Pick of the week
The Lost Bus
As the director of 9/11 drama United 93, Paul Greengrass has form in fictionalising real-life disasters. So it’s no surprise that his new film, about a school bus trying to flee the epically destructive 2018 Camp Fire in California, is a tense, thick-of-the-action thriller – one that may have you checking your hair for singeing by the end. Matthew McConaughey (at the frazzled end of his handsome spectrum) is driver Kevin McKay, who picks up a bunch of kids, plus teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera), as an inferno surges towards the town of Paradise. Greengrass keeps a vice-like grip on the plot, and our emotions, as the temperature rises and their options narrow.
Out now, Apple TV+
***
Play Dirty
Novelist Richard Stark’s ruthless thief character Parker has been seen in many films under many names (the best being Point Blank), and now director Shane Black takes his turn in this zippy caper. Mark Walhberg plays the professional robber, who is double-crossed on a bank heist by Latin American revolutionary Zen (Rosa Salazar). But he then joins her on an even bigger job, which raises the ire of the Outfit, a criminal concern he has history with. Cue comically scrappy fight scenes, a high body count and foolproof plans that fall spectacularly apart.
Out now, Prime Video
***
The Titfield Thunderbolt
This is another of those gentle Ealing comedies that sets a small community up against the faceless power of bureaucracy. Here we have the imminent closure of a branch railway line, which inspires local characters such as the young squire Gordon (John Gregson), train-mad vicar Sam (George Relph) and sozzled financial backer Valentine (Stanley Holloway) to try to preserve it as a volunteer-run service. But sabotage from bus owners – look out for a fantastic traction engine v steam engine duel – puts a spanner in the works just before a vital inspection.
Saturday 4 October, 10.40am, BBC Two
***
Rosalie
Rosalie (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) is nervous before her marriage to cafe owner Abel (Benoît Magimel) – but not for the reasons you might think. Her excessive body hair, hidden up to now, threatens to make her an outcast from him and her new neighbours in Stéphanie Di Giusto’s heart-tugging, 1870s-set French drama. It’s a tale of coming out, voyeurism and scapegoating, with Rosalie’s bravery and faith in innate human goodness put to a series of tests. Will folk be able to look past her physical differences or is she destined for the circus freakshow?
Saturday 4 October, 9pm, BBC Four
***
The Deadly Affair
It is based on John le Carré’s first novel, which introduced stolid spy hero George Smiley, but Sidney Lumet’s cool 1967 mystery didn’t have the rights to his name. So James Mason stars as MI6 agent Charles Dobbs, who investigates the alleged suicide of a possible double agent married to Simone Signoret’s concentration camp survivor. But his patient process is put into sharp relief by a messy personal life with adulterous wife Ann (Harriet Andersson).
Monday 6 October, 10.05pm, Talking Pictures TV
***
Io Capitano
The story of two teenage migrants journeying from Senegal to Europe gets a sympathetic treatment from Gomorrah director Matteo Garrone. Seydou (Seydou Sarr, running the gamut from petrified to bullish) and his cousin Moussa (Moustapha Fall) face a perilous trip through Mali and Niger then across the Sahara to the Mediterranean coast, one that starts as a hopeful adventure but soon becomes a fight for survival. Garrone places the boys against beautiful landscapes and throws in dream sequences, giving the film an oddly magical feel at times. But ultimately it’s a harsh cautionary tale.
Monday 6 October, 11.35pm, Film4
***
Midnight Express
Screenwriter Oliver Stone later apologised for the treatment of Turkey in his script for this fact-based 1978 drama (as did its subject, American drug smuggler Billy Hayes). And the sweaty, dirty Istanbul prison where Billy (Brad Davis) is incarcerated is pretty close to hell on Earth, with the Turks either corrupt or sadistic. But taken as fiction, it’s a gripping drama of inhumanity, solidarity and love, featuring great support from John Hurt and Randy Quaid as two fellow inmates: drug addict Max and the irritating but defiant Jimmy.
Wednesday 8 October, 12.10am, Sky Cinema Greats
