PICK OF TV MOVIES

SATURDAY

The First Wives Club (1996) (C5, 2.20pm)

Reunited by the suicide of an old schoolfriend brought on by her husband’s infidelity, three middleaged women decide to get their own back on the men who spurned them. With their wealthy partners running off with much younger women, the trio of New Yorkers concoct a plan to hit the men where it hurts - their wallets. As a revenge comedy, it far surpasses anything that came after the closest being 2011’s Horrible Bosses. However, The First Wives Club has much more devilish female cunning. Hollywood A-listers Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and especially Better Midler have immense fun as the trio of vengeful women in director Hugh Wilson’s triumphant adaptation of Olivia Goldsmith’s bestselling novel.

The Sixth Sense (1999) (5 STAR, 9pm)

It’s easy to forget in the wake of its huge success, but The Sixth Sense was an extraordinarily brave feature, resting squarely on the shoulders of an 11-year-old actor. Director M Night Shyamalan’s supernatural thriller opens with a tense five-minute sequence, detailing how Dr Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis in one of his best performances) was attacked in his home by an ex-patient (Donnie Wahlberg) who then turned the gun on himself. Haunted by his apparent failure, a year later Crowe tracks down an eight-year-old boy called

Cole Sears (the extraordinary Haley Joel Osment) who bears all the classic tell-tale signs of child abuse. After their first meeting, Crowe senses that there is more to the boy than meets the eye and sets about winning his trust.

SUNDAY

Groundhog Day (1993) (C5, 12.30pm)

Cynical weatherman Phil Connors (the perfectly cast Bill Murray) reluctantly reports on a quaint ceremony in small-town Pennsylvania. He can’t wait to leave, but after getting caught in a snowdrift, he, his producer (Andie MacDowell) and cameraman (Chris Elliott) have to return to the town, where Phil gets caught in a time loop, reliving the same day over and over. Once he gets over the initial shock, Phil finds ways to exploit the situation, but then despair gradually sets in... Director Harold Ramis’ comedy is one of the best Hollywood films of the 1990s (even if critics and awards bodies largely failed to realise it at the time), with an ingenious screenplay that makes the most of its premise. No wonder the phrase Groundhog Day has now entered the language.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) (C5, 5.15pm)

Scientist Will Rodman (James

Franco) is determined to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, the disease which has slowly consumed his father Charles (John Lithgow). Will feels certain he is close to a breakthrough and tests his latest serum on chimpanzees, noticing dramatic increases in intelligence in the primate subjects. However, a high-profile showcase with shareholders goes spectacularly wrong and Will’s boss (David Oyelowo), demands the project is shut down. Will smuggles a baby chimp called Caesar out of the lab and raises the infant with his father. As the years pass and Caesar (Andy Serkis) blossoms, he begins to notice the way other humans treat primates in this ingenious sci-fi thriller, which makes knowing nods to the original film while also working as a stand-alone movie.

Clemency (2019) (BBC2, 10pm)

Prison warden Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard) is haunted by the bungled execution of prisoner Victor Jimenez (Alex Castillo). She seeks solace in a local bar rather than the arms of her husband Jonathan (Wendell Pierce). Now, Bernadine must prepare for the execution of inmate Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), who has served 15 years for the murder of a police officer but has always asserted that his accomplice pulled the trigger. Clemency is a quietly devastating drama, which delivers its knockout blows in prolonged silences on both sides of the sliding bars. Writer-director Chinonye Chukwu’s feature is emboldened by a fearless central performance from Woodard as the sleep-deprived warden, who is as much a prisoner of her hulking facility as the hundreds of men in her care.

MONDAY

The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) (BBC3, 10.30pm)

Fact and fiction blur in director Joe Talbot’s award-winning drama, which is based on the experiences of leading man Jimmie Fails. The film centres on Jimmie (playing himself), who lives with best friend Montgomery Allen (Jonathan Majors) in San Francisco. The city is unrecognisable after decades of sweeping social change and development, but Jimmie remains emotionally tethered to a house in the Fillmore District, which his grandfather built in 1946. When the

property becomes vacant due to a dispute between the current owner and her sister, Jimmie takes up temporary residence with Mont. The squatters furnish the home with the family’s belongings, restoring the property to its former glory. However, the best buddies are living on borrowed time under someone else’s roof.

The Two Faces of January (2014) (BBC2, 11.15pm)

Hossein Amini’s slow-burning film version of Patricia Highsmith’s thriller opens at the Acropolis, where Rydal (Oscar Isaac), a conman masquerading as a tour guide, is drawn to American businessman Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen) and his younger wife Colette (Kirsten Dunst), and gladly accepts their invitation to dinner. At the end of the night, Rydal discovers

Colette has mislaid a possession on the back seat of the taxi so he heads back to the MacFarlands’ hotel where he walks in on Chester moving a body, and finds himself drawn into a dangerous alliance. Shot on location in Greece and Turkey, The Two Faces of January nods appreciatively to both Highsmith and Hitchcock, ratcheting up tension as the two men trade verbal blows in order to secure Colette’s divided affections.