THE WICKER MAN (StudioCanal), celebrating its 50th anniversary, is one of the best British horror movies; but it is not horror in the bloody Hammer Horror manner. It feels much more authentic. A policeman (Edward Woodward), a devout Christian, investigating the disappearance of a young girl on a remote Scottish island, is shocked to find a deeply religious community, led by their laird (Christopher Lee) is practising primitive pagan fertility rites. Their crop has failed and a human sacrifice is needed.
AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK (Tubi). The Englishman is the witty and eminently quotable raconteur Quentin Crisp in his old age. John Hurt brilliantly recreates the role he played so memorably in The Naked Civil Servant. Crisp’s aphorisms ring out: ‘Neither look forward where there is doubt, nor backward where there is regret, look inward and ask, not if there is anything outside that you want, but whether is anything inside that you have not yet unpacked.’
GODLAND (Curzon). In the late 19th century, a Danish Lutheran priest (Elliott Crosset Hove), a keen photographer, is sent to a remote community in Iceland to establish a new parish church. He has a brutal journey through an awesome, godless landscape and faces hostility from his guide (Ingvar Eggert Sigurosson) and his host (Jacob Lohmann). Gaunt and highly strung, he fares badly. Hynur Palmason directs this powerful movie.
GOLD RUN (BBC iPlayer). A World War II story based on fact. The Nazis invade Norway in 1940. Resistance fighters save 55 tonnes of gold which is being shipped to England and North America. This dangerous mission by road, rail and boat is led by an unassuming parliamentary secretary with no military experience at all.
THE COMPANY YOU KEEP (BBC iPlayer). Anti-Vietnam militant (Robert Redford), wanted for robbery and murder, has been in hiding for 30 years, He is exposed by a journalist (Shia LaBoeuf) and goes on the run, chased by him and the FBI. The film is not exciting enough.
DELICATESSEN (StudioCanal). This award-winning French macabre comedy is directed with stylish, cartoonish, surreal flair by Jean Pierre Jeunet and Marco Caro. Meat is scarce. Cannibalism is rife. A butcher (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) employs a clown (Dominique Pinon) to do housework intending to kill him in order to feed the boarders in his dilapidated house. His daughter (Marie-Laure Pougnac) falls in love with the clown and determines to save him.
GOD COUNTRY (YouTube). A sophisticated black college professor moves out of a city and relocates to the under-policed wilds of Montana and has to confront racism and violence from the redneck community. Julian Higgins directs Thandiwe Newton in this tense little thriller.
U-57 (StudioCanal). World War II action in the Atlantic Ocean is based on fact. US soldiers board a disabled German U-Boat to steal an enigma machine and battle with a Nazi-destroyer to bring it home. The actors, under-characterised, fail to make any impact as individuals and are merely used for facial reactions to the explosions.
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