The final episode of the third season of Rectify screens this Tuesday evening, and Rectify fans will find it a cathartic experience. Daniel Holden’s (Aden Young) release from death row after being incarcerated for the rape and murder of his girlfriend 19 years ago has quietly wrecked havoc upon his small Southern town family. Relationships have been tested, torn apart and renewed throughout this six episode third series, and while the show retains it’s poetic, melancholic and restrained approach to portraying reality, the final episode moves at pace to bring as much closure to it’s character’s lives as creator,Breaking Bad’s Ray McKinnon, would no doubt allow. There’s a sense of new beginnings and hope, and it’s nice to know that season four of this Sundance Channel drama will take Daniel’s story in a new direction. But really, you should see if for yourself… 

The final episode of the third season of Rectify screens this Tuesday evening, and Rectify fans will find it a cathartic experience. Daniel Holden’s (Aden Young) release from death row after being incarcerated for the rape and murder of his girlfriend 19 years ago has quietly wrecked havoc upon his small Southern town family. Relationships have been tested, torn apart and renewed throughout this six episode third series, and while the show retains it’s poetic, melancholic and restrained approach to portraying reality, the final episode moves at pace to bring as much closure to it’s character’s lives as creator, Breaking Bad’s Ray McKinnon, would no doubt allow. There’s a sense of new beginnings and hope, and it’s nice to know that season four of this Sundance Channel drama will take Daniel’s story in a new direction. But really, you should see if for yourself… 

Here are my picks for the week. 

Saturday 24th October 8.30pm…What We Did On Our Holiday
In this low key, charming British comedy, Doug (David Tennant) and Abi (Rosamund Pike) take their three kids to a family celebration, but in order not to upset David’s father (Billy Connolly) who is terminally ill with cancer, they convince their kids to keep their impending divorce a secret. It makes for a rather tense holiday filled with plenty of bickering from the parents, and hilarious improvised performances from the kids. The cast is fabulous, especially Celia Imrie, who plays Doug’s mentally fragile sister in law, and there are plenty of laughs to be had here – as well as an unexpected dark turn that see’s the children make a rather shocking choice. This is the first feature film from comedy screenwriters and telemovie directors Andy Hamilton & Guy Jenkin. The two first met in the late 70s at BBC Radio and have been writing together ever since. Their popular television show Outnumbered dealt with parenthood as it observed the chaos of life with small children. What We Did on Our Holiday feels like an extension of this show. Here too, the kids often outshine the adults with their delightful, improvised performances.

Friday 23rd October, 8.30pm …Art and Craft
Three talented filmmakers come together to direct this extraordinary story of art forgery and mental illness. Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker worked together before on the documentary Pressure Cooker, and for this biography of Mark Landis, America’s most prolific art forger, they team up with Oscar nominated director Sam Cullman (If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front). For over 20 years Landis used craft store supplies and Wal-mart frames to forge hundreds of works from artists such as Louis Valtat, Paul Signac, Marie Laurencin, Stanislas Lépine, and Daumier. Posing as an art collector, philanthropist or priest, he gave these works away to prominent museums across America. In 2008 his con was discovered by museum worker, Matthew Leininger, who made it his mission to reveal Landis’ con. However, it didn’t really matter who Leininger got involved in this case from the media to the FBI, since Landis had donated the works rather than sold them, he hadn’t really committed any crime except embarrassing experts who should have known better. Art and Craft however isn’t just an amusing film about a brilliant artist driven by a desire to fool experts for the heck of it; it’s also a quietly disturbing study of a lonely schizophrenic trying to find a way of participating in the world. It took three years for the filmmakers to tell Landis’ story, and the result is a character study filled with humour and compassion and well worth a watch.

Monday 19th October, 8.30pm …The Wonders
While there are similarities between director Alice Rohrwacher’s life (she too grew up in the Italian countryside on a bee farm and has a German father) and the story being told in The Wonders, this stark, beguiling and philosophical family drama is not autobiographical. The eldest of four sisters, Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu) assists her father (Sam Louwyck) in the family’s apiary. When she stumbles across a television commercial announcing a regional contest looking for artisanal foods, Gelsomina becomes obsessed with entering her family’s honey against her father’s wishes. The Wonders is a film about preserving traditional ways, living a simple bohemian life on the land, family dynamics, and even child labour. Watching a Rohrwacher film is a joy – everything is intentional from the colours, the framing of the camera, the music, and script in which there is no adlibbing – everything is deliberate and nothing is accidental. This display of bohemian life might not be the romantic image of living in rural Italy so many people have, instead it’s something much richer and real.