At the cinema: A Most Violent Year
This film really isn’t blessed with the most attractive-sounding premise: it’s about a heating oil business in New York City in 1981. No, really. But before you stop reading, can I quickly mention that it’s really good, and it earned a five-star review in heat magazine this week? Oscar Isaac plays ambitious young businessman Abel. He’s trying to shake off the criminal roots of his company, which used to belong to the father of his glamorous wife (Jessica Chastain). Meanwhile, his trucks are being robbed at gunpoint; he’s in danger of losing a massive deposit on a properly deal that’s going south; and he’s being investigated by the District Attorney for tax violations. Hmm, it still sounds rather dull, doesn’t it? In fact, it’s a gripping human drama, brilliantly acted. Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) should be a star by now, but he always looks different in all of his films, and not many have really cottoned on to him. Maybe 2015 will finally be his year.
On DVD: Boyhood
If you follow the movie awards season, you’ll know that Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is winning every gong going, and will probably continue its triumphant sweep all the way to the Oscars. So you’ll be forgiven if you feel you are being bludgeoned by the critics and awards voters into seeing this film. Heat’s view: it deserves all those accolades. Filmed for brief periods every year between 2002 and 2013, Boyhood tells the story of a Texan kid (Ellar Coltrane) growing up in front of your eyes from a first-grader to a high-school graduate, ie from six to 18. It sounds like a documentary, but it’s actually a scripted drama, and it’s moving, funny and always captivatingly real-feeling. Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette play the divorced Mum and Dad, and they’ve both been Oscar-nominated. Yes, it’s long, but the minutes fly by – and the beauty of home viewing is that pause button!
On TV: The Artist (Saturday, BBC1, 10pm)
Hey, you can really tell it’s Oscars season at the moment. This one won Best Picture back in 2012 (also Director, Actor and for score and costumes). Had there been Best Canine it would have won that one too, such is the adorable performance from the very talented Jack Russell terrier Uggie. In fact, Uggie won the Palm Dog at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 – yes, this award really exists! This is the French-made, Hollywood-set film about a silent movie star (Jean Dujardin) who falls for a young dancer (Berenice Bejo), two performers whose careers go in opposite directions when the talkies come in. Like Boyhood, one of its virtues is it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Oh, and it’s black and white, and virtually silent – but don’t let that put you off.