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.
Category: DVD & Digital
Reviews of the latest UK DVD & Digital releases.
DVD review: I, Daniel Blake
Veteran filmmaker Ken Loach has provided a social commentary through his work in British cinema for decades, from his kitchen sink dramas to historical pieces. His latest feature unfolds very much in the present day as he returns from retirement to direct I, Daniel Blake, written by frequent collaborator Paul Laverty. Geordie comedian turned actor Dave Johns stars in the titular role, as a carpenter who has suffered a major heart attack. Following his doctor’s orders, he is deemed unfit to work but after a frustrating call-centre conversation with a so-called “healthcare professional”, he fails to meet the required specifications to receive sickness benefits. This leads him to the job centre where he meets single mother-of-two Katie (Hayley Squires) who is in an equally strenuous situation caused by the government’s flawed systems. The unlikely pairing unite in their time of hardship and together they attempt to overcome adversity.
DVD review: American Honey
British writer and director Andrea Arnold takes her social-realist style of filmmaking across to ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’ for her latest feature, an unorthodox coming-of-age road movie entitled American Honey. Newcomer actress Sasha Lane takes the leading role as Star, a teenager who, when we meet her, is foraging through a dumpster with the help of two children that she looks after. Desperate to escape her squalid standard of living and the abuse she suffers at the hands of the man she shares a home with, she looks for a way out. At a supermarket car park, she meets charismatic salesman Jake (Shia LaBeouf), who is part of a travelling crew that sells magazine subscriptions door-to-door. He pitches the trip as a ‘business opportunity’ and Star agrees to join them, taking to the open road on a journey of self-discovery across the Midwestern landscape.
DVD review: Inferno
Following on from The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, which were released in 2006 and 2009 respectively, the third in the thriller series is Inferno, based on Dan Brown’s novel of the same name. Ron Howard returns to the director’s chair for the latest instalment with David Koepp resuming screenwriting duties. When Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) wakes in a hospital bed in Florence, he is suffering from both amnesia and a head injury. Luckily for him, on hand to assist is Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) who helps him fill in the blanks while they figure out how and why he got there. They come under attack from a mysterious assassin and a wild-goose-chase ensues as they attempt to foil a plan to release a deadly plague, conceived by visionary scientist Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster) who is desperate to solve the world’s overpopulation problem.
DVD review: Tiger Raid
Based on Mick Donnellan’s black comedy play Radio Luxembourg, writer and director Simon Dixon delivers Tiger Raid, an intense thriller that follows two Irish mercenaries through treacherous Middle-Eastern territory. Paddy (Damien Molony) and Joe (Brian Gleeson) are men on a covert mission, driving through the dusty night to kidnap Shadha (Sofia Boutella), the daughter of a local tycoon. In the beginning, they exchange lurid banter about their shady pasts but before long, their motives and loyalties become uncertain, leading to a multitude of twists, turns and revelations.
DVD review: Money Monster
With her fourth feature in the director’s chair, actress-turned-filmmaker Jodie Foster takes on the financial thriller genre in ‘Money Monster’, starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts. The action unfolds from within the confines of a TV studio where presenter Lee Gates (George Clooney) advises his viewers on the dos and don’ts of stock market trading with the help of his friend and the show’s director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts). After a bad tip involving financial services company IBIS Clear Capital, their show is interrupted by disgruntled labourer Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), who made a substantial loss on the investment. Desperate for answers, he holds Gates hostage with a gun and a bomb, demanding an explanation as to where his money has gone.
DVD review: The Nice Guys
Shane Black is no stranger to the crime buddy movie genre, having penned the screenplays for the Lethal Weapon films through the late eighties and early nineties. Now, as a director and co-writer alongside Anthony Bagarozzi, he returns to the field for neo-noir comedy ‘The Nice Guys’ starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. When hard-man enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) is hired to rough up private eye Holland March (Gosling), to say they get off on the wrong foot would be an understatement. However, circumstances around the mysterious death of porn star Misty Mountains force them to form an unlikely alliance. Together the mismatched pair aim to track down a missing girl linked with the investigation, leading to an action-packed and hilarious wild-goose-chase through the underbelly of 1970s Los Angeles.
DVD review: Everybody Wants Some!!
In 1993, writer and director Richard Linklater helped launch the careers of Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey with cult teen comedy Dazed & Confused. Now he is back in the same academic territory with what is being considered the ‘spiritual sequel’. Named after the Van Halen song, coming-of-age flick Everybody Wants Some!! follows freshman Jake (Blake Jenner) as he begins a baseball scholarship in Texas 1980. When he arrives at his new digs, he meets his many housemates including party animal Finnegan (Glen Powell), fun-loving Dale (J. Quinton Johnson) and hallucinogen hooligan Willoughby (Wyatt Russell), and is instantly initiated into their chaotic college culture.
DVD review: Green Room
The positive critical reception of low-budget revenge film Blue Ruin helped served as a financial springboard for writer-director Jeremy Saulnier’s next project. Sticking with colour-themed titles, Green Room follows four-piece punk band The Ain’t Rights as they tour through the Pacific Northwest. Led by Pat (Anton Yelchin), the group find themselves gigging at a very shady, isolated bar where most of the clientele are vicious neo-Nazis. After their suitably riotous performance, they are horrified to witness a brutal murder in the venue’s green room, and are held hostage by Darcy (Patrick Stewart) and his gang of skinheads. The group, musically influenced by artists such as The Misfits and Minor Threat, come together in an intense battle for survival but in their situation the threat they face is far from minor.
DVD review: Suburra
In Italy, organised crime and politics have never seemed worlds apart and the affiliation between the two is dissected in Stefano Sollima’s latest feature ‘Suburra’, named after a quarter of ancient Rome. The neo-noir drama is based on a novel by Carlo Bonini and Giancarlo De Cataldo, and marks a return to film for the director following his television work on the likes of Gomorra and Romanzo Criminale. Set in 2011, the contemporary tale of corruption centres around shady lawyer Filippo ‘Pippo’ Malgradi (Pierfrancesco Favino) as he mixes business with pleasure in Rome’s criminal underworld. A feared Mafioso going by the name of Samurai (Claudio Amendola) is behind a project to turn the capital’s waterfront into the “Las Vegas of Europe” but when local mobsters inadvertently foil his plans, a violent gang war ensues that spells trouble for Malgradi and everyone around him.
Cinema Perspective 