Pick of the week
The Rip
A propulsive cop thriller whose selling point is Ben Affleck and Matt Damon starring together for the first time since 2023’s Air. They play best friends and officers in a Miami tactical narcotics team – one maverick, the other more sensible but jaded. At the end of a shift, they get a tip-off about drug cash in a stash house. But the operation is thrown off track by what they find there – and the suspicion that there’s a corrupt cop in their unit, which includes Teyana Taylor and Steven Yeun. Director Joe Carnahan keeps the plot bustling along, while the single location stokes up the tension.
Friday 16 January, Netflix
The Ballad of Wallis Island
A Britcom full of the excruciating puns and awkward situations that are the trademark of its writer and star, Tim Key, James Griffiths’ film is a Marmite proposition. But its cosy charms will win you over, just as folk singer Herb (co-writer Tom Basden) is won over by his time on the titular island owned by wealthy uberfan Charles (Key). Herb was once in a romantic and musical partnership with Carey Mulligan’s Nell, who unexpectedly turns up too as Charles gets the band back together for a private gig. But their reunion unearths Herb’s lingering pain, which vies with widower Charles’s loneliness for the drama’s biggest emotional impact. A heart-warming balancing act of funny and forlorn.
Friday 16 January, 10.25am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
The Gunfighter
Jimmy Ringo is the fastest gun in the American south-west of the 1880s. But with notoriety comes peril because – as Gregory Peck’s ageing sharpshooter has found – there’s a “squirt” in every town angling to challenge him. Henry King’s tense 1950 western is about how the weight of a legend can drag a man down – but weary Ringo hopes to avoid that when he rides into Cayenne seeking to revive his relationship with teacher Peggy (Helen Westcott) and their young son. However, like all good Greek tragedies, the more he tries to flee his fate the closer it gets.
Saturday 10 January, 2.50pm, Great! Action
***
Cool Hand Luke
There are definite Christ-like overtones to the titular chain-gang convict in Stuart Rosenberg’s gloriously sweat-soaked, dirt-engrained drama. An individual in a system that will not tolerate difference, Lucas Jackson (Paul Newman) is the charismatic newcomer who wins over his fellow inmates with an aptitude for taking a beating, trying to escape and eating boiled eggs (a scene that is worth watching the film for alone). Newman oozes star quality as we witness a prison myth in the act of being created.
Saturday 10 January, 5.50pm, Sky Cinema Greats
***
A Few Good Men
If you fancy paying tribute to the late Rob Reiner, you could do worse than his 1992 legal thriller. Aside from the sharp tacks and jibes of Aaron Sorkin’s script, there is the pleasure of watching Hollywood’s new and old guard in close combat. Tom Cruise plays a cocky young navy lawyer who teams up with Demi Moore’s fellow litigator to defend two Guantánamo Bay marines accused of murder. Unspoken military codes and delusions of honour impede their case, with Jack Nicholson’s imperious base commander the big beast they must defeat.
Saturday 10 January, 10.35pm, Channel 4
***
The Integrity of Joseph Chambers
Their previous collaboration, The Killing of Two Lovers, was suffused with barely suppressed menace. Director Robert Machoian and actor Clayne Crawford’s latest is equally unsettling, as Crawford’s inexperienced deer hunter heads into the woods solo for the first time – and bad things happen. Like a Raymond Carver story or the films of Kelly Reichardt, it’s a painfully perceptive tale of an ordinary man placed in an extraordinary position he just can’t handle, and a takedown of trite masculinity.
Sunday 11 January, 11.20pm, Film4
***
Lollipop
Ken Loach may be calling time on his career, but with the likes of Daisy-May Hudson on the scene, his brand of campaigning, working class-focused cinema will surely survive. Her debut fiction feature is a devastating tale of homelessness and its effect on a young mother released from prison and trying to regain custody of her children. Posy Sterling is electric as Molly, who finds herself in a bureaucratic catch-22 where she needs a home to get her kids back but can’t get a council house without them. An enraging drama with splashes of hope.
Friday 16 January, 11pm, BBC Two
