A Trifecta of Today’s Best Films on the Box
If you want a literally and figuratively dramatic illustration of how good today’s top pick is, tune in for a few seconds to its predecessor, a film so weak it cast Ashton “Demi Moore” Kuchner in the lead! (Jobs, 1.20pm CnCl). If BC on TV could be sure of English subtitles, the best drama ever made with child actors would certainly have been chosen (Conducta, 10pm Cine Latino).
Today’s Number One Film:
Steve Jobs, BEST FILM OF THE DAY 12 midday Cinemax Ch 540. Watch this if you liked Locke, The Big Short or The Social Network. The only great mystery about Steve Jobs is how Michael Fassbender could be denied the Best Lead Actor Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe, particularly in a year when Johnny Depp was NOT nominated for Black Mass – and Matt Firetrucking Damon was, for The Martian! Fassbender, easily the best white male actor since Sean Penn, is nothing short of superb. Watch this film repeatedly and his performance only gets better – every look away, every twitch of a lip, is imbued with deep meaning. Amazing stuff. Kate Winslett deservedly won the Best Supporting Actress BAFTA and Golden Globe for her role as the real life Jobs’ right hand man/conscience. This is spellbinding cinema from one of the world’s greatest living directors and ought not to be missed, even by the kind of Microsoft diehards who actually bought a Zune. If someone classified this film as a thriller, BC on TV would make no objection. Directed by Danny Boyle/ 2015/ USA/ Bio-Drama/ 122 mins/ Rated R for language.
Also watch:
Paddington, 11.35am Max Up Ch 541. Watch this if you liked Babe, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, or The Adventures of Milo and Otis. There are kiddie movies – such as Finding Nemo, Up and The Incredibles – that are so good, grownups might like them; and there are other “kiddie” films that are really grown up films kids can also enjoy, like the Shrek and Toy Story films. Paddington may be the best of the latter lot so far made, at least for West Indians who have left home: with frequent soundtrack appearances by a live calypso band (featuring lead vocals by Tobago Crusoe) singing kaisos by Lord Kitchener – London is the Place for Me, most aptly – Paddington is a comedy about a stuffed toy bear that is also a director-acknowledged allegorical indictment of English post-colonial immigration practice. It is also a first-rate action film in the vein of Indiana Jones and, often, a top-notch tip of the hat to Charlie Chaplin’s slapstick. This is a film that does what cinema ought to: transport the viewer to a flawless, credible and enthralling other world from which he or she emerges with great reluctance but even more greatly lifted spirits. Borrow a child to watch it, if you have to, just make sure you see it. Directed by Paul King/2014/ UK-France/ Family-Comedy-Adventure-Animated/ 95 mins/ PG for mild action and rude humour.
Jarhead, 2pm Fox Action Ch 561. Watch this if you liked Full Metal Jacket, Hacksaw Ridge or The Hurt Locker. From at least one point of view, this may be the best anti-war picture ever made: as Jarhead’s own sequences reveal, even a film as defiantly anti-war as Apocalypse Now! can be co-opted and used to pump up young men for battle. Jarhead simply presents war for what it is: long periods of boredom interrupted by bursts of savage brutality. Though the pacing goes a little slack occasionally, Jarhead deserves its place in the already staggeringly-impressive filmography of Sam Mendes. Indeed, some might call it his best. Jarhead is like The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket combined. Just by the most completely realised cinematic vision of Hell – the white horse in the burning oilfields – Jarhead redeems itself entirely. Miss it only if you’re deaf, dumb, blind & broke. Directed by Sam Mendes/ 2005/ USA/ War/ 123 mins/ Rated R for pervasive language, some violent imaes & strong sexual content.
JUST NOSED OUT:
**The Lobster (Drama-Fantasy-Thriller), 6pm Max; **Room, 10am Max; Back to the Future (Adventure-Family-Sci-fi-Thriller), 10.35am FoxFam & 9pm Stun; Analyze That (Comedy), 10.53am HBOP;; **The Brothers Grimsby (Stoner Comedy), 7.35pm MaxU; Spotlight (Drama-History), 6.40pm HBOS; Shallow Hal (Farrelly Bros Comedy), 11.10am CnCl.
BEST Pay Per View BET: Doctor Strange, Ch 402.
ALSO RAN:
Action/Adventure: **Mad Max: Fury Road, 5.55pm MaxP & 10pm Max
Art House/Independent: Ashby, 9.30am FoxCom; Greenberg (Drama), 8.15am HBOC
Biography: The Other Boleyn Girl (Drama-History), 3.30pm Sund; American Sniper, 5.15pm HBOP
Children/Family: Footloose (Young Adult-Drama-Music), 8.15am FoxClas
Classic: Cinderella Man (Drama), 7.15pm TCM
Comedy: Duplex, 2.20pm FoxCom
Drama: **Moon (Indy-Drama-Sci-fi), 5.40pm ISat
Foreign: Son of Saul (Hungarian Holocaust), 4.10pm Max
Horror: I Know What You Did Last Summer, 1.40pm HBOP; Deliver Us from Evil, 12 midday HBOC
Sci-fi-Fantasy: T2: Judgement Day, 8.52am Spac
Thriller: The Reluctant Fundamentalist, 9.15pm Prmt
War: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, 7.15pm FoxMov
Western: Rough Night in Jericho (Dean Martin), 9pm FoxClas
*Starred films have been chosen in the last year. ** Double-starred films have been chosen in the last two months. Particularly strong Also Ran choices are bolded.
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