy to Deadpool

TV, Radio, DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and cinema picks for the next seven days...

Monday 13th: I'm not sure I ever need to see Deadpool (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) again but it is certainly a great deal of fun and a real corrective to the kind of po-faced superhero film that seems to have become the norm recently (Batman v Superman, Age Of Ultron etc). Tim Miller's movie might not be as funny as it thinks it is, but it's hard not to fall for its anarchic charm and sweary joie de vivre. Ryan Reynolds, as the fourth-wall breaking, dick-joke making anti-hero, is clearly having the time of his life and the energy he brings to the role is certainly infectious. You can read my full review here. Bone Tomahawk (DVD and Blu-ray) is a film that should have been right up my street. The horror western sees cannibal 'Troglodytes' (monstrous Native Americans) kidnap a group of settlers from the town of Bright Hope. A suitably grizzled Kurt Russell leads a posse to get them back. Unfortunately, there's a big bit in the middle during which little of note happens and a whiff of racism about the whole 'cannibal Injuns' twist I found difficult to shake. Those who enjoy a bit of honest-to-goodness gore are sure to get a kick out of it though. Anticipating this month's Glastonbury Festival, MUBI's theme for the next few days is music. Their mini-season kicks off with Patti Smith: Dream Of Life, Steven Sebring’s intimate portrait of punk's poet laureate.  It was the winner of the prize for cinematography at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Bad to the Bone: Kurt Russell takes on cannibals

Tuesday 14th: MUBI continue their mini music season with Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest, Michael Rapaport’s 2011 portrait of the influential rap outfit. Hopeless idiot Navin R Johnson (Steve Martin) searches for his "special purpose" in The Jerk (00:10, ITV4) one of the '70s' finest film comedies. "I'm gonna buy you a diamond so big, it's gonna make you puke!" 
Wednesday 15th: Jonathan Demme is best known for The Silence Of The Lambs but he's also responsible for one of the best concert movies ever made. Stop Making Sense (MUBI) features Talking Heads at the height of their powers in December 1983, playing three nights in Hollywood to showcase their just-released album, Speaking In Tongues. It's a perfect blend of terrific music (Psycho Killer, Once In A Lifetime and Girlfriend Is Better are all featured) and pure theatre (Byrne's infamous suit gets bigger and bigger as the performance proceeds). Ben Kingsley is currently in cinemas with Learning To Drive and it's therefore as good a time as any to revisit his Oscar-winning turn in Gandhi (17:15, Movie Mix). Elsewhere, Michael Caine stars in cracking crime caper The Italian Job (16:05, Sky Action), and Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert team up in romantic screwball comedy It Happened One Night (Netflix UK). Frank Capra's 1934 classic was the first to win all five major Oscars (best picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay).

Look Who's Talking: Demme's Stop Making Sense

Thursday 16th: Film4 boasts a fine rock'n'roll-flavoured double bill tonight. We Are The Best (23:45) is Lukas Moodysson's uplifting celebration of youthful rebellion and friendship, focusing on the three members of an all-girl punk band in 1980s Stockholm. It would have been easy for this to be patronising or slip into sickly sentiment; instead it crackles with energy, humour and riotous charm. White Lung, or somebody equally punk-rock, really needs to cover 'Hate the Sport' right now. The Punk Singer (01:50) is Sini Anderson's documentary biopic of inspirational Bikini Kill/Le Tigre/Julie Ruin singer Kathleen Hanna, who has spent far too much time away from the spotlight in recent years battling chronic Lyme disease. Keeping with the musical theme, MUBI are showing Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets from today, focusing on the Disco 2000 band's return to hometown Sheffield in 2012 to play their final gig. On the subject of the Steel City, in The Film Programme (16:00, BBC Radio 4), Francine Stock reports from this year's Sheffield Doc Fest and talks to the winner of the festival's first award for virtual reality. Brian De Palma has been back in vogue recently following the release of a documentary exploring his career (De Palma, no UK release date as yet). The blistering Scarface (21:00, Sky Select) - starring Al Pacino as Miami drug baron Tony Montana - is a good place to start if you are discovering the controversial director for the first time.

Punk's not dead: Lukas Moodysson's We Are The Best

Friday 17th: Straight Outta Compton (15:30 and 20:00, Sky Movies Premiere, also on NOW TV) is director F Gary Gray's biopic of '80s rap legends NWA. Unfortunately, it's an uneven film that not only sanitises the nihilistic group's controversial history (Dr Dre's cowardly assault on journalist Dee Barnes is airbrushed out completely) but ultimately gets a bit bogged down in their disintegration over contracts and money. The first half’s cracking, though, as is the music. It's a bumper week for films that are being released in cinemas and on VOD simultaneously. Tale of Tales was shown at the Cannes Film Festival - not this year, last year! - and is the one I'm looking forward to most. Toby Jones, Salma Hayek and Vincent Cassel star in a fairytale portmanteau that weaves together three bizarre and bawdy stories. Hayek plays a queen who forfeits her husband's life to have a child, Cassel is a king whose passion is inflamed by two mysterious sisters, and Jones a monarch who keeps as a pet a flea the size of a cow. There are also ogres, dragons, witches and monsters, making Gomorrah director Matteo Garrone's film sound like an arthouse version of Warcraft. Also getting the cinema/VOD treatment are mucky French teen drama Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) and The Violators, a powerful British coming-of-age tale. Kermode And Mayo's Film Review (12:00, BBC Radio Five Live) is on earlier due to the Euro 2016 football (Italy v Sweden, if you're interested) and has James King sitting in for resident reviews guru Mark Kermode. 

Bizarre and Bawdy: Selma Hayek stars in Tale Of Tales

Saturday 18th: Independence Day (20:00, Channel 4) is schlocky sci-fi of the purest vintage as Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman lead the resistance when alien nasties invade Earth and blow up all our best stuff. A Smith-less sequel - Resurgence - hits cinemas next Thursday. Fancy a titter after all that carnage? Sid James, Barbara Windsor and Kenneth Williams star in Carry On Camping (23:15, ITV). Funnier still is well-rubbish CG horror blockbuster I, Frankenstein (22:50, Channel 4), which seeks to reimagine Mary Shelley's creature as some kind of hunky action hero. I hope star Aaron Eckhart was well paid.
Sunday 19th: George Clooney both stars in and directs Leatherheads (18:05, Gold), a 1920s-set comedy about two American football stars battling for the affections of a nosy female reporter. Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski (Jim in The Office) also feature. Rather better is A Private Function (23:00, Gold), Alan Bennett's Ealing-inspired comedy set in post-war Yorkshire where rationing is still in force. It sees Michael Palin's downtrodden chiropodist plotting to kidnap a pig being fattened up for a posh banquet. Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Alison Steadman and Liz Smith make up a fine cast.

Hamming it up: Michael Palin stars in A Private Function 

UK Box-office Top 10

1. Warcraft: The Beginning R
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows
3. Me Before You
4. Alice Through The Looking Glass
5. X-Men: Apocalypse R
6. The Nice Guys R
7. Angry Birds
8. The Jungle Book R
9. Money Monster R
10. Housefull 3R = Recommended

All information correct at time of publication

**The Last 5 Films I've Seen is being 'spun off' into its own regular
standalone slot - look out for it later in the week**

Quickies

Short, hopefully sharp, reviews of 5 new films I’ve seen recently, including Straight Outta Compton (pictured below), ranked from best to worst. SPOILER WARNING: My review of The New Girlfriend reveals a major plot point not given away in the trailer.

The New Girlfriend

(director: François Ozon)

Sizzling French comedy-drama about a woman who discovers the husband of her recently-deceased best friend is a transvestite. Not preachy or angst-ridden, Ozon’s film is instead funny, provocative, human and a joy from beginning to end. Both leads - Romain Duris (Mood Indigo) and Anaïs Demoustier (Elles) - are terrific.

Rating: WWWW

45 Years

(director: Andrew Haigh)

Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay are the married couple about to celebrate their 45^th wedding anniversary when a ghost from the past threatens to destroy everything they hold dear. It’s an astonishing, heartbreaking drama replete with two superb central performances.

Rating: WWWW

Straight Outta Compton

(director: F Gary Gray)

Biopic of ’80s rap legends NWA that not only sanitises their controversial history but ultimately gets a bit bogged down in the group’s disintegration over contract disputes. The first half’s cracking though as is the music.

Rating: WWW

Buttercup Bill

(directors: Remy Bennett, Émilie Richard-Froozan)

Off-kilter melodrama about two childhood ‘soul mates’ that meet up again years later following the death of an old friend. Suffused with sexual tension and an undercurrent of menace, it takes a while to get going but builds into something disturbing and intriguing. Great soundtrack too.

Rating: WWW

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl

(director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Cancer comedy-drama that, whilst refreshingly un-mawkish, is instead dragged down by irritating characters (especially Thomas Mann's Greg) and a surfeit of US indie movie quirk. Nick Offerman and Connie Britton - as Greg's parents - are wasted. I found it all a bit of a chore, to be honest.

Rating: WW

Ratings

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

5 for Friday (August 28): Trailers, new releases and box office

Gangsta rap, a woman frozen in ice for 50 years and Taiwanese zombies - yep, it's a funny old week...

1. Straight Outta Compton

What is it? Biopic of NWA (Niggaz With Attitude), the confrontational Los Angeles rap group that shook up the '80s US hip-hop scene with ditties such as Fuck Tha Police and A Bitch Iz A Bitch. Unsurprisingly their take-no-shit attitude on and off stage brought the group - which included Dr Dre and Ice Cube - into conflict with the cops and FBI. 

Critical consensus? It currently boasts a very healthy 90 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Where can I see it in the UK? The film is getting a wide release so most cinemas should have it.

My take: If Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions were the thinkers and intellectuals of '80s hip-hop, then NWA were its hooligans; nihilist shock troops partially responsible for kickstarting gangsta rap. They were misogynist, homophobic arseholes but hearing their debut album Straight Outta Compton for the first time was like being in the middle of a riot - chaotic, scary and oddly thrilling. NWA were - briefly - quite brilliant and if this movie captures even half of the music's excitement and electricity it will be worth seeing.

2. 45 Years 

What is it? Sir Tom Courtenay (Billy Liar, Doctor Zhivago) and Charlotte Rampling (The Verdict, Farewell, My Lovely) star as the Mercers, an elderly married couple a week away from celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary with a big party. But when the body of Courtenay's first love is found perfectly preserved in ice in the Swiss Alps after 50 years, ghosts of the past threaten to derail their relationship.

Critical consensus? A perfect 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes suggests great things.

Where can I see it in the UK? Perhaps hoping to attract the Exotic Marigold Hotel crowd, this is getting a wide cinema release and will also be available on Curzon Home Cinema's View on Demand service.

My take: Courtenay spoke very eloquently about 45 Years on last week's Kermode and Mayo's Film Review radio show, going into some detail about how the discovery of the young girl's body after so long impacts the film's central relationship. Apparently many of the scenes in Andrew Haigh's film feature just the two leads - fantastic actors both - which should make for some powerful, compelling drama. 

3. L'Eclisse (The Eclipse)

What is it? Influential Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni's strange and moody drama from 1963 makes a welcome return to the big screen. On the surface, it's about a beautiful young woman (Monica Vitti) ending her marriage to an older man (Francisco Rabal) before quickly falling into another relationship with an ambitious stockbroker (Alain Delon). Beyond that, though, Antonioni uses the film's setting - Rome - to talk about alienation, colonialism, the meaningless of modern living and the difficulty of forming true connections. Paul Blart: Mall Cop, it most certainly isn't.

Critical consensus? A perky 91 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Where can I see it in the UK? Key cities only, although L'Eclisse is released on Blu-ray on September 28.

My take: Being a pretentious arse, I enjoy a bit of 'difficult' foreign-language cinema so will be all over this like a seal on fish.

4. We Are Your Friends

What is it? Zac Efron is a Los Angeles DJ (of the Calvin Harris rather than Nick Grimshaw variety) trying to hit the big time in the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) scene. But his road to musical stardom is thrown into jeopardy when he falls for a fellow DJ's young girlfriend. The wannabe's life and future starts to unravel as he faces some BIG CHOICES...

Critical consensus? Only 41 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes isn't very friendly.

Where can I see it in the UK? The presence of Efron's cheeky smile and glistening abs ensures you'll be able to see this everywhere.

My take: Efron was mildly amusing as a frat-house douchebag in Bad Neighbours but the only thing that might persuade me to see this would be the, ahem, bangin' soundtrack.

5. Zombie Fight Club

What is it? An action-packed Taiwanese zombie movie featuring a variety of criminals, loners, prostitutes and soldiers going toe-to-toe with the undead. A sequel to 2012's Zombie 108, it's billed as "The Raid meets Dawn of the Dead".

Critical consensus? Nothing on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic but it is averaging 4 out of 10 from users on IMDB. Probably not great, then.

Where can I see it in the UK? It's being shown tonight in London as part of the annual FrightFest horror film festival and is released on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday (August 31).

My take: The first rule of Zombie Fight Club? Arrrggg, ugghhh, braaainnnnsss. One can only hope the makers plan more undead takes on David Fincher titles. I'm particularly looking forward to Zombie Gone Girl and Zombie The Social Network.

Also in cinemas this week...

Addicted To Sheep

Barely Lethal

Billy Fury - The Sound Of Fury

Building Jerusalem (from Tuesday)

En Equilibre (from tomorrow)

Hitman: Agent 47

Hitting The Apex + Live Q&A

Loham

Phantom

Thani Oruvan

UK box office

1. Paper Towns
2. Inside Out
3. Sinister 2
4. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
5. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
6. Pixels
7. Vacation
8. The Bad Education Movie
9. Trainwreck
10. Minions

US box office

1. Straight Outta Compton
2. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
3. Sinister 2
4. Hitman: Agent 47
5. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
6. American Ultra
7. The Gift
8. Ant-Man
9. Minions

10. Fantastic Four