SHORTS
THE BEST OF ‘I 5TH RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SHORTS
(1 5) 1 00min
(PIAS DVD retail) O”
mmumwhw
Cottoning on to the fact that in the future the best film festivals will probably take place online and from the comfort of our own homes. those good people at Raindance have put together a best of DVD. The incentive to buy is obviously that many of these short films are currently not available to view on their excellent website (www.raindance.co.uk). This is the second time they have put together a collection like this. and this lot has been honed down from their 2007 festival and includes festival award winners, award nominees. the 2007 festival trailer, and a behind-the-scenes peak of the making of the festival directed by Jonathan Tarnation Caouette.
All the shorts on this DVD are worth checking out and the best of them — Oscar Sharp’s Forna, the stOry of a cock in a garden; Doug Carr's nightmarish Anniversary Present: Roderigo Gudino's twisted tale of unconditional love The Demonology of Desire and Philip Van's marital upgrade comedy High Maintenance -- suggest that the future of the British film industry may be in safe hands.
(Paul Dale)
ACTION
NEVER BACK DOWN
(15) 108min
(Momentum DVD retail/rental) 00
Never Back Down isn't meant for high analysis, it’s basically a film of hot young teens punching each other. The plot to string these acts of
24 THE LIST 7-14 Aug 2008
violence together is so
? basic it hardly warrants
' a mention but concerns Jake Tyler (Sean Faris)
‘ moving to a new school, - finding it hard to fit in,
getting a severe ass whipping then training up to kick some shit. NBD packs in the clichés — a troubled past, training montages, a simplistic love story — and wildly ‘borrows'
from all the greats of the genre (Kickboxer.
Bloodsport and The Karate Kid). It's the UFC
? sanitised with an OC-Iite storyline and MTV
sheen. If you’re in the mood for a bone cracking, cartilage crunching, high gloss fightfest you can‘t go wrong. If you're after depth, of any description, look elsewhere. Extras include multi-angle fight scenes. deleted scenes and a making of. (Henry NOrthmore)
THRILLER
ANGEL FACE (PG) 91 min (Blackhorse DVD retail) 0... Otto Preminger's complex and clever 1952 film noir about how salt of the earth ambulance driver Frank (Robert Mitchum) becomes mixed up with femme fatale Diane
www.list.co.uk/film
Tremayne (Jean Simmons) is certainly something of an overlooked gem. Coming almost a decade after
Preminger’s seminal noir Laura and just before he
hit paydirt with sickly sweet romancier The Moon is Blue. Angel Face is premier Preminger. Simply but atmospherically shot and full of suggestive dialogue there is a real air of venal mystery at play here.
Preminger and Mitchum apparently hated each on the set. but producer Howard Hughes refused to let Preminger sack Mitchum. Mitchum returned the compliment by delivering arguably the darkest and most ambivalent performance of his career. Ironically the two men worked together again two years later on adventure film River of No Fleturn starring Marilyn Monroe. in which Preminger insisted his stars do all their own stunts with near tragic results. They certainly don't make them like Preminger anymore. This is a budget price DVD (£5.99) with minimum extras. (Paul Dale)
I ....,..l * .. 3‘ l ‘i-i,
DOCUMENTARY
MAKE ME A CHRISTIAN Channel 4, Sun 10 Aug, 7pm U
www.list.co.uk/tv
While the UK may have been founded on the rock of Christian values, its modern citizens would rather play Pro Evolution Soccer, get paralytically drunk or fritter a week’s earnings away on footwear. But would a return to a more godly way of life help save the nation from its apparently unstoppable decline into the gutter? This series primarily shows just how gigantic a task the bible-botherers have on their hands in convincing some no-nonsense Yorkshire lads and Iasses that reading scripture is more important than visiting strippers and Jesus Christ has more to offer than
Jimmy Choo.
The volunteers range from a tattooed atheist who disrupts the group with his constant cursing and negativity to a middle class family looking for a way out of their circle of debilitating stress. The opener has the mentors confronting the thorny issue of Leeds-based sin and yet only lasts 50 minutes. (Brian Donaldson)
DRAMA SPOOKS: CODE 9 secs, Sun 10 Aug,
The spin-off show is a seemingly inevitable symptom of modern TV production: when ideas are running on empty. just grab a programme. give it a shake and see what kind of sub-version can be made out of it. So. here we are in 2013 and London has been evacuated after a nuclear bomb is set off with power being transferred to the north of England. For some reason. this means that people in their twenties and thirties are now in charge of Ml5 and they
are tracking down a
bunch of rogues who
coincidentally appear to
be in their twenties and
j thirties.
Unfortunately, the Beeb have more or less
done this already in a slightly less pompous fashion with Ml High, which has about as much credibility as this tedious affair. Quite why the security services would suddenly be run by folk in their gap year is wholly unexplained and frankly irritating. Coming up next: Spooks Code 2 and a Half in which newborns run the treasury. toddlers front Al Qaeda and a Tweenie has been voted in as Mayor of London. Actually, that last bit . . .
(Brian Donaldson)
DOCUMENTARY FLYING: CONFESSIONS OF A FREE WOMAN
8804, Wed 13 Aug, 10pm O.
Wouldn't we all love to be handed a camera. go off wandering across the globe on the flimsiest of motives and stick our lens into people‘s lives? But most people would at least try to capture some of the
fun bits. and avoid filming all of the dullest moments of our conversations. Not here though. Filmed over five. tedious. self-indulgent years. New York-based filmmaker Jennifer Fox trotted around four continents analysing women‘s lives and creating some kind of personal voyage of discovery.
The alarm bells should have immediately started ringing when Candace Bushnell
described it as 'required
viewing for very
woman'. For all this
female chit-chatting around the coffee houses. parks and bedrooms of the world is nothing less than a Sex and the City without the constant growling about orgasms and shoes.
l (Brian Donaldson)