Pick of the week
Emily
The romances of the Brontë sisters have fallen out of fashion lately: Andrea Arnold’s rough-hewn Wuthering Heights and the Mia Wasikowska/Michael Fassbender Jane Eyre are the most recent adaptations, over a decade ago. But writer-director Frances O’Connor had the smart idea to make this biopic of Emily, the middle sister and author of Wuthering Heights, as if she and her siblings were characters in one of their own novels. It’s given weight by an excellent Emma Mackey, who handles the shift from wild-child to ardent adult with aplomb. O’Connor takes some liberties with history, but she’s crafted a character study that chimes beautifully with its literary inspirations.
Saturday 24 June, 10.05pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
The Last of the Mohicans
It came as something of a shock when master of the flashy urban thriller Michael Mann turned his attention to the prelapsarian era of colonial America for his 1992 adaptation of Last of the Mohicans. The result was, and still is, one of the most romantic and heart-wrenching action films ever. Who could have predicted that Daniel Day-Lewis would pull off playing James Fenimore Cooper’s Hawkeye as a super-sensitive hunk, able to win the day for winsome Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe), though of course not able to forestall the final tragedy.
Saturday 24 June, 3.55pm, Channel 5
***
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical
This isn’t actually part of Netflix’s impending “Roald Dahl Universe” (the result of its acquisition of the late author’s rights catalogue) but a good-natured film of the RSC musical adaptation helmed by the original show’s director Matthew Warchus. It’s pepped up by a very starry cast, led by Emma Thompson as the fearsome Miss Trunchbull and Lashana Lynch as the nice-as-pie Miss Honey, and the young lead Alisha Weir gives it her considerable all. At nearly two hours long, it’s a little on the long side, but there’s plenty of toe-tapping fun to be had.
Sunday 25 June, Netflix
***
The Road
The death of Cormac McCarthy this month marked a sad day for American letters, but it’s worth remembering what his works gave cinema, too. The Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men would be on anyone’s 10-best list, as would this spectacular dystopian thriller directed by The Proposition’s John Hillcoat. Viggo Mortensen plays the unnamed man struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic landscape along with his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee in an early role); they have to fend off one threat after another as they head for the coast. A bleak and unforgiving film.
Sunday 25 June, 1.35am, Great! Movies
***
Raiders of the Lost Ark
As Dial of Destiny, Harrison Ford’s last dance as he-man archaeologist Indiana Jones, rumbles into cinemas, now is a good time to roll back the years on the evergreen Spielberg/Lucas franchise that was specifically designed to summon up the spirit of the Saturday morning movie serials they saw as kids in the 50s and 60s. The first one, from the ancient days of 1981, is a cracking anti-Nazi romp that has thoroughly stood the test of time. Film4 are showing its three sequels over the rest of the week.
Sunday 25 June, 9pm, Film4
***
The Woman King
Viola Davis as the leader of a band of warrior women fighting off slavers? It’s an idea whose time has very much come. The Woman King is about the Agojie, the female unit of elite soldiers in what was then the kingdom of Dahomey in west Africa, ruled over by John Boyega’s King Ghezo. Davis plays their hard-as-nails general Nanisca, who heads up Dahomey’s efforts to see off rival empire the Oyo. This isn’t a particularly subtle film, sticking to the Braveheart playbook and hitting all the beats you’d expect, but director Gina Prince Bythewood socks it over to maximum effect.
Friday 30 June, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
Nimona
This started life as a web comic and graphic novel by ND Stevenson; after a long time in development, it now lands on Netflix. Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz) is a shapeshifting chaos-agent who latches on to disgraced knight Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) after apparently killing the queen of their future-society. Together they try to restore the latter’s reputation and his romantic relationship with fellow knight Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang). With LGBTQ+ themes to the fore, it’s a well-realised plea for tolerance in a brain-frazzling animated world.
Friday 30 June, Netflix
