At the cinema: Selma
The BAFTA Film Awards are on Sunday, and so this weekend is the last date in the calendar a film can release and be eligible for a prize. In case you are wondering why the last six weeks have seen a veritable glut of prestige dramas – The Theory Of Everything, Birdman, Foxcatcher, Whiplash, Inherent Vice, Wild, American Sniper, Testament Of Youth – that’s why. When the distributors of those films submitted them for BAFTA consideration, they undertook to put them in cinemas in time for the awards ceremony. Selma is the last film to join the awards-season fray, and it’s one of the best. Britain’s David Oyelowo stars as civil-rights leader Martin Luther King. Rather than trying to tell the whole story of King’s life in biopic form, Selma focuses on one incident – a series of marches in racist, southern Alabama calling the world’s attention to the obstructive tactics the authorities were using to prevent black citizens from registering to vote. It’s a brilliantly emotive drama, and no redundant history lesson – as recent events in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, New York (“I can’t breathe”) make all too evident. Ironically, in the end, BAFTA voters didn’t nominate Selma in any category, but it’s up for the Best Picture Oscar.
On DVD: Gone Girl
If the BAFTAs were nominated by public vote, chances are that the superb Gone Girl would feature in multiple categories. But because it’s based on a bestselling book, takes the form of a popular commercial genre (thriller) and was a huge box-office hit, it’s been rather overlooked by the industry professionals who make up the British Academy. At least they had the good sense to nominate Rosamund Pike for Best Actress, and also the book’s author Gillian Flynn for Adapted Screenplay. Ben Affleck stars as the university teacher and bar owner who is in deep trouble when his beautiful young wife (Pike) vanishes, and every piece of evidence points to him as having murdered her. It’s a totally ingenious story, brilliantly directed by David Fincher, and with a cracking cast. If you buy the DVD, there will be no shortage of friends asking to borrow it.
On TV: Savage Grace (Sunday night, BBC2, 1.05am)
Oh, those cunning people in the scheduling department. Completing the BAFTAs theme this weekend is this little-seen indie flick, from 2007. The reason it’s on TV, and the reason I’m spotlighting it: the two lead actors are Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne. Both are pretty hotly tipped to win the BAFTA this year – Julianne for Still Alice, and Eddie for The Theory Of Everything. (If Eddie loses, my money’s on Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game.) In Savage Grace, they play mother and son, and their relationship is very disturbing indeed. It’s based on the true story of Barbara Bakeland (Moore) and her son (Redmayne), and it was one of Eddie’s very first screen roles. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but if you’re an Eddie fan, set your digital recording device – unless you want to stay up till 2.30am on a school night, that is.