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| Frances McDormand as Fern in Chloé Zhao's Nomadland |
Nomadland, 6.50pm, Film4, Monday, February 24
Chloé Zhao became only the second woman to lift the Best Director Oscar for her consideration of the new generation of US nomads who, hit by financial constraints, call campervans their home as they move from place to place, picking up work and friendship along the way. Zhao's film has an almost zen sense of calm about it even as we watch Frances McDormand's Fern struggling with both grief and the challenges of her new life. Featuring non-professionals, the film moves at an unhurried pace celebrating those small moments of connection, with nature and with other people, that those involved here would no doubt argue, are far more valuable than possessions. Read what Zhao told us about the music in the film.
Everything Everywhere All At Once, 9pm, Film4, Tuesday, February 25
This multiverse-hopping slice of fun sees Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert blend humour and action with a tale of familial love. The unlikely set-up centres on a launderette owner (Michelle Yeoh) who, while grappling with filing her taxes, is unexpectedly enlisted into a world-saving mission by a man who looks like, but is not, her husband (Ke Huy Quan). It’s a challenge that needs to be done in a lot more than triplicate. While craftily using the idea of parallel universes to further the plot, the Daniels also have a hell of a lot of fun - which is nothing if not infectious. While it might be slightly flattered by its seven-Oscar haul, it is a solid slice of inventive popcorn entertainment with lovely central performances from Yeoh and Quan.
The Eyes Of Tammy Faye, 11.45pm, Film4, Tuesday, February 25
Jessica Chastain takes centrestage in this biopic, which was a long-time passion project for the star and is based on the cult documentary of the same name. She plays televangelist Tammy Faye, who rose to fame with her husband Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield), after the pair met at bible college. Michael Showalter directs with a deliberately kitsch air that emphasises the fakeness which shrouded the pair's ascent, as they gathered pots of cash from their true believers along the way. Tammy was a natural performer and the film zeroes in on this suggesting that even she might not have truly known where make-believe ended and reality began. That she was also part of a fiction that she may well have been unaware of gives the film a melancholic note. While the biopic structure is a bit inflexible, Chastain's performance is a knock-out.
Cold Skin, 10.45pm, Legend Xtra (Freeview Channel 69), Thursday, February 27
Jennie Kermode writes: An adaptation of the novel by Albert Sánchez Piñol, Xavier Gens' chilling reflection on conflict and colonialism also owes much to the work of HP Lovecraft, with obvious comparisons to The Shadow Over Innsmouth, but it stands as a towering piece of cinema in its own right. It follows a man (David Oakes) who has fled from the world on the eve of war to take up a post as a weather station operator on a remote island. After his shelter is attacked in the night by something clearly not human, he seeks shelter with the tyrannical lighthouse keeper who is his only human neighbour and who does battle every night with the humanoid creatures that emerge from the surrounding seas, all the while keeping one of their number as his lover and abusing her to the point where the newcomer's sympathies begin to shift. In the tradition of the Gothic, it explores a dangerously fragile masculinity often defined through misogyny, yet also raises questions about our society's changing relationship with nature and, simultaneously, with the imaginary, all wrapped up in an immersive experience which is at times truly terrifying.
Star Trek: First Contact, 3am, Five, Friday, February 28
While the moniker of ‘best bad guys’ in the Star Trek universe is always up for debate, the Borg have surely got to be up there. Their society works on a single high-concept principle of the assimilation of every other life form that they encounter. Resistance, as they say, is futile. This film which focuses on their attempts to stop humans making first contact with aliens - with, of course, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) standing in their way - is also pretty hard to resist. While director Jonathan Frakes makes short work of the action pieces, it’s the surprisingly transgressive psychological tension that really pays off as the Borg infiltrate the Enterprise, zeroing in on attempts to tempt Data (Brent Spiner) with the pleasures of the flesh.
Deerskin , 2.25am, Film4, Sunday, March 2
Quentin Dupieux never takes things too seriously, so I like to imagine him having a chuckle to himself when he heard that his most recent film The Second Act was selected to open the Cannes Film Festival last year. Here's a chance to catch up with one of his previous films that screened at the festival - and which offers a darkly comic and playful take on the serial killer genre. Taking its nod from the likes of Hans Christian Andersen’s red shoes, his film centres on a deerskin jacket, which its new owner Georges (Jean Dujardin) believes has “killer style”. That description comes increasingly literal as Georges attempts to reinvent himself after the demise of his marriage, pretending to be a filmmaker. As the bodies start to pile up Dupieux digs into Georges’ obsession while also leaving plenty of question marks over the motives of barmaid Denise (Adele Haenel), who is helping him and it's all handled with Dupieux's trademark playfulness.
Big, 4pm, Great Movies (Freeview Channel 34), Sunday, March 2
Films about children who want to be adults are ten a penny but Penny Marshall’s stands out largely because of Tom Hanks charming turn as the adult form of Josh - a kid who simply wants to be “big” so that he can get on a fairground ride. One fortune-telling booth wish later and Josh finds himself jostling with a host of adult concerns, including boardroom meetings and complex relationships while also facing the fact his mum doesn’t recognise him. There’s a lot of fun and laughter but Josh’s vulnerability to the adult world shears off a lot of the sentiment and while still giving the action a beating heart. The pleasures of some films never grow old - and this is one of them.
This week’s short film is Aneil Karia’s Work. He has since stepped up to features and is currently working on an adaptation of Hamlet starring Riz Ahmed and written by Michael Lesslie, who previously wrote Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth.
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