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Pick of the week
Hamnet
From a Roman muscle man to William Shakespeare, Paul Mescal is showing his range right now. But in Chloé Zhao’s version of Maggie O’Farrell superb novel, he has to play second fiddle to Jessie Buckley. It’s her Oscar-winning turn as Agnes – the Bard’s unsung wife – that gives the drama its gut-wrenching power. Agnes is the heart to Will’s brain, more attuned to the mysteries of the natural world, and aware that his genius will take him away from her. But their differing reactions to a family tragedy push them further apart … Hamnet is a difficult book to adapt, its potency coming from its unarticulated emotions, but Zhao has pulled it off brilliantly.
Friday 14 August, 8.10am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
Parallel Mothers
Just before his latest twisty film, Bitter Christmas, hits cinemas, here’s another chance to see Pedro Almodóvar’s equally knotty 2021 drama, which explores family secrets in the domestic and national spheres. It features a standout performance from Penélope Cruz as photographer Janis, who gets pregnant by a forensic anthropologist investigating the forgotten civil war victims of Franco – including her ancestors. When her newborn gets swapped with that of the young Ana (Milena Smit), fate intertwines their lives. A forceful experience.
Saturday 8 August, 11.10pm, BBC Four
Speed
If Jan de Bont’s 1994 action thriller didn’t propel Keanu Reeves to stardom (Point Break arguably did that in 1991), it was his biggest box-office hit to date – and it was most definitely a breakthrough moment for Sandra Bullock. She is her co-star’s equal as a passenger who has to take the steering wheel of an LA bus primed to explode if it goes under 50mph. Reeves has the more superficially heroic role as a police bomb disposal officer, but both have their moments in a terrifically tense series of freeway set-pieces, while Dennis Hopper is reliably unhinged as their foe.
Sunday 9 August, 9pm, Film4
Missing
A thematic sequel to the 2018 film Searching, Nick Johnson and Will Merrick’s 2023 thriller continues its conceit of restricting what we see to computer screens and smartphones. So after Storm Reid’s June discovers her mother, Grace (Nia Long), has vanished while on holiday in Colombia with new boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung), she uses the panoply of digital resources – voicemails, FaceTime, doorcams, even tourist webcams – to investigate remotely. It’s all inherently claustrophobic, which helps generate a sustained level of unease and, soon enough, peril.
Tuesday 11 August, 9pm, Film4
Gladiator II
It has taken 24 years for Ridley Scott to get back to the Colosseum. But there’s still a lot of familiarity in his ancient Roman sequel – from returning characters to elaborate fight scenes and animal antics. Paul Mescal stars as Lucius, the son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus, who is living a quiet life in north Africa until an invading Roman army take him into slavery. From there, it’s a short hop to becoming a rebellious gladiator, under the gimlet gaze of his owner Macrinus (a lip-smacking Denzel Washington).
Wednesday 12 August, Netflix
A Child of My Own
Maite Alberdi’s documentary starts as a straightforward ripped-from-the-headlines dramatisation of a secret adoption, shot in the vibrant palette of a telenovela. Mexican hospital worker Alejandra has just had her third miscarriage when she meets Mayra, who doesn’t want the baby she will give birth to. Mayra agrees to hand her newborn over to Alejandra, who meanwhile will pretend to be going through her own pregnancy. It’s when their plan goes wrong that the film pulls the rug out from under the viewer. As other voices enter the frame, is the narrative we have been consuming true at all?
Thursday 13 August, Netflix
On Falling
Portuguese immigrant Aurora (Joana Santos) works as a “picker” in an Amazon-style warehouse in Scotland. It’s a monotonous but time-sensitive job that has reduced her to a zombie-like state; she’s too tired and/or poor to enjoy her free time and struggles to connect with her mostly foreign colleagues and flatmates. And when her phone needs a costly repair, that’s all it takes to tip her over the edge. Laura Carreira’s debut feature is heart-breaking social realism with a Ken Loach feel, but where he rails at capitalism’s evils, Carreira sees bureaucratic indifference.
Friday 14 August, 11.05pm, BBC Two
