Pick of the week
Spellbound
A very solid first release for former Pixar head honcho John Lasseter’s new animation outfit Skydance, this new CGI fairytale saddles teenage princess Ellian (voiced by Rachel Zegler) with reversing the curse that turned her royal parents into cute monsters (read: giant house pets, voiced by Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman, both having enormous fun). The animation is stunning, with Maurice Sendak-style critter designs and intricate detail aplenty. And the songs – such as the samba extravaganza about adventurous eating – are actually memorable. Rooted in a quest narrative that occasionally dips into a group therapy session, it builds into a surprisingly moving parable about adult responsibility.
Out now, Netflix
***
Monkey Man
Dev Patel always seemed like such a nice boy – but his directorial debut, produced by Jordan Peele, informs us that he had an ultraviolent, Charles Bronson-style avenger inside him all along. He plays the titular protagonist, a rural commoner inspired by monkey god Hanuman to bust heads all the way to the top of the evil crime syndicate who trashed his village and killed his mum. In the shadow of John Wick as much as Hindu mythology, Patel displays impressive martial-arts skills and kinetic, if sometimes OTT, camerawork.
Friday 29 November, 10.05pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
Event Horizon
Directed by the other Paul (WS) Anderson, this sci-fi horror blow-out was a flop on release in 1997, but has deservedly acquired cult status since. Cleaving to the Aliens voyage-into-the-unknown template, Laurence Fishburne leads his crew on a mission to Neptune to salvage a vessel with an experimental warp drive that has ripped a hole in the fabric of reality. Channelling Hellraiser’s Pinhead, you’ve never seen cuddly Sam Neill on such unsettling form as the technological genius becoming one with his creation. It gets a little schlocky, but always retains a disturbing bite.
Saturday 23 November, 1.40am, Film4
***
The Most Dangerous Game
Namechecked in one of the Zodiac killer’s letters, this treat from 1932 is a surprisingly lurid blueprint for the survival-horror films that followed down the decades. Joel McCrea’s big-game hunter becomes the prey after being shipwrecked on a remote island belonging to Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks). Filmed on the same sets as King Kong and also featuring that film’s Fay Wray, it is pacy, haunting and scored through with a perverse excitement. The likes of Running Man and Hunger Games all dine at its table.
Sunday 24 November, 1.30am, Talking Pictures TV
***
Widow Clicquot
This biopic of champagne pioneer Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot owes a debt to Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth: after her husband dies, the beleaguered vigneron (Haley Bennett) must defend her kingdom from her father-in-law, the Moët family next door, and general forces of the patriarchy. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, its ravishing sweep is spurred along by Sam Riley as the devil-may-care vintner who becomes her new beau. There aren’t many wine-making biopics, let alone feminist ones, so this is a welcome addition.
Tuesday 26 November, 12.45pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
***
Manhunter
Five years before The Silence of the Lambs, Michael Mann’s third film was the first on-screen outing for serial killer Hannibal Lecktor – compared with Anthony Hopkins, a restrained performance from Brian Cox. Instead, all the prima donna attitude emanates from William Petersen’s FBI investigator, fretting about staring into the abyss as he chases down the Red Dragon psychopath with Lecktor’s help. Mann lords it up too in entrancing 80s style: the sequence when Tom Noonan gets a blind girl to pet a sedated tiger is a showstopper.
Wednesday 27 November, midnight, BBC One
***
Iron Monkey
Future Matrix and Crouching Tiger choreographer Yuen Woo-ping was on a hot directorial streak in the earlier 90s, with the likes of Tai Chi Master and Wing Chun. But he kicked off the run with this 1993 caper starring Donnie Yen as real-life folk hero Wong Kei-ying. He teams up with a mysterious, masked, Robin Hood-esque wealth redistributor to stick it to a pair of bully-boy governors. With the finest Hong Kong wirework known to humanity, this slice of pure enjoyment has all the nimble, rooftop-prancing, skylight-crashing chops of a true action genius.
Thursday 28 November, 6am, Sky Cinema Greats
