Pick of the week
A House of Dynamite
A missile of unknown origin has been launched from the Pacific – and it’s heading for the US. From that hook, Kathryn Bigelow has fashioned an almost unbearably tense thriller out of the American response. As government agencies and armed forces kick into “defcon” mode, the subsequent 15 minutes or so are seen several times from multiple points of view – a missile defence battalion in Alaska, White House politicians and advisers (including Rebecca Ferguson), the military high command, the president himself (Idris Elba). It’s a dazzling, skilful piece of cinema, laser-focused despite the huge (yet utterly believable) cast, with Bigelow’s fascination with the nuts and bolts of statecraft to the fore. Simon Wardell
Friday 24 October, Netflix
***
The Twits
The first animated feature born out of Netflix’s purchase of Roald Dahl’s back catalogue takes the book’s cruel, disgusting, prank-playing couple and sets them against a bunch of resourceful American kids. Margo Martindale and Johnny Vegas voice Mr and Mrs Twit, whose dream of opening a theme park falls foul of Maitreyi Ramakrishnan’s Beesha, doyenne of the local orphanage. There is plenty of burping and farting – and the odd exploding bottom – to remind you of Dahl’s penchant for earthy physical comedy, before the hugs and learning kick in. SW
Out now, Netflix
***
The Menu
Revenge is a dish best served with a potato confit and beef jus. Luckily, chef Julian Slowik (a steely Ralph Fiennes) is a feted master of fine dining. Unluckily, the 12 guests chosen to join him for a meal on his private island all have dark deeds in their pasts for which Slowik will punish them. Anya Taylor-Joy plays the cuckoo in the nest, Margot, who is the date of idiot gourmand Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) but is not what she appears. Mark Mylod’s darkly comic drama is an exquisite concoction – from the artful food to the escalating fear as the diners see what the next course brings. SW
Saturday 18 October, 9pm, Channel 4
***
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Jane Schoenbrun scored a word-of-mouth hit last year with I Saw the TV Glow. Their preceding film, the first in what they call the Screen Trilogy, explores the rabbit hole that the internet can represent for the lonely or alone. Casey (Anna Cobb) is a teenager with seemingly no life away from her bedroom and computer. She posts a video of her doing the world’s fair challenge, an online game alleged to induce weird changes in the player. But are the disturbing results just role-playing for an invisible audience or mental disintegration? This unsettling film keeps us guessing. SW
Wednesday 22 October, 11.35pm, Film4
***
The Haunting
Robert Wise’s spookily effective adaptation of the Shirley Jackson novel is an object lesson in how less can be more in horror. Psychic researcher Dr John Markway (Richard Johnson) goes to stay at a reputedly haunted house with the owner’s nephew Luke (Russ Tamblyn), plus Claire Bloom’s bohemian Theodora (dressed by Mary Quant) and Julie Harris’s fragile Eleanor, both of whom are sensitive to the supernatural. Cue bangs in the night, disembodied voices and incipient insanity. SW
Wednesday 22 October, 12.10am, BBC Two
***
Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost
After the deaths of his parents, comic double act Jerry Stiller (AKA George’s dad in Seinfeld) and Anne Meara, actor-director Ben Stiller decided to pay tribute to them with a documentary. And there’s plenty of the expected talking heads, archive clips, home videos and unheard tapes to make this a solid eulogy to the popular entertainers and their 62-year marriage. But, fascinatingly, what transpires is more akin to a therapy session for nepo baby Ben, as he acknowledges their “very big shadow” on his own career and – in conversation with his wife and children – his failures as a father and husband. SW
Friday 24 October, Apple TV
***
Halloween
It may not have been the very first slasher movie, but John Carpenter’s 1978 film is certainly the most influential, despite being almost quaint in its restraint when it comes to the blood and guts. The prowling camera, the masked killer, the “final girl” – they’re all here and used superbly, with the tension amped up by the director’s own minimal but menacing piano score. Jamie Lee Curtis’s career was defined by her role as suburban Illinois teenager Laurie, who is menaced by escaped mental patient and sister killer Michael Myers on trick-or-treat night. SW
Friday 24 October, 11pm, BBC Two
