Pick of the week
Fast X
Burning rubber as if it’s going out of fashion, the Toretto clan – “like a cult with cars” according to one of their enemies – are back for a 10th instalment of exhilarating action. A man for whom whiplash is a myth, thief turned freelance secret operative Dom (Vin Diesel) sees his automobile association come under threat from a new villain, the vengeful, one-step-ahead Dante (a gleefully flamboyant Jason Momoa). The first in a two-part story discovers new ways to make cars fly, touching down in Rome, Rio and London as Dom finds a berth for yet another new pal (Brie Larson’s rogue agent Tess) and reunites with a bewildering family tree of friends and foes.
Friday 5 January, 12.25pm, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Possibly the greatest cinematic exploration of unrequited love, Max Ophüls’s 1948 romance has Joan Fontaine’s schoolgirl Lisa falling in love with her neighbour Stefan (Louis Jourdan), a suave concert pianist in late 19th-century Vienna. Infatuated but tongue-tied, she can’t tell him the truth – and as their paths cross over the years, life and lies get in the way of the deep connection for which she yearns. Fontaine is exceptional, sliding from naive to lovesick to self-sacrificing while a soundtrack of the city’s waltzes swirls emotionally around her. SW
New Year’s Day, 8.50am, BBC Two
***
Paper Moon
Peter Bogdanovich’s road movie from 1973 is often held to be the late Ryan O’Neal’s best film. It certainly plays to his strengths – charm, openness and comic timing. His Depression-era conman Moses turns up at an ex-lover’s funeral in Kansas, only to be saddled with her nine-year-old child, Addie (Ryan’s real-life daughter Tatum O’Neal), on his drive to Missouri. But she turns out to be a natural grifter and Moses’s heart softens towards her. Funny and touching, with just the right amount of 30s nostalgia. SW
Tuesday 2 January, 9.45am, Sky Cinema Greats
***
Society of the Snow
The true story of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed high in the Andes in 1972 gets a dramatic but unsensationalised treatment from JA Bayona. The 16 survivors were forced to eat their dead fellow passengers, but here the cannibalism is merely one of many life-or-death struggles they face, from freezing temperatures to avalanches to attempts to seek help. Seen largely through the eyes of law student Numa (Enzo Vogrincic Roldán), it’s a gripping story of physical endurance, moral uncertainty and sheer bloody-mindedness. SW
Thursday 4 January, Netflix
***
The 39 Steps
Along with The Lady Vanishes (showing immediately before), this 1935 espionage thriller is the highlight of Alfred Hitchcock’s British era. Robert Donat is Richard Hannay, forced on the run from London to the Scottish Highlands after a spy dies in his flat, and who involves Madeleine Carroll’s unwitting train passenger in his attempt to find out why. Pursued by police and shady killers, Donat and Carroll make a fun, sexy double act, bickering away while often handcuffed together. SW
Thursday 4 January, 2.20pm, BBC Two
***
Jour de Fête
Jacques Tati’s 1949 debut feature was made before he had solidified his onscreen persona as Monsieur Hulot, so has a work-in-progress feel. Despite that, there is a familiar gangly, accident-prone quality to his character here, postman François, whose attempts to deliver the mail are stymied by the fair his village is staging. A film being shown about American postal efficiency fires him up, but his neighbours keep plying him with booze. Cue some of the best drunk cycling you’ll ever see, in a comedy that gives the rural way of life an affectionate ribbing. SW
Thursday 4 January, 6.20pm, Talking Pictures TV
***
Foe
In a near-future of climate disaster, young couple Hen (Saoirse Ronan) and Junior (Paul Mescal) are visited at their farm by Aaron Pierre’s official Terrance. Junior has been selected to work on a space station, so Hen will be given a “human substitute” – an organic AI copy of himself. Terrance comes to stay to get the data needed, anatomising their marriage and making Hen question her life. There are big twists, Black Mirror-style, in the intimate drama but the ever convincing Ronan and Mescal deliver bruising performances. SW
Friday 5 January, Prime Video
