SEVEN FILMS TO SEE THIS WEEK
Girl, Interrupted Today, Star Movies, 1.35pm
Having spent much of the 1990s carving out a niche as the go-to actress of choice for films requiring a mildly tortured goth teen in the likes of Beetlejuice, Heathers and Edward
Scissorhands, Winona Ryder perhaps hit peak typecast levels when she executive-produced and starred in this psychological drama about a teenager who is checked into a mental institution. An impressive supporting cast features Angelina Jolie, Whoopi Goldberg and Vanessa Redgrave. The film received mixed reviews, but the performances make it worth a watch.
The English Patient Monday, Paramount Channel, 10pm
Tear-jerking stuff from Anthony Minghella, with Ralph Fiennes as a badly burnt 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’s character – Count Laszlo de Almasy, we learn, gradually pieces his story together through flashbacks, leading up to the kind of lump-in-the-throat ending that usually guarantees an Oscar, or nine in this case, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress for Binoche.
Birdman Tuesday, OSN Movies HD, 11pm
Michael Keaton stars as Riggan Thomson, an actor whose success in a superhero franchise (Birdman) comes to an end when he quits after the third instalment on artistic principle, in this multi-Oscar-nominated, and perhaps somewhat autobiographical tale, given Keaton’s experience in the cowl of Batman in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s film. Shot almost entirely in one continuous take, and with a quirky jazz score that is almost a character in itself, the film certainly isn’t mainstream, but Keaton, Emma Stone and Edward Norton turn in stunning performances in what was the best film of 2014, with the Academy bestowing that year’s Best Picture Oscar on the movie.
La La Land Wednesday, OSN Movies First, 11.30pm
Damien Chazelle wrote musical romcom La La Land in 2010, but surprisingly couldn’t find a studio willing to finance the project. After the success of his 2014 film Whiplash, Chazelle finally got the green light for the US$30 million (Dh110m) production starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, and the rest is history. Fourteen Oscar nominations, six wins and almost half a billion dollars at the global box office later, and you can’t help but wonder if the studios are making it up as they go along.
Oldboy Thursday, Netflix, streaming from 11.01am
Spike Lee’s 2013 remake of Park Chan Wook’s 2003 Korean classic was always going to struggle to make the same impact as the original, and in fairness it didn’t, particularly at the box office, where it took only about US$5 million (Dh18.3) globally, making it both a huge loss-maker, and Lee’s worst-performing film to date. Nonetheless, the film is visually and stylistically a triumph, and Josh Brolin gives a fine performance as an advertising executive who finds himself drugged and imprisoned in a hotel room for 20 years for reasons unknown. Ultimately, the film’s Hollywood transplant lacks the sheer brutality of its Korean antecedent, and both Brolin and Lee have stated they prefer the director’s original cut before nervous studio execs slashed 35 minutes from the film, but worth a watch nonetheless.
A I Artificial Intelligence Friday July 6, OSN Thriller, 5.50pm
Steven Spielberg picked up his long-time friend Stanley Kubrick’s long-gestating project after the latter’s death in 1999 and dedicated the end product to the late Clockwork Orange director. The film tells the story of David (played by Haley Joel Osment), a robot designed to replicate the love and innocence of a child in a dystopian future where childbirth is strictly regulated. Spielberg’s film attracted criticism for encapsulating the worst in both directors – marrying Kubrick’s tendency for rambling philosophy with Spielberg’s wholesome fuzziness, but you’ll struggle to not need a Kleenex handy at the film’s emotional conclusion.
Maps to the Stars Saturday, Star Movies, 4.30am
An all-star cast including Julianne Moore, John Cusack and Carrie Fisher come together for David Cronenberg’s satirical look at the selfobsessed nature of celebrity and the bizarre relationship between celebrities and society as a whole. Moore picked up the Best Actress award at 2014’s Cannes Film Festival for her efforts, and Cronenberg manages to successfully walk the line between supremely silly and bitingly vitriolic with a surprising ease.
Chris Newbould