Pick of the week
BlackBerry
For those with fond memories of TV drama Halt and Catch Fire, set during the birth of the personal computer industry, Matt Johnson’s fact-inspired comedy-drama about the rise and fall of the BlackBerry mobile phone will inspire a familiar thrill. There’s the brilliant but naive nerd (Jay Baruchel’s Mike Lazaridis) with one great idea (a cellphone that is also a pager and an email machine!); the aggressive, savvy businessman (Glenn Howerton’s perma-furious Jim Balsillie) who pushes the laid-back tech-heads to success; and the relentless drive for profit that eats up and spits out Mike’s small, collegiate operation. A smart, funny cautionary tale.
Friday 19 April, noon, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
The Kid
Charlie Chaplin’s tendency towards sentimentality has often been a critical stick with which to beat him. This, his first feature-length comedy, may not change many minds on that score, but the emoting does come in small doses – and it’s also a prime example of how terrifically funny Chaplin could be. His Tramp finds himself taking care of an abandoned young boy (a wonderfully natural Jackie Coogan), and the pair get into a series of scraps and scrapes as they try to survive on the streets – echoes there of Chaplin’s own poverty-stricken childhood.
Saturday 13 April, 1pm, Sky Arts
***
Free Solo
A stupendous, vertiginous profile of climber Alex Honnold, following him as he attempts the first ascent of a route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in California without the aid of ropes or other protective equipment. It is an endeavour that requires long, meticulous planning, because any mistake could be fatal. It’s also a fraught process for the directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who face the prospect of shooting the likable, reserved Honnold’s death. Yosemite’s stunning natural beauty contrasts with sweaty danger to nerve-jangling effect.
Sunday 14 April, 10pm, BBC Two
***
Real
Kyle (Aki Omoshaybi) and Jamie (Pippa Bennett-Warner) meet cute in a newsagent’s shop in Portsmouth, but their tentative, rather chaste romance faces several obstacles. Omoshaybi, also the writer-director, gives the evasive Kyle a criminal record and murky family past, and makes single mother Jamie a recovering alcoholic; both are struggling to find permanent jobs. With such precarious existences, the film asks, is there any room for love? The couple’s troubles are handled delicately, and have enough universality to hold our focus.
Monday 15 April, 11.25pm, Film4
***
Dirty God
Silver Haze director Sacha Polak and actor Vicky Knight’s first collaboration was this moving 2019 film. Knight plays single mother Jade, who has extensive scarring following an acid attack by an ex-boyfriend. She tries to resume a normal life with her young daughter, mum Lisa (Katherine Kelly) and best friend Shami (Rebecca Stone) but struggles to adjust to her new physical reality, leading her down some dark paths. A drama of brutal candour in which newcomer Knight gives her all.
Tuesday 16 April, 11.15pm, BBC Two
***
River
A sci-fi comedy with a delightfully Japanese tinge, Junta Yamaguchi’s film traps the staff and guests of a wintry mountain inn in a two-minute time loop – though they remember everything. Waitress Mikoto (Riko Fujitani), professional politeness to the fore, takes it in her stride, trying to keep the customers satisfied. But other reactions vary from giddy relief (an author with writer’s block) to fury (a man stuck naked in a bath), as order breaks down and impulse takes over. It’s fast-paced fun, but there is space left to ponder whether pausing your life briefly is a restorative or mere avoidance of reality.
Thursday 18 April, 11.25pm, Film4
***
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver
Zack Snyder’s space opera, which mashes up tropes from Star Wars and Seven Samurai, returns to wrap things up (possibly). Sofia Boutella’s Kora brings back the ragtag group of warriors she sourced in the first instalment to the farming settlement imperiled by imperial forces. It’s ploughshares into swords for the outnumbered moonfolk and their handlers – a fine supporting cast including the likes of Bae Doona and Djimon Hounsou – with a resurrected Ed Skrein bringing the sneering evil as Kora’s principal military foe, Atticus Noble.
Friday 19 April, Netflix
