What to Watch this Week (29 Aug-5 Sep)

Feature by The Skinny | 29 Aug 2016

The best films to watch this week on the big screen, the small screen and your laptop screen, including the new comic promo for Thor, the latest from Woody Allen and the return of Narcos

Best new video online this week: What Thor Was Doing During Captain America: Civil War

Ever wonder where Norse god Thor was while all the other Avengers were going toe-to-toe in Captain America: Civil War? Your questions have been answered in this hilarious new video from Taika Waititi, the Kiwi director behind such comic gems as What We Do in the Shadows and the upcoming Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Turns out Thor’s been hanging out in Australia with his new flatmate Darryl, having himself some much needed “me time.” Although, as the short film goes on it becomes clear that the hammer-wielding thunder god simply wasn’t invited to the ruckus.

What movie fans will be hoping is that Waititi, who’s also directing the third Thor instalment (the ridiculously titled Thor: Ragnarok), will be able to infuse some of this comic magic into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The tweet he sent out to mark the video’s appearance online suggests that might be the case.

We hope so. So far, the Marvel movies that have really shone have been those that haven’t taken themselves too seriously – think derring-do adventure Guardians of the Galaxy, Shane Black's meta Iron Man 3 or the Paul Rudd-starring Ant-Man. Even the first Thor, helmed by Kenneth Branagh, was enjoyable in its moments of levity. Particularly fun was Chris Hemsworth, whose performance in the original movie suggested Brian Blessed trapped in the body of Dolph Lundgren circa 1987. After playing the surreally stupid receptionist Kevin in the recent Ghostbusters reboot, Hemsworth is clearly embracing his skills at playing a himbo.

What to stream online this week: Narcos series 2

“OK, let me break it down for you: 4000 soldiers, tens of thousands of rounds fired, and a load of fucking helicopters – there was no way Pablo Escobar was getting out of this one... right?” So says Boyd Holbrook’s Steve Murphy in the trailer of Season 2 of Netflix hit Narcos.

In series one, we saw Pablo Escobar's rise to power. In series two, the notorious drug kingpin is on the run, with DEA agents Murphy and Javier Peña (Pedro Pascal) in relentless pursuit.

As anyone with access to Wikipedia will tell you, it doesn’t end well for Escobar. That doesn’t stop this being one of the most gripping TV shows around. Let the binging begin.

What to watch in cinemas this week: Things to Come

One of the best filmmakers working today (Mia Hansen-Løve) teams up with one of our greatest actors (Isabelle Huppert) for Things to Come, and reports are it’s a match made in heaven.

Huppert plays Nathalie, a philosophy professor going through a breakup. Our reviewer, Ben Nicholson, was smitten: “Hansen-Løve’s unobtrusive and novelistic approach doesn’t see Nathalie embark on a spiral of loneliness or an arc of self-discovery, but a tide of breakthroughs and setbacks punctuated by grace and grief. The lingering and familiar enigma as the credits roll is the uncertainty of what lies ahead, and watching a character coming to terms with a path very different to the one previously laid out before them.”

Also in cinemas this week: Cafe Society

Can Woody Allen return to the form he showed in the late 80s and early 90s, where everything he touched was a comic marvel? It’s the question every Allen fan asks him or herself every year. At this point, we’ve all seen too many Cassandra's Dreams and Magic in the Moonlights to hold out much hope, but we can at least pray for something along the lines of minor improvement Blue Jasmine. With the likes of Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Parker Posey in the cast, we have our fingers crossed for Cafe Society.

...and Sausage Party

We’re ashamed to admit it, but this animated sex comedy from the minds of Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Rogen’s Superbad writing partner Evan Goldberg sounds pretty great. Rogen is a horny hotdog desperate to get up close and personal with Kristen Wiig's pillowy bun; Edward Norton plays a nebbish bagel who forms an uneasy friendship with David Krumholtz’s lavash when they bond over a love of houmous; Danny McBride plays a nihilistic jar of honey mustard. If you think that Toy Story could have been improved with more dick jokes and bread-on-bread sex, this is the movie for you.

http://theskinny.co.uk/film