Seven films to watch on the small screen this week
Colossal Sunday April 15, 7.20pm, OSN Movies Action HD
Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis star in Nacho Vigalondo’s quirky black comedy/sci-fi tale of a troubled writer who returns to her tiny New England hometown when her boyfriend finally kicks her out because of her erratic behaviour. There, she is reunited with an old school friend, as you might expect, and also learns that every time she blacks out in her childhood play park after a binge, she unconsciously releases a giant monster on the streets of Seoul, South Korea (which is certainly less expected). Things get more complicated when the childhood pal decides he wants in on the monster action, too. Seoul may never be the same again.
Music for Mandela Monday April 16, 1.30pm, Sundance Channel
What role did music play in the life of Nelson Mandela? A huge one, according to documentarian Jason Bourque, whose film surmises that music was incredibly important to the legendary human rights leader and political activist, but also that it helped to bring down apartheid. Mandela himself once stated that music has the power to “liberate” oppressed people, and the movie asks artists including B B King, Sean Paul, Estelle, classical singer Katherine Jenkins and Mandela’s grandson, hip hop artist Bambatha Mandela, to elaborate on the theme from their own experiences.
A United Kingdom Tuesday April 17, 6.45pm, OSN Movies First HD
The true story of Seretse Khama, heir to the throne of the southern African kingdom of Bechuanaland, who went to England to study law shortly after the end of the Second World War. There, he met, fell in love with, and married a white woman, Ruth Williams, provoking an international incident in the process. The British government, Bechuanaland’s colonial ruler, attempted to stop the marriage after South Africa’s apartheid government protested that a mixed marriage in a neighbouring country could stoke unrest within South Africa, while Khama’s own country’s elders banished him and stripped him of his royal rights. Khama would have the last word, however, when, in 1966, he became the first president of the newly independent Botswana.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Wednesday April 18, 1.10pm, OSN Movies Festival
Take a trip down memory lane with Ken Hughes’ kids’ classic about the adventures of a poor, widowed inventor and his children, as well as a rich heiress, and a magical car. The film may be candy floss for kids, but there’s a real pedigree to the writing – the screenplay is adapted by Roald Dahl from a short story by Ian Fleming. In true Dahl style, we’re treated to plentiful sweets, cranky machinery, marauding pirates, evil aristocrats and, of course, the evil Child Catcher, subject of many a pre-teen nightmare in the era before the scariest movie villains were computer-generated.
Spotlight Thursday April 19, 10.30pm, OSN Movies First HD
Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams lead an ensemble cast in Tom McCarthy’s Oscar-winning study of the work of the Boston Globe’s investigative Spotlight team and its efforts to expose widespread child abuse in the Catholic church of the Boston area, and beyond. The film itself is based on a series of stories from the real life Spotlight team, which won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for their effort, and the film follows in the newspaper’s award-winning footsteps, with Oscars for Best Picture heading up an impressive list of 2016 accolades.
From Hell Friday April 20, 11.15pm, OSN Thriller HD
Johnny Depp stars as Inspector Frederick Abberline, a flawed but good-hearted police officer investigating the Jack the Ripper murders in Victorian London, in this Hughes Brothers adaptation of the comic book from Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. The film is an atmospheric, gory, visually impressive trip to the bawdy backstreets of The Ripper’s London and features a fine supporting cast of British thespian talent, including Ian Holm, Ian Richardson, Robbie Coltrane and Jason Flemyng, as well as Depp’s fellow American Heather Graham as Abberline’s muse, Mary. Moore, naturally, criticised this adaptation of his work, but if Alan Moore doesn’t criticise your adaptation of his work, you’ve probably accidentally adapted the wrong book.
The English Patient Saturday April 21, 1am, Paramount Movies
Tear-jerking stuff from Anthony Minghella with Ralph Fiennes as a badly burned and critically injured cartographer stricken with amnesia, and Juliette Binoche as the French nurse caring for him in the dying days of the Second World War. Fiennes’ character – Count Laszlo de Almasy, we learn, gradually pieces his story together through flashback, leading up to the kind of lump-inthe-throat ending that usually guarantees an Oscar, or nine in this case, including Best Picture and Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress for Binoche in 1997.