DVD review: The Jungle Book
Disney classics have been transitioning to live-action pictures of late with Snow White, Robin Hood and Cinderella having already received the cinematic treatment and Beauty & the Beast and Tarzan in the pipeline. Based on Rudyard Kipling’s works of the same name, the multi-talented actor and director Jon Favreau steps up to the plate to direct The Jungle Book, the latest adaptation of the beloved story. Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is an orphaned man cub, raised by wolves after wise black panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) finds him alone in the jungle. When all of the animals gather to drink during a water truce in the dry season, wicked tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) learns of Mowgli’s place in the community. Out for revenge against man following an attack years earlier, Khan wishes death upon Mowgli after the drought has passed. To protect his adoptive family, Mowgli flees the wolf pack and soon meets roguish, but fun-loving bear Baloo (Bill Murray) who takes him under his wing.
DVD review: Becoming Zlatan
In the summer that egotistical Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović has retired from International football and his club future is uncertain, he is also the subject of a documentary directed by brothers Fredrik and Magnus Gertten. Becoming Zlatan focuses on the beginnings of his playing career and his move from Malmö FF to Ajax in 2001. It is a coming-of-age story of sorts as he transitions from the young and confident Zlatan to the slightly older and even more confident rich Zlatan ahead of assuming the media persona he has had for years since.
DVD review: Traders
We are all aware of the economic crisis of late and ‘Traders’, written and directed by Rachel Moriarty and Peter Murphy, explores an extreme reaction to this, through two former white-collared bankers facing financial ruin following unemployment. Harry Fox (Killian Scott) was once a lucrative businessman, and has the swanky apartment and attitude that match his previous lifestyle. When he and his co-workers find themselves out of work, Vernon Stynes (John Bradley) thinks he has a solution, presenting the idea of ‘trading’. Trading is when two consenting individuals enter into an agreement whereby their assets are converted to cold hard cash and they fight to the death to either double up or die. The preposterous Fight Club meets The Hunger Games plot is tackled with a very dark sense of humour and unnervingly realistic violence.
DVD review: Dheepan
After winning the prestigious Palme d’Or award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, ‘Dheepan’, directed and co-written by acclaimed French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, is at last due for a UK release. Said to be loosely inspired by Persian Letters, a literary piece by political philosopher Montesquieu, the film tackles the very topical subject of immigration. Sivadhasan (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) is a Tamil Tiger freedom fighter in the Sri-Lankan Civil War who is sent to a refugee camp and given the identity of a dead man named Dheepan. Posing as a family, he and his supposed wife Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and nine-year-old girl Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby) flee to France in search of a better life. Dheepan lands a caretaking job when they settle in a squalid suburb north of Paris, but soon faces danger in a very different kind of warzone.
DVD review: Sing Street
Following his writing and direction on Once and Begin Again, Irish filmmaker John Carney has established himself as a force within the musical comedy genre. He returns with rebellious flick Sing Street, set in 1980s Dublin. Due to the economic difficulties, Cosmo (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is transferred from posh school to comprehensive, and struggles to fit in to his new regime. When he spots mysterious girl Raphina (Lucy Boynton) lurking on a street corner donned in sunglasses and style, he tells her that he is the singer in a band in an attempt to impress. To follow up on his little white lie, he brings together new friends including the witty and wise Darren (Ben Carolan) and jack-of-all-trades musician Eamon (Mark McKenna) to form Sing Street, a play on words taken from their school’s name.
DVD review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
The release of ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’, like most superhero movies, has been rife with anticipation, as the comic-book fanboy dream scenario will finally play out on the big screen. Following the critical acclaim of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, the Caped Crusader is re-established to be pit against the Son of Krypton in director Zack Snyder’s follow-up to his Superman origin film. Events pick up exactly where ‘Man of Steel’ left off but through the perspective of Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), watching in horror as Metropolis is destroyed in the battle between Superman (Henry Cavill) and his nemesis General Zod. Fuming at the carnage caused, he plots to bring down Superman to prevent even more destruction. Meanwhile, young business tycoon Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) is working to another agenda, to bring his own brand of justice to the city.
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Film review: Shepherds and Butchers
Steve Coogan may well be best known for his comedic beginnings and his recurring reincarnations as television and radio presenter Alan Partridge, but from more recent roles, in particular his part in Oscar nominated film Philomena, we now know he can do serious seriously well. In courtroom-drama Shepherds and Butchers, written and directed by Oliver Schmitz, he plays compassionate defence lawyer Johan Webber. When seven black men are callously shot and killed by 17-year-old prison guard Leon Labuschagne (Garion Dowds), Webber is given the impossible task of defending him at the trial. Set in 1987 South Africa, he is pitted against prosecutor Kathleen Murray (Andrea Riseborough), who argues that Leon should be sentenced to death. An intelligently told story unfolds, exploring and dissecting the conflicting views on capital punishment; a system which was abolished just eight years later.
DVD review: Adult Life Skills
With the central character approaching thirty and spending her days making talking thumb videos in her mum’s garden shed, the theme is less coming-of-age and more coming of the aged in Rachel Tunnard’s indie oddball comedy Adult Life Skills. Anna (Jodie Whittaker) is encouraged to move out and conform to societal expectations by her mother Marion (Lorraine Ashbourne) and grandmother Jean (Eileen Davies) but flat-out refuses, still grieving from the untimely death of her twin brother. When she reunites with school friend Fiona (Rachael Deering) and finds common ground with troubled next door neighbour Clint (Ozzy Myers), she is forced to face up to her problems.
Cinema Perspective 