Film DVD Reviews COMEDY KAMIKAZI GIRLS (SHIMOTSUMA MONOGATARI) (12) 103 min (Third Window Films) ●●●●●
version can certainly be described as both lavish and faithful to its much- loved source. The all- star cast of comic actors features Peter Sellers, Michael Crawford, Dudley Moore, Spike Milligan, Michael Hordern and Sir Ralph Richardson, plus one-time Bond girl Fiona Fullerton as Alice. The set and costume design, make-up and special effects are very impressive, and the film’s beautifully shot in ‘scope by veteran Geoffrey Unsworth, who lensed 2001 for Stanley Kubrick four years earlier, and scored by the great John Barry. What a shame, then, that as written and directed by sometime television producer William Sterling this Wonderland is a glorious tableau that fails to come to life. Individual scenes and set pieces look wonderful, but the leaden pacing renders the whole thing inert. No extras. (Miles Fielder) DRAMA/COMEDY MOTHERHOOD (15) 90min (Metrodome) ●●●●●
Released in time for Mother’s Day, this comic drama about a day in the life of a harassed middle-class New York married mom of two sets hard about eliciting the sympathy of maternals everywhere. In an unlikely role, self- confessed fashionista Uma Thurman plays a boho parent – unkempt hair, clunky spectacles, dresses that look like
Kawaii-cute Momoto (Kyôko Fukada) lives in a beruffled fantasy world, more at home in 18th century Rococo France than the small Japanese farm town of Shimotsuma, until tough teen biker-girl Ichiko (Anna Tsuchiya) revs into her life and forces her into an unwilling friendship.
This 2004 film from Japanese cultist Tetsuya Memories of Matsuko Nakashima, now finding a new lease of life on a two disc DVD and single disc Blu-ray release, feels more like live- action anime (in fact, it is adapted from Novala Takemoto’s manga novella Shimotsuma Monogatari), with hyper- exaggerated performances, fantasy sequences and lightening-fast jump cuts. Occasional cartoon insets and the climactic, (PG-rated) bloody all-girl biker fight clearly pay homage to the same ancestors as Kill Bill Part 1, and the whole film has a shiny, knowing surface which can feel a little distancing. But amid all the Technicolor- saturated action there’s a real heart to this little story, and it should find favour with lonely teenagers and Amelie fans everywhere. Kitschy-cool DVD extras, too. (Kirstin Innes)
FANTASY/COMEDY ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (U) 92min (Oracle) ●●●●●
Premiering on DVD to coincide with the release of Hollywood goth Tim Burton’s take on the Lewis Carroll classic, this 1972 British musical
56 THE LIST 4–18 Mar 2010
nightgowns, sneakers sans laces – who lives in tiny, elevator-less apartment in the West Village with her pre- school age son, about- to-be-six-year-old daughter and book editor husband (Anthony Edwards). Writer- director Katherine Dieckmann distils the daily frustrations of their lives, from finding a parking space for their family saloon to envy of Manhattan’s moneyed classes, into a lengthy splenetic tirade that’s initially amusing but soon becomes tiresome. Dieckmann tries for the flip tone of Sex and the City, but it doesn’t float, weighed down as the film is by the ceaselessly bitter diatribe. Extras: Mother’s Day voucher pack. (Miles Fielder) DOCUMENTARY I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW (15) 64min (Spirit/Kaleidoscope) ●●●●●
To Jeff Turner, Tiffany is ‘the most Christ-like person’ he’s ever known. Talking about the 80s teen popstar; Turner considers Tiffany a close friend, despite her taking a restraining order out on him. This feature-length documentary from first time director, Sean Donnelly follows Turner, and another super fan, Kelly McCormick through the stalker rituals that they’ve been following for 20-odd years. Although there are comedy moments – Turner strapping on a bike helmet wired up to ‘radionics’ equipment to get inside Tiffany’s mind, or McCormick (a Buffalo Bill/ Mr Burns lookalike) with a Tiffany photo perched on her shoulder for company – Donnelly’s film is more than just a cheap freak show. Yes, the pair are clearly nuts – and only
INTERVIEW
Almost twenty years to the day since Twin Peaks first aired, the long- awaited conclusion to David Lynch and Mark Frost’s seminal series is finally released on DVD. Series co-creator and executive producer Frost tells Murray Robertson what took so long
Mark Frost admits he’s not seen any of Twin Peaks since it first aired on US television. ‘But everyone tells me it seems not to have aged a day.’ Nowadays there seems to be a TV boxset for every subgenre, but back in 1990 television networks were reticent about treading untested waters. ‘We were a long shot to get on the air from the beginning. We consciously said, “We’re not going to try to do anything like shows that we’ve seen before. We’re going to try to do something that’s in and of itself.” And it’s tremendously gratifying to see – decades later – that people still look at it as an influence and are still finding entertainment value in it. That’s a great feeling.’ Following on from his work as a writer and director on archetypal
policier Hill Street Blues, Frost was keen to combine the procedural with the supernatural. ‘We thought maybe Agent Cooper’s a kind of New Age Sherlock Holmes sort of guy who’s eccentric and intuitive as well as incredibly observant and forensic and I thought it would be fun to try a character like that and see if a television audience would accept it.’ Accept it they did, although Frost admits season two lost its way as
the creators busied themselves with other projects. ‘I thought we’d kind of pulled ourselves back onto the right track by the end of the season. It had taken a little longer than perhaps I would have wished to get the Windom Earle story moving.’
A combination of poor mid-second season reviews and shifting US timeslots led to Twin Peaks’ cancellation. ‘I was deeply disappointed when the network decided – and apparently it was a very close-run thing – that they didn’t want to move forward. I felt that we really had a chance to do something truly unique and equally groundbreaking.’ And where would season three have taken us? Spoiler warning: ‘It
was certainly going to deal with the doppelganger of Cooper who had been let loose in the world and his struggles to get back to himself. For fans of the truly strange aspects of the show – they would not have been disappointed.’ ■ Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition is out Mon 22 Mar (Universal). See full interview transcript at www.list. co.uk
the self-soothing delusion of Tiffany’s imaginary love gets them through the day – but there is real sadness too in the
story of Turner (an Asperger’s sufferer) and his unrequited love, and the confused emotions of hermaphrodite, McCormick. And with Tiffany grinning for a photo with them both – who’s the real weirdo? No extras. (Claire Sawers)