At the cinema: Man Up
The British romantic comedy has been a rather beleaguered genre of late – over the last couple of years, there have been just a couple of notable entries, namely I Give It A Year (with Rafe Spall) and Cuban Fury (with Nick Frost). As for a romcom viewed from a female character’s perspective, those have been even rarer. Really, you’d have to go the Bridget Jones flicks, and that was ages ago. Into this void arrives Man Up, which tells the tale of 34-year-old Nancy (Lake Bell), who is approached by a stranger while standing under the clock at Waterloo station. Is she his blind date Jessica? No, but she impulsively says yes, and the scene is set for a wild night out in London, where the two get royally drunk, flirt… and try to prevent their secrets from spilling out. It’s a proper feisty, sweary comedy populated by relatably real human beings. We cringed, but in a good way.
On DVD: Foxcatcher
This movie presented a bit of a conundrum for its UK distributor eOne when it came out at the cinema. On the one hand, it had a potentially commercial film featuring major stars Channing Tatum and Steve Carell. On the other, it had a dark indie drama from the director of Capote and Moneyball. In the end, it couldn’t resist trying to engage the biggest audience possible, and succeeded in opening Foxcatcher to decent box-office. Takings quickly dwindled, so it’s fair to assume that lots of Channing fans went to see it on opening weekend and immediately warned their friends this was no Magic Mike. Despite five nominations, Foxcatcher went away empty-handed at the Oscars, eclipsed by the likes of Birdman, Whiplash, Boyhood and The Theory Of Everything. This is all a long way of saying that this film is definitely for a niche audience: the true story of an heir to an industrial fortune (Carell) persuading a US wrestling star (Tatum) and his brother (Mark Ruffalo) to train on his estate. Carell is super creepy, the ending is far from upbeat, and overall it’s a difficult watch. I loved it.
On TV: The Amazing Spider-Man (Saturday, ITV1, 8.30pm)
In 2012, when Sony rebooted its Spider-Man franchise with lovely Englishman Andrew Garfield as schoolboy Peter Parker, even fans of the Marvel comicbook universe felt it was maybe a little soon – after all, the Tobey Maguire trilogy of films had only ended five years before. As the years tick by, such concerns seem increasingly irrelevant: in the future, who will care how speedily the movies arrived on the heels of each other, and in what order? The reason to see this one is Garfield: he makes a riveting Peter, deftly fusing hurt at childhood abandonment with personal guilt for the death of his uncle in a street mugging. And as Gwen, Emma Stone presents her trademark mix of fun, feisty and adorable. Bonus treat: a rare sighting of Garfield’s torso, albeit after being mauled by Rhys Ifans’ Lizard character.