Category: DVD & Digital

Reviews of the latest UK DVD & Digital releases.

DVD & Digital

DVD review: David Brent: Life on the Road

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  It has been just under thirteen years since we said a fond farewell to David Brent in the Christmas Special finale of The Office, when he had been made redundant as regional manager of Slough’s branch of paper merchants Wernham Hogg. Ricky Gervais returns without his co-writer Stephen Merchant to produce, direct, and star in David Brent: Life on the Road, which offers a ‘where are they now?’ revisit to the socially inept and inappropriate character. Now working as a sales-rep for cleaning products firm Lavichem, he takes annual leave to chase his pipedream as front man of the newly reformed rock-band Foregone Conclusion, embarking on a tour to achieve ultimate success and superstardom.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: Paterson

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 After his detour to a galaxy far far away, Adam Driver returns to his indie roots to star in Paterson, a comedy drama written and directed by idiosyncratic filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. The plot follows the humdrum life of Paterson (Driver), a bus driver who lives in the small city of Paterson, New Jersey. In his downtime, he writes poetry inspired by his gentle observations of his surroundings, and is encouraged by his wacky wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani) to turn his musings into more than just a hobby. We spend a week in his laid back schedule, from his early rises for work to his nightly walk with his wife’s bulldog Marvin during which he stops off to enjoy a crafty beer in his local jazz bar, soaking it up in his continuous state of content contemplation.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: Arrival

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The sci-fi genre is synonymous with alien invasions, and battles to save the human race from an almighty threat. Tackling this theme from a different angle with Arrival is critically acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve, adapting Story of your Life, a short story written by Ted Chiang. The plot follows linguistics professor Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) who is approached by US military officer Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) when twelve extraterrestrial spacecrafts land on Earth sparking worldwide panic. Tasked with communicating with the alien life form alongside theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), she must translate their language in order to decipher how and more importantly why they are here.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: Suicide Squad

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In storytelling, it is commonplace to pit good against bad in order to create conflict in the narrative, whether it is cowboys versus indians or cops versus criminals. DC Comics offer a twist in the formula when bad meets evil in Suicide Squad, the latest cinema adaptation written and directed by David Ayer. Following on from the events that unfold in Batman v Superman, government official Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) compiles a motley crew of supervillains to protect the world from powerful metahuman threat. Among the dirty-dozen-esque collective are hitman Deadshot (Will Smith) and former psychiatrist Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), who join forces with elite soldier Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and are deployed to a supposed terrorist attack at a subway station.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: Nerve

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nerve
 In the swinging sixties, pop artist Andy Warhol said that “in the future, everyone would be world-famous for 15 minutes” and thanks to a social-media obsessed 21st century internet generation, he may well have been onto something. The idea of brittle celebrity status is explored in techno-thriller Nerve, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. Based on Jeanne Ryan’s 2012 young adult novel of the same name, the plot follows Vee (Emma Roberts), a timid teenager who lives in the shadow of her popular best friend Sydney (Emily Meade) who urges her to be more outgoing. In an uncharacteristic attempt to be noticed, she signs up as a ‘player’ to Nerve; an online game in which you complete dares for money and get a hoard of ‘watchers’ in the process. This leads her to meet Ian (Dave Franco) and the pair embark on an adventure that begins as an exciting thrill-ride, but soon takes a dangerous dark turn.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: The Light Between Oceans

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lightbetweenoceans

In his relatively short but impressive career to date, writer and director Derek Cianfrance has intelligently toyed with narrative conventions, playing with linear structure to get the desired effect from his tales of family, love and loss. He ventures into the period drama genre for his latest feature The Light Between Oceans, adapting M.L. Stedman’s novel of the same name for the screen. Set in Western Australia shortly after World War I, veteran Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) has posttraumatic stress disorder due to the loss he has experienced. As a coping mechanism he takes up a post as a lighthouse keeper to remove himself from civilisation. When he meets his new boss’s daughter Isabel Graysmark (Alicia Vikander), the pair fall in love and get married. They face a dilemma when a dead man and a newborn baby wash up on the shore in an old rowboat. Desperate to start a family together and in mourning after suffering two miscarriages, the couple make a perilous choice that changes their lives forever.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: Nocturnal Animals

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Fashion icon Tom Ford enjoyed his first foray into filmmaking back in 2009 with A Single Man which was met with critical acclaim and awards glory. He’s back for his second feature with neo-noir thriller Nocturnal Animals, based on Austin Wright’s 1993 novel Tony and Susan. The plot centres around luxuriously successful LA art dealer Susan (Amy Adams) who, despite her extreme wealth, is unhappy with what and who she has become. When she receives a manuscript from her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal), she is led to reflect upon her life. Her ex’s bloody tale of violent revenge, which gives the movie its title, plays out as a film within a film, haunting her memories and dredging up her dark past.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: American Pastoral

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It’s not uncommon in cinema for actors to delve into directing, and the latest name to move behind the camera is Ewan McGregor. Adapting Philip Roth’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel of the same name, American Pastoral focuses on a political divide in late 1960s New Jersey that tears a family apart. McGregor also takes the film’s leading role, playing Seymour “Swede” Levov, a respected and successful glover that lives with his former beauty queen wife Dawn (Jennifer Connelly) and their troubled daughter Merry (Dakota Fanning). With the Vietnam War raging on, Merry’s radical views cause tensions to run high in their upper middle class household. A damaging explosion in their local town sends shockwaves through the community, and Merry mysteriously disappears.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: Hector

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hector1
In the UK there are thousands sleeping rough every night, going about their day-to-day lives with nowhere to call home. Shedding filmic light on the homeless community is filmmaker Jake Gavin with his stunning directorial debut ‘Hector’, which stars Peter Mullan in the title role. After years of dossing down at motorway service stations up and down the country with friends Dougie (Laurie Ventry) and Hazel (Natalie Gavin), Hector wants to reconnect with the family, and tracks down his brother-in-law Derek in an attempt to reconcile with his siblings. Presenting the spectrum of human perception of the destitute, ranging from kindness to cruelty, the film not only focuses on the tender story of the protagonist but tackles the wider issues, raising important questions over the true necessities of life.

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DVD & Digital

DVD review: The Neon Demon

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neon-demon

Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn came to the attention of most cinema-goers when he directed the ultraviolent getaway thriller Drive, which has since developed a huge cult following. This relatively mainstream effort provided the modern-day auteur the opportunity to delve into art-house territory and reach a wide audience simultaneously. His controversial, yet vibrant visions are taken to the extreme in latest work The Neon Demon, an entrancing horror film set around the LA fashion industry. The plot follows young and aspiring model Jesse (Elle Fanning) who, with no family to support her, moves to the big city to follow her dream. At an amateur photo shoot, she befriends make-up artist Ruby (Jenna Malone) who in turn introduces her to professional models Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and Sarah (Abbey Lee). The old-hands fear that they’ll soon be overlooked by Jesse’s natural beauty and vitality, but begrudgingly welcome her to their obsessive cut-throat world.

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