What to Watch this Week (25-31 Jul)

Best classic film in cinemas this week: Barry Lyndon

The critical reputation of films are always in flux, but those of Stanley Kubrick seem to be more susceptible to change than others. Many of his films that were derided on release (2001, Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining) now look better than ever. Barry Lyndon, thought a bit of a bore on its 1975 release (Pauline Kael called it “a coffee-table movie”), seems to have had the biggest rehabilitation: it’s now rightly recognised as among Kubrick's greatest achievements.

The film follows the rise and fall of Ryan O’Neil’s 18th-century Irish scoundrel, who flees from his hometown following a pistol duel with a love rival and begins a string of picaresque wartime adventures which eventually result in him marrying into a fortune. The film has much to recommend it, not least Michael Hordern's bitingly ironic narration, fastidiously composed tableaux and fine-grained cinematography.

All of Kubrick’s films should be seen on the big screen, but Barry Lyndon most of all. You'd never guess from the BFI's very serious new trailer below, but it's also very funny. 

Released in cinemas 29 Jul by BFI

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Best new film in cinemas this week: Author: The JT LeRoy Story

JT Leroy was a literary sensation. A homeless hustler with HIV and son of a truck stop prostitute, the 17-year-old's blistering fiction and harrowing life story had the New York literary scene entranced. The problem was JT Leroy wasn’t real – but it was a good decade before he was revealed to be the invention of writer and fabulist Laura Albert.

Director Jeff Feuerzeig artfully steers a course through this hall of mirrors with this fascinating documentary laying out how this hoax fooled half of Hollywood, from Winona Ryder to Courtney Love, who were quick to embrace the writer. Interviews with Albert provide the meat of the story and, unsurprisingly, she proves a great, if unreliable, storyteller.

Released in cinemas 29 Jul from Dogwoof – read our full review

Also worth a watch: Jason Bourne

Following the little-loved Jeremy Renner-starring entry in the Bourne franchise, Matt Damon is back for this fifth edition as Jason Bourne, the CIA assassin with a foggy memory. Years after the events of The Bourne Ultimatum, Bourne is still on the run. That’s all you need to know really: no one comes to Bourne films for the plot. They live or die by their breakneck action, and with director Paul Greengrass also returning alongside Damon, expect some juddering camerawork and frenetic editing. New to the mix are Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, and Vincent Cassel.

Released in cinemas 27 Jul by Universal

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Best new film at home: Zootropolis

In the age of Trump, Black Lives Matter and escalating religious terrorism, who’d have thought a Disney animation about a city of anthropomorphic animals would provide the year’s most politically sharp movie, providing a kiddie-friendly study in race, gender and diversity?

Judy Hopps – voiced with appropriate levels of energy by Ginnifer Goodwin – is a bunny cop, the first on the Metropolis force made up of much bigger, stronger, more aggressive animals, such as the buffalo chief-of-police (Idris Elba) who chauvinistically puts her on parking duty. But from this lowly position she sniffs out a conspiracy planned by a paranoid elite who believe that predators and prey can’t live side-by-side in harmony. If that sounds heavy, never fear: there’s a popstar gazelle (named Gazelle) voiced by Shakira to entertain the kids between the noir plot.

Released on DVD and Blu-ray on 22 Jul by Walt Disney – read our full review

Also worth a watch: 10 Cloverfield Lane

Dan Trachtenberg’s fat-free thriller begins like Psycho: a woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is fleeing a troubled relationship when she crashes her car and finds herself chained to a pipe in a sealed-off bunker presided over by a militaristic survivalist (John Goodman) who claims he brought her down here for her own protection – some apocalyptic event has taken place up above and the only chance of survival is sitting tight. Is he her saviour or her kidnapper?

If you managed to avoid any details when 10 Cloverfield Lane screened in cinemas earlier in the year, seek it out now it’s on DVD and Blu-ray.

Released on DVD and Blu-ray 25 Jul from Universal

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Best new film streaming this week: Tallulah

We’ve heard good things about this comedy-drama about terrible parenting, which Netflix snapped up after its premiere at Sundance. Ellen Page plays Tallulah, a drifter who lives in a van, washes in truck stop bathrooms and scavenges for grub. Despite her rough lifestyle, she reckons she’d make a better stab at motherhood than the horrible rich woman (Tammy Blanchard) she sees neglecting her baby, so she grabs the nipper and takes it on the road with her instead.

The directorial debut for Sian Heder, a writer on Netflix prison drama Orange Is the New Black, it’s a film that challenges received wisdom about maternal feelings. It’s great to see Page back in a juicy role and we’re hoping Heder brings the same boundless compassion and graceful mix of comedy and drama that makes Orange Is the New Black so compelling.

Screening on Netflix from 29 Jul