Pick of the week
Wicked Little Letters
When a series of anonymous poison pen letters are sent to prim coastal town resident Edith (Olivia Colman), suspicion immediately falls on her neighbour Rose (Jessie Buckley), an Irish single mother with a boisterous, proto-feminist attitude. There is something inherently hilarious about Colman swearing, and Thea Sharrock’s fact-based 1920s comedy ladles on the creative insults as the writer’s vitriol widens to take in the whole community. Hidden behind the curtain-twitching scandal is a cautionary tale about how the victims of bullying and repression can find distorted outlets for their rage, but watching Colman and Buckley go at it is almost enough in itself.
Out now, Netflix
***
Jericho Ridge
It is high time the excellent Nikki Amuka-Bird got more lead roles, so Will Gilbey’s real-time thriller is very welcome. There are shades of Rio Bravo – and, with the police angle, Assault on Precinct 13 – as Amuka-Bird’s deputy sheriff finds herself trapped in her station when unknown armed assailants attack. Her only company is surly teenage son Monty (Zack Morris) and jailed domestic abuser Earl (Michael Socha). But what are they after? Some of the plot setups are a bit obvious, but it’s well directed and tightly wound.
Sunday 28 July, 2.50pm, 10pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
Unbreakable
How do you follow a blockbuster like The Sixth Sense? If you’re M Night Shyamalan, you write another spooky tale and get Bruce Willis back to star. In the first of what would become a superhero trilogy, Willis plays unhappily married security guard David, who realises he can never be hurt after being the sole survivor of a train crash. He is tracked down by Samuel L Jackson’s comic book aficionado Elijah, who prophesies David’s destiny is to be a crime-fighter. A film whose graphic novel stylings are balanced by an origin story with everyman vibes.
Sunday 28 July, 9pm, Great! Movies
***
The Shining
In possible tribute to the late Shelley Duvall – though her recollections of the shoot suggested it wasn’t one of her favourites – the BBC is showing Stanley Kubrick’s seminal horror. Duvall certainly earns the title “scream queen” as the wife of Jack Nicholson’s increasingly unhinged caretaker. They and their psychic young son hunker down in an out-of-season hotel for the winter, only to experience a stay that would break Tripadvisor. A beautiful-looking film, precision-tooled to be as scary as possible and endlessly rewatchable.
Sunday 28 July, 10pm, BBC Two
***
Summertime
With the city authorities planning a charge for day tourists, in future years films such as David Lean’s 1955 romance may be the only way to enjoy the wonders of Venice. And Lean conjures up a glorious picture-postcard view, one that seduces Katharine Hepburn’s lone, lonely American tourist more effectively than Rossano Brazzi’s smooth local does. There is a bittersweet edge to their affair, with the redoubtable Hepburn superb as a middle-aged woman expanding her horizons.
Monday 29 July, 4.05pm, Talking Pictures TV
***
Mo’ Better Blues
A cool digestif after his hot’n’spicy previous film Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee’s tale of Brooklyn trumpeter Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) is as much a celebration of Black jazz as a drama about a man for whom music is his first, and only, love. Bleek juggles two women – teacher Indigo (Joie Lee) and singer Clarke (Cynda Williams) – while facing a powerplay in his quintet from Wesley Snipes’s ambitious saxophonist Shadow. But it’s the sounds that are central, penned by Lee’s dad Bill and played by the Branford Marsalis Quartet and Terence Blanchard.
Wednesday 31 July, 4.25am, Sky Cinema Greats
***
Cries and Whispers
There’s something emotionally palate-cleansing in the brutal honesty and stillness of an Ingmar Bergman film. His 1972 chamber piece about three sisters, one of whom is dying a slow, painful death, is a case in point. In a childhood home decorated in an oppressive blood red, Karin and Maria (Bergman regulars Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann) await the demise of Harriet Andersson’s Agnes, as harsh truths about their lives – repressed or expressed – are revealed. It’s going to be a bumpy ride …
Thursday 1 August, 1.15pm, Sky Cinema Greats
