Saturday 24/06/23
The Last of the Mohicans (1992) ***** (Channel 5, 3.45pm)
Director Michael Mann’s take on James Fenimore Cooper’s classic historical adventure features a gutsy performance by unlikely action hero Daniel Day-Lewis. The tale follows the life of an orphaned settler in North America who is adopted by the last member of a native tribe following the death of his family. As the child grows to maturity, he becomes a frontiersman whose reputation spreads far and wide – but when he rescues and falls in love with a British officer’s daughter (Madeleine Stowe) during the Anglo-French War, he angers a Huron war chief, who vows to take revenge against her father by hunting her down and killing her.
Air Force One (1997) **** (Channel 4, 10.00pm)
When Die Hard was released in the 1980s and made a pile of cash, Hollywood jumped on the ‘lone hero thrashing terrorists’ formula. By 1997 the genre seemed rather tired, but that didn’t stop Harrison Ford and director Wolfgang Petersen having a go at it. Ford is well cast as US President James Marshal, who is forced to take drastic measures to ensure the safety of his family when their plane is hijacked by Russian villains. Gary Oldman proves that Brits are best when it comes to playing baddies by co-starring as the leading villain, while Glenn Close and Dean Stockwell also add class to the lightweight proceedings. Formulaic it may be, but there are enough fun moments amid the plot twists to make it worth your time.
Emily (2022) **** (Sky Cinema Premiere, 10.05pm) Premiere
For her impressive feature-film directorial debut, actor Frances O’Connor romanticises one of 19th-century English literature’s brightest lights, Emily Bronte, who only published one novel, Wuthering Heights, a year before her death from tuberculosis aged 30. Emily abandons the rigid constraints of a traditional biopic to corrupt timelines and invent a scandalous dalliance between the writer and a curate as the template for the turbulent romance of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. There is something delicate in O’Connor’s screenwriting, which deftly navigates painful dynamics within the Bronte family. Anchored by a terrific central performance from Emma Mackey, who captures the writer’s manifold contradictions, Emily is an unconventional character study that understands Emily Jane Bronte very well.
Misbehaviour (2020) **** (BBC1, 10.20pm)
Historian Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley) experiences gender discrimination in her pursuit of academic excellence. She answers the call of an outspoken wing of the Women’s Liberation Movement whose rabble-rousing members include Jo (Jessie Buckley). They plan a high-profile protest outside the 1970 Miss World beauty pageant organised by Eric Morley (Rhys Ifans) and wife Julia (Keeley Hawes). Sally suggests the activists could buy tickets to the show, infiltrate the audience and disrupt the live TV broadcast hosted by comedian Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear). Meanwhile, Miss Grenada Jennifer Hosten (Mbatha-Raw) nervously prepares to make her island proud. Based on a true story, Misbehaviour is a timely, if lightweight, drama of empowerment and activism, which harks back to an era which crudely defined physical perfection as a curvy 36-24-36.
Sunday 25/06/23
Don’t Worry Darling (2022) *** (Sky Cinema Premiere, 11.40am & 8.00pm)
Jack Chambers (Harry Styles) is a 1950s technical engineer for the Victory Project, which conducts top-secret work in a desert. Employees (all men) live in the picture-perfect, insular community of Victory, built by the company’s CEO Frank (Chris Pine), with their girlfriends and wives including Jack’s adoring spouse Alice (Florence Pugh). Frequent earth tremors suggest Victory might be involved in drilling. Frank and his acolytes remain tight-lipped until a shocking act at a company soiree opens Alice’s eyes to grave imperfections in her “sun-baked paradise”. Penned by Katie Silberman, Don’t Worry Darling is a disorienting psychological horror that constructs a puzzle box of paranoia using hallucinogenic imagery and shocks (some of which are borrowed from other films).
Bumblebee (2018) **** (Channel 4, 4.15pm)
The robots in disguise receive a welcome and sweetly sentimental reboot in the sixth instalment of the Transformers franchise. Optimus Prime dispatches energetic recruit B-127 to Earth to establish a base of operations. But during a skirmish with Decepticon warrior Blitzwing, B-127 loses his vocal processor unit and his core memory is damaged, and only just manages to transform into a yellow Volkswagen Beetle shortly before his circuits shut down. Plucky teenager Charlie Watson salvages the car from her local scrapyard and is stunned to discover the weather-beaten car is a shape-shifting robot. She christens him Bumblebee and agrees to keep her mechanised pal safe. Hailee Steinfeld stars in the family friendly origin story.
Dunkirk (2017) **** (BBC2, 9.00pm)
Christopher Nolan’s drama is a stunning mosaic of personal stories of hard-fought triumph and agonising defeat set against the sprawling backdrop of the largest evacuation of allied forces during the Second World War. Young British soldier Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) escapes a hail of German bullets and races to the beaches of Dunkirk, where more than 300,000 exhausted men await rescue. On the other side of the Channel, sailor Mr Dawson (Mark Rylance) answers Winston Churchill’s impassioned call for civilian boats to rescue our boys. At sea, he fishes out a shell-shocked soldier (Cillian Murphy) from the hull of an overturned vessel and witnesses a dogfight between German fighter planes and Royal Air Force spitfires piloted by Farrier (Tom Hardy) and Collins (Jack Lowden).
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) ***** (Film4, 9.00pm)
With Indiana Jones’s latest adventure, Dial of Destiny, hitting cinemas this week, here’s a chance to go back to the franchise’s beginnings. All-action archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) made the perfect debut in this hugely enjoyable adventure from director Steven Spielberg and executive producer George Lucas (who also came up with the story alongside Philip Kaufman). He goes in search of the legendary Ark of the Covenant, encountering Nazis and his old flame Marion (the spirited Karen Allen) along the way. Ford is perfect as the hero, although he famously wasn’t the first choice for the role – it was originally offered to Tom Selleck, who had to turn it down because of his commitment to the TV series Magnum PI.
Monday 26/06/23
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018) **** (BBC3, 10.00pm)
Based on a novel by Emily M Danforth, The Miseducation of Cameron Post chronicles the damage wrought by a gay conversion therapy camp through the eyes of one girl, who wages a war of attrition against counsellors and discovers her greatest weapons are her compassion and wit. Teenager Cameron Post (Chloe Grace Moretz) is discovered in a passionate embrace with female friend Coley (Quinn Shephard), which forces Cameron’s deeply religious guardian, her aunt Ruth (Kerry Butler), to pursue a radical course of action. Ruth sends Cameron away to a gay conversion centre, overseen by fearsome therapist Dr Lydia March (Jennifer Ehle). Anchored by a quietly compelling performance from Moretz, The Miseducation of Cameron Post tethers sympathy securely to the teenage protagonists.
The Last Right (2019) *** (BBC2, 11.15pm)
A morbid road trip reunites estranged brothers in an offbeat comedy drama written and directed by Aoife Crehan. Daniel Murphy (Michiel Huisman) flies home to Cork from New York to bury his mother. He sits next to an elderly stranger, who shares the same surname and passes away in mid-air. Consequently, Daniel is erroneously granted custody of the corpse of someone he never knew. His autistic younger brother, Louis (Samuel Bottomley), challenges Daniel to deliver the corpse to Rathlin Island in an environmentally friendly cardboard coffin. Thus begins a ramshackle road trip involving the siblings and a mortician called Mary (Niamh Algar). En route to the burial, family secrets are exhumed and Daniel discovers compelling reasons to remain on home shores.
Tuesday 27/06/23
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) ***** (Film4, 9.00pm)
In what was once believed to be the third and final instalment in the franchise, legendary adventurer Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) goes in search of his father (a perfectly cast Sean Connery), who has been captured by the Nazis. At the same time, he’s asked to help locate what could be the final resting place of the fabled Holy Grail – a subject which has obsessed Dr Jones Snr all his life. It’s not long before Indy realises both his quests are linked. Steven Spielberg had some making up to do after the lacklustre second film and he more than manages it with this cracking yarn. Ford and Connery have great chemistry, and there’s also an eye-catching turn from River Phoenix as the young Indiana.
Phantom Thread (2017) ***** (BBC2, 11.15pm)
Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) is the creative dynamo of a luxury fashion house in 1950s London. His sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) presides over the seamstresses and manages Reynolds’s romantic vacillations. During a seaside break between commissions, “confirmed bachelor” Reynolds embarks on a whirlwind affair with waitress Alma (Vicky Krieps). Alma’s swift introduction to Reynolds’s life in the capital puts her on a collision course with Cyril and her lover’s impossibly demanding nature. Director Paul Thomas Anderson’ Phantom Thread is an artfully stitched and slow-burning study of competing obsessions. Day-Lewis delivers a typically fine, complex performance (so far his last before self-imposed retirement), while his sister is played with scorching intensity by Oscar-nominee Manville.
Wednesday 28/06/23
Sense and Sensibility (1995) ***** (Film4, 6.15pm)
Emma Thompson deservedly picked up an Oscar for Best Adapted screenplay for this wonderfully witty take on Jane Austen’s novel, which also served as director Ang Lee’s English-language debut. Thompson takes the role of Eleanor, the level-headed older sister of the more impulsive and outwardly emotional Marianne (Kate Winslet). Eleanor falls for the kindly Edward (Hugh Grant), while Marianne is swept off her feet by the dashing Willoughby (Greg Wise), but despite their very different attitudes to romance, both sisters discover there are obstacles to their happiness. The incredible supporting cast includes Alan Rickman, Gemma Jones and Hugh Laurie in a small, but very funny, role.
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) **** (5STAR, 9.00pm)
Zack Mayo, a navy recruit with a tough past, clashes with an uncompromising gunnery sergeant who seems determined to keep him down, but in fact just wants him to set aside his problems so he can achieve his full potential. When Zack falls for a factory worker from the wrong side of the tracks, an unexpected tragedy gives him the motivation to conquer his demons. With a now iconic ending and memorable soundtrack, this Oscar-winning drama is a good old-fashioned love story bolstered by a great cast. Louis Gossett Jnr especially shines as the tough sergeant, while Richard Gere and Debra Winger make an engaging screen couple. Robert Loggia, David Keith, David Caruso, Lisa Blount and Tony Plana also star.
Thursday 29/06/23
Black ’47 (2018) **** (Film4, 9.00pm)
In 1847, Ireland is in the grip of the Great Famine. Martin Feeney (James Frecheville) returns home from his tour of duty with the Connaught Rangers to learn that his mother has died. His brother’s widow Ellie (Sarah Greene) takes him in with her three children, but unfortunately, the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) evicts them. In the ensuing struggle, Feeney lashes out and kills members of the RIC. The British assign an officer called Pope (Freddie Fox) to track down Feeney and bring the murderer to justice. Pope forces one of Feeney’s friends, Hannah (Hugo Weaving), to take part in the manhunt before the fugitive can exact revenge on everyone he holds responsible for the death of his brother. A game of cat and mouse plays out as the people of Ireland suffer horribly in this tense drama.
The Producers (1968) ***** (BBC4, 9.00pm)
Mel Brooks wrote and directed this sparky satire and won an Oscar for his pains. Nervous accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) arrives to sort out the finances of greedy Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and comes to a startling conclusion – you could make more money overselling shares in a theatrical flop than from a genuine hit because no one would expect to see a return on their investment. So, the pair conspire to put on the absolute worst stage show they can find – a pro-Nazi musical called Springtime for Hitler – but their plan backfires when it becomes an instant smash… Even people who hate musicals should adore this hilariously comedy, which is definitely superior to the 2005 remake.
Friday 30/06/23
Shutter Island (2010) ***** (5*, 9.00pm)
The lunatics are taking over the asylum, or that’s what Martin Scorsese’s impeccably crafted psychological thriller would have us believe. But then perception and reality are completely blurred in this 1950s-set mystery, adapted by screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis from the best-seller by Dennis Lehane (whose other novels include Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone). Here, Leonardo DiCaprio (in his fourth collaboration with Scorsese) plays a troubled US marshal sent to the spooky Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane to investigate the disappearance of an inmate. The fact that no trace of her has been found, even though the institution is situated on a remote island, makes the case particularly puzzling – but that’s not the only matter that seems odd… Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley also star.
The Heat (2013) *** (BBC1, 10.40pm)
Ladies can be every bit as politically incorrect as the lads in Paul Feig’s oestrogen-fuelled buddy movie, which pairs Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as a strait-laced FBI Special Agent and a gung-ho Boston police detective who join forces to bring down a criminal mastermind. The lead actresses spark off each other brilliantly, milking belly laughs from Katie Dippold’s script. Every time the pace flags, Bullock and McCarthy crank up the slapstick and verbal one-upwomanship including a brilliantly simple visual gag with a knife that draws as many winces as guffaws. Feig and McCarthy, who also worked together on Bridesmaids and Spy, went on to team up again for the Ghostbusters reboot.
