Pick of the week
The Eternal Daughter
There are plenty of creaks and bumps in the night in Joanna Hogg’s latest drama, set in a Welsh country hotel shrouded in mist. But despite the haunted house trappings, this is a place where the ghosts are mostly memories. Tilda Swinton, always a sensitive performer, takes dual roles: film-maker Julie and her elderly mother, Rosalind. They come to stay at the rural venue – which used to be the home of Rosalind’s aunt – as a nostalgia trip and a birthday treat for Rosalind. But Julie is unsettled by unexplained noises, while her buttoned-up parent’s recollections of childhood visits there encompass the bad as well as the good. A poignant tale of love, loss and remembrance.
Friday 23 January, 11pm, BBC Two
HarveyHallucinating? … James Stewart in Harvey. Photograph: PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy
“For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.” James Stewart’s amiable everyman qualities are to the fore in Henry Koster’s warm-hearted 1950 comedy. He plays Elwood P Dowd, a harmless drunk who hangs out in bars with an invisible 6ft white rabbit/fairy spirit called Harvey. Or is his alcoholism giving him hallucinations? The townsfolk either keep their distance from him or play along, but his sister Veta (a terrifically flustered Josephine Hull) is at the end of her tether. Despite his possible mental health issues, Elwood’s ethos of enjoying all life has to offer is a persuasive one.
Sunday 18 January, 11am, Film4
CharadeNear-perfect … Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Charade. Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy
She may have been going on half his age, but Audrey Hepburn’s partnership with Cary Grant in this 1963 crime caper is a near-perfect Paris match. As experts in quick wit and smooth romance, they skip through Stanley Donen’s thriller, set in the French capital, about a widow (Hepburn), her recently murdered husband’s stolen $25k, and the bad guys who want to know where it is. Grant is the helpful stranger with secrets of his own. Donen, a veteran of the MGM musical, keeps things colourful in spite of the peril-laden plot.
Sunday 18 January, 1.10pm, Talking Pictures TV
Polite SocietyPunchy energy … Priya Kansara in Polite Society. Photograph: Alamy
The creator of We Are Lady Parts, Nida Manzoor, brings that show’s vivid punk energy to her feature film debut, a punchy comic thriller. Priya Kansara is Ria, a teenage British Muslim martial arts fanatic who dreams of becoming a stunt performer. Her older sister, Lena (Ritu Arya), is an art school dropout who somehow attracts the attention of wealthy, eligible geneticist Salim (Akshay Khanna). Aghast at Lena abandoning her artistic dreams for an arranged marriage, Ria plots sabotage. Can she find anything wrong with Salim – or is this just a bad case of sibling jealousy?
Wednesday 21 January, 9pm, Film4
KindlingHeartbreaking … Mia Mckenna-Bruce and George Somner in Kindling. Photograph: Signature Entertainment
Five male pals in their late teens gather for the summer, but there’s more to their time together than partying and shooting the breeze. Sid (George Somner) is terminally ill, so he arranges a bonfire ritual to celebrate their friendship and mark his passing. Connor O’Hara’s drama has sadness hard-wired into it, but it skilfully sidesteps the maudlin as the boys deal with imminent death in their different ways, most heartbreakingly in Sid’s burgeoning connection with Mia McKenna-Bruce’s in-the-dark Lily.
Thursday 22 January, 11.30pm, BBC Three
The Toxic AvengerSuperpowered crusader … Peter Dinklage in The Toxic Avenger. Photograph: Ent-movie/Alamy
In 1984, Troma Entertainment, low-budget purveyor of comic gore to the masses, made an eco horror that has had a surprisingly long afterlife – three sequels, a cartoon series, comic books, even a musical. Now comes Macon Blair’s ineffably silly remake. Peter Dinklage stars as mild-mannered chemical factory janitor Winston Gooze, who turns into a green-hued, superpowered crusader against his company’s dubious health and safety policies after being thrown into a pool of unsavoury liquid. A film with a lot of guts … and brains and blood.
Thursday 22 January, 2am, Sky Cinema Premiere
RevengeAngel of death … Matilda Lutz in Revenge. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
The Substance director Coralie Fargeat has history with dramas about female bodies in extremis. This 2017 film focuses on Matilda Lutz’s Jen, whose weekend away at her married lover’s desert pied-à-terre turns into a nightmare when his two “associates” turn up. Sexually assaulted, thrown off a cliff and impaled on a tree, she just about survives then takes the titular retribution. Lutz makes an impressive transformation from trophy mistress to angel of death, with the movie’s feminist empowerment message having to compete with its visceral thrills.
Friday 23 January, 11.10pm, Legend Xtra