The Herald - The Herald Magazine
THIS WEEK’S BEST FILMS
and actor Teddy (Nat Wolff)
– into Alice’s rarefied world and they take up temporary residence in her guesthouse. Sexual tension percolates between Alice and Harry until a jealous Austen returns. First-time director
Hallie Meyers-Shyer cuts her film from the same luxurious fabric as The Holiday and It’s Complicated, which were written and directed by her mother, Nancy Meyers.
Journeyman (2017) (Film4, 11.10pm)
Actor Paddy Considine returns to the director’s chair for a hard-hitting drama about a boxing champion, whose charmed life suffers a series of knockout blows inside and out of the ring. Matty Burton (Considine) is a veteran of the boxing scene who has a comfortable life with his loyal wife Emma (Jodie Whittaker) and their baby daughter. Matty is in the final years of a glittering career and he feverishly prepares for a high-profile bout against cocksure younger rival, Andre Bryte (Anthony Welsh). The subsequent showdown takes a devastating toll on Matty’s battered and bruised body. The injuries are life-changing and he returns a shadow of his former self, relying completely on Emma to perform the most basic daily tasks, putting pressure on their marriage.
THURSDAY
Hunter Killer (2018) (Film4, 9pm)
A shootout beneath the ice of the Barents Sea close to Russia immobilises the USS Tampa Bay. Admiral Charles Donnegan (Gary Oldman), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sanctions a mission to discover the fate of the missing submarine. With guidance from Rear Admiral John Fisk (Common), Donnegan appoints Commander Joe Glass (Gerard Butler) as captain of the USS Arkansas, which is docked at Faslan. The crew, including jittery Execution Officer Brian Edwards, prepares to sail into hostile waters patrolled by Russian warships. Based on the novel Firing Point by Don Keith and George Wallace, Hunter Killer is entertaining hogwash. Director Donovan
Marsh generates tension from the claustrophobic confines of a heavily armed submarine and sporadically unleashes hell in propulsive action sequences.
The Lost City of Z (2016) (BBC4, 9pm)
British artillery officer Colonel Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) is offered a mission mapping uncharted territory in Bolivia with the help of local tribesmen. Percy accepts and abandons his wife Nina (Sienna Miller) to venture into the unknown with aide-decamp Corporal Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson). Percy returns home with a strong conviction that he has stumbled upon proof of a lost civilisation that will astound the academic elite. A second expedition in the company of wealthy adventurer James Murray teeters on the brink of disaster, but Percy pushes forward, terrified of the consequences of failure.
Shot on location in the Colombian rainforest, The Lost City of Z is a handsome tribute to one man’s struggle against himself and Mother Nature.
FRIDAY
Ex Machina (2014) (Film 4, 11,45pm)
The directorial debut of novelist Alex Garland, the man who wrote the book The Beach was based on, Ex Machina stars Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb, a software programmer in the company of reclusive tech whizz Nathan (Oscar Isaac). When Nathan wins a company lottery to spend a weekend with Nathan in his rural hideaway – very rural, and very hidden away – he’s thrilled. At first, anyway. What he doesn’t expect is to be presented with an AI-powered robot called Ava (Alicia Vikander) and be asked to help Nathan see if she can pass the so-called Turing test – the benchmark for whether an entity is truly self-aware. Cool, claustrophobic, unsettling and deep – it asks some mighty big questions about humanity, consciousness and personal morality – Ex Machina is a tightly-wound ensemble piece that deserved more than one Oscar win.
The Notebook (2004) (BBC1, 1.05am)
An elderly man (James Garner) spends his days trying to get through to an ailing care home resident by telling her a story from his notebook. It’s the tale of Allie (Rachel McAdams) and Noah
(Ryan Gosling) who fall for each other despite their class differences. However, disapproving parents, rival suitors and even the Second World War conspire to keep the starcrossed lovers apart.