Pick of the week
Triangle of Sadness
Swedish film-maker Ruben Östlund has seemingly made it his life’s work to satirise the bourgeoisie – from the nuclear family in meltdown in Force Majeure to the pretentious art-world crowd of The Square. In this out-there comedy, he takes aim at the fashion industry via two models, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean). Vain, petty and insecure, the couple go on an Insta-worthy trip on a luxury yacht alongside a group of super-rich types. But they find themselves all at sea – in more ways than one – after a disastrous storm flips the power dynamic between the guests and the put-upon staff. Come for the extended vomiting scene, stay for the class war.
Saturday 27 April, Netflix
***
The Lesson
“Good writers borrow … The great writers steal.” These words from celebrated novelist JM Sinclair (Richard E Grant, fun to watch as ever) resonate through Alice Troughton’s sly mystery. Daryl McCormack’s would-be author Liam moves into his literary hero’s home to tutor his teenage son, under the eye of Sinclair’s wife Hèléne (a gnomic Julie Delpy). Schemes and secrets swirl around Liam, alongside debates on creativity and originality. The question of whose narrative will prevail keeps the tale simmering nicely.
Saturday 27 April, 9.20am, 4pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
The Bourne Identity
Less is more in Doug Liman’s 2002 masterpiece. Taking the Mission: Impossible thriller template and stripping out all the high-tech, stunt-heavy action scenes unexpectedly makes the film more exciting. And casting Matt Damon as amnesiac spy-on-the-run Jason Bourne gives the main character an everyman vibe that serves the story well. More likely to have a scrap in a kitchen than wreck a runaway train, the resourceful Bourne is a hero Le Carré may have recognised – and set a new benchmark for modern espionage heroes.
Wednesday 1 May, 6pm, Sky Cinema Greats
***
The Idea of You
In this slick romantic drama from The Big Sick director Michael Showalter, the always effervescent Anne Hathaway plays LA art gallery owner and divorcee Solène. When she takes her teenage daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin) to Coachella she has a meet-cute with English boyband star Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine). Despite the 16-year age gap they fall in love, but the level of his fame – and the social media fallout – causes difficulties for their relationship. With big Notting Hill vibes (minus the comedy), the film aims skilfully for the swooning heart of its target audience.
Thursday 2 May, Prime Video
***
The History Boys
In 2006, Alan Bennett’s Tony-laden play was turned into a terrific film by Nicholas Hytner (an interview between the two follows this screening). Suffused with Bennett’s brand of ambivalent nostalgia, it follows eight sixth-form students at a Sheffield grammar school (played by the likes of Dominic Cooper, James Corden and Russell Tovey) as they are tutored for the entrance exams for Oxbridge, with teacher Hector (a moving Richard Griffiths) the prime mover in trying to expand their teenage minds.
Thursday 2 May, 10pm, BBC Four
***
Saint Maud
Rose Glass’s second film, sapphic thriller Love Lies Bleeding, hits cinemas this week so here’s her debut feature to prep you for that. It’s an astonishing psychological horror about a palliative care nurse – and extremely devout Catholic – Maud (an extraordinary performance from a pre-Tolkein Morfydd Clark), who vows to save the soul of her client, terminally ill choreographer Amanda (Jennifer Ehle). But are her episodes of overwhelming religious ecstasy divine revelation or signs of a disintegrating mental state? Glass tantalises us throughout in a disturbing, gripping drama.
Friday 3 May, 10.50pm, Film4
***
Trading Places
It’s “hereditary v environment” in John Landis’s 1983 comedy – but capitalism turns out to be the real winner. Commodity broker brothers Randolph (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer (Don Ameche) have a wager about what would happen if Eddie Murphy’s poor beggar Billy Ray swapped lives with entitled rich employee Louis (Dan Aykroyd). The sexual and racial politics are definitely “of its time” (pity Jamie Lee Curtis as sex worker Ophelia, who helps Louis), but Murphy’s comic skills are used to good effect as you cheer his plot to financially ruin the bigoted old men.
Friday 3 May, 1.25am, Channel 4
