Pick of the week
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
Kogonada’s beguiling fable pushes two damaged people together through a fantastical meet-cute, then traces their fraught quest for peace of mind. After being introduced at a wedding, David (Colin Farrell) and Sarah (Margot Robbie) end up in the same mysterious rental car. Nudged by a matchmaking GPS, they stop off at a series of magical doors and revisit scenes from their pasts to work out how they got to be the sad singletons they are now. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Howl’s Moving Castle, Before Sunrise – pick your own filmic reference – come to mind as the pair reassess memories of heartbreak, loss, betrayal and, occasionally, love.
Saturday 18 April, 11.50am, 6pm, Sky Cinema Premiere
Sabrina
Not a biopic of the Espresso hitmaker, sadly, but an old-school romance from Billy Wilder about love across the class divide. Audrey Hepburn, the epitome of stylish joie de vivre, plays the titular chauffeur’s daughter, who has a crush on David (William Holden), playboy brother of stuffy industrialist Linus (Humphrey Bogart). David barely notices her, until she returns from two years in Paris with a swish wardrobe and air of confidence. But he is promised to another as part of a business deal, so Linus plots to seduce Sabrina away from him, then dump her.
Saturday 18 April, 12.50pm, Sky Arts
Despicable Me
With three sequels and a third spin-off prequel due in July, this 2010 animated comedy juggernaut is basically critic-proof. Luckily, it is terrific. There’s a melodramatic, witty supervillain, Steve Carell’s Gru (who’s not too villainous), three cute orphaned girls he takes in (who aren’t too cute) and, the clincher, the Minions: a posse of giddy little yellow workers who are Gru’s version of the Oompa-Loompas and endlessly expendable. Aside from the odd adult-oriented gag (the Bank of Evil is “formerly Lehman Brothers”), it’s kid-focused fun all the way.
Sunday 19 April, 3.05pm, BBC One
Whistle Down the Wind
“Who is it?” “Jesus Christ!” The shocked encounter in a dark barn between Lancashire farmer’s child Kathy (Hayley Mills) and criminal fugitive Arthur (Alan Bates) leads the girl and her younger siblings to believe he really is the son of God – and to vow to protect him from the grownups who might crucify him again. A skewed religious allegory directed in gritty fashion by Bryan Forbes – from a novel by Hayley’s mum, Mary Hayley Bell – it features brilliantly unsentimental performances from a motley group of mostly locally cast kids.
Monday 20 April, 4.30pm, Talking Pictures TV
The Man With Two Brains
A key work from Steve Martin’s 1980s heyday, this homage to/spoof of 50s sci-fi movies is a kitchen sink’s worth of sight gags and wordplay. Martin is in typically manic mode as groundbreaking brain surgeon Michael Hfuhruhurr (“It sounds just the way it’s spelt”) who marries Kathleen Turner’s gloriously venal, libidinous femme fatale Dolores. But then he falls for the disembodied but still living brain of Anne Uumellmahaye – an uncredited Sissy Spacek.
Wednesday 22 April, 8.55am, 4.25am, Sky Cinema Greats
A Hole in the Head
Frank Sinatra’s Miami hotel owner Tony has high hopes – in fact, he knows an Oscar-winning song about that! Sadly, in Frank Capra’s chatty romantic drama, he’s also a failing businessman with an eye for the ladies – currently, Carolyn “Morticia Addams” Jones’s free-spirited Shirl. With a freckle-faced son to care for, his only financial recourse is his successful, judgy elder brother Mario, who reluctantly comes down from New York. But Mario’s chequebook comes with marital strings attached in the shape of eligible widow Eloise. A breezy tale kept aloft by Sinatra’s chancer charm.
Friday 24 April, 1.45pm, Sky Arts
The Towering Inferno meets Die Hard in Hong Kong and watches Mission: Impossible on autoplay. Yes, Rawson Marshall Thurber’s action-festooned thriller may be a copy but it’s an accomplished one. Dwayne Johnson stars as FBI agent turned security expert Will. His job validating the safety of the hi-tech Pearl – the tallest building on Earth – leads him and his family into a perilous escape from a blazing building and a criminal gang, all at a 3,000ft elevation. The many spectacular, vertiginous stunts, some featuring Will’s false leg, are reason enough to watch this.
Friday April 24, 11.20pm, ITV1