Pick of the week
The Wolf of Wall Street

Perhaps the greatest of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s six (and counting) collaborations, this financial crime caper is based on the memoir of large-living New York City stockbroker Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio). We follow Belfort’s rise and fall through the Black Monday crash and the 1990s boiler room boom, but there’s also time for memorable turns from a magnetic Matthew McConaughey as his mentor, and Margot Robbie in her breakthrough role as the seductive second wife. Just don’t be tempted to down a tequila shot for every f-bomb: it holds the current Guinness World Record for most swears in a mainstream Hollywood movie.
Friday 3 April, 10pm, BBC Two

***

Barbarian

Writer-director Zach Cregger has become a critical darling since the release of his Oscar-winning Weapons, but this film – initially recognised only by true horror connoisseurs – is the one he made first. Georgina Campbell plays Tess, a woman who turns up at her Airbnb rental in a dodgy Detroit neighbourhood, only to find it already occupied by the harmless-seeming Keith (Bill Skarsgård). The two reluctantly decide to bunk up together and from there, things just get stranger, culminating in twists even the most experienced genre fans won’t see coming.
Saturday 28 March, 12.45am, Channel 4

***

Creed III

So the third film in a series which is itself spun off from Sylvester Stallone’s long-running Rocky saga might not sound particularly enticing, but there’s nothing like a right hook from the champ to snap us out of our franchise fatigue. Michael B Jordan, this year’s best actor Oscar winner, is dependably excellent as Adonis “Donny” Creed, and now he’s directing too, with several scenes worthy of both Stallone and Ryan Coogler’s imprimatur. Here Donny faces off against a foe from his hard-knock past (Jonathan Majors), whose challenge brings up issues.
Sunday 29 March, 10.20pm, ITV1

***

Jason and the Argonauts

The kind of thing you always hope to see when flicking through the Easter holiday TV schedules. Don Chaffey’s 1963 adventure is family film at its finest, and as it’s based on ancient Greek epic The Argonautica, may also serve as a warm-up for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming take on The Odyssey. However, even A-listers like Zendaya and Robert Pattinson cannot hope to compete with the legendary creatures conjured by Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion animation – from the seven skeleton warriors to the many-headed Hydra.
Tuesday 31 March, 2.50pm, Film4

***

The More the Merrier

While this has the same basic set-up as 2020s horror Barbarian – a single young woman is forced to co-habit by a housing shortage – George Stevens’s wartime romcom could hardly have taken the premise in a more different direction. Jean Arthur, possessor of the most adorable speaking voice in cinema history, stars as a woman whose plans for a loveless marriage are disrupted by the arrival of a dashing GI (Joel McCrea) on her doorstep.
Tuesday 31 March, 6.35am, Talking Pictures TV

***

Hard Target

Director John Woo’s first attempt to bring the stylistic flourishes of Hong Kong action cinema to American audiences is a mixed bag. Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as an out-of-work, homeless, Cajun merchant seaman and ex Marine (which explains the weird accent. Sort of.) The script, based on Richard Connell’s frequently adapted 1924 short story The Most Dangerous Game, is weak in a way that’s only further highlighted by Van Damme’s wooden delivery. Still, Woo crams in enough slo-mo shoot-outs and absurdly loud car explosions to justify your time. A curious cult classic.
Wednesday 1 April, 9pm, Great! Action

***

Dumb Money

“Dumb Money” is the nickname used by Wall Street bros to describe inexperienced investors. Or at least it was, until the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021, when the dumb money suddenly got smart. This film dramatises those events, with a Big Short-esque feel for explanatory visual analogies and an inexplicable fondness for cat memes. Paul Dano heads up a large ensemble cast as the real-life Reddit-based ‘little guy’ who started the whole thing, while Seth Rogen plays enjoyably against type as the heartless hedgie determined to bring him down.
Friday 3 April, Paramount+