THE BIG SCREEN
As there are no films on general release this week and all cinemas are closed, we take a look at some of the best films to watch at home.
I, TONYA (15, 119 mins) Comedy/Drama/ Romance. Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Julianne Nicholson. Director: Craig Gillespie.
Streaming and available to download on Netflix from March 30
Supposedly based on “irony-free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews” with US figure skating champion Tonya Harding and ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, I, Tonya is a barbed satire, which illuminates the 1994 attack on skater Nancy Kerrigan with aplomb.
Margot Robbie inhabits the title role with fearlessness and ferocity, tossing out expletives as if her life depended upon it.
Allison Janney deservedly won an Oscar as Tonya’s monstrous chain-smoking mother, who preaches cruelty as kindness to jaw-dropping excess.
Sebastian Stan oozes slippery charm as the man who walks Tonya down the aisle and exerts his marital “right” to lay his hands on her in anger.
Scenes of domestic abuse are extremely upsetting and director Craig Gillespie pulls no punches in his depiction of the couple’s volatile, self-destructive relationship.
Sequences on the ice are breathlessly staged, employing slick digital effects to blend Robbie’s face with the bodies of skating doubles so we truly believe the Australian actress is recreating the intricate routines.
BOOKSMART (15, 102 mins) Comedy/ Drama/Romance. Kaitlyn Dever. Beanie Feldstein, Mason Gooding, Jason Sudeikis. Director: Olivia Wilde.
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
Olivia Wilde’s raucous rites-of-passage comedy takes a leaf out of the school books of Clueless and Mean Girls to deliver life lessons about sisterly solidarity punctuated by a dizzying array of pithy one-liners.
Heartfelt hilarity is delivered with genuine warmth and grin-inducing sincerity by the dream team double-act of Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein.
They possess fizzing on-screen chemistry as best friends Amy and Molly, who have studiously forsaken fornication and partying in order to achieve their academic dreams.
Potentially thorny issues of fat-shaming, sexual experimentation and peer pressure are cheerfully navigated by a sorority of four female scriptwriters.
Belly laughs are abundant between some deeply touching moments of self-reflection and realisation, trading in pop culture references and near-the-knuckle humour that never threatens to become crude or mean-spirited.
These girls are sugar and spice and all things naughty but nice.
I WISH (PG, 128 mins) Drama. Koki Maeda, Ohshiro Maeda, Nene Ohtsuka, Jo Odagiri. Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda.
Streaming free on All 4 On Demand until April 16
Celebrated Japanese film-maker Hirokazu Kore-eda explores familiar themes of childhood innocence and abandonment in this poetic slice of life featuring real-life siblings.
Twelve-year-old Koichi (Koki Maeda) lives with his mother (Nene Ohtsuka) in the southern town of Kagoshima, which nestles in the shadow of an active volcano.
Far to the north in Fukuoka, Koichi’s younger brother Ryunosuke (Ohshiro Maeda) lives with their musician father (Jo Odagiri).
The cherubs secretly embark on a cross-country odyssey to test out Koichi’s theory about the electrical field generated by passing trains.
Every frame of I Wish is beautifully observed, galvanised by the irresistible natural chemistry of the pint-sized protagonists.
Kore-eda’s gentle touch with his young, inexperienced leads is richly rewarded with naturalistic performances that pluck our heartstrings without resorting to unabashed emotional manipulation.
At an unsettling time when we are all reflecting on the importance of family, I Wish is a perfect tonic.
LATE NIGHT (15, 102 mins) Comedy/ Drama/Romance. Dame Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling, Denis O’Hare, John Lithgow. Director: Nisha Ganatra.
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
Dame Emma Thompson relishes a plum role as a veteran talk show host, who has grown complacent and lost touch with her viewers, in director Nisha Ganatra’s spiky comedy of modern manners.
It’s a lip-smacking delight to see the two-time Oscar winner in full comic flow.
Scripted with a deft touch by co-star Mindy Kaling, Late Night takes aim at gender equality and diversity in the workplace and occasionally draws blood from well-placed barbs at the expense of the mainstream media’s obsession with youth and beauty.
Some aspects of the writing are a tad undernourished - one romantic subplot blossoms with almost no on-screen propagation and the emotional fallout of marital betrayal is too neatly contained.
However, chemistry between the lead actors fizzes.
Laughter and heartwarming sentiment are keenly balanced, tipping slightly in favour of the latter as the film talks its way to a crowd-pleasing resolution.
All’s fair in love and the war for TV ratings.