Five films and TV shows so good you’ll want to stay in all weekend
Screen Time: Get comfy. From weird wellness retreats in Nine Perfect Strangers to DIY chaos in Changing Rooms, there’s a lot on offer from 20th August.
Culture
Words: Olive Pometsey
It’s that time again, folks. The working week has come to a close and you need to figure out how to spend your two days of freedom. It’s a lot of pressure. Making every second count without blowing a load of cash or ruining next week with a three-day hangover can be tough. That’s why we’re proposing an alternative: dig out that remote from underneath the sofa and make this weekend a chilled one.
Invited to your Netflix and (actual) chill this time is Sandra Oh in new series The Chair, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen in the Changing Rooms reboot and Nicole Kidman in wellness industry drama Nine Perfect Strangers. Is that a fever dream dinner party guestlist or what? See, you don’t even need to leave the house to be in good company this weekend.
For bingeing…
Got time? Watch it all in one go
The Chair
In her first on-screen role since Killing Eve, Sandra Oh returns for Netflix’s miniseries The Chair, once again playing a powerful woman, but sans obsession with a very fashionable assassin. This time, she fills the shoes of Dr Ji-Yoon Kim, who has recently become the first woman to chair the English department at Pembroke University. Funnily enough, she’s also one of a few staff members of colour at the uni, meaning she’s got a lot on her plate before she’s even met her hyper-woke students. Prepare for professors behaving badly and more of Oh’s subtle, flustered comedy.
Available to stream on Netflix now.
For splurging…
The film worth leaving home to see
Censor
This week’s horror fix comes in the form of a surreal dive into the video nasties panic of the ‘80s, as the UK whipped itself into a frenzy about the release of low-budget, high-gore horror films. Following Enid, a video censor whose job it is to rate these flicks according to British classification standards, it’s an eerie look at trauma, transformation and truth, as reality and fiction blur into something much more unsettling than the films she screens. In case you were wondering, Censor itself is rated 15 – so yeah, it’s pretty scary, but not anything that Saw fanatics can’t handle.
Censor is out in UK cinemas now. Read THE FACE’s interview with the women who made the film here.
For thinking…
A docuseries to feed the brain
Children of 9/11: Our Story
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Children of the time are now all grown up, including those who lost parents in the tragedy. This two-hour documentary tells their story, following the lives of six young people whose lives were irrevocably changed that day. But this is not a story of anger and resentment. Each person has reached a place of acceptance and where there is indeed pain, there is also hope. Children of 9/11 is a sombre watch, but it doesn’t let hate win. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
Children of 9/11: Our Story is available on All 4 now.
For laughs…
Absurd comedy or reality TV to crack a smile
Changing Rooms
After almost two decades off-air, it turns out that the minds behind classic DIY-show Changing Rooms still haven’t figured out how normal people want their houses to look. Back then, they thought beds made out of fur and plaster casts of bums looked cool. Today, they’re trying out clever hacks such as lining your walls with blonde hair extensions. What is that cheeky Llewelyn-Bowen like, eh? The most amazing thing about this reboot, however, is that they managed to find people to go on it, even after watching the show destroy a woman’s £6,000 teapot collection in 2000. Brave souls.
Airing on Channel 4 at 8pm on Wednesdays.
For chatting...
Talking points for when your next wave of social fatigue hits
Nine Perfect Strangers
Nicole Kidman is Goop incarnate in Nine Perfect Strangers, playing an exclusive wellness retreat leader, Marsha, complete with flowing, white dresses and a creepy gaze that screams cult leader. She promises to heal them of their woes if they promise to “surrender themselves” to her. She also makes them do weird shit like lay in graves while her staff chuck dirt on them, like a boujie bushtucker trial. All sounds very sane and normal, right? Based on Liane Moriarty’s best-selling novel and brought to life by the team behind Big Little Lies, this show is enough to make you postpone your next wellness kick. And breathe out.
Nine Perfect Strangers is available on Amazon Prime now.
