Pick of the week
Avatar: Fire and Ash
James Cameron’s bold, blue-tinged fantasy epic returns for a third outing. This one has a similar feel to The Way of Water: regular bouts of stupendous aerial and aquatic action; plenty of dastardly human behaviour; and – underlying the whole enterprise – warnings about colonisation and the ignorant exploitation of the natural world. Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña and Sigourney Weaver are back as our favourite human-Na’vi blended family, still defending their way of life. The new element is the Mangkwan, a clan living next to a volcano led by the ambitious Varang (a lip-curling Oona Chaplin), who sees a collaboration with the gun-toting Earth forces as a route to power.
Wednesday 24 June, Disney+
Project Hail Mary
It may not hit the heights of Ridley Scott’s The Martian (also based on an Andy Weir novel), but Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s sci-fi comedy shares its jolly DIY-in-space shtick and lovable lead. Ryan Gosling channels all his diffident charm into Ryland Grace, a biology teacher who finds himself alone on a mission to a distant star to discover what is sucking the energy from our sun. His encounter with a cute, rock-like alien (not a million miles from the directors’ Lego Movie characters) turns the film into a buddy movie as the odd couple try to solve the mystery.
Out now, MGM+ on Prime Video
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
Molly, a young otter, was found by middle-aged couple Billy and Susan outside their remote Shetland home, hungry and possibly orphaned. Charlie Hamilton James’s delightful documentary follows a year in their lives as Billy brings her back to health. It’s proper comfort viewing, as lovely aerial shots of Molly out and about along the coast are blended with footage of Billy caring for the playful, lovable creature. And Billy and Susan’s often wry narration highlights the mental health benefit close proximity to nature can have.
Sunday 21 June, 4.25pm, Channel 4
The Lost Boys
A key work from the John Hughes era of US teen movies, Joel Schumacher’s undead horror/biker flick blends a Goonies-like caper with barely suppressed adolescent lust. Jason Patric is all black leather and attitude as Michael, the new kid in town drawn to Jami Gertz’s mystery girl, who in turn is in thrall to rebel/vampire Kiefer Sutherland. Corey Haim drives the plot forward as Michael’s brother Sam who, with the grownups awol, leads the fight back by way of holy water pistols, chunks of garlic and tips from a comic book.
Sunday 21 June, 9.40pm, Sky Cinema Greats
The Welcome Table
This incandescent climate crisis documentary from Josh Fox should probably have a trigger warning attached, such is the traumatic prognosis he gives for the planet. Through testimony from people affected by global warming-related fires, flooding and drought from Kenya to Brazil and the US, he shows the devastation now being caused, the colonial roots of much of it, and the mass migration that will follow. The only ray of hope comes from the survivors themselves – beacons of community and collaboration.
Wednesday 24 June, HBO Max
Rob Roy
It had the misfortune to be released in cinemas in the same year as Braveheart, but Michael Caton-Jones’s rousing historical drama about Scotland’s folk hero has the edge in terms of peaty authenticity. Liam Neeson is as Scottish as Mel Gibson but at least there’s a Celtic tinge to his steely eyed performance as the titular clan chief. Cheated by John Hurt’s Marquess of Montrose, he’s then harried by the lord’s relative, the gleefully immoral “bastard abroad” Archibald Cunningham (a grandstanding Tim Roth). But the honourable Robert Roy MacGregor proves that nobility isn’t a matter of birth.
Wednesday 24 June, 10pm, Great! Action
Escape from Pretoria
Although it’s still oddly difficult to accept Daniel “Potter” Radcliffe as a fully grown adult, he does make a convincing ANC prisoner in Francis Annan’s tense, fact-based drama, set in late 70s apartheid South Africa. In the absence of any major Black characters to bring wider political context, the film doubles down on its jail-break thriller angle. Sentenced to 12 years for distributing leaflets, Radcliffe’s Tim Jenkin is bent on escape. Luckily, he’s a persistent problem solver, with locked doors just a temporary obstacle when you have an unlimited supply of wood.
Thursday 25 June, 9pm, Film4