Category: DVD & Digital
Reviews of the latest UK DVD & Digital releases.
DVD review: Joe
David Gordon Green is a director with something to prove after coming under scrutiny with his film-making choices over recent years. His credible status and background came into question after his work on throwaway comedies. The publicised return to form is captured within what is being referred to as his indie trilogy, the first instalment of which was released last year and was a critical success. The second, titled ‘Joe’, stars Nicolas Cage in the eponymous role; an ex-con with anger issues who plies his trade in the destruction of pine trees to make way for stronger saplings.
DVD review: Fading Gigolo
Since his first ever screenplay was butchered at the hands of a production company when it hit cinemas in 1965, Woody Allen vowed to always direct films that he’d written so that he felt in control of the final result. He also rarely appears in films unless he’s had a hand in the filmmaking process. Because of this, it was a surprise to see him star alongside John Turturro in comedy flick ‘Fading Gigolo’, a film which Turturro this time writes and directs. The flimsy plot follows florist Fioravante (Turturro) as he embarks on a new career path, led into the seedy male prostitution game by the not-so-retiring bookshop owner Murray Schwartz (Allen). Building to take part in a ménage à trois, will Fioravante pursue his controversial lifestyle or will he leave it behind for the widowed love interest Avigal?
Turturro is best known for his association with the works of the Coen brothers, but his latest is undeniably influenced by the back catalogue of his co-star. His New York is viewed through Allen-tinted frames, the city captured cosily and welcoming, home to witty Jewish ramblings over a jazz laden score. The bond between the two leads is amusing, and the script at times is done very well as Murray and Fioravante take on new aliases Dan Bongo and Virgil Howard respectively and converse over their joint venture. This provides the perfect scenario for Allen’s comic delivery and he is on fine form, but the sub-plots surrounding feel forcefully out of sync, and don’t flow with nearly as much effortlessness. Other characters lack any depth, and the romantic angle is skewed to the point that it is difficult to care whether he gets the girl or not by the end.
In John Turturro’s apparent vision to create a Woody Allen-esque picture, he’s succeeded, but has unfortunately made an average one. He has got a great performance out of Allen, and puts in a good leading turn himself but has sadly discarded everything else, leaving the film a little soulless. Sharon Stone and Liev Schreiber play unimaginative stereotypes and are rather wasted in their roles. Niggles aside, it’s refreshing to see Allen stepping out from behind the typewriter for a change and making us laugh so if you’re a fan of his humour, ‘Fading Gigolo’ is definitely worth a look.
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DVD review: Salvo
Italian cinema has become closely associated with the gangster-movie genre, yet the directorial debut of collaborators Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza has taken elements from that distinctive style of film to create something slightly different. The central, titular, character played by Saleh Bakri is a mafia hitman who whilst pursuing his next victim, meets the target’s blind sister, Rita (Sara Serraiocco). This presents an fascinating encounter which leads him to question his flailing morals. The technical aspects are bold and ambitious, the clever use of audio offering up an often intense sensory experience but the dialogue-light story wears thin, running out of ideas about halfway through.
We are with the slick assassin Salvo pretty much from start to finish, from his alarm clock waking him in his dank and derelict bed-sit, through him scoffing lunch, to driving around what appears to be the incredibly bumpy backstreets of Palermo. A wide range of camera techniques are employed, from static shots, shaky-cam over-the-shoulder car journeys to atmospheric floor sequences. For a leading man, Lacoste-loving Salvo has little to say so the bold visuals do well to hold interest and build suspense for his first meeting with Rita. This scene is a highlight, as the focus switches to the vulnerable blind sister of Mafioso man Renato. The sound heightens and we see her blurred perspective of only shapes and colours, and by placing the audience in her susceptible state the sense of danger is also ramped up. Her fragility thaws his ice-cold demeanour, stopping him in his tracks and forcing him to consider his options. Does he save the girl and change his ways or put her out of her misery?
The latter parts of the film fail to match up to the initial excitement of when Salvo first comes across Rita, and descends into convention, even angling in a little romance that sadly refuses to gel with the noir themes explored. The narrative slows down to the point where it nearly moves backwards and the soundtrack gets quite stale and repetitive. There is one entertaining scene though, where dialogue is surprisingly used quite sparingly for a conversation between Salvo and a mob boss who looks like a cross between Tony Soprano and Jimmy Saville. I am far from against a minimalist script, and loved Ryan Gosling’s hushed anti-heroes of Drive and Only God Forgives, but Bakri lacked the necessary magnetism to carry it off. Serraiocco is great with what she has to work with, and has the perfect expressionistic face to act with little material.
Salvo doesn’t tick enough genre boxes to be classed as a gangster film, yet doesn’t stray away from it far enough to become anything else. Instead, the flawed result is caught in no man’s land somewhere in the middle and despite its consistently intriguing cinematography, promising for first time feature filmmakers, it has no real lasting impact. With a stronger, more involving script, the characters would gain more depth which would in turn allow them to fully absorb the emotionally charged topic of redemptive love and take on the plot, rather than just exist within it.
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DVD review: Benny & Jolene
The effort of youngsters to breakthrough into the music industry has become part of British pop culture this century due to the success of Simon Cowell’s popularity contests. It’s refreshing to see a film depicting a couple of dreamers who want to do things the old fashioned, old shall we say proper way. Benny and Jolene are a folk duo, played by rising stars Craig Roberts and Charlotte Ritchie respectively. Very much a personal project from debutant director Jamie Adams, who also wrote the screenplay. Filmed in just five days, this low-budget gem is full of natural charm and wit, having a sideways glance at the music biz and media circus that goes with it.
The road-movie is filmed in mockumentary style, tinged with awkwardness. Comparisons have been made to This Is Spinal Tap, the much-loved rock-mock from the eighties, and its influence is evident in the subtleness of the writing. The leads gel well with this style, and are the perfect fit to the quirkiness of the film as a whole. Craig Roberts, known best for his role in Submarine, is a natural at playing the socially inept misfit, and is now cropping up in big US comedies doing what he does best. Charlotte Ritchie shares a certain chemistry with him on screen and from working on Fresh Meat, she is used to working with sharp scripts laden with British humour. Their difference in height makes for very amusing physical comedy, particularly a sex scene that goes terribly, but by that point in proceedings typically, awry.
Benny & Jolene is a fun little ditty which showcases the talent of its stars, as well as serving as an impressive debut for Jamie Adams, demonstrating a fantastic knack for capturing moments of cringeworthy humour. Poking fun at the media types in a lax but effective manner, there are signs of substance behind the carefree indie persona, if you see past the hipster shades. As they go through the gawky gigs, dodgy TV spots and lapses in judgement, it soon becomes hard not to cheer for the not-so-rock n’ roll underdogs.
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DVD review: Blue Ruin
In the film production industry, big budgets are becoming increasing difficult to come by but not having the financial weight behind a project doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a weak film. Director Jeremy Saulnier sacrificed a lot to bring his revenge thriller Blue Ruin to fruition, and it is a clear example of successful small budget creativity. Macon Blair stars as dishevelled drifter Dwight who returns to his hometown to settle an old score with the Cleland family, raising the question of whether or not two wrongs make a right or in taking the law into your own hands, are you then equally to blame as the initial perpetrators?
The plot cleverly deconstructs the revenge genre in showing not only the vengeful act, but putting more emphasise on the repercussions of Dwight’s actions. The style of the film is extremely visually led, and is very light in dialogue. It refuses to spoon feed the story to the audience, and focuses on its lead character and his flawed morals. He gets around in a car even more worn out than he is; his baby blue battered Pontiac is the titular Blue Ruin. Where the anti-hero differs from the calculated killers we are used to seeing onscreen is that he goes about his ways so unconfidently and clumsily, reflected in the shaky-cam technique implemented as he stumbles around with his borrowed firearm.
On the shoestring budget Saulnier had to work with, no recognisable names are to be found in the cast list, but one familiar face as Buzz from Home Alone, Devin Ratray, makes a cameo appearance as Dwight’s gun-loving school friend Ben. The performances are understated and impressive, Blair commanding the screen, relying on an unhinged glazed stare to give an aura of unpredictability. There are some pacing issues, possible down to monetary restraints, and gaps in the story and filled with some aesthetically pleasing sequences that don’t add an awful lot to the film. At times, it appears more time is spent carefully ensuring that blue props are consistently used than there is telling the story. A scene involving garden sprinklers could be an ominous symbol in homage to surrealist filmmaker David Lynch who also famously creates thought provoking cinema and used the same method in his beguiling drama Blue Velvet.
Blue Ruin is a film that is not always entertaining, but always interesting and demonstrates craft at relatively low cost, making a monumental profit at the box office as a result. The sparingly used violence is well handled alongside the suspenseful score and solid acting, all cumulating in a very respectable genre movie that takes the common formula and distorts it to great effect, tackling larger themes of the justice system in the process.
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DVD review: Bad Neighbours
From the guys that brought you Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express, This is the End…the list goes on and you know what to expect by now. This new wave of stoner comedy is producing films as thick and fast as the cheap knob-gags in Seth Rogen’s new comedy ‘Bad Neighbours’, or just simply ‘Neighbors’ in the US. Directed by Nicholas Stoller, the plot sees Rogen and Rose Byrne, as married couple Mac and Kelly, move into their first family home with newborn daughter, Stella. They have embraced their new ‘grown-up’ family lifestyle but still have the urge to party, so when a fraternity fronted by Zac Efron’s ringleader Teddy moves in next door, they are reminded of the carefree existence they used to have, leaving them less than impressed. This sets up a neighbourhood rivalry filled with jealousy, resentment and ridiculous pranks.
There is perhaps a little more going on than you’d expect from the Goldberg-Rogen pairing as ideas are raised around the changes in a young person’s life when they take on the responsibilities of parenthood. It’s like a delayed coming-of-age tale concerned with the transition into thirties rather than twenties. Does bringing a life into the world end the life of the parents, or a certain aspect of it at least? This theme runs through the film but is disguised by silliness that doesn’t quite get funny enough. The smaller jokes work best, and there are a few nicely written one-liners but laugh-out-loud moments are too few and far between.
Seth Rogen is on form playing essentially another version of himself, and his trademark laidback personality is as watchable as ever as he delivers his pop culture loaded dialogue. Rose Byrne is equally as good, and is a natural within the improvisational style associated with films of this ilk. Zac Efron also puts in a solid performance, and doesn’t seem out of his comfort zone among the experienced comedic actors. The usual faces crop up in the supporting cast, such as Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Dave Franco and to an extent, they fit their purpose but from the smaller parts, it is British rising star Craig Roberts who impresses the most as the laughing stock known as Assjuice. As the momentum dips around halfway, his cameo helps pick it back up again. His understated manner of black Brit-comedy finds an odd but pleasurable match with the bolder, eccentric Yiddish approach.
‘Bad Neighbours’ has a smartly written script and a great use of physical humour and because of this, it will slide in nicely amongst other films of its kind. By now, the aforementioned ‘guys that brought you…’ have finely tuned their target audience and know exactly which buttons to push to wedge a lot of sniggers and immature laughs into a neat 90 minute movie. There are moments when the film hints at a slight change in direction, showing signs of mature undertones, but then, right on cue, sneaks out for a crafty J when the boss isn’t watching.
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DVD review: Locke
The concept of Steven Knight’s British thriller Locke should, by all rights, fall flat with its single-minded approach to simply film a man driving from Birmingham to London and not a lot else. But when that man is Tom Hardy, it becomes very much worth a watch. Portraying the eponymous construction worker Ivan Locke, the weight of his performance elevates the simplistic plot further than you could imagine. Locke is a complicated yet loyal individual and when a colossal mistake puts his happiness in jeopardy, he sets forth to do all that he can to right his wrong. This makes for a fascinating character study and Knight’s direction illustrates and illuminates the story spectacularly, maintaining a consistently visually interesting style throughout, despite the limited space.
DVD review: The Raid 2: Berandal
There’s no room for sequel syndrome as caution is thrown forcefully to the wind for Gareth Evan’s anticipated follow up to his martial-arts picture The Raid: Redemption. The original saw him thrust his passion for Indonesian cinema to a worldwide audience with an action-packed romp where rookie cop Rama (Iko Uwais) took out hordes of criminals in a tower block to expose police force corruption in a wild flurry of kicks and punches. This demonstrated the director’s knack for exhilarating fight choreography and comic brutality. Berandal kicks off immediately where Redemption finished and this time, Rama, who yearns to reunite with his wife and child, is given a nigh on impossible undercover mission to infiltrate the Jakarta crime family through the boss’ son Uco (Arifin Putra). The ambitious second film has all the qualities of the first in its quick fire clashes and unflinching violence but is expanded in scale to boast cinematic landscapes and stunning set-pieces, all wrapped around an epic plot of greed and power.
Cinema Perspective 