Pick of the week
Turning Red
Pixar is masterful at introducing unusual subjects into its family animations. This fun, perceptive film from Domee Shi, who made the touching short Bao, takes female puberty as its theme. Meilin, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl living in Toronto, is a booksmart, dutiful daughter until hit by a family curse – passed down the female line – that turns her into a giant red panda when she is overexcited. With her musical idols, boyband 4*Town (songs by Billie Eilish and Finneas), coming to town, opportunities for emotional turmoil are rife. Chinese art-inspired visuals mix with pop culture in a heartwarming comedy that fizzes with life, teenage and otherwise.
Out now, Disney+
***
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s unashamed love letter to the American film and television industry is a tour de force of pinpoint pastiche and counterfactual drama. It’s 1969, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s actor Rick Dalton is negotiating a declining career alongside stuntman best pal Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt, never more laid-back). They live next to Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and Roman Polanski, so the Manson “family” cast a shadow, but for the most part it’s a nostalgic ride saturated in the pop culture of the time. Even LA’s neon signs get their moment to shine.
Saturday 12 March, 9pm, Channel 4
***
Pain and Glory
Showing in a double bill with his 2020 Tilda Swinton-starring short The Human Voice, Pedro Almodóvar’s 2019 drama is his most autobiographical yet. A surprisingly subdued Antonio Banderas stars as Salvador, a feted, ageing director beset by ailments that have curtailed his career and stunted his pleasure in life. When he starts taking heroin to alleviate his aches, memories of his childhood and mother (Penélope Cruz) flood back – at the same time as figures from his past reappear – revealing a richly creative existence that should be far from over.
Saturday 12 March, 9pm, BBC Four
***
The Limehouse Golem
London, 1880. A bloody serial killer is rampant, and out-of-favour Scotland Yard detective John Kildare (a maudlin Bill Nighy) is given the poisoned chalice of trying to close an impossible case. Adapted from Peter Ackroyd’s novel, Juan Carlos Medina’s crime mystery roams thrillingly through the underbelly of Victorian life, from the sordid backstreets to the music hall stage. It’s there that Olivia Cooke’s hard-up but ambitious Lizzie finds a mentor in the great performer Dan Leno (Douglas Booth) but gets drawn into Kildare’s investigation.
Saturday 12 March, 11.05pm, BBC One
***
Ali
With Will Smith a frontrunner again for an Oscar with tennis tale King Richard, here’s a chance to see another of his nominated performances. In Michael Mann’s bold, sweeping 2001 biopic he brings natural charm and wit to the role of Muhammad Ali – from 1964 when the boxer was still Cassius Clay to his comeback in the intensely dramatic Rumble in the Jungle fight in 1974. With such a larger-than-life character, the film struggles at times to glean insight but it’s a victory on points.
Sunday 13 March, 10pm, BBC Two
***
Audrey
It is easy to forget the impact the actor Audrey Hepburn made in the mid-1950s. With her open face, ballerina’s poise and Givenchy-styled look, she epitomised a thoroughly modern female lifestyle. The camera loved her and this insightful documentary from Helena Coan makes the most of it, while audio interviews reveal her insecurity about her public image and private relationships. After her semi-retirement at the end of the 60s, her work with Unicef in the late 80s brought her back into the public eye. The film implies her charity endeavours gave her life a purpose the movies rarely did.
Wednesday 16 March, 9pm, Sky Arts
***
Master
Midway between Get Out and Netflix series The Chair, Mariama Diallo’s ambitious film uses a ghost story template to interrogate the racial realities of academia for female African American students and teachers alike. Regina Hall plays Gail, the first Black house-master at a New England college, while Zoe Renee is Jasmine, a new pupil placed in a room possibly haunted by a girl who killed herself. A slowly escalating creepiness envelops both their lives – but is the peril they feel the result of childish pranks, supernatural forces or engrained bigotry?
Friday 18 March, Amazon Prime Video
