| TV Films
A Guide to the Week’s Viewing
SATURDAY JUNE 9
The Incredibles (TVNZ 2, 5.00pm). As Pixar’s first “allhuman” film, The Incredibles pushed the boundaries of animation at the time, perhaps because director/writer Brad Bird, who was moving from 2D ( The Iron Giant) to 3D, didn’t know the limits of the medium. Bird’s witty script spoofs everything from the superhero genre itself (“No capes!”) to James Bond and toys with exceptionalism versus mediocrity. Coincidentally, the sequel, Incredibles 2, is about to arrive in New Zealand theatres. What are the odds? (2004) Love Is All You Need (Māori, 8.30pm). Danish director Susanne Bier ( The Night Manager) detours into romcom territory after the sadness and violence of her Oscar-winning In a Better World – and why not? Especially when one of the protagonists is, ladies, the gracefully ageing Pierce Brosnan, playing a father of the groom who meets cancer-survivor and mother of the bride Trine Dyrholm at their children’s wedding in Italy. The pair are charming, of course, and there are good turns from Paprika Steen as the predatory aunt and The Bridge’s Kim Bodnia as Dyrholm’s
cheating hubby. (2012)
Pretty Woman (TVNZ 2, 8.35pm). Whoa, Saturday night is now nostalgia night, we presume. A movie so old Richard Gere isn’t yet a smug git, and Julia Roberts’s smile could be hooked up to the national grid. It’s best not to think about the more distasteful aspects of Vivian’s job, just focus on the Cinderellastyle story. There is chemistry between Gere and Roberts and plenty of com with the rom. (1990)
Edward Scissorhands (Three, 8.40pm). Nostalgia night confirmed. Tim Burton’s modern-day Frankenstein is now a classic, featuring a charming and near-silent performance from Johnny Depp in his first collaboration with Burton.
The idea sprang from the teenage Burton and his feelings of isolation – his suburban characters project onto sad monster Edward, who was created by an old inventor (Vincent Price). A fairy tale, a gothic fantasy, a romance, a high-school revenge flick and interesting in a look-how-far-they’ve-come way. (1990)
SUNDAY JUNE 10
Pitch Perfect (TV3, 8.05pm). Oh God, an a cappella Glee. Happily, 30 Rock writer/producer Kay Cannon’s script takes the film into Mean Girls/Revenge of the Nerds territory and with stand-out performances from Rebel Wilson and True Blood’s Anna Camp, this is better than it should be. Anna Kendrick is the snippy wannabe-DJ freshman who’s conscripted into the all-girl a cappella Bellas; they compete against the all-guy Treblemakers. Only in America. (2012)
soundtrack features the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire, Al Green and the Band. (2016)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Māori TV, 8.30pm). The Coen brothers were on form for this portrait of a less-than-successful folk singer in the 1960s. Oscar Isaac is the Eeyore-ish Llewyn Davis, whose musical partner has committed suicide, although he couldn’t even get that right, according to John Goodman’s obnoxious jazz musician:
“You throw yourself off the Brooklyn Bridge, traditionally. George Washington Bridge? Who does that?” It’s a rich area of pathos and lost talent, although it’s not clear if Davis is really talented or just a man out of time; at the end of the film, a young Bob Dylan is about to perform at the legendary Gaslight Café, a herald of the folk movement to come. (2013) Imperium (Choice TV, 8.30pm). Harry Potter versus the neo-Nazis. Nerdy FBI agent Daniel Radcliffe becomes a pocket white supremacist in this thriller about trying to prevent a home-grown terrorist attack. He’s not sure he can do it, and we’re not sure Radcliffe can, which might be a meta-comment on his acting ability or a neat bit of casting. These racist idiots attend rallies and perpetrate random acts of violence, egged on by an Alex Jones-style radio pundit (Tracy Letts). There are better films about neo-Nazis in America – American History X, for one – but Imperium does seem sadly topical, despite a clunky screenplay from director Daniel Ragussis. That nice Toby Damon (Chris Sullivan) from This Is Us is very nasty here, and Toni Collette has a small role as Radcliffe’s FBI boss. (2016) The Lazarus Effect (TVNZ 2, 1.05am Monday). It appears we’ve found the one thing touched by Donald Glover that hasn’t turned to gold. To be fair, the star of Atlanta and Solo: A Star Wars Story is just along for the ride when Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde’s whacky medical experiments get out of hand. Wisely, director David Gelb ( Jiro Dreams of Sushi) has gone back to documentaries. (2015)
THURSDAY JUNE 14
X-Men (Three, 8.30pm). After the sorry Star Wars saga (well, except for the first two), we are to be gifted the X-Men series. The franchise opener boils down to a conflict between Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) over what to do about the pesky humans who don’t want mutants in their midst. Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Anna Paquin (Rogue) are caught up in it. It’s also a genocide metaphor – in a stunning opening sequence, a young Magneto sees his mother taken by Nazis. (2000)
Naples ’44 (Rialto, Sky 039, 8.30pm). Director Francesco Patierno tries for a gentle, elegiac feel for his documentary tribute to Norman Lewis, a British officer who witnessed a devastated Naples towards the end of World War II and wrote about it, movingly, in his diary. The unmistakeable voice of Benedict Cumberbatch guides us through Lewis’s reportage, aided by archive footage, but the doco is a bit jumbled and the impressionistic use of an elderly man, supposedly Lewis returning to Naples, seems like filler. (2016)