The 40 Films I Loved Most in 2016 - #20-11

20. Couple In A Hole
Director: Tom Geens, UK release date: 8 April

Eccentric drama about the terrible impact of grief on a husband and wife living like savages in a French forest. Paul Higgins (The Thick Of It) and Kate Dickie (The Witch) are both superb as the eponymous couple who have survived a tragedy but failed to cope with its emotional fallout. Geens' film falls away a little towards the end but otherwise this is a near-perfect blend of pitch-black humour and melancholy.

19. The Jungle Book
Director: Jon Favreau, UK release date: 15 April

Rich and rewarding adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's original stories that also pays fulsome homage to the beloved 1960s animation (The Bare Necessities, Trust In Me and I Wan'na Be Like You all get an airing). You'd be hard pressed to find more immersive CG anywhere and the voice cast is uniformly terrific, boasting as it does the likes of Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.

18. Embrace Of The Serpent

Directors: Ciro Guerra, UK release date: 10 June

The story of an Amazonian shaman and his relationship (sometimes friendly, sometimes not) with two European scientists - 40 years apart - as they descend into the great river's heart of darkness, searching for a mythical plant with great healing properties. Big themes, sumptuous cinematography and moments both disturbing and thrilling make for an intoxicating brew. 

17. Mustang

Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven, UK release date: 13 May

Oscar-nominated drama chronicling the lives of five orphaned Turkish sisters, imprisoned then forced into marriage by their conservative guardians. Its subject matter is dark but the film never slips into clumsy melodrama. Instead, it is hopeful, defiant and surprisingly filled with humour, as director Ergüven explores the clash between modern and traditional Turkish culture.

16. Author: The JT LeRoy Story
Director: Jeff Feuerzeig, UK release date: 29 July

The jaw-droppingly odd tale of Laura Albert, the 30-something US author who created and enjoyed enormous literary success as JT LeRoy, a fictional male alter-ego played in public by her sister-in-law. Beloved by celebrities and feted by the fashion world, LeRoy appeared to have the world at his/her feet... until the deception was discovered. Perhaps told far too much from Albert's perspective, Feuerzeig's documentary is nevertheless fascinating.

15. The Measure Of A Man

Director: Stéphane Brizé, UK release date: 3 June

A French companion piece to I, Daniel Blake (see #13), Brizé's film uses France's economic downturn to explore the effects of austerity on the male psyche; specifically how it can emasculate, humiliate and ultimately dehumanise even the most resolute. Veteran French actor Vincent Lindon has never been better as a former factory worker struggling to keep his family's head above water after two years of unemployment.

14. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Directors: Akiva Schaffe and Jorma Taccone, UK release date: 26 August
The Lonely Island's no-holds-barred mockumentary gives the Bieber generation the same kind of kick up the backside This Is Spinal Tap administered to the rock community 30 years ago. Like Tap, Andy Samberg (starring here as spoiled pop/rap megastar Conner4Real) and his compatriots understand that musical parodies only work if the songs themselves are actually good. And the songs here definitely are - they're also utterly hilarious.

13. I, Daniel Blake
Director: Ken Loach, UK release date: 21 October
The veteran socialist director's Palme d'Or winner dissects the UK government's war on the vulnerable in an impassioned and unapologetic polemic. After suffering a heart attack, Dave Johns (as Blake) feels the full force of state bureaucracy as he attempts to claim enough money to live on while being bullied and frustrated by a parade of jobsworths. The scene set in a food bank, in which a penniless young mum (the excellent Hayley Squires) eats cold baked beans straight from the tin, made me sob like an infant.

12. Spotlight

Director: Tom McCarthy, UK release date: 29 January

The Best Picture Oscar winner focuses on the Boston Globe's 2001 investigation into a local cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. Its absence of directorial flashiness or melodrama allows an excellent ensemble cast (including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton), sharp writing and methodical plotting to shine. Authenticity and decency are unfashionable qualities but McCarthy's film exudes both.

11. Arrival
Director: Denis Villeneuve, UK release date: 10 November
Amy Adams is an eminent linguist with a tragic secret, recruited by the US government to communicate with a fleet of alien ships, newly parked up at various locations across the globe. As someone who knows his sci-fi, the film's big twist didn't kick me in the shins quite as hard as it did some, but was still exquisitely delivered. Villeneuve's eerie, elegiac movie absolutely nails the wonder and madness of first contact.

**Next up: the top 10**

Your Christmas In Film: 21 movies not to miss

It's a jungle out there: Disney's Zootropolis is a wild animated ride 

There are plenty of movies to get your teeth into over the festive season on TV, DVD, VOD and Blu-ray, from modern greats and hidden gems to genuine cinematic classics. Here's my pick of the bunch...

Sonita (2015)
Where: View On Demand
When: available now
Powerful documentary recounting the heart-breaking/uplifting story of a 14-year-old Afghan refugee living in Iran with big dreams of becoming a rapper. The film focuses mainly on her development as an artist, her friendship with director Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami but, most of all, on her attempts to break free from the diktats of Afghan culture, as her mum tries to sell her into marriage.

The Jungle Book (2016)
Where: Sky Cinema Premiere
When: from Christmas Day, 8pm
A rich and rewarding adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's original stories that also pays fulsome homage to the beloved 1960s animation ('The Bare Necessities', 'Trust In Me' and 'I Wan'na Be Like You' all get an airing). You'd be hard pressed to find more immersive CG anywhere and the voice cast is uniformly terrific (Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson).

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
Where: DVD, Blu-ray and VOD
When: from Boxing Day
Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Andy Samberg stars as egomaniacal popstar Conner4Real in a frequently hilarious mockumentary that gives the Bieber generation the same kind of kick up the backside that This Is Spinal Tap administered to the rock community 30 years ago. The jokes come thick and fast but it's songs like 'Equal Rights (Not Gay)' and 'Finest Girl (Bin Laden Song)' that are the real highlights.

True Belieber: Popstar's Andy Samberg

The Lady In The Van (2015)
Where: BBC2
When: Christmas Eve, 9pm
The real-life tale of Miss Sheperd (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel's Maggie Smith), an itinerant eccentric who lived in a van parked on acclaimed playwright Alan Bennett's drive for 15 years. Nicholas Hytner's film (screenplay by Bennett himself) is nicely written and acted, but perhaps makes light of its tragic central character just a little too much.

Zootropolis (2016)
Where: Sky Cinema Premiere
When: from Christmas Eve
Rabbit cop Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) teams up with conman fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to unearth a massive conspiracy in this utterly charming anthropomorphic adventure from Disney. Under the ubiquitous 'You can be anything you want to be' life lessons, there are laughs aplenty, some seriously impressive world building and surprisingly adult themes. The year's best animation.

April And The Extraordinary World (2015)
Where: Amazon Prime Video
When: available now
This beautifully rendered and incredibly imaginative animation, set in a Steampunk version of 1940s France, is a delight from beginning to end. Yes, the plot is utterly daft (something about an invincibility potion and talking animals) but that's easy to forgive amidst all the mad science and breathless derring-do. Marion Cotillard voices the titular April.

April cool: Extraordinary World is something special 

The Act Of Killing (2012)
Where: Sky Atlantic
When: December 20, 2am
Jaw-dropping documentary about the Indonesian genocide of communists in the 1960s. Joshua Oppenheimer focuses on the leaders of the government death squads, men whose heinous acts have made them heroes and celebrities in their homeland. Proceedings take a bizarre turn when the killers are invited to re-enact their crimes as if in a gangster movie, complete with make-up and props, and readily agree.

Pride (2014)
Where: BBC2
When: Boxing Day, 10.30pm

I was worried Matthew Warchus's film was going to be twee and patronising – a Richard Curtis-style take on the 1984 Miner’s Strike with all the difficult, political stuff taken out. On the contrary, Matthew Beresford’s script is hilarious and moving, every performance is spot-on (especially those of Paddy Considine and Ben Schnetzer) and it's unapologetically left-wing. A real tonic after 2016's myriad political woes.

Westworld (1973)
Where: Amazon Prime Video
When: available now
Yul Brynner is the iconic Gunslinger in Michael Crichton's smart sci-fi, which sees adults holidaying in a robot-populated theme park made up of worlds based on the Wild West, Ancient Rome and Medieval England. Things start to go haywire when the life-like automatons slip their programming and rebel against their human masters. Rather less ponderous and po-faced than the recent HBO TV adaptation.

Top gun: Westworld's Yul Brynner is quick on the draw

Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013)
Where: Film4
When: December 28, midnight
The touching, explicit and quietly devastating story of a passionate affair between two young women – played by Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos. It's perhaps too long and does get a bit gratuitous (the actresses fell out with director Abdellatif Kechiche over the sex scenes), but I'm not sure there's a recent film that better captures the raw, gut-churning power of love and loss.

Interstellar (2014)
Where: Amazon Prime Video 
When: from December 20
Astronauts Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway are blasted through a wormhole to find a new home, after drought and famine make Earth uninhabitable, in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic. It’s too long, the last half-hour doesn’t work at all and its desperation to carry the same philosophical heft as Kubrick's 2001 is palpable. But, for all that, Interstellar is an ambitious, absorbing and intermittently thrilling piece of work.

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013)
Where: BBC2
When: December 22, 11.05pm
Steve Coogan's maladroit DJ alter-ego is resurrected as an action hero (of sorts) as he becomes embroiled in an armed siege at the local radio station where he works as a presenter. Imagine Die Hard set in Norwich with jokes and you're halfway there. Transferring a beloved TV character to the big screen is notoriously tricky but Partridge passes with flying colours in a laugh-packed 90 minutes.

Under siege: Alan turns action hero in Alpha Papa

The Brides Of Dracula (1960)
Where: The Horror Channel
When: December 22, 02.40am
Vampire hunter Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) returns to Transylvania to do battle with the suave but fiendish bloodsucker Baron Meinster (David Peel), who has designs on a beautiful young school teacher (Yvonne Monlaur). Despite the title, Dracula himself is disappointingly AWOL but this Hammer horror is still a lot of camp fun, especially after a couple of sherries.

Hunt For The Wilderpeople (2016)
Where: VOD
When: available now
Charming, funny and really rather touching New Zealand buddy comedy from What We Do In The Shadows director Taika Waititi. When tragedy strikes, hip-hop obsessed city kid Ricky (newcomer Julian Dennison) has to go on the run with his grumpy foster dad Hec (Sam Neill). Laying low in the bush, they bicker, they bond, and do their best to avoid the authorities slowly closing in on them.

On The Waterfront (1954)
Where: Netflix
When: from December 21

Elia Kazan may have been a rat but only a fool would knock his ability as a director. Here, he extracts an electrifying performance from Marlon Brando as a wannabe prize fighter standing up to corrupt union bosses trying to cover up a murder. On The Waterfront may be a little melodramatic for modern tastes but it won eight Oscars for a reason - it's an incredibly powerful piece of work.

Deep Water: Brando stands up to corruption

The Wicker Man (1973)
Where: The Horror Channel
When: Christmas Day, 10.55pm

Nothing says 'festive' quite like a crazy cult movie full of murder, madness and paganism. Edward Woodward plays the strait-laced copper investigating the disappearance of a young girl on a remote Scottish island, Christopher Lee the island's sinister leader with an even more sinister secret. We lost director Robin Hardy earlier this year so this Christmas Day screening provides a nice tribute.

Casablanca (1942)

Where: ITV3
When: December 18, 3.45pm
Screening this most celebrated of films on ITV3 is like exhibiting a Renoir in a public toilet but, if you don't have it on DVD, sometimes you have to take the rough with the smooth. Suffice to say, the Bogart-Bergman classic is one of the finest romantic adventure movies ever made and its influence remains undimmed (this year's Allied being its most recent progeny).

Little Men (2016)

Where: Netflix
When: from New Year's Eve
Ira Sachs' poignant tale of gentrification and the poisonous impact it has on two families sees Greg Kinnear's Manhattanites move out to Brooklyn when they inherit a property from a dead relative. His decision to increase the rent of the woman who leases a dress shop in the same building provokes conflict, bad blood and, ultimately, threatens to destroy his son's only real friendship. A coming of age drama steeped in melancholy.

Broken bonds: Friendship is threatened in Little Men

Blue Jay (2016)

Where: Netflix

When: available now

Sarah Paulson (Carol) and Mark Duplass (Zero Dark Thirty) play former high school sweethearts who bump into each other after more than 20 years apart and realise the bond they shared remains strong. Filmed in moody black and white, it's a powerful two-hander (hardly anyone but the leads gets a look in), filled with the ache of loss and regret. 

Café Society (2016)

Where: DVD, Blu-ray and VOD
When: from Boxing Day
A real return to form for the great Woody Allen after his post-Blue Jasmine slump. Set in the 1930s, Jesse Eisenberg is the Brooklyn boy who travels to Hollywood to take up a job with his uncle (Steve Carrell), the powerful head of a movie studio, only to fall in love with the man's secretary, Kristin Stewart. Suffice to say the path of true love runs anything but smooth in a sharply scripted, beautifully shot and bittersweet dramedy.

West Side Story (1961)

Where: Channel 5

When: Boxing Day, 2.20pm

I'm loathe to recommend any film shown on ad-break riddled commercial TV but this is simply too good to miss. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' classic adaptation of the stage musical, based on Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet, sees Natalie Wood* and Richard Baymer sing and dance up a storm as star-crossed lovers from rival gangs in 1950s New York. Best. Musical. Ever.

Sing street: It's Sharks v Jets in West Side Story

*Although, lest we forget, Wood's singing voice was overdubbed by Marni Nixon, who passed away this year.

Your Week In Film will return in January but up next is the third annual
As Human As The Rest Of Us review of the year, including my favourite - and least favourite - films of 2016...

The Jungle Book, Weiner, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Your Week In Film (August 22-28)

Animal magic: Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book

Monday 22nd: I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD), a rich and rewarding adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's original stories that also pays fulsome homage to the beloved 1960s animation (The Bare Necessities, Trust In Me and I Wan'na Be Like You all get an airing). You'd be hard pressed to find more immersive CG anywhere and the voice cast is uniformly terrific (Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson). Rather less savoury is Weiner (DVD), a candid documentary chronicling the fall of disgraced US politician Anthony Weiner. The appropriately-named Democrat was forced to resign from Congress in 2011 after sending 'dick pics' of himself to women via social media. Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's excellent film picks up his story two years later with Weiner running to be Mayor of New York. Suffice to say, old habits die hard and it isn't long before he and his long-suffering wife - Huma Abedin, an aid to Hillary Clinton - are under siege from the media as his reputation is trashed all over again. I can't wait to reacquaint myself with Ken Russell's Women In Love (Blu-ray) which I haven't seen in an age. Based on a novel by DH Lawrence and most famous for the nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed (although we must not overlook Glenda Jackson's Oscar win), here it gets a swanky 4K restoration courtesy of the BFI on a disc packed with extras. TV-wise, The Survivalist (22:25, Sky Cinema Premiere) is a bleak but gripping British post-apocalypse drama that works wonders on a low budget.

Russell restored: Women In Love hits Blu-ray 

Tuesday 23rd: Online subscription service Mubi adds Franklin J. Schaffner’s sci-fi thriller The Boys From Brazil to its catalogue today. Gregory Peck. Laurence Olivier and, erm, Steve Guttenberg star in the adaptation of Ira Levin's novel which sees Dr Josef Mengele (Peck) alive and well in South America and putting together a bizarre plot to clone Hitler and create the Fourth Reich. Olivier is the Nazi hunter hot on his trail. Tony Scott directs Man On Fire (13:25, Film4), a brutally efficient thriller with Denzel Washington's washed-up bodyguard rampaging through Mexico City to get at the ruthless gang who have kidnapped his nine-year-old charge (Dakota Fanning).  

Fired up: Denzel Washington's on a mission

Wednesday 24th: Have to say, I don't know much about Japanese manga adaptation Tokyo Tribe (22:25, Sky Cinema/NOW TV) but, if it lives up to its Sky listing, it should be an absolute hoot: "A cannibalistic yakuza boss and his bloodthirsty lieutenant declare all-out war on the rival gangs of near-future Tokyo. Madcap kung fu musical." The trailer is pleasingly unhinged too. Altogether less "madcap" is Pedro Almodóvar's Bad Education (01:25, Film4). One of the Spanish director's most personal and multi-layered films, it tells the harrowing tale of sexual abuse at a Spanish boarding school in the 1960s. Gael García Bernal, Gael García Bernal and Fele Martínez star.

Two tribes: Japanese gangs sing each other to death

Thursday 25th: Camp sci-fi thrills are the order of the day in Mike Hodges' stupidly brilliant Flash Gordon (14:25, Film4), a film that flopped on its original release in 1980 but has since become the epitome of the term cult classic (although use of the term 'classic' might just be pushing it a bit). Sam Jones is Flash, Melody Anderson is Dale Arden, and Brian Blessed puts on some wings and bellows "GORDON'S ALIVE!" In The Film Programme (16:00, BBC Radio 4), Antonia Quirke meets two groups who are trying to save their local cinemas, while poet Don Paterson continues his series on great movie speeches with Jack Nicholson's "You can't handle the truth!" spiel from A Few Good Men.

King Jack: Nicholson's on top form in A Few Good Men

Friday 26th: I was obsessed with Star Wars as a kid - revered the first couple of films, collected the comics (the action figures were too expensive) and even remember reading the novelisation of A New Hope (which wasn't actually called A New Hope back then, of course). Somewhere between The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, though, I just lost interest and never regained it. I caught The Phantom Menace but have never seen Attack Of The Clones or even Revenge Of The Sith all the way through. Sad to say, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (13:10 and 20:00, Sky Cinema Premiere and NOW TV) did very little to rekindle my interest in the franchise, being little more than a rerun of the very first movie with a couple of promising new characters and one wholly unnecessary death. I'm holding out hope Rogue One might be a little more interesting. At the cinema, there's Mila Kunis comedy Bad Moms, Stephen King adaptation Cell, brutal political satire in Purge: The Election Year, and Julieta, which is being billed as a return to form for director Pedro Almodóvar (although, to be honest, I wasn't aware he'd been out of form). Mubi has Guys And Dolls, a thoroughly enjoyable adaptation of the Broadway musical starring Frank Sinata as Nathan Detroit and Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson. If you don't sing along with Lucky Be A Lady, you simply have no soul. Kermode And Mayo's Film Review (14:00, BBC Radio Five Live) returns at its proper time with its proper presenters. Robbie Collin is a more than capable stand-in for Mark Kermode but I'll take laid-back Simon Mayo over Edith Bowman's gushing Saturday Superstore style of presentation any day of the week.

Mom & bad: Mila Kunis goes over to the dark side

Saturday 27th: Matt Damon returns as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Ultimatum (21:30, ITV). In the third of the series, the amnesiac rogue assassin has his memories reawakened by a journalist researching the organisation responsible for turning him into a killing machine. Paul Greengrass directs a terrific cast, which also includes Joan Allen, Julia Styles, David Strathairn, Paddy Considine and Albert Finney. No, I still haven't seen any of the Bourne films but I did pick up the first three (two quid the lot) in Cex a couple of weeks ago so I'm getting closer. Neil Jordan's atmospheric Byzantium (01:30, Film4) stars Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan as a vampire mother and daughter, and should be a lot better known than it is.

Blood relatives: Neil Jordan's Byzantium

Sunday 28th: Frank Sinatra directs and co-stars in None But The Brave (14:00, BBC 2). Ol' Blue Eyes' one and only foray into the director's chair sees a team of US marines crash-landing on a tiny Pacific island during World War II, only to find it already occupied by a Japanese unit. The film is no classic but went down in history as the first American/Japanese co-production. Steve Carell is super-villain Gru in the hugely charming animation Despicable Me (16:55, ITV). Made in 2010, a time when people weren't heartily sick to death of the Minions. Joel and Ethan Coen have made much better films than Burn After Reading (23:00, Gold) but even the brothers' lesser works are still worth a look. This comedy caper sees John Malkovich's disgruntled former CIA agent writing a tell-all memoir but the computer disc upon which it is stored falls into the hands of two gym employees (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand) who concoct a cack-handed blackmail plan.

 The Burn ultimatum: Blackmail mayhem from the Coens

Chronic, Barry Lyndon and Couple In A Hole: Your Week In Film (April 11-17)

The Jungle Book opens in cinemas from Friday

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

Monday 11th: Chronic (DVD and VOD) sees Tim Roth consign the likes of United Passions and Grace Of Monaco to the dustbin of history as he turns in his finest performance for many years. In Michel Franco's powerful but off-kilter character study, the Reservoir Dogs actor plays a palliative care nurse working with patients in Los Angeles. He's an odd, and clearly disturbed man, who gets altogether too close to those he looks after, whilst struggling to forge meaningful relationships in his personal life. It's this dislocation that Roth and writer/director Franco are keen to poke about in and they do so very effectively. If you are so inclined, I noticed the likes of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Sisters, Black Mountain Poets and Krampus are all available to buy digitally from today. Being old and out of touch, I much prefer proper hard copies myself and will therefore be certain to check out the Blu-ray delights of horror/comedy sequel Bride of Re-Animator, CIA conspiracy thriller Three Days Of The Condor and cracking Steve Martin comedy Three Amigos. Still not sated? Curzon Home Cinema are showing the excellent Couple In A Hole (see Last 5 Films I Saw, below), the documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut, and Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood. 

Tim Roth is back to his best in Chronic

Tuesday 12th: Ryan O'Neal is the titular Barry Lyndon (21:00, TCM) in Stanley Kubrick's slow but rewarding 18th Century-set drama. The extravagant period piece (which won four Oscars) sees O'Neal's young Irish rogue shoot a love rival in a duel before embarking on a series of 'misfortunes and disasters', as he battles his way from nothing to become part of the English aristocracy. Long seen as one of Kubrick's lesser works, it seems to have enjoyed something of a critical renaissance in recent years, possibly helped by the likes of Martin Scorsese heaping praise upon it. And quite right too.

Barry Lyndon is Scorsese's favourite Kubrick film

Wednesday 13th: There's a double bill of Alfred Hitchock thrillers from today on Netflix UK, with James Stewart starring in both films. In Vertigo (voted the best movie of all time by Sight & Sound), he's an acrophobic San Francisco private detective led a merry dance by Kim Novak and all is most certainly not as it seems. In Rear Window, he's a wheelchair-bound photographer who witnesses a murder and, deciding to investigate, puts himself and sweetheart Grace Kelly in mortal danger. Elsewhere, in a very good day for classic films, there's Billy Wilder's WWII prison camp black comedy Stalag 17 (13:35, Film 4) and Michael Powell's controversial and disturbing Peeping Tom (22:50, Horror Channel). 

Vertigo: The greatest movie of all time?

Thursday 14th: Overlong, self-indulgent and shambolic, Magnolia (Amazon Prime Video) is the only one of Paul Thomas Anderson's films I find it hard to get along with. The cast, including Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise and Jason Robards, are all terrific though and, for that reason alone, it's worth several hours of your time. Rather more straightforward is charming undead comedy Zombieland (21:00, Film 4) which contains surely one of the finest cameos in recent movie history. Jon Favreau talks to Francine Stock on The Film Programme (BBC Radio 4, 16:00) about his new film, The Jungle Book (in cinemas Friday).

Magnolia: Shambolic but worth your time (just about)

Friday 15th: After a few weeks away, Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo return to the helm of Kermode and Mayo's Film Review (BBC Radio 5 Live, 14:00). Jon Favreau turns up to plug The Jungle Book again. Cinema bids a fond farewell to Alan Rickman as the late actor's final film - Eye In The Sky - hits your local multiplex today. A sophisticated thriller that takes a long, hard look at the morality of modern warfare, it stars Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul. If you're after something a little more 'arthouse', there's The Brand New Testament, the tagline to which is surely the best of this or any week: 'Did you know that God is alive and lives in Brussels with his daughter?' I didn't but I certainly do now...

The Brand New Testament: May contain traces of gorilla

Saturday 16th: Kirk Douglas is Vincent van Gogh in  Lust For Life (13:00, BBC2), Vincente Minnelli's beautiful and moving biopic of the painter. In couldn't-be-starker contrast, Film 4 boasts a vampire double bill of the original Fright Night (22:55) and Werner Herzog's Nosferatu The Vampyre (01:05). Both are a blast.

Sunday 17th: Swashbuckling thrills and spills aplenty await you in the endlessly entertaining The Princess Bride (13:15, Channel 5), while Bend It Like Beckham (15:15) is a pure 'Rachel Of The Rovers' tale about a girls' football team. Oh, and a channel I've never heard of - True Entertainment - is showing Woody Allen's sublime Bullets Over Broadway (21:00). John Cusack stars as a Broadway playwright forced to cast a gangster's moll in the lead role of his play, but Chaz Palminteri steals the show as the hood with the soul of a poet.

Kirk Douglas is Vincent Van Gogh in Lust For Life

The Last 5 films I Saw

1. Couple In A Hole (2015): Tom Geens' bravura drama about the terrible impact of grief on a husband and wife. Paul Higgins (The Thick Of It) and Kate Dickie (The Witch) are both superb. It's in cinemas and available on demand (Curzon Home Cinema, Amazon Prime Video and BFI Player). If you only see one film this week etc...
2. Jane B. for Agnes V. (1988): French new wave director Agnes Varda's illuminating and thoroughly entertaining portrait of actor/singer/muse Jane Birkin.
3. Grandma (2015): Irascible septuagenarian Lily Tomlin scraps and bullies to raise enough cash to fund her grand-daughter's abortion. A brave, likable film, even though the 'tough old boot with a heart of gold' trope has been done to death at this point.

4. Future Shock! The Story Of 2000AD (2014): Enjoyable warts 'n' all documentary about the long-running British weekly sci-fi comic. Gets a bit gushy towards the end though.

5. Nasty Baby (2015): 'Mumblecore' drama about a gay Brooklyn couple trying to conceive a child with their friend/surrogate (Kristen Wiig). An odd mix of intriguing and irritating.

Couple In A Hole: Just see it (you'll thank me, honestly)

UK box office top 10

1. Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice R
2. Eddie The Eagle
3. Zootropolis R
4. Kung Fu Panda 3
5. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
6. 10 Cloverfield Lane
7. London Has Fallen
8. The Boy
9. The Divergent Series: Allegiant
10. High-Rise R

R = Recommended

All information correct at time of publication

Home Comforts: The best in TV, DVD, Blu-ray and VOD (Monday, November 30 - Sunday, December 6)

10 films worth checking out this week in a variety of formats...

1. Edward Scissorhands 25th Anniversary Edition 

(Blu-ray)

Johnny Depp's first - and perhaps best - collaboration with director Tim Burton is a clever fairytale twist on Frankenstein. When his creator (Vincent Price) dies, Edward (Depp) is not only left completely alone, he also lacks a pair of human hands. Despite the fact he has a veritable arsenal of insanely sharp stuff on the end of his arms, Edward is taken in by kindly Avon lady Peg (Dianne Wiest), and her daughter Kim (Winona Ryder). This special anniversary edition boasts a snazzy new 1080p version of the film.

2. Listen To Me Marlon 

(DVD, Blu-ray and VOD)

Extraordinary documentary based around hours of previously unheard audio recorded by Marlon Brando (On The Waterfront, The Godfather) over the course of his life. Stevan Riley's film offers a unique and fascinating insight into the life of a true Hollywood great.

3. The Jungle Book 

(Sunday, 17:25, Channel 4)

Apparently this is the first time Disney's much-celebrated adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling novel has been shown on network TV in the UK, which is crazy if true. Made in 1968, it tells the story of Mowgli, a young boy raised by wolves who has no desire to return to his own kind in the 'man village'. Mowgli's pals - Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther - try to make the boy realise he's in danger from the man-hating tiger Shere Khan. The film's wonderful songs are, of course, the main reason to watch (see below).

4. Reservoir Dogs 

(Saturday, 00:00, Channel 5)

Quentin Tarantino's visceral heist-gone-wrong thriller was like a punk-rock thunderbolt when it hit cinemas for the first time in 1992 - it was cool, violent, funny, endlessly quotable, boasted a terrific soundtrack, and included one of modern cinema's most memorable and stomach churning scenes (you know the one). Reservoir Dogs has not only stood the test of time, it also provides a useful reminder that Tarantino once made films under three hours long that were disciplined and sharp rather than sprawling and baggy. Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth and Harvey Keitel star.

5. All About Them 

(Curzon Home Cinema, available now)

Slight but enjoyable love triangle dramedy starring the excellent Anaïs Demoustier (The New Girlfriend). Her character Mélodie is having an affair with both Micha (Félix Moati) and his girlfriend Charlotte (Sophie Verbeeck) in a funny farce that couldn't be more French if it tried. Also in cinemas

6. Black Swan 

(Friday, 01:05, Channel 4)

Ballerina Natalie Portman (Thor) goes to a very dark place indeed as she faces off against rival Mila Kunis (Jupiter Ascending) for the starring role in Swan Lake. Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller is a heady fever dream of lost innocence and crazed obsession. Portman and Kunis haven't had better roles before or since.  

7. The Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans 

(Thursday, 23:00, Spike)

A remake/sequel/companion piece (who knows?) to Abel Ferrara's original Bad Lieutenant film from 1992 which starred Harvey Keitel. This time, Nicolas Cage (Face/Off) is the titular lieutenant investigating the murder of five Senegalese immigrants in post-Katrina New Orleans. Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man) directs.

8. Se7en 

(Amazon Prime Video, from Thursday)
David Fincher's horror classic starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and Gwyneth Paltrow. Pitt and Freeman are detectives on the trail of a serial killer who murders his victims using intricate methods inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins - Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Voting Tory, and Buying The New Adele Album.

9. Bedknobs And Broomsticks 
(Amazon Prime Video/Netflix, from Friday)
If you can stomach the three terrible child actors, Disney's post-Mary Poppins mix of live action and animation is great fun, especially the football match between two teams of talking animals on the isle of Naboombu. Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson star.

10. Still Alice 

(Netflix, from Friday)

Julianne Moore deservedly won an Oscar for her portrayal of a language professor fighting a losing battle against early onset Alzheimer's, but Kristen Stewart (as Moore's daughter) and Alec Baldwin (as her husband) are both excellent too. A powerful but soberly presented film that sidesteps melodrama and histrionics to cut to the very heart of what dementia sufferers - and their families - have to endure.

And one to avoid...
Taken 3
(from Friday, 16:15 and 20:00, Sky Movies Premiere)
"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have... hang on, haven't we already had this conversation, like, twice before?"

Please note: Films starting after midnight are always considered part of the previous day's schedule, e.g. Black Swan begins at 01:05 - technically Saturday morning - but is still part of Friday's listings. All times in 24-hour clock.

**Coming soon: 

My top 30 films of the year... look for it right 

here towards the end of December**