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Pick of the week
A Complete Unknown
James Mangold directed the excellent Johnny Cash drama Walk the Line, and his latest music biopic – which tracks the groundbreaking early phase of Bob Dylan’s career – has the same rewarding fidelity to time and place. It also features a lead performance that is so much more than an impersonation: Timothée Chalamet is perfectly cast as the single-minded young folk singer, who arrives in New York in 1961 to follow in the footsteps of his hero Woody Guthrie. Dylan wows lovable banjo star Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) with his songs and political stance, but his selfish attitude alienates Monica Barbaro’s equally talented Joan Baez … and most of the folk establishment.
Wednesday 30 April, Disney+
Havoc
Cry havoc and let slip Tom Hardy! In Gareth Evans’s shamelessly violent crime thriller, Hardy’s dirty cop Walker is caught between his own corrupt colleagues, led by Timothy Olyphant’s Vincent, dodgy politician Beaumont (Forest Whitaker) and a Triad gang whose queenpin (Yeo Yann Yann) is out for revenge after her son is shot dead. There are shades of Batman’s Gotham in the dark, dirty city streets Walker speeds down to save Beaumont’s implicated boy. But Evans is more interested in the exhilarating fight scenes, where one bullet could do the job but 20 are way better.
Out now, Netflix
High & Low: John Galliano
Starting with footage of the British fashion designer’s career-ending antisemitic outburst in a Paris bar in 2010, Kevin Macdonald’s fascinating documentary never shies away from the contradictions at the heart of its colourful subject. Proclaimed a “genius” by journalists and his industry peers, John Galliano rose rapidly from Saint Martins student to ruling the haute couture roost at Dior. But “fashion’s wild boy” was also an alcoholic and prescription drug abuser with an intense workload, leading to egotism, excess and a criminal conviction.
Sunday 27 April, Netflix
Anatomy of a Fall
Can a court of law get to the truth of a relationship? That’s the problem facing writer Sandra (a compelling Sandra Hüller) when she goes on trial for the murder of her husband, Samuel (Samuel Theis), after he falls to his death from the attic of their house. Justine Triet’s knotty drama is as much a dissection of a marriage and gender expectations as it is of a potential crime. Audio recordings, sexual history, the plots of Sandra’s novels, even the evidence of their partially sighted son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner) – everything is open to interpretation.
Tuesday 29 April, Netflix
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Wish You Were Here
Part of a David Leland double bill with The Big Man, the writer’s effervescent 1987 directorial debut centres on a terrifically ebullient turn from Emily Lloyd. Her 16-year-old Lynda is a rebellious character in her dull seaside town in the early 1950s, to the recurring horror of her father (Geoffrey Hutchings). In an era when female independence is just not allowed – and there are predatory older man such as Tom Bell’s projectionist Eric around – Lynda’s future is uncertain, but you can be sure she’ll do it her way.
Tuesday 29 April, 1.40am, Film4
Another Simple Favour
Seven years after the first Favour, Paul Feig has resurrected its two antagonistic moms for another zippy, quippy comic mystery. Anna Kendrick is back as amateur sleuth turned true-crime writer Stephanie, while Blake Lively’s murderous Emily – inexplicably released from jail – is about to get married to an Italian mobster on the sunny island of Capri. Seemingly taking its cues from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the film is a smorgasbord of twists and turns in picture postcard settings, with Lively’s amoral schemer in designer threads again getting the best lines.
Thursday 1 May, Prime Video
Other People’s Children
The always top-drawer Virginie Efira gives a performance of aching vulnerability in Rebecca Zlotowski’s drama. She stars as Rachel, a single teacher for whom time is running out to have a child. Then she falls for divorcee Ali (Roschdy Zem), who has a four-year-old daughter Leila (Callie Ferreira-Goncalves). An affectionate relationship develops with the girl but Rachel is painfully aware that she will always be “an extra”. The tantalising taste of parental love when the real mother is still around gives this wonderful film a bittersweet pull.
Thursday, 1.25am, Film4
