Square Eyes

Television Reviews

Movie of the week, Dancer in the Dark, SBS, Sun, 9.30pm

This is a film for masochists. It's relentlessly depressing, devastatingly tragic and Danish director Lars Von Trier's grainy, erratic hand-held video camera style is irritatingly B-grade. It many ways, it's a lesson in what not to do in cinema – don't try and get a pop star (Bjork) to act, avoid editing in a style that borders on a epileptic fit and try to offer at least some redemption and beauty rather than bleak nihilism. Bjork plays a refugee factory worker who's going blind. She lives in a fantasy world of musicals, but kills the local sheriff (who was trying to rob her) and ends up on death row. And things go downhill from there.. It won the Cannes Palme D'Or, but film students should note when the emperor has no clothes.

Roy Hollsdotter Live, SBS, Fri, 8.30pm

Roy (Darren Casey) is a Melbourne comic who is losing the plot after breaking up with his girlfriend Cate, and starts stalking her. His best mate, Simmo, tries to be loyal, but there are limits, especially when his comedy turns vicious. A crisply written local drama.

Singing in the Shadow, ABC, Mon, 9.30pm

Ozzy Osbourne has a son, Louis, who's smart enough to avoid appearing on reality TV, but silly enough to want to follow in his father's footsteps. This doco speaks to kids and their famous parents – Phil Everly, Phil Collins, Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon and Robbie Robertson – about their battles to escape their lineage.

Indiana Jones & The Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ten, Sun, 8.30pm

The first film in the Indiana Jones trilogy, which continues over the next fortnight. The jokes are lame and it's dated stuff, but it's still a wonderful adventure classic.

The Private Lives of Pompeii, ABC, Sun, 8.30pm

Things were looking good in the 1st century until Mt Vesuvius stopped time in its tracks. Using dramatisations and computer graphics, the period is brought to life telling the (fictionalised) stories of Romans.

Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx: Prime, Fri, 9.30pm

One of the first films that brought this martial arts extraordinaire and complete madman fame and fortune. Unlike his more recent attempts, it thankfully lacks Hollywood schmultz but still kicks arse in the kung fu department.

Rocky IV: Prime, Fri, 12am

As if boxing wasn't stupid enough already.

Big Country Revisited: CWA, ABC, Tues, 8pm

There's been ground-shaking changes in the CWA since Aunty's doco team visited 34 years ago. The general secretary is a Harvard educated bloke, for starters, and tradition and the need to change are trying to tread an uncertain path.

George Negus Tonight, ABC, Thurs, 6.30pm

Jennifer Rush is a seachanger from Melbourne who moved to the Northern Rivers to live on a commune and pursue her passion for filmmaking. She's trying to balance an alternative lifestyle with her desire for a career, as this doco story reveals.

Dead Ringers, ABC, Thurs, 9.30pm

This English satire mercilessly lampoons politicians and celebrities – including Tony Blair looking for WMDs at the end of the rainbow – with silly impersonations.