All 4: Coming soon to Channel 4’s VOD service in September 2017
David Farnor | On 02, Sep 2017
Shorts continue to be a central part of Channel 4’s VOD service, All 4. Following the premiere of the rebooted Trigger Happy as a series of new shorts last year, All 4 this month brings us a new series about celebrities’ personality traits and a look at cosmetic surgery.
Summer, meanwhile, has seen All 4 branch out into feature films too, harking back to the days when Film4oD existed. From disturbing horror to provocative drama, here are the highlights for All 4 this month. (For what’s coming soon to Walter Presents, All 4’s channel dedicated to foreign-language TV, click here.)
Weekend Films on All 4
All 4’s summer of offering free weekend films to stream draws to a close with three modern classics.
Under the Skin – 1st to 3rd September
“Jonathan Glazer’s bizarre sci-fi begins with a sequence that could either be something launching through space or the creation of a human. That existential ambiguity – and hint of voyeurism – festers as Glazer introduces an alien (Scarlett Johansson) driving round Glasgow. Shot on the sly, with the actress clad in black wig and furs, she picks up men using innocuous smalltalk from her bright, red lips. A Hollywood star in disguise as a regular person, wrapped up in the coat of another animal; in this foreign land, identity is defined by what’s on the top.
“That’s certainly how blokes view it. The victims who find themselves in her passenger seat are lured by her looks into a reflective prison of dark, glassy nakedness. What follows is a reversal of that longing, a discarding of the outer layers like soiled tissue paper. Driven by the thudding heartbeat of Mica Levi’s eerie score, it’s a spectacle that’s as incomprehensible as it is horrifying.”
12 Years a Slave – 8th to 10th September
“After the astonishing Shame and hard-hitting Hunger, artist-turned-director Steve McQueen has made a name for himself for tackling difficult subjects head-on – and for doing it beautifully. 12 Years a Slave continues the first part of that tradition, but skips the second. Those expecting long, fluid takes and stunning composition will be surprised, or perhaps disappointed: this is blunt cinema.
“Based on the book of the same name, 12 Years a Slave tells just that: the true story of Solomon Northup’s captivity for over a decade. That only makes the events of his memoir more brutal to witness; this isn’t a Hollywood drama about the issue of slavery. This actually happened.”
20,000 Days on Earth – 15th to 17th September
Gigantic-foreheaded Aussie warbler Nick Cave explores the songwriting process, the nature of performance and his own mortality in this self-indulgent but uniquely fascinating documentary. Well, we say “documentary”; it’s hard to actually pin down what this is. Part reportage, part drama, part concert film… the only thing you can say about 20,000 Days On Earth for sure is that it is – like its subject – quite odd, deliberately enigmatic but undeniably entertaining.
Celebrity Psych Test – Coming soon (Date TBC)
A unique interview unlocks revealing insights into celebs’ true personality traits.
Plastic and Proud – Coming soon (Date TBC)
As cosmetic surgery becomes more and more the acceptable, meet the extreme plastic surgery addicts that love to go under the knife and follow them as they head for their latest procedure.
From rib removals to extreme bum enlargements, Britney lookalikes to changes in skin colour, the simple nip-and-tuck is a tame thing of the past for these proud plastic people.
What’s their motivation for their dramatic transformations? How do those closest to them feel about their decisions? Will they ever stop in the pursuit for plastic perfection?
