The Substance to The Woman in Cabin 10: the seven best films to watch on TV this week

Pick of the week
The Substance

Coralie Fargeat’s no-holds-barred satire about the tyranny of female beauty standards – and the perceived horrors of ageing – features an inspired bit of casting in Demi Moore, who plays a role with echoes of her own career. More than holding her own amid a splurge of wince-inducing makeup effects, Moore is Elisabeth, a 50-year-old film star reduced to doing an aerobics show on TV. Edged out by her slimy boss, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), she seeks to prolong her relevance by undergoing a mysterious – and very gruesome – procedure called the Substance. This spawns a younger clone, Sue (Margaret Qualley), and an increasingly vampiric relationship between the two.
Friday 17 October, Paramount+

The Woman in Cabin 10

Agatha Christie-esque … Keira Knightley and Guy Pearce in The Woman in Cabin 10. Photograph: Parisa Taghizadeh/PA

We seem to be in the middle of a run of dramas about Guardian journalists, what with ITV’s The Hack and now this rather more fantastical Christie-esque mystery. Keira Knightley plays ace reporter Laura, who takes time out from writing about global conflict to join a luxury cruise with a terminally ill Norwegian shipping heiress/philanthropist, her husband and other filthy rich folk. But after a mysterious woman goes overboard one night and – in Lady Vanishes style – everyone denies she ever existed, Laura’s investigative instincts kick in …
Out now, Netflix

Presence

Spooky fun … Lucy Liu in Presence. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

Steven Soderbergh loves testing his abilities as a film-maker, and for his nifty 2024 supernatural story he decided that the entire thing should be shot from the point of view of the ghost. So, as a family including mother Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and troubled teenage daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) settle into their new suburban house, the camera – AKA the Presence – follows them around. Chloe seems aware of the poltergeist, and it seems protective of her. But why? It’s a fun idea that doesn’t outstay its welcome, with a twist you might not see coming.
Saturday 11 October, 4.35pm, 10.10pm, Sky Cinema Premiere

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

You have to admire his gall … Nicolas Cage with Pedro Pascal in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Photograph: Katalin Vermes/PR

You can’t help but admire Nicolas Cage’s commitment to his cult stardom. When he’s not going to extremes for his art, he’s taking the mickey out of himself for doing just that. In this meta comedy caper, he plays self-obsessed, on-the-slide Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage, who takes a $1m payday to appear at a birthday party in Mallorca for billionaire, and Cage uberfan, Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal). Asked by the CIA to spy on suspected cartel boss Javi, Cage’s “nouveau shamanic acting ability” comes in handy – like Team America: World Police made flesh.
Saturday 11 October, 9pm, Channel 4

The Black Phone

A solid creepfest … Brady Hepner and Mason Thames in The Black Phone. Photograph: Photo Credit: Fred Norris/Universal Pictures

A belated sequel is heading your way soon, but Scott Derrickson’s locked-room horror needs no follow-up. A series of child abductions in 1978 Denver has the kids on edge, and when Finney (Mason Thames) is taken by “the Grabber” (Ethan Hawke) and kept captive in a basement, he fears the worst. But the disconnected phone on the wall keeps ringing, with the spooky callers offering help, while the prescient dreams of his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) could save him too. A solid creepfest.
Saturday 11 October, 10.50pm, Film4

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

A remarkable turn … Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Photograph: TCD/Alamy

In the battle between God and Mammon, it’s a knockout win for Mammon in Michael Showalter’s wonderfully garish biopic of the disgraced televangelist and her criminal husband, Jim Bakker. “God does not want us to be poor,” declaims Andrew Garfield’s venal Jim early on, as he and Tammy Faye (a transformed Jessica Chastain) set about monetising the American public’s Christian beliefs. It’s a riot of bad interior design, bad makeup and bad faith, though Chastain manages, remarkably, to present Tammy Faye as a sympathetic figure, her liberal views riling her bigoted fellow TV preachers.
Tuesday 14 October, 1.15am, Film4

Black Bag

Deadpan cool … Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender in Black Bag. Photograph: Claudette Barius/Focus Features/AP

This week’s second offering from Steven Soderbergh is a spy mystery as tight as the polo necks Michael Fassbender’s British agent George wears. He is tasked by his boss with uncovering a traitor in their midst from five suspects – one of whom is his own wife, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). Both actors are masters of deadpan cool, so a delicious psychological game of truth or lie unfolds. Tom Burke, Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris and Marisa Abela join in the intelligent intelligence fun as the other potential moles.
Friday 17 October, 8.05am, 12.55pm, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere