During lockdown, while everyone was watching movies on streaming services, trailers for unhinged proudly boasted that the film would open in theatres injuly, with studio head mark gill calling it the canary in the coalmine for cinema reopenings. In america, where coronavirus continue to spike, unhinged has inevitably had its release delayed, along with potential blockbusters like tenet and mulan. But here in the uk, the Russell Crowe actioner is now testing the waters as a wide theatrical release, hoping to draw punters back to the spectacle of big screen cinema. Come on, man, go crowe stars as an aggrieved, overweight and aggressive ball of anger whose path crosses with caren pistoriuss rachel,
a mother in the middle of a messy divorce who is late getting her son to school and herself to work. Im pretty sure that trucks following me. Hes road raging. Why dont you just chill, man . After she honks him at a Traffic Light and then refuses to apologise for her perceived rudeness, he sets out to teach her a lesson, pursuing rachel and her friends and herfamily while blaming her for his violent retribution. Hey pull your window down pitched somewhere between Steven Spielbergs duel and joel shumachers falling down, unhinged from director Derrick Borte is a nuts and bolts affair that does exactly what it says on the tin without ever really stopping to think about it. Andy. Whose phone is this . Im sitting here across from a friend. We know from the trailer that the action is going to involve crowe wreaking mobile phone havoc in a diner and a giant truck running over a car, and that pretty much
sums up the movie. A popcorn mix of interpersonal craziness and big crunchy carbound carnage. Can you see him . Hes catching up. It helps, of course, that playing a character with anger Management Issues is hardly a stretch for Russell Crowe, although unlike Michael Douglass more interesting character in falling down, crowe starts crazy and then just gets worse. You can hardly call this an analysis of societal rage, but watching 90 minutes of head banging, pedal to the metal big screen thrills, ifound myself happy to be back in a cinema, succumbing to the magic of the big screen. Better bring your a game. Cos youre going to need it. Also getting a wide cinema release this week is summerland, a film that could not be more different from unhinged in every respect. We were expecting you an hour ago. Sorry. Frank this is miss lamb, your new guardian. I dont want him weve all got to do our bit. The brilliant Gemma Arterton stars as alice lamb, a reclusive writer living in a south Coast Village during world war ii. Alice is considered an oddity by the locals, a loner who investigates and debunks myths and folklore, looking for the facts behind the fiction. They dont look very interesting. I wrote them. When young evacuee frank shows up unexpectedly on her doorstep, alice has no time for him, insisting that he be rehomed. But inevitably, a bond grows between the pair, with alice warming to her new charge as we learn about the love and loss that haunts her own past and the possibility of magic in the future. Was she the one you loved . Would you think it was strange . No. Written and directed by Olivier Award Winning playwright jessica swale, summerland is a lovely, heartfelt film about matters of life and death that has its feet on the ground and
its head in the clouds. In the central role, arterton, whos also an executive producer, relishes the chance to play a character who doesnt care about what the outside world thinks of her, preferring instead to find refuge in her work. Hes not on his own. Gugu mbatha raw is perfectly cast as the face that haunts alices memories, reminding her of what love once felt like, while a supporting cast including Penelope Wilson and Tom Courtenay ensures that even the smaller roles have heft. Miss lamb whats most important, however, is that summerland is a film full of hope, something we all sorely need right now. Mrs litvak . Who are you . Hello, mrs litvak, im extremely sorry for your loss. From the heart warming to the horrific with the vigil, another new cinema release, this from the blumhouse label that
gave us paranormal activity, the purge and get out. Written and directed by feature first timer keith thomas, the story plays out over the course of one night, during which a troubled young man is hired to keep watch over a recently deceased member of the Orthodox Jewish community. Plagued with guilt and anxiety, yakov discovers that mr litvak believed he was being pursued by an evil spirit, a spirit that now seems to have set its sight on yakov, contacting him through visions and cell phone calls, refusing to let him leave this apparently haunted house. Set largely in a gloomy apartment where light is replaced by darkness visible, the vigil is at its best when suggesting rather than depicting its brooding horrors. There are a few perfunctoryjump scares here and there, but its the atmosphere of dread, aided by a groaning soundtrack, thats the film strongest suit. Have you been enjoying it here . Yeah. You see, normally we hire a working couple in the winter to help with maintenance. And then theres a strip down, emptying all the vans, giving them a good scrub. Sounds great. Theres a hint of dread, too, about make up, and atmospheric british psychodrama from writer director claire oakley. Molly windsor is ruth, a taciturn teenager who arrives at a bleak off season cornish caravan park where her boyfriend tom is working. Lipstick smears on the mirror and strands of red hair on toms bed cause ruth to suspect that hes being unfaithful. But her own growing relationship with the charismaticjade suggests that if deceptions are at play, they may be internal rather than external. Shes got a bit of reputation, you know . Reputation for what . Like its central character, make up is an enigmatic riddle, a film that slips seamlessly between genres. On one level, its a coming of age story about someone discovering their identity and sexuality. But its also haunted by horror, with the eerie vistas of the caravan park reflecting ruths inner turmoil, stalked by shadowy figures whose presence seems both threatening and elusive. Do you know a girl with long, red hair . Shes not ringing any bells. Crucially, oakley, making herfuture debut after helming several shorts, wants to keep the audience guessing, musing upon how much of this is genuinely mysterious and how much isjust in ruths mind. Its a strange movie, low on explanation, big on atmosphere, thanks to cinematographer nick cooke and composer ben salisbury and the sound designer, all of whom lend to the air of unease. Ruth, you dont need to go ruth you can find make up on home cinema and then select uk cinemas over the coming weeks and months. The stars have their beginnings and their ends. For a few moments, somewhere in between, a few, very few may support thought. The late Johann Johansson was a brilliant composer who was oscar nominated for his scores for the theory of everything and sicario. He was also the director of last and first men, which played at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and is now available on demand from bfi player. Inspired by olaf stapletons cult sci fi novel and narrated by tilda swinton, the film uses words, music and haunting footage of abstract monuments from the former yugoslavia to evoke a vision of futuristic humanity on the brink of extinction. The universal end comes in due course. Growing out of a multimedia project unveiled at the Manchester International festival in 2017
and completed after joha nssons death in 2018, last and first men is a hauntingly and elegiac work described by its creator as a film that straddles the border of fiction and documentary, a meditation on memory and failed utopia contextualised through the literary mode of science fiction. All right, well, i never thought id be saying the last mission before mars, and yet here we are making last preparations for the long journey. Thank you. The future of mankind or, rather, womankind is the subject of proxima, the story of an astronaut preparing for a lengthy stint on the International Space station in service of a forthcoming mission to mars. Eva green is sarah, a french astronaut whose presence is not immediately welcomed by matt dillons mike, who considers her little more than a tourist. But during the gruelling training
procedure, sarah proves that shes more than a match for any man whilst also wrestling with the demands of motherhood and the prospect of saying goodbye to her daughter. Written and directed by alice winocour, who co wrote the brilliant mustang, proxima is a quietly engrossing tale of a woman following her dreams to the stars while facing the consequences of her actions on earth. Like last years lucy in the sky, in which Natalie Portman played an astronaut unable to readjust to normal life after leaving earths atmosphere, winocours film maintains an intriguing balance between the everyday and the out of this world, with green doing a terrificjob of portraying the warring pressures that her character must face in order to achieve her goal. At its heart is a palpable tension between the anxiety she feels at leaving her child behind and the pride she takes in showing her daughter that she, like her mother, can do anything she wants. Proxima all feels very real,
not something that can be said of flash gordon, which celebrates its 40th anniversary with a 4k restoration, playing in selected cinemas before coming to disc. Flash ahha saviour of the universe a camp cult classic, flash gordon looks even more bonkers now than it did back in 1980, with the great max von sydow tearing up the screen as ming the merciless, while Brian Blessed delivers perhaps the most famous line of his career. With all his men, he couldnt even kill flash. Gordons alive . They dont make them like that any more. Thats it for this week. Im off for a few weeks now, but anna smith will be here while im away with all the best new movies. Thanks for watching and stay safe. Are we dreaming . Id like to think so. Hello there. It took until the last day injuly for temperatures to get above 30 degrees celsius. We only have to wait until thursday or friday this week before we see 30 degrees in august. But it wont be for the start of the week. Weve got a little ridge of High Pressure building in, which has been easing the showers back overnight. So, actually, its going to be quite a chilly start this morning, but with plenty of sunshine before the shower cloud gets bubbling away. So, there will already be a few showers in North Western areas anyway, and with a weak weather front brushing past here, that will tend to merge those showers a little bit. But plenty of drier weather for the south east of scotland, possibly fewer wbr id wbr7560 showers than sunday in Northern Ireland. And, again, just a scattering for england and wales, but by the afternoon, particularly in eastern areas, they are likely to turn heavy with some thunder around, slow moving downpours. But away from the showers in the sunshine, feeling pleasantly warm, but the wind will be picking up in the north west of scotland. Why . Because weve got our next weather front on its way in. So, through the course of the night, its likely to turn quite wet through Northern Ireland and also b
quite mild with lots of low cloud around, so a very different feel to our weather, i think, across North Western areas as we head into tuesday. In fact, through tuesday and wednesday, it does look wetterfor a time, some significant rain around and some stronger winds. But, again, it doesnt last. So, this is the low pressure which will be responsible for that rain, 50 60 mm over the highlands of scotland, tightly packed isobars denoting some stronger winds for many through tuesday and wednesday further south as well. The rain looks itll be a feature mostly for scotland and Northern Ireland, but there will be low cloud and drizzle setting in across wbrid wbr8160 northern england, wales, the south west, whilst southern and eastern areas may well stay largely fine and dry and warm with some sunshine around. Clearly not feeling warm further north despite the mild air here and all the moisture. Which will continue to fall, that rain, as we go through tuesday night and into wednesday. Some uncertainty as to how far south its going to come, but again the High Pressures closer to the south. So, if those weather fronts do come southwards, the likelihood is they wont produce much rain, theylljust fizzle out. And then the High Pressure builds later in the week, just pushing those or nudging those weather fronts further north again. And allowing the temperatures to rise, mostly for england and wales, but some warmer, drier weather coming in further north for scotland and Northern Ireland as well. Bye bye. This is bbc news. Im Maryam Moshiri with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Nasa astronauts splash down to earth in the first crewed us water landing in 45 years. One of president trumps top medical advisers says the us is entering a new phase in the coronavirus pandemic. A bbc investigation has found the number of deaths from coronavirus in iran is nearly three times higher than admitted. And a dramatic end to the british grand prix as Lewis Hamilton wins after a puncture on the final lap