Film
Reviews
COMEDY
EAGLE VS SHARK
(15) 84min
(Optimum DVD rental/retail) 0000 With its sweet sod and crumbly heart. you'd think that Eag/e vs Shark would only be fit fOr shooting out of the sky Or being drowned at birth. But in the hands Of writer/director Taika Waititi and leads Loren HOrSIey and Jemaine Clement (the speccy sideburned one frOm Flight of the Conchords). this qurrky KiWi comedy hits all the right keys.
I
Lin and Jarrod are a pair of social misfits who succeed in finding each other. but his obseSSion with a Samoan who bullied him at school, his longing for a dead brother and a facrlity for brutal lie-telling threatens to destabilise their futures. Some decent DVD extras such as mildly illuminating cast and crew interviews. deleted scenes. a somewhat cheeky Flight of the Conchords trailer and a behind-the-scenes look at the film's pivotal mouse wheel seguence only add to the pleasure.
(Brian Donaldson)
DRAMA SHERRYBABY (1 5) 92min (Metrodome DVD retail/rental) 000
A useful companion piece to the much mOre lauded Half Nelson, this stOry about a woman trying to get her life together after a prison sentence and a drug habit. utilises a quirky visual style to capture the heady exhaustion of living a straight life with an askew nervous system.
The best thing about it
is Maggie Gyllenhaal as
ex-iailbird and mother Sherry whose child is in danger of slipping from her as She becomes mere attached to Sherry's brother and his Wife She also has a shOrt fuse that doesn't exactly work in her favour. In one scene she loses it wrth a woman at McDonalds who mistreats her own child, and Gyllenhaal's over- reaction eaSily captures a woman who knows what's right but can't behave herself. Extras include an interwew wrth Gyllenhaal and a 08A With director Laurie Collyer. (Tony McKibbin)
COMEDY/DRAMA SLACKER
(15) 93min
(Metrodome rental/retail) O...
llJ ’§'(C . l3\ I
i. *‘fithtas;
Originally released in 1991, Richard Linklater's fine low- budget second feature may bring to mind one of contemporary Cinema's most over- used storytelling deVices: the multiple character tale. But where Crash. 27 Grams. Babe/ and others allow initial apparent narrative looseness to lead to plot contrivances later on. Linklater's film isn't just about slackers. it also has a healthy apparent Slackness of form as it wanders around Austin. Texas. focusmg fOr a few minutes on one Or two characters. and then moving on to others. This may lead to frustrations — some characters are much more interesting than
42 TN. US? 17—31 Jan 2008
(J o h K ,‘o‘ , ‘ ,. o 5/ v I h 1" ‘
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:1 .‘.'Crlfl #5“; <3 '1 ‘ ‘ess as drama "‘a" dirk; soc'nlrwg. —: .T mm the sort :.‘ Sf‘a't, empathic cbsenat " " he would later liner; "7 Before Sense. Sunset and. heck. “7.2'” moments in Scher Rock. Minimal extras lTony McKltflirn
DOUBLE rt AT! N
THE DUEL
PROJECT
gARAGAMI AND LDK)
(18) 145mm
ITartan Asm Extreme
DVD rental retaili
O...
The result of a (IllélllOltgtf given to two promising young Japanese directors by Shiriya Kawai. the producer of Ring. this taut double feature is an exercrse in (llSClDland filmmaking. Both films. Ryuhei Kitamura's Araganii and Yukihiko Tsutsiimi's QLDK were made On condition that they each feature only two characters (one of whom dies). in one location. and that the shoot lasts no more than eight days.
Aragarrir. then, is the tale of a wounded samurai who finds refuge in a temple. and awakes to find himself healed by the titular war god. It's stern-faced and Sincere in its love of action posmg, but the strobe-lit swordfight sequences are incredible. QLDK. however (a story of two competing actresses who share a flat in modern-day Tokyo) is the better film. an atmospherically shot and ridICLil0usly Violent mixture of biting satire and sharp character work. WOuId that more Western cinema aSpired to Such experiments.
www.|ist.co.uk/film
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Lovely late January. It's dark. cold and nou'ie broke ll‘rtwu- . become yOur best friends. Not to worry there's; always the Noel Coward
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Collection (Second Entertainment 0.. it.“ get 1hr llilll‘i lf‘."» l‘. .i ‘ci' studded collection of BBC adaptations of C) inlaid“; tilil it‘l‘tll'i iii; acters and short stories including Hayferrer, Prxmte l new. [)r Plays in Laughter. The shonky production names :2: them“- .i iiirxf it“ dated badly, but the strength of Coward's '.‘.'rit.,'ir)s f‘m'lw ‘ii'v* "‘..:"'- -.'. i ‘ wine very superior performances from the likes of Paul l‘drliiiritnn. Pan fSi'tli if . .‘lf l_ Judi Dench. Tom Courtney. Ian Richardson and Penelope Keith
If that's all too ‘lovey darling' for you. a safer bet could he the Paul Robeson Collection (Network 0... l. a very fine (joliectr in of rail 'ly neer‘ films featuring the great actor. Singer. athlete and (:i\.'i| iidl‘ts zir‘tz‘nut lln lll'lfllit‘, include a new converSion from a brand new HD print of (7fllf.lli Krirrla'r. f'lgi‘.’ epic adventure Sanders of the River; the groiindbreakiiit; ‘ Freedom (the first film to senSitively deal With Africa Arner‘icar‘ rmin'sk lieritxiriei and newly restored Silent Body and Soul
There‘s lots of lovely oddities out too. Beat Girl (Blacklinvsr ,1 coo banned in the UK for many years after its release lll lflfifi, v.03" Ber .iim- there's drugs in it. and strippers and Christopher l ee {lll’l ()l -' Her-d. firif‘a why. It's pretty tame by today's standards but it is a fasr irratiiy; mm f;fi.iw;ei still is Flavia the Heretic (Shame I... ). Giaiifraiir:o Miii-‘yix/i'u 'i U51 nunsploitation flick about one young nun's sordid experiences l)‘:lllli’l tllf; convent walls. Mingozzrs film actually stands up well (li'l'l l‘) (illl MM fr, many of the other softCOre porn nun features being knocked out law if .‘.‘i’:ll" .if the time.
Norwegian filmmaker Jens Lien's The Bothersome Man .Drakea Ave.“ i.- Pictures 0... . pictured) is an absolute peach of a lll()‘.’lf; alcut one iiiarz'u struggle for normality in a world he is sure he shouldn't be a part of Why Tttl‘. fantastic coolly surreal feature did not lGCOI‘vO a better theatrical release taut year is anyone's guess. Finally, the great Spanish filriimaker Alex [)e l a lll’llf:.’,l£l underrated 2004 SCrewball comedy Ferpect Crime lTLA Rf:lf:éli5lf‘i'l 0000 i is released on DVD. Set In a huge Madrid department store. the tlllli i'. t’lllll"_ drop dead fashionably so. Take my word for lt. iPaul Dalei
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Extras include a .31 [)k’ » {3’1" 19: '1’. behind the scenes "-7 e " ‘ : feature. trailers. deleted E ’: Iir ’l .e‘ scenes and cast .:,: ,' ’ intermews. 7' u ' '. ' ii: : . 'Da'vlfl p’)llfl’.§l\l A"; or . ,' ,1; .1'. P K " 1,
DRAMA . , . ,, (18)115min 000 " f ‘ :Tartan DVD retai‘ rental " '5‘ "
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