SEVEN FILMS TO SEE THIS WEEK
Monster’s Ball Sunday, Star Movies, 3.10pm
Billy Bob Thornton, Heath Ledger and Halle Berry head an all-star cast in Marc Forster’s bleak drama, taking in child abuse, suicide, poverty and state-sanctioned killing among other chirpy topics, as Thornton’s death row prison guard unwittingly embarks on a relationship with the widow of a man he executed. Berry picked up the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as the widowed Leticia, while Roger Ebert described the film as the best of 2001.
Stand By Me Monday, OSN Fest 8.05pm
Rob Reiner’s coming-of-age classic defined an entire generation of teen movies and can largely take the credit for introducing the world to child stars including Kiefer Sutherland, Coreys Haim and Feldman and River Phoenix. The movie, adapted from Steven King’s novella The Body, is about four young friends who find a corpse in the woods. The film is a cult classic, and even the difficult-to-please King was impressed, in his own understated way. He said following a private screening ahead of the movie’s release: “That’s the best film ever made out of anything I’ve written, which isn’t saying much. But you’ve really captured my story.”
LA LA Land Tuesday, OSN Movies First 6pm
Damien Chazelle wrote musical romcom La La Land in 2010, but surprisingly couldn’t find a studio willing to finance the project. Following the success of his 2014 film
Whiplash, Chazelle finally got the green light for a modest $30m production starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, and the rest is history. A record-equalling 14 Oscar nominations, six wins and almost half a billion dollars at the global box office later, and you can’t help wondering if the studios are making it up as they go along.
Alien: Covenant Wednesday, OSN Movies First, 23:25
In 1979, director Ridley Scott’s Alien set the big-screen template for terror in space, but after a successful sequel from James Cameron seven years later, the franchise entered a predictable decline culminating in the nadir of the Alien v Predator spin offs. Scott returned to the director’s chair on a rescue mission for his 2012 prequel Prometheus, but in his efforts to reposition the ailing franchise made a film that, although enjoyable, set out to create a new mythology that didn’t really fit his own template. Thankfully, in this third outing as director in the franchise, Scott has got back to basics – terror in space and murderous xenomorph aliens, and it works.
For Ellen Thursday, Sundance Channel, 4.45am
Paul Dano is the singer in a failing heavy metal band who is locked in a bitter legal battle with his ex-wife, having signed away most of his possessions and custody of his daughter by not paying attention to his divorce agreement. Korean director So Yong Kim paints a bleak, yet beautiful, picture of a man whose outsider aesthetic has led to a total disconnect with reality, with devastating results.
Boom Bust Boom Friday, Sundance, 8am and 3.45pm
What happens when a Monty Python comic meets an esteemed economics professor? You get a remarkably entertaining documentary about the cyclical nature of capitalism, mankind’s history of speculative bubbles and the 2008 economic crash, complete with puppets, animation and gags in true Python style. Python’s Terry Jones presents, working from a screenplay he co-wrote with Dutch economist Theo Kocken.
Get Out Saturday, OSN Movies First, 9.55pm
Jordan Peele’s directorial debut blends horror, comedy, and social commentary into a neat cinematic journey that is a damning indictment of both racism in America and the well-meaning, liberal intelligentsia’s inadequate response to it. Daniel Kaluuya stars as a young black photographer who is grudgingly going to meet his white girlfriend’s family for the first, and definitely last, time. The movie picked up several Oscar nominations – a rare honour for a horror flick – and took away the prize for Best Screenplay.