Pick of the week
The Taste of Things

Skip the Valentine’s Day restaurant booking and treat your beloved to this filmic feast instead. French-Vietnamese filmmaker Tràn Anh Hùng (The Scent of Green Papaya) won Best Director at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival for this study of a slow-simmering love affair between French gourmand Dodin (Benoît Magimel) and his cook, Eugénie (Juliette Binoche). They spend their days at Dodin’s country estate, dreaming up new dishes with which to wow his coterie of dining companions, who meet regularly to admire Eugénie’s artistry as well as her beauty. Hung’s unhurried camera savours every delicious morsel, but alas, even a nine-course meal cannot last forever.
Saturday 14 February, 9.35pm, BBC Four

***

Predator: Badlands

Director Dan Trachtenberg continues his resurrection of the 80s sci-fi monster franchise with this Elle Fanning-starring banger. Though the series began eight movies ago, with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the run in the rainforest, Badlands is the first Predator movie to feature an actual Predator (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) as protagonist. He’s travelled to a distant planet to prove his mettle, by taking on the Kalisk, the only creature in the universe Predators are afraid of. But he won’t survive without his android guide Thia (Fanning).
Out now, Disney+

***

Romancing the Stone

Screenwriter Diane Thomas was working as a cocktail waitress in Malibu when she wrote this surprise box office hit, a rollocking rom-com jungle jaunt which has it all: man-eating crocodiles, lost treasure and Danny DeVito in a panama hat. Kathleen Turner stars as Joan Wilder, a lonely Manhattan romance novelist who travels to Colombia to rescue her kidnapped sister, falls in love with an exotic bird smuggler named Jack T Colton (Michael Douglas), survives several mudslides, dances a flirtatious fandango and – all in all – has the adventure of a lifetime.
Saturday 14 February, 3pm, Film4

***

Bone Lake

Diego (Marco Pigossi) and Sage (Florence Pugh lookalike, Maddie Hasson) arrive at their large, lakeside holiday rental, only to discover it’s been double-booked by Will (Alex Roe) and Cin (Andra Nechita). After a brief, awkward interaction, the two couples agree that a) the double entendre of the resort’s name is hilarious, and, b) they can amicably share for the duration of their stay. But this is a fast-paced, erotic thriller from horror-flick director Mercedes Bryce Morgan, so it won’t stay amicable for long.
Saturday 14 February, 9.30pm, Sky Cinema Premiere

***

Alfie

The existential ennui of the serial seducer is explored in this swinging 60s classic. Michael Caine stars as the titular cockney charmer, who takes women into his bed – and us into his confidence – with regular, fourth-wall-breaking chats. Alfie’s “avin a beautiful little life” until the consequences of his own actions catch up with him. It’s at this point that the saucy sex comedy develops a social-realist conscience, given voice by that Cilla Black theme song.
Saturday 14 February, 12.55am, Sky Cinema Greats

***

Shadow of a Doubt

This is the connoisseur’s choice of Hitchcock pictures, and the master of suspense himself picked it, on multiple occasions, as his own personal favourite. The story concerns Charlotte “Charlie” Newton (Teresa Wright), a teenage girl whose life in the idyllic small town of Santa Rosa, California is safe but dull until her charismatic, namesake relative (Joseph Cotten) comes to stay. Uncle Charlie is seemingly fun and generous, and takes a special interest in his young niece. He appears to be the perfect house guest, in fact. Except for all that ranting about “rich widows”.
Wednesday 18 February, 11am, Film4

***

I Know What You Did Last Summer

What did you do last summer? If it didn’t include catching this reboot of the slasher franchise, then you missed out on a fun fusion of 90s nostalgia (both Freddie Prinze Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt reprise their roles) and Gen Z drip (The Studio’s Chase Sui Wonders and It Girl Gabbriette head up the new cast). It’s been 27 years since the errant youth of Southport, North Carolina were first held accountable for their feckless negligence – RIP beauty queen Sarah Michelle Gellar – and now the hook-handed fisherman is back.
Friday 20 February, 7.50am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere