Your night in: Every movie on TV tonight rated and slated
You like monsters, right? And robots? What about mega robots battling mega monsters? Then boy is your movie viewing for tonight settled.
Leigh Paatsch
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THE DROP (MA15+)
****
8.30PM VICELAND
If we are to learn anything from this magnificently miserable crime drama, it is that there is no honour among thieves. But there are rules. Stick to them, and you just might stick around to see another day.
The title refers to a traditional obligation asked of the bars and clubs in a grotty corner of Brooklyn. Each booze joint must take their turn of holding illicit cash when asked by local crooks.
However, one proprietor, Marv (James Gandolfini in his screen swansong), has tired of the arrangement and schemes to get a cut of the action. His kindly bar manager Bob (Tom Hardy) knows trouble is afoot, but elects to look the other way for the time being. This thunderously downbeat tale is the work of novelist Dennis Lehane.
As we already know from Clint Eastwood’s superb adaptation of Lehane’s Mystic River, the author has an eye and an ear for the things desperate men will do and say under pressure.
PACIFIC RIM (M)
***
8.30PM CH. 9
Pssst! You like monsters, right? We’re talking mega-monsters that don’t mess about none. Godzilla-ish beasts from an alternate dimension that can crunch entire continents for fun, and will munch on all mankind for short-term sustenance. What about robots? You dig on them, too? Wait until you get a load of the ‘bots of Pacific Rim. They are all-terrain automatons the size of skyscrapers, and are weaponised with all the latest death-rays and stuff. One last question. Are you into monsters fighting with robots? Well, Pacific Rim isn’t shy about laying on an all-you-eat buffet of creature-versus-machine smack-downs. Get set to gorge yourself. Or go get a ticket to something else. Unwieldy, uniformly bamboozling and utterly unique, this epic futuristic action blockbuster is the work of visionary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth). Story and cast isn’t much, but doesn’t have to be in this particular case.
THE BEST OFFER (M)
***
7.30pm WORLD MOVIES
You heard the one about the obsessive-compulsive old auctioneer and the beautiful young agoraphobic? Didn’t think so. While it does read as the set-up for a joke, this Italian-made, English-language drama takes itself very seriously indeed. Perhaps too much so, but never at the expense of an intrigued audience. Geoffrey Rush is in fine form here as the toffy art dealer Virgil, a cultured control freak who drops his guard when he falls for the mysteriously mercurial shut-in Claire (Sylvia Hoeks). The film is not without its share of flaws - the intentionally stilted dialogue will get on some folks’ nerves - but does just enough to deliver upon expectations. Co-stars Jim Sturgess, Donald Sutherland.
SWISS ARMY MAN (M)
***1/2
9.55pm WORLD MOVIES
A man about to end it all meets a man for whom it is already over. There will be friendship. And there will be farts. A lot of farts. What simply has to stand as the weirdest movie of the past decade might also be one of its most original, deep and meaningless. Paul Dano (Love and Mercy) plays Hank, a suicidal gent whose wretched life takes a turn for the better when he makes the acquaintance of besuited businessman Manny (Daniel Radcliffe). The pair are stranded on what appears to be a deserted island, but appearances can be very deceptive at the best of times here. One thing that is not in dispute is that Manny is dead. A corpse, if you want to be specific. A corpse that expels gas powerfully, and prolifically, if you want to be absolutely accurate. Just how the filmmakers extracted a fully functional movie from such a broken premise is just one of several minor miracles performed here.
MOVIES TO STREAM OR RENT
SIDE EFFECTS
****
NETFLIX
Intoxicating thriller that plays both highly intelligent and highly implausible. After a nervous breakdown, Emily (Rooney Mara) is prescribed a wonder drug which seems a quick fix for all her problems. As we come to learn, the antidepressant does a hell of a lot more than what it says on the label. As usual, director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) is smart enough to never let such a tall story get the better of so many short, sharp thrills.
ATOMIC BLONDE (MA15+)
***1/2
rent via GOOGLE, ITUNES, YOUTUBE MOVIES
Throughout this style-conscious, substance-free action pic, Charlize Theron brilliantly blurs the line that separates alluring from alarming. It is 1989, and with the Berlin Wall about to crumble, British super-spy Lorraine Broughton (Theron) must retrieve a list that will save the lives of many double agents active during the Cold War.
While the finer points of this tale are impossible to follow, Theron deploys a cool combo of bewitching beauty, bone-breaking brawn and belittling eye contact that is impossible to resist.
FIRST REFORMED (MA15+)
****1/2
NETFLIX; OR rent via GOOGLE, ITUNES, YOUTUBE MOVIES
Movies as intelligent, challenging and almost flawlessly realised as this astonishing contemporary drama are mighty thin on the ground these days.
Therefore I do recommend that anyone scouring the streaming platforms for top-shelf fare should track down First Reformed as soon as possible. The movie draws an incredible amount of raw power from two sources.
The first is a career-best performance from Ethan Hawke as Ernst Toller, a small-town priest and former Army chaplain experiencing a crisis of faith that will either be the making or the breaking of him. Since losing his son in a terrorist ambush in Iraq, Toller has lost his way as a spiritual mentor to his dwindling church community.
The arrival of a troubled young man who is an extreme environmental activist gives Toller a chance to snap out of his existential funk. Matching Hawke’s faultless display is the word-perfect writing and direction of veteran filmmaker Paul Schrader, mining the same rich vein of form that spawned his screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.
Originally published as Your night in: Every movie on TV tonight rated and slated
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