Pick of the week
The Room Next Door<\/p>\n
Pedro Almod\u00f3var\u2019s latest<\/a> divided the critics at last year\u2019s Venice film festival \u2013 though not the jury, who awarded it the Golden Lion. Some felt his first English-language feature awkwardly transplanted his Hispanic melodrama to a Manhattan setting, in which terminally ill war photographer Martha (Tilda Swinton) reaches out to her old friend, bestselling author Ingrid (Juliette Moore). Others reckoned it was just as lush and seductive as ever, a third entry after Pain and Glory and Parallel Mothers in a death-preoccupied run of work. What can\u2019t be disputed is how it rages against the dying of the light, both on a personal and planetary level, led by a cadaverous Swinton orchestrating her own exit. The ThicketSnowy wilderness \u2026 Peter Dinklage in The Thicket. Photograph: Samuel Goldwyn Films\/Everett\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Peter Dinklage heads up this impressively bleak neo-western<\/a>, as a bounty hunter on the trail of a kidnapped girl. Ostensibly in the same redemptive vein as The Searchers, it\u2019s closer in flinty spirit to something like The Revenant. His high body count decorating the snowy wilderness, Dinklage is as formidable as usual \u2013 but almost outmatched by Juliette Lewis as Cut Throat Bill, the misleadingly named varmint he\u2019s pursuing. Director Elliott Lester goes in hard on seedy saloon atmospherics and a Darwinian survivalist vibe. Cairo ConspiracyPower struggle \u2026 Tawfeek Barhom in Cairo Conspiracy.<\/p>\n Where many films have dwelt on papal intrigue, this is a rare and gripping glimpse into the Islamic equivalent from Swedish-Egyptian director Tarik Saleh \u2013 the Muslim version of Conclave. A young fisherman and aspiring clergyman (played by Tawfeek Barhom) is caught up in the deadly power struggle during the election of a new grand imam at Cairo\u2019s Al-Azhar University. The second in Saleh\u2019s soon-to-be-completed trilogy of unstinting films about the exercise of power in Egypt, Cairo Conspiracy<\/a> is a finely tuned thriller and cynical in the very best of ways. Kensuke\u2019s KingdomOn a voyage \u2026 Michael (voiced by Aaron McGregor) in Kensuke\u2019s Kingdom.<\/p>\n A stirring, classy adaptation<\/a>, scripted by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, of the Michael Morpurgo novel about a shipwrecked child who encounters a Japanese war veteran on a remote island. Recalcitrant lad Michael (voiced by Aaron McGregor) is bugging his parents on their sailing trip \u2013 but once washed ashore with his dog, learns his place in the scheme of nature courtesy of the enigmatic Kensuke (Ken Watanabe). With its rich hand-drawn animation, it hews close to the purist likes of The Red Turtle \u2013 without an anthropomorphised talking animal in sight. skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Get the best TV reviews, news and features in your inbox every Monday<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The KillersUnvarnished mayhem \u2026 Lee Marvin in The Killers. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd\/Alamy<\/p>\n Dirty Harry director Don Siegel\u2019s 1964 remake of the 1946 noir classic strips away the shadowy romanticism of the high noir era and streamlines it into a lean heist pic. It starts with headstone-faced hitman Charlie (Lee Marvin) set to assassinate former race-car champion Johnny North (John Cassavetes). Deemed too violent to be shown on TV as originally planned, its unvarnished mayhem and brisk direction looked ahead to the gritty urban crime epics of the coming decade. September 5 Media procedural \u2026 (from left Zinedine Soualem, Leonie Benesch, John Magaro and Marcus Rutherford) in September 5.<\/p>\n
Sunday 3 August, 7.35am, 10.10pm, Sky Cinema Premiere<\/p>\n
Saturday 2 August, 9.20am, 6.05pm, Sky Cinema Premiere<\/p>\n
Saturday 2 August, 9.30pm, BBC Four<\/p>\n
Sunday 3 August, 3.35pm, BBC One<\/p>\n
Sunday 3 August, 9pm, Legend Xtra<\/p>\n