Video] DVD
dvd@list.co.uk
QUEER INDEPENDENT BEEFCAKE
(18) 92min
(Millivres Multimedia DVD retail) 0...
lf male muscle mags of the 508 are your big turn- on. then Thom Fitzgerald's quirky dOCU- drama is for yOU. Combining photo montage and interviews with'real life models. Beefcake tells the life story of male-photo obsessive Bob Mizer (Daniel Maclvor), founder of male fitness magazine The Athletics Mode/s Guide. Mizer likes to pick his models right off the bus as they arrive in LA. but just as he is building up a healthy drifter boy harem around his SWImming pool he is raided and forced to go through a homophobic court trial. Beetcake veers from camp parody to homoerotica while finally settling for being a hymn to a bygone era. Put your feet up and enjoy. Beefcake constantly surprises. (John Binnie)
CLASSIC TV DOCUMENTARY JOHN’S NOT MAD
(E) 64min
(Fabulous Films/ Freemantle Home Entertainment DVD/VHS retail) 0000
John Davidson — the boy from Galashiels with the violent ticks and a penchant for foul language that is spurted out at the most inopportune moments — is some kind of hero.
When this BBC documentary went out in 1989 a million school boys took him to their heart. Here was a boy who could use sexual profanity with compulsive regularity just because he suffered from a complex neurological disorder called Tourette Syndrome. Never shown again on British television. this is your chance to see a TV classic. This DVD contains a fascinating follow up dOCumentary from 2002 and the Tourette Scotland charity will receive a donation for every copy of John's Not Mad that is sold. (Paul Dale)
FRAUD DRAMA OWNING MAI-IOWNY
(15) 101 min (Momentum DVD/VHS rental/retail) 0000
Why this sly, telling Canadian drama based on a true story was never given a proper theatrical release in the UK is anyone guess. Brian Moloney (here renamed as Dan Mahowny) was an unassuming Toronto deputy bank manager who. between 1980 and 1982. embezzled millions of dollars from his employers. all because of his secret gambling addiction. Basically a low key vehicle for Philip Seymour Hoffman‘s considerable talents. Owning Mahowny succeeds on just about every level. Excellent suppOrt from Minnie Driver. John Hurt and the Canuck cinema veteran Maury Chaykin is aided by Maurice Chauvet's sleek script and some impressive period detail. Compelling stuff. Minimal extras.
(Paul Dale)
1 10 THE LIST 53—19 Feb 2004
EROTICA
A SNAKE OF JUNE
(18) 77min
(Tartan Video DVD/VHS retail) 0...
More weird twisty filth from the man who gave us the Tetsuo movies. This time Shinya Tsukamoto turns to the theme of love perverted. During the wet month of June in an unnamed Japanese metropolis. Rinko (Asuka Kurosawa. Tsukamoto‘s real life wife) becomes the victim of a voyeuristic stalker while her obsessive compulsive dullard of a husband plays catch up. Tsukamoto has clearly watched the collected works of David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick more than is probably healthy. but this is perverse. surreal. experimental modern cinema at its best. It is also mercifully short. Minimal extras.
(Paul Dale)
LOVE STORY SPRINGTIME IN A SMALL TOWN (PG) 1 14min (Artificial Eye DVD/VHS retail) 0000
When grumpy, sick Liyan's friend. Zhichen. visits him in the small town in which he lives. buried passions resurface as Zhichen quickly realises that Liyan's wife. Yuwen, is actually his own teenage sweetheart. Director Tian Zhuangzhuang's (The Blue Kite) film isn't just a lovingly told tale of thwarted passion. it‘s an effective exploration of a deeper bond than passion that might keep
GAY CAMPAIGNING CLASSIC.
VICT (15) 99min
(Carlton Visual Entertainment DVD retail) «m
Hollywood star Montgomery Clift obsessively watched Victim over and over again, amazed at the power and pain in Dirk Bogarde’s career-best performance, which has lost none of its power 43 years on. It’s hard to imagine how brave the matinee idol was in accepting a role - that of a married barrister being blackmailed for his homosexual past — which would alienate his bobby-sock fan base so completely. For his part Bogarde went on record declaring that Victim was ‘the wisest decision I ever made in my
cinematic career’.
Basil Dearden’s taut 1961 blackmail thriller is set in the Soho of the early 19603, where gay men from all walks of life are easy prey to extortion and persecution. Hard hitting, emotionally compelling and incredibly fast paced, Philip Green’s pulsating score casts a shadow of malice over the anachronistically literate dialogue of Janet Green and John McCormick’s
screenplay.
Acted by an impeccable cast of great British character actors - Peter McEnery is heartbreaking as the young man driven to suicide in order to protect Bogarde’s name, and Sylvia Syms is excellent as the barrister’s devastated wife. The scenes with Syms and Bogarde are shot through with the rawness and honesty of real life. The homosexual parts are played with dignity and are never treated as clichés or stereotypes.
Victim excels as a campaigning drama. It helped in liberalising the British public’s cultural attitudes, as well as influencing a change in antiquated, prejudiced laws regarding homosexuality (backing up the recommendations of the 1957 Wolfenden Report). The film gave liberal audiences hope at the beginning of a decade that was to be defined by youthful attitudes towards sexual tolerance. See it yourself and be overwhelmed. (John Binnie)
I Victim is part of The Best of British New Wave Cinema on DVD series from
Car/ton.
a couple together even if the ostensible ties seem barely apparent. A major new work from this slow working Chinese director. Extras on DVD minimal.
(Tony McKibbin)
ROCK'N'ROLL GUNS’N’ROSES - WELCOME TO THE VIDEOS
(E) 75min
(Geffen DVD retail)
.0
As they Quickly descended into
iiiuiiu
overblown Spinal Tap excess. it's easy to forget that G'n'R were once the most vital
rock'n'roll band in the world. Appetite for Destruction was bloody genius. and I'll punch anyone who says otherwise. But the good times didn't last long. and while the first few singles here show a band wired and on the edge. too many of the 13 videos here are mired in bombastic nonsense. With no extras and plenty of filler. this is hardly essential stuff.
(Doug Johnstone)