Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Simon Wardell

Fair Play to Boiling Point: the seven best films to watch on TV this week

Calling it out … Alden Ehrenreich as Luke and Phoebe Dynevor as Emily in Fair Play.
Calling it out … Alden Ehrenreich as Luke and Phoebe Dynevor as Emily in Fair Play. Photograph: Sergej Radovic/Courtesy of Netflix

Pick of the week

Fair Play

A searing portrait of male entitlement, Chloe Domont’s drama starts out as a sweet workplace romance then shifts into increasingly traumatic territory. Phoebe Dynevor’s Emily is secretly in a relationship with Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), her less talented colleague at a high-pressure US financial firm. When she gets promoted to being his boss – a position he assumed was his for the taking – their bond begins to fray. The distance between them increases scene by scene, as Luke tries, and fails, to be more assertive at work while Emily struggles to prove she isn’t a token hire. Sexism and victim-shaming are dissected in an intense, thought-provoking film.
Friday 6 October, Netflix

***

Boiling Point

From left: Vinette Robinson as Carly and Stephen Graham as Andy in Boiling Point.
Point of combustion … Vinette Robinson as Carly and Stephen Graham as Andy in Boiling Point. Photograph: Vertigo Releasing

A day before its TV sequel premieres on BBC One, here’s a chance to see Philip Barantini’s 2021 feature. It’s a bravura one-shot drama, tense to the point of combustion, centring on restaurant head chef Andy (an exceptional Stephen Graham). His problems come to a head during one shift, with his deputy Carly (Vinette Robinson) barely holding things together as Andy’s mistakes – along with those made by other staff and customers – threaten disaster. Comparisons with The Bear are inevitable, but this British original really holds its own.
Saturday 30 September, 9pm, Film4

***

Local Hero

Peter Riegert and Christopher Rozycki in Local Hero.
Rural community … Peter Capaldi and Peter Riegert in Local Hero. Photograph: AJ Pics/Alamy

Bill Forsyth’s sweet-natured drama comes across as a homage to Powell and Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going, in which a slightly eccentric rural community befuddles then bewitches a metropolitan incomer. Here, the visitor is Peter Riegert’s Mac, a Texas oil firm minion sent to buy a Scottish coastal village for a prospective refinery. Forsyth tempers the romanticism – some of the villagers actually want to sell up – but it’s hard not to join Mac as he falls for the place, the slow pace of life and, more trickily, the hotel owner’s wife.
Sunday 1 October, 4pm, Film4

***

Ali & Ava

Adeel Akhtar as Ali and Claire Rushbrook as Ava in Ali & Ava.
Ebbs and flows … Adeel Akhtar as Ali and Claire Rushbrook as Ava in Ali & Ava. Photograph: Altitude

Clio Barnard’s understanding of the ebbs and flows of working-class life is given full rein in her exceptional, Bradford-set romantic drama. “Rough and ready” Ali (Adeel Akhtar) is a landlord, separated from but still living with his wife; Ava (Claire Rushbrook) is a selfless teaching assistant, widowed with four kids – one of whom, Callum (Shaun Thomas), has a new baby. Their tentative courtship plays out through music – he’s into hardcore dance; she likes a bit of country – and stolen moments in a strong community that transcends the sinkhole estate cliches.
Sunday 1 October, 10.30pm, BBC Two

***

The Bigamist

Edmond O’Brien and Joan Fontaine in The Bigamist.
Nuanced view … Edmond O’Brien and Joan Fontaine in The Bigamist. Photograph: Cinematic/Alamy

As basically the only female director working in Hollywood in the 1950s, Ida Lupino is to be treasured – and this is one of her most fascinating dramas. Edmond O’Brien plays the titular two-timing salesman, in a childless marriage to Joan Fontaine’s smart business type and drawn to Lupino’s more available waitress. With Fontaine’s character getting a gender flip (she neglects her spouse for work) and a nuanced view of his illegal actions, it’s a film that continually surprises.
Wednesday 4 October, 12.25pm, Talking Pictures TV

***

Alien

Xenomorph from Alien.
Slime in space … Xenomorph from Alien. Photograph: Allstar Picture Library/Alamy

Although its mystique has been comprehensively trashed by the many sequels and prequels, Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror is still one terrifically stylish, terrifically big “boo” in space. It helps that the futuristic visuals hold up, with the creature and extraterrestrial environments realised in impressively creepy, oozy fashion. And the uniformly superb cast – not least Sigourney Weaver in a star-making turn as “final girl” Ripley – make the crew’s warren-like spaceship feel lived-in and dull … at least until the rabid xenomorph picks them off one by one. SW
Wednesday 4 October, 10.40pm, BBC One

***

The Fugitive

Harrison Ford as Dr Richard Kimble in The Fugitive.
On the run … Harrison Ford as Dr Richard Kimble in The Fugitive. Photograph: Warner Bros/Sportsphoto/Allstar

One of Harrison Ford’s finest hours, this propulsive reworking of the 1960s TV series showcases his A-list ability to combine a believable character with a mostly preposterous plot. He plays Dr Richard Kimble, wrongly accused of his wife’s murder at home, who flees a prison van and goes on the run to search for the one-armed man responsible – in the process uncovering a wider conspiracy. Tommy Lee Jones won an Oscar as the US marshal on his tail and proves a steady anchor for the action swirling around him.
Friday 6 October, 10pm, Channel 5

• This article was amended on 2 October 2023. The image from Local Hero shows Peter Capaldi and Peter Riegert, not Peter Riegert and Christopher Rozycki as the earlier agency caption stated. Also, Riegert’s character falls for the hotel owner’s wife, not “Jenny Seagrove’s marine scientist”.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.