Pick of the week
The Iron Claw
Sean Durkin’s A24 wrestling biopic was initially touted as an Oscar contender and, while that didn’t come to pass, it’s nevertheless a tremendous piece of film-making. Telling the story of the Von Erich family, a clutch of athletic young men struggling to escape their overbearing father, it’s tragic and heartrending and – if you’re the right age – unbearably nostalgic. Better yet, it’s rammed with top-notch performances. The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, as Kerry Von Erich, proves he has a long future outside the show, and Zac Efron is nothing short of a total revelation as his brother Kevin. Honestly, where has he been hiding all these years?
Friday 12 July, Prime Video
***
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Following 2021’s forgettable Coming 2 America, it’s safe to say that Eddie Murphy is now firmly in his revisitation period. It was only a matter of time before he made a Beverly Hills Cop sequel, and now debut director Mark Molloy has made it happen. Old favourites such as Judge Reinhold, John Ashton and Paul Reiser return, joined by new faces like Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Taylour Paige. The real draw, of course, is getting to see Murphy back as the restless, wisecracking Axel Foley. Can he summon the old energy again?
Out now, Netflix
***
Eileen
At first glance, this psychological period thriller comes off as something of a Carol knock-off, with lots of sultry, smoky mid-century gazes between leads Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway. But that’s only half the story, as the film plunges into its own special morass of obsession and violence. Half the fun is having the rug pulled out beneath you by a certain twist. It would be churlish to spoil it, but it’s well worth the price of entry for that alone. A pleasingly tense and darkly sexy way to spend a couple of hours.
Saturday 6 July, 2.25pm; 10pm, Sky Cinema
***
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions
Escape Room, 2019’s surprise hit, had a premise so good you wondered why nobody had thought of it before – “Saw, but with more attractive people and fewer liquidised pig intestines” – so a sequel was inevitable. The result is this highly goofy horror movie that takes place in, you guessed it, an escape room. In this instalment, two of the people in the escape room last time decide to track down the sicko who created it. But with the sort of bad luck only a film this knowingly stupid can produce, they end up in … yet another escape room. Whoops!
10pm, Monday 8 July, BBC Three
***
Tickled
A documentary about competitive endurance tickling sounds like the sort of thing that would permanently sully your Netflix algorithm. But please don’t let that put you off David Farrier’s film, because it’s more of a conspiracy thriller than a weird sex thing. Farrier attempts to get to the bottom of the tickling videos he has seen online. He encounters bullying, mysterious producers who repeatedly warn him to stop making his film, and things only get darker and weirder from there.
Wednesday 10 July, Netflix
***
Gravity
Eleven years ago, Gravity was an absolute sensation – a true commercial juggernaut that netted itself a whopping seven Oscars – but it has probably been years since the last time you heard anyone talk about it. This might be because it was a true theatrical spectacle, using cutting-edge technology to produce an immersive experience that made you feel like you were trapped in the vacuum of space with Sandra Bullock, that loses some of its impact on a small screen. But if ever a film were worth rediscovering, it’s this. Beautifully realised and legitimately scary, this is a film worth dragging back into the conversation.
10.50pm, Tuesday 9 July, BBC One
***
A Quiet Place Part II
With A Quiet Place: Day One now in cinemas, this is the perfect time to go back and watch its immediate predecessor. You’ll remember the first film, in which Emily Blunt and John Krasinski played a rural couple terrorised by murderous aliens that pounced on anything that made the slightest noise. The 2021 sequel deepens the mythology, smartly choosing to make the young actor Millicent Simmonds, as Blunt and Krasinski’s daughter Regan, the de facto lead. While not as powerful as the first film, there are still plenty of gripping moments.
9pm, Thursday 11 July, Film4
