Pick of the week
How to Have Sex
The fraught territory of sex and consent among young people gets a working over in Molly Manning Walker’s bruising, disquieting debut feature. Mia McKenna-Bruce stars as the achingly vulnerable 16-year-old Tara who, along with best mates Skye (Lara Peake) and Em (Enva Lewis), goes on holiday to Malia in Crete. It’s party central for the teenage trio in a cycle of drink, dance, eat chips, sleep and repeat. But teaming up with older hotel neighbours Paddy and Badger (Ladhood’s Samuel Bottomley and Shaun Thomas) – and Tara’s uncertainty about losing her virginity amid the “anything goes” atmosphere at the resort – lead to jealousy, peer pressure and worse.
Thursday, 9pm, Film4
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
Fifteen years after the band split, film-maker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) is back to document the build-up to their reunion concert in New Orleans. It’s an elegiac outing for Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer’s trio – more grizzled, slightly wiser, less inadvertently comic – as they rehearse and bicker between starry cameos from the likes of Paul McCartney and Elton John. There are pleasing callbacks to the first film’s big laughs – cursed drummers, Stonehenge – plus a fair bit of rather accomplished rock.
Saturday, 8am, 4.10pm, 10.25pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
From Here to Eternity
Fred Zinnemann’s Oscar-laden drama, based on James Jones’s semi-autobiographical novel, is set on an army base in Hawaii in 1941. But it’s not about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; that’s relegated to a postscript to the tale of two intense romances on the outer edge of respectability. Montgomery Clift’s new arrival is bullied after refusing to box for his company, but finds respite with Donna Reed’s club hostess. Meanwhile, Burt Lancaster’s sergeant starts an affair with the captain’s wife (Deborah Kerr).
Saturday, 4.35pm, Talking Pictures TV
Black Box
This 2021 French film is a gripping throwback to the great US paranoia thrillers of the 70s, in particular Coppola’s The Conversation. Pierre Niney plays obsessive air-crash investigator Mathieu, whose expertise is in analysing the cockpit voice recorder, AKA the black box. When a plane goes down in the Alps, killing all on board, Mathieu is called on to provide an explanation. But can he trust what he hears on the recording? And why has his boss suddenly gone missing? Mathieu plunges down a rabbit hole of conspiracy where the truth may or may not be on the tape.
Saturday, midnight, BBC Two
Here We Are
A valuable addition to the film canon exploring the experience of autism, Nir Bergman’s drama focuses on divorcee Aharon (Shai Avivi), who is the sole carer for his son Uri (Noam Imber). The now grownup child is due to move into a specialist hostel, but the father can’t bear to lose his boy and Uri is afraid of being abandoned by his dad. So they go on the run. But is Aharon doing this for Uri’s sake or his own? A coming-of-age story with a difference, it’s an illuminating, often amusing heart-tugger.
Sunday, 11.50pm, BBC Two
Batman
With this 1989 comic crime thriller, Tim Burton rescued Batman from his camp TV ghetto – not least through the left-field casting of Michael Keaton as the dark knight. Getting Jack Nicholson to play the Joker was definitely more on the nose: he is clearly having a blast as the giggling, purple-clad psychopath. Other good decisions include a revamped Batmobile plus a soundtrack by Danny Elfman and that other fan of purple, Prince. The arguably superior sequel, Batman Returns, with Danny DeVito as the Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, follows at 8pm.
Tuesday, 5.50pm, Sky Cinema Greats
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
After 52 episodes and two films, if you haven’t fallen for the Upstairs Downstairs goings-on of the landed Crawley family, then this third and last movie is probably not for you. For the rest, the main scandal to get the aristocrats’ sensibilities all a-quiver is the divorce of Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), which in 1930 prohibits her from being presented to a prince and awarding prizes at the county fair. There’s also some distressing money talk involving Cora’s brother (Paul Giamatti), plus a guest appearance by Noël Coward. Spiffing.
Friday, 7.55am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
