Spider-Man: No Way Home
In the third standalone film of Tom Holland’s iteration, we get not one, not two, but three Peter Parkers, as Spidey gets tangled up in Marvel’s new multiverse story arc. With his real identity exposed, Peter hopes a spell from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) will sort out the negative impact it is having on girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best mate Ned (Jacob Batalon). But when supervillains from other universes start appearing, he attempts to fix them too. Guest spots from ex-Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield add comedy and pathos to the action, while director Jon Watts retains the youthful, homespun feel that distinguishes this superhero from his fellow Avengers.
Friday 15 July, 10.05am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
Nashville
The confluence of music and politics makes for wry satirical drama in Robert Altman’s 1975 movie, as a host of vivid characters – all looking out for their own interests – converge on the home of country music. An independent presidential candidate’s rally draws in the likes of Ronee Blakley’s mentally fragile country star, obsessed fan Scott Glenn, scatty British journalist Geraldine Chaplin and womanising musician Keith Carradine in a film that isn’t exactly a state-of-the-nation metaphor, but gives a flavour of the zeitgeist.
Saturday 9 July, 5.20pm, Sky Cinema Greats
***
Oliver Twist
David Lean followed his Great Expectations with another fine, unsentimental Dickens adaptation in 1948. In a wonderfully realised London of dangerous shadows and grimy brickwork, orphan Oliver (John Howard Davies) falls in with criminals Fagin (Alec Guinness) and Sikes (Robert Newton). Shot from a child’s eye view, it is packed with peril and wit – and features one of the great pieces of dog acting from Sikes’s terrier Bullseye. If you fancy the same story on a lighter note, Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! is on Sky Cinema Greats on Tuesday.
Sunday 10 July, 2.40pm, Talking Pictures TV
***
North By Northwest
Saul Bass titles, Bernard Herrmann soundtrack, Cary Grant, a blond femme fatale (Eva Marie Saint in this case) – all the elements for a classic Alfred Hitchcock film are in place here. And it’s a cracking thriller, with Grant’s New York advertising executive mistaken for a US agent by James Mason’s foreign spy, before using his wits and charm to evade the police and baddies in a cross-country pursuit. From a crop-dusting plane attack to the Mount Rushmore climax, Hitchcock keeps the viewer and Grant constantly – and entertainingly – on the run.
Sunday 10 July, 12.55am, TCM Movies
***
A Knight’s Tale
Brian Helgeland’s comic medieval adventure from 2001 is a terrific slice of entertainment, with Heath Ledger coming into his own as a lead actor. Ledger plays William, a squire who learns to joust and, masquerading as a knight, becomes a sporting hero – while catching the eye of the noble Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon). Paul Bettany co-stars as Geoffrey “Geoff” Chaucer in a film that nods towards the poet’s work while glorying in its anachronisms – a formal dance set to David Bowie’s Golden Years is a highlight.
Monday 11 July, 6.20pm, Film4
***
Florence Foster Jenkins
“Music is my life,” opines New York social grandee Florence (Meryl Streep) in Stephen Frears’s touching, fact-based comedy-drama. Which is why, despite being tone deaf, she decides to make a record and perform a public concert. Streep is, typically, spot on as the eccentric, indulged philanthropist – even in the off-key singing – but it’s Hugh Grant as her husband, St Clair, who elicits the most pathos. Subsuming his own desires and ambitions to Florence’s, St Clair’s devotion to his wife and dedication to her schemes makes for a love story played with effortless nuance by Grant.
Thursday 14 July, 11.35pm, BBC Four
***
Don’t Make Me Go
Terminal illness bringing together family members isn’t a massively original concept, but Hannah Marks’s drama delivers nice tweaks to the formula – and in John Cho and Mia Isaac has leads who wholly convince. When he is diagnosed with a bone tumour in his head that may kill him, Californian single father Max (Cho) decides to take 15-year-old daughter Wally (Isaac) on a road trip to his school reunion in New Orleans – and secretly introduce her to the mother who abandoned her as a baby. Teenage and parental issues overlap in a warm-hearted tale.
Friday 15 July, Amazon Prime Video
