Pick of the Week
The Gray Man
After the gritty naturalism of the Tom Holland-starring Cherry, Marvel mainstays Anthony and Joe Russo return to the kind of glossy, stunt-laden action that put them on the A-list. The stoically deadpan Ryan Gosling plays CIA black ops agent Six, targeted by assassins after discovering a secret about his bosses. Following the Russos from Endgame to spy game is Chris Evans, sporting a most ridiculous tache as Six’s gleeful nemesis Lloyd. The film may ape the Bond films in casting (Ana de Armas from No Time to Die co-stars) and travel brochure set-pieces, but there’s currently a gap in the market for roguish spies – and the film does leave the possibility of a sequel open. Out now, Netflix
***
Revolutionary Road
Titanic duo Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reunited for the first time in Sam Mendes’s 2008 film, but this knotty drama couldn’t be further from the swooning romance of Jack and Rose. Based on Richard Yates’s 1961 novel and set in 50s America, it follows young married couple Frank and April as they struggle to negotiate the “hopeless emptiness” of suburban, middle-class life. It’s an uncomfortable but gripping watch as their dreams flounder behind their enviable domestic facade. Monday 25 July, 11.15pm, BBC Two
***
Only You
A meet-cute in a New Year’s Eve Glasgow taxi rapidly leads to a fine romance for 35-year-old Elena (Laia Costa) and Josh O’Connor’s Jake, who’s 26. But this involving film is more interested in what comes after, when having a baby puts a huge strain on their nascent relationship. Elena’s frustrated desire to be a mother and worries about the couple’s age gap engulf her and alienate Jake. It’s a messily human drama, superbly performed in what is essentially a two-hander, while the handheld, close-up camerawork gives events a restless energy. Thursday 28 July, 11.10pm, BBC One
***
Promising Young Woman
A bleak commentary on male behaviour lurks beneath the colourful wrapping of Emerald Fennell’s black comedy. Carey Mulligan shifts deftly between apathetic and antagonistic as coffee shop worker Cassie, who spends her free time carrying out stings on men who take advantage of drunk women. Then an encounter revives horrific memories of med school and the chance for revenge. It’s a dark film with sharp satirical edges, but also a flicker of light in the shape of Bo Burnham’s love interest Ryan. Saturday 23 July, 3.50am, Sky Cinema Greats
***
Emma
Jane Austen’s well-meaning but blithely domineering heroine seems as much of a rite of passage for actors as Hamlet. Anya Taylor-Joy is the latest to try her hand in Autumn de Wilde’s pretty-as-a-picture adaptation. Highlighting Emma’s prim, class-bound character – the ubiquitous if silent presence of servants and the use of folk songs broaden the story’s social focus – Taylor-Joy makes the meddling matchmaker’s journey to humility all the more affecting. Amid a great supporting cast, Bill Nighy and Miranda Hart handle the film’s comic side effortlessly. Sunday 24 July, 8pm, BBC One
***
The American Friend
German director Wim Wenders brought his fascination with the US, and US cinema, to this stylish 1977 version of Patricia Highsmith’s noir novel Ripley’s Game – though with a European arthouse mood. Bruno Ganz plays terminally ill Hamburg picture framer Jonathan, lured into becoming an assassin by mysterious art forger Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper). Their transatlantic friendship becomes the film’s focal point, more so than the country-hopping twists of the sometimes bewildering plot. Sunday 24 July, 1.20am, Film4
***
Shaolin Soccer
Hong Kong film-maker and actor Stephen Chow first came to global attention with this gloriously silly martial arts comedy. Keen to promote shaolin kung fu, down-on-his-luck Sing – AKA Mighty Steel Leg – along with coach “Golden Leg” Fung, uses its particular disciplines to create a football team of superhumans. He joins his fellow practitioners, including Iron Head, Light Weight and keeper Lightning Hands, as they take on Evil Team (subtlety isn’t on Chow’s radar) in a tournament of high-wire stunts and slapstick pratfalls. Friday 29 July, 6am, 3.25am, Sky Cinema Cult Classics
