The Herald - The Herald Magazine
THIS WEEK’S BEST FILMS
MONDAY
Zero Dark Thirty (2012) (ITV4, 11.10pm)
Director Kathryn Bigelow’s gripping follow-up to the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker follows ballsy CIA officer Maya (Jessica Chastain) as she accepts a posting to Islamabad under Station Chief Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler). CIA operative Dan (Jason Clarke) worries the newcomer might not be up to the task at hand, but Maya imposes herself on the team, which initially creates friction with her colleagues. Over the next eight years, Maya dedicates her life to every scrap of intelligence which might lead her to Osama bin Laden. Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (Tushaar Mehra), who reportedly operates as bin Laden’s personal courier, becomes her focus and the CIA tracks him to a heavily guarded compound in Abbottabad.
The Florida Project (2017) (Film4, 11.55pm)
Single mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) sells designer fragrances to wealthy theme park visitors, aided by her precocious six-year-old daughter Moonee (Brooklynn Prince). It’s a struggle to raise the rent for a single room at the Magic Castle Motel and placate long-suffering manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe). During the day, little Moonee goes on adventures with other children. Their escapades drive Bobby to distraction, and an increasingly volatile Halley resorts to desperate measures to evade social services. The Florida Project is an exuberant portrait of families living hand-to-mouth in the shadow of Disney World. It’s an emotionally raw and unflinching character study, but the film softens the impact with earthy humour and humanity.
TUESDAY
American Woman (2018) (Film4, 9pm)
Sienna Miller delivers a compelling performance as a single mother in dire straits in director Jake Scott’s slow-burning drama, which unfolds over 11 years filled with heartache and dwindling hope. Debra Callahan (Miller) lives in Pennsylvania with her teenage daughter Bridget (Sky Ferreira), who has an infant son
called Jesse. The child’s father Tyler drifts in and out of Bridget’s life and Debra attempts to support her daughter. When Bridget goes on a date with Tyler, Debra agrees to babysit little Jesse. The teenage daughter never returns. Debra embarks on a long and painful quest for answers to learn the fate of Bridget as part of a wide-ranging police investigation led by Detective Sergeant Morris (E Roger Mitchell).
Manhunter (1986) (ITV4, 10.45pm)
It’s a case of Silence of the Lambs meets Miami Vice in this forerunner to the Hannibal Lecktor/Lecter saga from director Michael Mann. Moody former FBI agent Will Graham (William Petersen) is coaxed back into active service to track down a serial killer behind the slaughter of entire families. In a bid to get into the mind of the murderer, he consults with imprisoned psychopath Dr Hannibal Lecktor (Dundee’s Brian Cox), and ends up being taken to some pretty dark places before he can crack the crime. This slick classic will always be remembered as the film that started the whole Hannibal saga rolling. The two leads are excellent, and Kim Griest is left playing third fiddle as Petersen’s wife. The directing, too, is top-notch, but it’s the story – taken from Thomas Harris’s novel Red Dragon – that makes this so compelling.
WEDNESDAY
Double Indemnity (1944)
(Sony Movies Classic, 6.45pm)
Insurance salesman Walter (Fred MacMurray) embarks on a passionate affair with Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck), the seductive wife of a client. Together they plot to murder her husband for the insurance money, and the plan appears to go without a hitch – until one of Walter’s colleagues gets suspicious. Based on a novel by The Postman Always Rings Twice author James M Cain, and with a screenplay by director Billy Wilder and legendary crime writer Raymond Chandler, Double Indemnity has an impeccable hard-boiled pedigree. It also has a terrific femme fatale in Stanwyck, who manages to smoulder from underneath an unconvincing blonde wig. The result is a classic film
noir that has been imitated many times, but never bettered.
Dark Encounter (2019) (Film4, 11.15pm)
Scottish actress Laura Fraser and Vincent Regan recently appeared in the crime drama Traces. They also star in this effective sci-fi thriller which is set in small-town America but, incredibly, was filmed in North Yorkshire. It begins with the disappearance of an eight-year-old girl from her Pennsylvania hometown. A year later, following her memorial service, bizarre happenings begin to occur in the woods nearby. Are the two events linked? And if so, how? Writer-director Carl Strathie delivers an oddly compelling tale which features strong supporting performances from Alice Lowe, Mel Raido and Sid Phoenix.
THURSDAY
The Graduate (1967)
(Sony Movies Classic, 9pm)
Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) has just graduated from college and is back at his parents’ home for the summer, with his whole life ahead of him. His parents would like him to get into the plastics industry, but Benjamin isn’t sure. He’s more interested in getting into bed with sexy neighbour Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft), although it soon becomes clear that it’s her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross) who holds the key to his heart. Director Mike Nichols’ comedy classic still stands the test of time. Dustin Hoffman may have been far too old to play the lead role, but he doesn’t look it; the film turned him into a star after years of struggle. The superb Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack alone is worth tuning in for.
Shane (1953) (Film4, 12.45pm)
Adapted from Jack Shaefer’s 1949 novel, this 1953 classic stars Alan Ladd as the titular drifter, a skilled gunfighter who comes into the lives of family of farmers under threat from a ruthless cattle baron and changes those lives forever. The action is mostly seen through the eyes of the family’s son, Joey, who also narrates the novel. Jean
Arthur, Van Heflin and Brandon deWilde also star and there’s an early role for Jack Palance. A strong contender for the best Western ever made, Shane’s themes of violence, lawlessness, myth and personal re-invention foreshadow the body of films Clint Eastwood would star in a decade later beginning with A Fistful Of Dollars and High Plains Drifter.
FRIDAY
A Quiet Place (2018) (C4, 11.05pm) Eighty-nine days after first contact with sightless otherworldly creatures, which hunt by sound, resourceful father Lee Abbott (John Krasinski, who also directs), his wife Evelyn (Emily Blunt), deaf daughter Regan, eldest son Marcus and four-year-old Beau have adapted to the omnipresent threat. The family communicates via sign language and silently scours for provisions in abandoned stores. Alas, the electronic beeps from a toy lead to one family member’s downfall. Then Evelyn becomes pregnant – and babies aren’t known for their silence... A Quiet Place is a nerve-shredding horror thriller, which delivers a masterclass in old-fashioned scares and suspense. A sequel is due this month.
Testament of Youth (2014) (BBC2, 11.20pm)
Vera Brittain (Alicia Vikander) is poised to head to Oxford University in the shadow of the First World War. Her brother Edward (Taron Egerton) and his pals Roland (Kit Harington) and Victor (Colin Morgan) enlist, despite resistance from Vera’s parents (Dominic West, Emily Watson). Romance blossoms between Vera and Roland, and Aunt Belle acts as a chaperone for the young couple on their dates. Against the advice of her mother and father, Vera postpones her education to volunteer as a nurse and treat the soldiers, who have been physically and emotionally scarred by their experiences. Vikander is a revelation, capturing the spirit, defiance and brittleness of a young woman who holds firm to her convictions at a time when women were preferably seen but not heard.