Pick of the week
Heretic
Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) and Chloe East (The Fabelmans) play a pair of unworldly Mormon missionaries who arrive at the door of an avuncular Englishman hoping to make a new convert. That Englishman, however, is played by Hugh Grant – once a foppish romcom idol, now deep into his villain era – and what at first seems like a playful willingness to debate religion turns into something much more terrifying. With a script by A Quiet Place co-writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods to work with (the two also co-direct), Grant commands the screen with glee. It’s a career-best performance, with enough dark miracles to fully restore your faith in A24’s waning horror output.
Saturday 1 August, 9.35pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
Love Me
Millennia have passed since humanity’s extinction, and on Earth’s half-frozen ocean a smart-tech-enabled buoy (Kristen Stewart) floats alone, emitting a “waiting to connect” signal. One day this is answered by a passing satellite (Steven Yeun), and together the devices search the internet, hoping to derive an understanding of life and love from this oddly incomplete record. First-time film-makers Sam and Andy Zuchero combine animation and live action into awe-inspiring visuals – and there’s comedy too, in Stewart and Yeun’s portrayal of the YouTube influencer couple the devices choose for avatars.
Saturday 1 August, 10.25am, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
Singin’ in the Rain
If you’re one of the many devotees of Damien Chazelle’s 2016 Oscar-winner La La Land – or maybe just in need of a cheer-up – be sure to check out this foundational 1952 Hollywood musical. Gene Kelly’s genius is on full display as Don Lockwood, a star of the silent era who is attempting to ride out the transition to sound cinema with his integrity intact. There are also glorious supporting turns from Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds, while the defiant exuberance of that title song shines through every scene, and every rain cloud.
Sunday 2 August, 8pm, Sky Cinema Greats
***
Stand By Me
“I never had any friends later like the ones I had when I was 12.” With that closing line, this 1986 adaptation of a Stephen King novella cemented its status as the ultimate coming-of-age movie. Its 1950s-set story concerns four boys (including an iconic performance from the late River Phoenix) who set out on a macabre journey to find the body of a missing classmate. Stand By Me was always a classic, but subsequent events – including the tragic death of much beloved director Rob Reiner – have invested rewatches with added poignancy.
Tuesday 4 August, 3am, Sky Cinema Greats
***
All That Heaven Allows
The lush melodramas of Douglas Sirk have influenced film-makers all over the world, including John Waters, Wong Kar-Wai, Pedro Almodovár and Todd Haynes, whose 2002 film Far from Heaven, starring Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert, is a direct descendent of this 1955 film. Jane Wyman plays Cary, a middle-aged widow whose suburban life is disrupted for ever when she falls for hunky, younger gardener Ron (Rock Hudson). It still enthrals with emotion as intensely vivid as its colour palette.
Thursday 6 August, 4.50pm, Film4
***
The Last House
The population has been confined indoors because of a little-understood external threat, meaning parents must homeschool their children, supplies are rationed and communication with neighbours can happen only at a distance … sound familiar? The Last House comes on like a Covid lockdown flashback but it’s actually an intriguing sci-fi horror, with a plot reminiscent of 2007 film The Mist. It benefits greatly from the presence of charming leads Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent) and Greta Lee (Past Lives), as a couple forced to extremes for their family’s survival.
Friday 7 August, Netflix
***
Hoard
If a film-watching experience can be described as “fetid”, then Hoard is that – but in a good way. Writer-director Luna Carmoon was only 26 when she made her debut feature, announcing herself as a thrillingly distinctive talent in British cinema. Saura Lightfoot Leon stars as Maria, a young, care-experienced woman whose loving but unstable childhood is revealed in the detritus of her chaotic present. Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake) plays Maria’s bin-diving, hoarder mother and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) is her foster brother turned love interest.
Friday 7 August, 11.05pm, BBC Two
