FILMS OF THE WEEK

THE BIG MOVIE

Bad Neighbours (2014) 15 Sunday, 9pm, Ch4 Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen are Kelly and Mac (above), a couple stuttering into the settled stage of family life with a move to suburbia. They’re not quite ready to act like grown-ups, despite the exhaustion that comes with having a young baby. So, when a fraternity of hard-partying students – led by Zac Efron’s Teddy – move in next door, Mac and Kelly are torn between reliving their own carefree days and coping with the disruption of having excitable frat boys 10ft away. A fullblown feud develops, with hijinks turning to snitching and sabotage. The film stays on the level of crude, gross-out, frat boy comedies such as Animal House, but there’s a strange release in watching Mac and Kelly caught between both sides of the fence, and dealing with adulthood and its responsibilities so immaturely.

CLASSIC FILM CHOICE

On The Waterfront (1954) PG Saturday, 10.40pm, BBC2 Elia Kazan’s powerful drama, starring Marlon Brando (above, with Eva Marie Saint), is steeped in Hollywood myth. Kazan used the film to answer his critics, furious that he was to testify in the Communist witch-hunts that cast a shadow over Hollywood’s leftist writers and directors for years. Yet the film’s uneasy political background only adds to its strengths. Young star Brando – who reshaped a style of acting for generations to come

– is given free rein to exercise his incredible range. As the young New Jersey dock worker, protected by his connections with the mob bosses who run the unions, Brando’s Terry Malloy is a tough guy who finds a conscience and fights the corruption. Brando has memorable lines

(‘I could’ve been a contender…’), but his face and use of naturalistic expressions speak volumes, too.