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Pick of the week
Jaws 1-4
The 50th anniversary of Jaws – the Year Zero of the modern-day blockbuster – has already been well covered. However, half a century of Jaws also means half a century of Jaws sequels, which is a different kind of fun. This week, Netflix has gathered together all four films for viewers to enjoy at their leisure. The question is: which should you watch? The peerless original? Jaws 2, which is basically a remake of the first one? Jaws 3, which was shot for 3D seemingly just for the scene where a shark gets exploded? Or Jaws: The Revenge, in which a shark with a vendetta chases Michael Caine around the Bahamas? Strictly speaking, only one of these films is good. But, in their own way, they are all great.
Tuesday 15 July, Netflix
Oppenheimer
After its extraordinary theatrical run and silverware haul, it’s safe to assume that everyone who wants to watch Oppenheimer has already watched it. But even after all the ballyhoo about seeing it on the big screen, Christopher Nolan’s film loses very little impact on TV. It’s still a total marvel, turning a bog-standard biopic into a puzzlebox of clashing timelines. It’s still masterly to look at, transforming the planes of Cillian Murphy’s face into grand topography. Best of all, we get to see what Robert Downey Jr looks like when he really puts his all into acting. A must watch.
Saturday 12 July, Netflix
A Man Called Otto
His days as the do-no-wrong king of Hollywood behind him, Tom Hanks has long since settled into a much more rewarding second act. He writes books. He’s become a Wes Anderson day-player. And, more importantly, he gets to star in films like A Man Called Otto. Hanks plays a bitter old crank who plans to kill himself, only to be shaken out of his stupor when he begins to integrate with his neighbours. It’s a hard role to pull off – lean too hard one way and you become repellant, lean too hard the other and you become unpleasantly sentimental – but Hanks gets it exactly right.
Saturday 12 July, 9pm, Channel 4
Passport to Pimlico
Very possibly the greatest Ealing comedy ever made, Passport to Pimlico has one of the most wonderful premises of the 20th century; thanks to a confusing legal loophole, an area of Pimlico is declared part of Burgundy. As such, a forgotten bit of Westminster ends up breaking away from the rest of the country and becoming its own self-governing micronation, with all the greed and pettiness that comes with it. It might have been made in 1949, but the themes in Passport to Pimlico feel incredibly current, especially in post-Brexit Britain.
Sunday 13 July, 1.50pm, BBC Two
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Dog
Channing Tatum could have made any film he wanted for his directorial debut, and it’s telling that he ended up making Dog. On the surface, Dog is a Turner and Hooch rip-off about an army ranger who has to escort his dead friend’s dog across the country to be put down. However, the amount of layers Tatum manages to fold in is incredible. There’s comedy, and a surprisingly clear-eyed take on mental health in the military. And you’ll probably cry at the end. So much better than it needed to be.
Monday 14 July, 7pm, Film4
Hell Is a City
To be specific, hell is Manchester. This stunning 1960 British noir has plenty going for it, like its tight, hardboiled plot – an inspector is tasked with tracking down a murderer following a jailbreak – and the gruffly unsentimental performances from Stanley Baker and John Crawford. It deserves to be rediscovered and heralded as a classic. However, Hell Is a City was also a rare film shot in Manchester, which means that it provides a wonderful snapshot of the city as it was 65 years ago. To call it unrecognisable would be an understatement.
Tuesday 15 July, 2:20pm, Film4
Juror #2
Clint Eastwood is 95, and the likelihood is that Juror #2 will be his final movie. Criminally overlooked by its own studio, which attempted to dump it on to streaming without a theatrical release, this is arguably his best film for 20 years. A tight legal thriller about a journalist (played by Nicholas Hoult) who is called up for jury duty only to realise he may be responsible for the victim’s death, the film quickly becomes a knotty morality play designed to keep you torn till the very end. If this is Eastwood’s last work, he’s going out on a high.
Friday 18 July, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
