5 things to watch this weekend – 9 to 11 August

Where’s it on? Cinemas nationwide

It’s often a warning sign when a film isn’t screened in advance for critics, but in the case of an M. Night Shyamalan movie you have to give the benefit of the doubt: maybe it’s the latest, fiendish Shyamalan twist they’re trying to keep under wraps. Certainly, Shyamalan’s reputation has seen an uplift of late, as the high-concept set-ups of films like Old (2021) and Knock at the Cabin (2023) have reaffirmed his flair for delicious, Twilight Zone-y scenarios. His best films are like sprung traps, and so it is in Trap, which sees a father and daughter (Josh Hartnett and Ariel Donoghue) going to a packed gig only to find the venue crawling with FBI on the hunt for a lone serial killer. The tagline gives the numbers: “30,000 fans. 300 cops. 1 serial killer. No escape.”

Where’s it on? Cinemas nationwide

In Moin Hussain’s distinctively melancholic debut, Line of Duty’s Faraz Ayub plays Adam, a lonely and withdrawn young man who works night-shifts at a motorway service station’s takeaway counter – which is effectively lit to look like a liminal, almost extraterrestrial realm. He’s getting mysterious phone calls from his absent father, and then is shocked to hear of his death – a rupture that sets Adam out on a kind of existential investigation into the reasons why he feels so different from other people. Edging into sci-fi territory, and boasting a score by the great Sarah Davachi, Hussain’s film is a unique study of estranged identity.

Where’s it on? Blu-ray

One of the most celebrated documentaries of the 1990s, Crumb is Terry Zwigoff’s chewy, up-close portrait of the underground comic-book artist Robert Crumb, best known for his adult Fritz the Cat cartoon strips. Zwigoff’s film delves into a man of eccentric habits and a deeply troubled upbringing, whose wildly distinctive drawing style and controversial caricatures brought him both fame and notoriety. It’s a study of a man whose art emerged unimpeded from his id. Criterion’s new Blu-ray ends a long period of unavailability in the UK, and carries over two commentaries from the US edition: one with Zwigoff from 2010 and one with Zwigoff and critic Roger Ebert from 2006.

Where’s it on? BFI Player

Now added to BFI Player, Michelangelo Antonioni’s great existential thriller sees Jack Nicholson playing a foreign correspondent on an assignment in North Africa who spots a unique opportunity. When he finds a fellow guest at his hotel dead, he opts to simply step out of his own life and take on the dead man’s identity, abandoning the pressures and preoccupations of his life like a rejected outfit. But the deceased was a gunrunner and there are appointments to be kept, as Nicholson’s reporter flits from the Sahara to London to Barcelona on a globe-trotting metaphysical odyssey in the dead man’s shoes.

Where’s it on? BBC2, Sunday, 16:15

There was a point in Alfred Hitchcock’s career – from Lifeboat (1944) via Rope (1948) to Rear Window (1954) – when he was fascinated with single settings and the enticing problem of how to sustain drama in them. In Dial M for Murder, the primary location is the apartment where former tennis player Ray Milland plots to kill wife Grace Kelly, who he suspects of infidelity. It’s derived from a 1952 stage play by Frederick Knott, although Hitchcock found a unique way to ‘open it up’ by adopting newfangled 3D technology, which he uses most sensationally in a scene involving a desperate stabbing by scissors. You won’t get the 3D effect on BBC2, but the film boasts plenty of other pleasures, even if it’s not one of Hitchcock’s very best.