Pick of the week
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare
The hit podcast – about a woman subjected to an extraordinary 10-year catfishing campaign – has been turned into a compelling documentary by Lyttanya Shannon. It adds layers of visual deception – photos, messages – to the tale of Kirat Assi, a marketing worker and radio presenter who struck up a friendship on Facebook with a cardiologist, Bobby, which remained online but developed into love. However, Bobby wasn’t who he seemed – and what is revealed is an astonishingly sustained exercise in manipulation by a secret perpetrator.
Out now, Netflix
The Beasts
A tragic drama of pastoral dreams and dark hearts, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s film tracks a dispute between neighbouring farmers that escalates out of control. Farming couple Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs) have moved from France to a pretty but poor area of Galicia in Spain to grow vegetables. But his refusal to sell his land for a wind turbine project sets him against most of the village – in particular lifelong resident Xan (Luis Zahera), a domineering figure and, it appears, relentlessly vengeful. A devastating turn of events leads to an intensely moving third act, in a story where certitude, defiance and obstinacy warp the lives of all the characters.
Saturday 19 October, 10pm, BBC Four
***
Drive-Away Dolls
This is essentially another Coen brothers film, despite only one of them being present. Ethan, with his wife Tricia Cooke as co-writer, offers up a breezy lesbian road trip caper that retains the siblings’ usual quirky humour, violent deaths and eccentric characters. The devil-may-care Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and her buttoned-up friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) sign up to deliver a car to Florida from Philadelphia – but there is a mysterious suitcase in the boot that others are desperate to get their hands on …
Saturday 19 October, 10am, 10pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
A Field in England
Kill List director Ben Wheatley’s return to British folk horror is set during the confusion and flux of the English civil war, where the breakdown of order leaves space for all manner of weirdness to flourish. Reece Shearsmith plays astrologer’s assistant Whitehead, in pursuit of O’Neill (Michael Smiley) who has stolen his master’s occult books. The titular field is the site of a hunt for “a treasure”, which brings together a ragtag bunch of cavaliers and many hallucinogenic mushrooms. Part Waiting for Godot, part Aphex Twin video, it’s a beautifully deadpan nightmare.
Saturday 19 October, 1.50am, Film4
***
Fremont
Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) is a young Afghan immigrant to the US who used to be a translator in Kabul but now works in a small factory in San Francisco making fortune cookies. Babak Jalali’s empathic black-and-white drama follows her monochrome existence – possibly with residual PTSD – including interactions with Gregg Turkington’s psychiatrist and other helpful souls, as she edges towards resuming a normal life. Featuring a lovely cameo from Jeremy Allen White, it’s gentle but sweet.
Tuesday 22 October, 10.55pm, Film4
***
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Benjamin Ree’s documentary is a riposte to the idea that the internet is a corruptor of young minds. Mats Steen was a Norwegian with muscular dystrophy who died at 25. His parents mourned a life never lived, but didn’t realise that the long hours Mats spent playing World of Warcraft led to many deep (albeit remote) friendships – and gave him a freedom of expression not possible in person. Using archived dialogue and actual WoW imagery, animators have recreated his secret virtual history. It’s far from slick but feels utterly genuine as Mats’s online community tell his immensely poignant story.
Friday 25 October, Netflix
***
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
It’s not a diary and there’s not much road to be seen, but Thom Zimny’s film about the Boss’s 2023-24 tour (his first with the band since 2017) is a valuable souvenir of a group of musical pals who have been together, on and off, for 50 years. Occasional voiceovers from Springsteen are interspersed with the E Street guys reminiscing about the early days, while many of the 25+ songs in the setlist are given useful context, though rarely played in full. Most meaningful for Bruce diehards, perhaps, but his canonic status is clear.
Friday 25 October, Disney+
