Pick of the week
Pauline Black: A 2-Tone Story
As the mixed-race lead singer of two-tone band the Selecter, Pauline Black was a pivotal figure in a genre that, however briefly, melded white punk and Black reggae sensibilities into a vibrant, politically engaged musical whole. In this revealing documentary, created with director Jane Mingay, she tells her own story, and also a sobering parallel history of 20th-century British race relations. Adopted by a white Essex couple as a baby, Black grew up surrounded by racism. She left to study in Coventry, the birthplace of two-tone, and became “the first rudegirl” with her androgynous look and confident stage presence. But the tale also takes in career failures and identity crises. Simon Wardell
Wednesday 16 April, 9pm, Sky Arts
***
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
In the wrong hands, this Thai film about relatives vying for an inheritance could have become a crass caper. But Pat Boonnitipat shuns the pratfalls for a sensitive drama about the meaning of family. Young layabout M (Putthipong Assaratanakul) decides that being the live-in carer for his terminally ill grandmother, Mengju (Usha Seamkhum) is the best route to a mention in her will. But while he fends off potential competitors in his two uncles, he finds himself actually caring about her – while the clear-eyed Mengju understands much more than she lets on. SW
Saturday 12 April, Netflix
***
Smile 2
Parker Finn’s terrific sequel to his own hit horror brings back the first movie’s implacable curse – which you can only get rid of by killing someone in front of a traumatised witness. But there’s a lot more going on here than random people with malevolent grins followed by gruesome deaths. It’s also an effective cautionary tale about the costs of fame, as pop star Skye Riley (a convincingly addled Naomi Scott) struggles with addiction and the pressures of a big tour – though the nightmarish doom-laden hallucinations don’t help. SW
Tuesday 15 April, Paramount+; 9pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
The Vourdalak
Powdered, bewigged medieval French marquis Jacques (Kacey Mottet Klein) seeks assistance at a remote house somewhere in eastern Europe after being assailed by bandits. Sadly, the family patriarch, Gorcha, has just turned into a Nosferatu-adjacent zombie killer. But engrained filial duty renders the children – including Ariane Labed’s melancholic Sdenka – incapable of stopping their father’s bloodlust. Adrien Beau’s gothic fable is low-budget but creepy and – with Gorcha realised as a life-size skeletal puppet – occasionally intentionally silly. SW
Wednesday 16 April, midnight, Film4
***
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
“They’re here already! You’re next!” It seems like a classic reds-under-the-bed allegory, but Don Siegel’s seminal 1956 sci-fi chiller could also be viewed as the obverse: a warning about the conformity imposed on the US by McCarthyism. Whatever side you’re on, it’s a terrifically paranoiac experience. Doctor Miles (Kevin McCarthy) starts seeing people who claim friends and family are being replaced by imposters with no humanity. But it’s not delusion, it’s an extraterrestrial plot … SW
Thursday 17 April, 9pm, Sky Arts
***
Twisters
There’s still a lot of love in this quarter for Jan de Bont’s 1996 film Twister, but it was inevitable that advancements in effects would lead to a big-budget reboot. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, the action-stuffed thriller stars Daisy Edgar-Jones in the Helen Hunt role as meteorologist Kate, back in the tornado-hunting game in Arkansas after a death caused her to quit. Glen Powell is a mix of Cary Elwes and Bill Paxton as storm-chasing YouTuber Tyler, whose publicity-seeking antics hide a kindred spirit to Kate as they try to understand and survive the mighty wind. SW
Friday18 April, 11.50am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
Fall
If you’ve got vertigo look away now, because Scott Mann’s thriller would give a trapeze artist sweaty palms. Grace Caroline Currey plays Becky, who gave up rock climbing a year ago after her husband fell to his death. But risk-taking best mate Hunter (Virginia Gardner) persuades her to team up again and scale a decommissioned 2,000ft TV tower in the middle of nowhere. Naturally, rusty bolts give way, the ladder collapses and the friends are stranded on a tiny platform at the top with no phone signal. A what-if story whose restricted setting only ramps up the tension. SW
Friday 18 April, 10.30pm, BBC One
