Noel Curry (@DJBogTrotter) continues this regular feature. He’s done the TV guide trawling for you and picked out some of the filmic highlights available via free to access digital channels
Film of the Week
Boogie Nights. Wednesday 2nd May, 11pm & Friday 4th May, 11.15pm, ITV4
With just his second film, PT Anderson established himself as a major new voice in American film (check out his debut, “Hard Eight” if you get the chance, it’s a little gem of a movie). Unlikely as it seems, this journey through the seventies porn scene in L.A. is, initially anyway, bright, breezy and uplifting. It follows the adventures of Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) who, when discovered by director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), is transformed into porn star Dirk Diggler. Wahlberg displays an easy charm that he had previously been kept well hidden (and has continued to be so for that matter). Reynolds resurrected his career with his assured turn as director Horner. And a supporting cast that included Julianne Moore, Heather Graham, John C Reilly, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman, Philip Seymour Hoffman and the ever-reliable William H Macy combine to give the broad canvas of this story real depth. But it’s Anderson’s confident handling of this multi-layered story and his assured judgement of tone, as the story lurches from the rosy celluloid seventies into the grimy drug-fuelled videotape of the eighties, that is its real strength. His ability to juggle such a large cast is reminiscent of Altman at his best and Anderson is unafraid to boldly show his other influences, as he reveals with the final scene with a hilarious homage/send up of the final scene from Martin Scorcese’s Raging Bull.
Guilty Pleasure
Speed, Tuesday 1st May, 9pm, 5USA
A film that should have been subtitled “How To Live In The Now”. These characters have very little in the way of back story and don’t do much in the way of thinking, just a lot of doing. And who better to act without thinking than Keanu Reeves? He plays the all-action cop Jack Traven who is partnered with the more thoughtful Jeff Daniels. Together they are in pursuit of mad bomber Dennis Hopper who has placed a device on a bus that, if it travels less than 50mph, will blow up. This notion perfectly mirrors the film itself, which, if you ever slow down enough to think about it, will blow up in your face. Thankfully, in the hands of director Jan De Bont (who earnt his stripes as cinematographer on Die Hard) there’s very little chance of us having enough time to catch our breath, never mind actually reflect on what’s going on. The action is relentless, the chemistry between Keanu Reeves and love interest Sandra Bullock is charming and sparky and, dare I say it (major spoiler alert warning!) there is even the odd moment of pure emotionally charged cinema as with Jeff Daniel’s death scene. A film that recast the mould for action films for the latter half of the nineties.
The Classic
The Ladykillers, Thursday 3rd May, 1.20pm Channel 4,
Has robbery, murder and general villainy ever been quite so much fun as this? Alec Guinness leads a gang of ruthless bank robbers who come unstuck at the hands of a doddery old widow played by Katie Johnson. Their robbery goes according to plan, but when Ms Johnson finds out about it, they decide that they must kill her. But nobody really has the stomach for it and they end up turning on each other instead. This turned out to be the last of the Ealing comedies and certainly gives Kind Hearts And Coronets a run for its money in terms of being the blackest. The end of a great era of British comedy.
Badlands, Saturday 5th May, 12.55am, BBC2
The debut film from maverick American director Terence Malick. After he completed his second film, Day Of Heaven in 1978, it would be twenty years before this elusive filmmaker would hit the screens again, with the poetic Thin Red Line. With each film he seems to become more focussed on an ethereal visual experience at the expense of narrative cohesion. Catch him here at his most accessible, as he tells the tale of young lovers Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as they embark on an amoral killing spree (which is loosely based on a true story). The film neither condemns nor glorifies them as it adopts a tone as flat and impassive as the arid landscape that it’s set in. The characters too seem adrift in the badlands of South Dakota. Their moral compass as blank as the landscape that stretches out before them.
Noel Curry has degrees in both film studies and film production and now works as a freelance television editor. When he’s not editing, looking after his kids or watching the latest series of Mad Men with his wife, he likes to draw silly cartoons and publish them online (see www.miltonslife.com, www.djbogtrotter.co.uk and www.sascomic.com). He has views on films, which he has now decided to start writing down rather than just shouting them out of windows.
You can find Noel on Twitter: @DJBogtrotter