SEVEN FILMS TO SEE THIS WEEK
23 Kilometres Today, Sundance Channel, 5.25pm
On the road to Damascus in Lebanon’s beautiful Beqaa Valley, Barkev, an Armenian man with late-stage Parkinson’s disease takes one last journey. Played by a non-actor with Parkinson’s, this impressionistic hybrid docu-drama offers a journey into the mind and life of a man with a crippling disease. The machine-maker and amateur cosmologist can no longer speak, yet through his journals, his machines and powerful imagery with music, the film travels into the past and future of Barkev and Lebanon, which is debilitated by sectarian division, left a shell of its former self, dwelling on the past, unable to imagine its own future.
Roman J Israel, Esq Tomorrow, OSN Movies First, 11.55am
Denzel Washington picked up a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his role as the title character, an idealistic lawyer, in Dan Gilroy’s legal drama. Following the death of his partner and closure of their firm, Roman is forced to join a high-flying legal firm to stay afloat, contrary to his principles and social awkwardness, which had previously resulted in him using his brilliant legal mind to prepare cases, while his late partner dealt with clients and court appearances. When he suddenly finds himself earning a significantly higher wage and moving in entirely different circles, his principles are sorely challenged.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Tuesday, Paramount Channel, 1.20am
The titular heroes get their own movie, having appeared as supporting characters in many of Kevin Smith’s earlier films, including
Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy.
Smith and Jason Mewes’s chilled slackers are forced to leave their perennial post outside the Quick Stop convenience store in New Jersey and head to Hollywood to put a stop to a film adaptation of their lives. To be fair, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back isn’t the greatest film in Smith’s View Askewniverse, but it’s still typically crude, humorous fare, and offers a rare opportunity to see Mark Hamill wielding a light sabre as the fictional movie’s villain.
Baby Driver Wednesday, OSN Movies First HD, 9.05pm
What do you do if you have just grudgingly stepped down from the director’s role on Marvel’s Ant-Man over creative differences with the comic giants? You could mope around and hope DC come in for you, or if you’re Edgar Wright, you make possibly the coolest heist movie ever. Ansel Elgort’s getaway driver Baby lives life as a human jukebox as a way of drowning out his tinnitus, and Wright gives us a hip-as-it-gets symphony of funky tunes, fast cars and intricate choreography, with a side helping of violence and drama for good measure.
Natural Born Killers Thursday OSN Movies HD, 11pm
Oliver Stone’s ultra-violent satire, from an original screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, updates the Bonnie and Clyde legend for the mass-media age. Instead of being condemned by society for their crimes, Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis’s personable plunderers Mickey and Mallory are held up as anti-heroes and celebrated by a reality TV-loving public. Shot in a frenetic, psychedelic style, the movie is brutal, yet tremendously fun. It would be interesting to see Stone take on a sequel, in the age of socialmedia celebrities.
Bob and the Trees Friday, Sundance Channel, 8.30pm
This is a movie where the story behind the movie is perhaps more fascinating than the movie itself. In 2014, director Diego Ongaro moved from his Paris home to rural Massachusetts. On arrival, he soon met local commercial logger Bob Tarasuk, a typical, middle-aged, white, blue-collar worker, save for his love of gangsta rap. Ongaro became fascinated by Bob, the harsh conditions he and his family worked in and the struggles of running his business, and this docu-drama-meets-cinemaverite is the result. Tarasuk and his family and friends take most of the lead roles, and the film had a successful festival run following its debut at 2015’s Sundance Festival.
Girafada Saturday, Sundance Channel, 5.30pm
Rani Massalha’s Girafada takes place in Palestine’s only remaining zoo. Its male giraffe is killed one night in an air raid, and in her grief, the female giraffe begins to slowly starve herself to death. Saleh Bakri’s Palestinian vet knows that the only place he can find a new companion for his devastated charge is in a Tel Aviv safari park, and with the help of an Israeli friend, a cunning plan is hatched to kidnap a Hebraic herbivore and save the day.