Film and Comedy

DVD - Aaltra

2 Jul 2007

BLACK COMEDY Gustave de Kervern and Benoit Delépine - the writers, directors and stars of this odd but strangely heart-warming Belgian road movie - are comedians in their home country, and quite obviously blessed with the blackest and most…

Lucky You

19 Jun 2007

From The Cincinnati Kid to Casino Royale, a game of cards with heavy emotional stakes can make for high tension cinema, but auteur Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential, The Wonder Boys, 8 Mile, In Her Shoes) loads the decks far too heavily in Lucky You. Las…

Day Jobs

22 May 2007

Look closely at your electrician. Can you imagine him as a rock singer? What about your cleaning lady - does she exhibit in the Saatchi Gallery? And have you heard the one about the aerobics teacher with a book deal? For a variety of (mostly financial…

Lights in the Dusk

21 May 2007

DRAMA/CRIME/COMEDY The final part of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s ‘Loser Trilogy’ (preceded by Drifting Clouds and The Man Without a Past) concerns itself with lonely night watchman Koistinen (Janne Hyytiäinen) who has modest hopes of setting…

Wedding Daze

21 May 2007

In an excruciatingly embarrassing opening sequence worthy of the notorious warm apple tart shag in American Pie, the star of both somewhat infantile romantic comedies, the charmingly gormless Jason Biggs, proposes marriage to his sweetheart dressed as…

Mitchell and Webb

Double trouble

7 May 2007

You are two very funny, funny men. Your live act is honed to perfection and your catchphrases are shouted from every street corner. So what new worlds can a comic duo conquer? Peep Show’s Mitchell and Webb have come up with a very traditional…

My Best Friend (Mon Meilleur Ami)

7 May 2007

The French director Patrice Leconte seems drawn to unusual pairings: think of Juliette Binoche’s governor’s wife and Emir Kusturica’s condemned prisoner in The Widow of Saint Pierre; Jean Rochefort’s retired teacher and Johnny Hallyday’s bank-robber in…

Little Red Flowers

(12A) 87min

26 Mar 2007

DRAMA/COMEDY Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by the bestselling enfant terrible of Chinese literature Wang Shuo, Little Red Flowers is the story of a precocious four-year-old boy, Qiang (Dong Bowen), who rebels against the conformity in his…

Sleeping Dogs

(18) 89min

13 Mar 2007

A sexual indiscretion - and that’s putting it mildly - kicks of this tasteless but sweet natured comedy about a girl who’s hiding a traumatising secret (again, mildly put) from her fiancé. But although this consistently amusing and frequently hilarious…

Hot Fuzz

(15) 120min

12 Feb 2007

It is slightly depressing that the highest grossing British films of last year and this were, and will be, television spin-offs. Last year Sacha Baron Cohen delivered up the better-than-we-probably-deserve feature film Borat, and now comedian Simon Pegg…

The Science of Sleep (La Science des Reves)

12 Feb 2007

French auteur Michel Gondry asserts himself as the natural heir to Jean Cocteau in this his third feature proper. Welcome to the mind-bending world of Stéphane Miroux (Gael García Bernal), a shy Mexican who exists in a perpetual confusion between…

Orchestra Seats

12 Feb 2007

‘A comedy about people who are suffering’, is how director and co-writer Danièle Thompson describes Orchestra Seats. In fact, this predictable slice of middlebrow entertainment resembles a Gallic Love Actually. Set in and around Paris’ prestigious…

Running with Scissors

29 Jan 2007

Nip/Tuck writer/executive producer Ryan Murphy does a very fine job of cutting/pasting onto the big screen the horrific and hilarious teenage memoir of journalist Augusten Burroughs. Abandoned first by his alcoholic father Norman (Alec Baldwin) and then…

For Your Consideration

(12A) 86min

29 Jan 2007

The law of diminishing returns finally hits Christopher Guest and the team who have worked together since This Is Spinal Tap reconfigured the rockumentary back in 1984. Encouraged by the success of that film, which, despite being directed by Rob Reiner…

Grapevine - showbiz news

Grapevine

16 Jan 2007

Worst casting decision of the fortnight (month/year/decade/trillennium) must be the one which has placed Mike Myers in the plum role of Keith Moon for the 2009-bound biopic of the Who drummer See Me Feel Me... That crazy blazing squad Arcade Fire are…

Ridicule - DVD review

Ridicule

15 Jan 2007

COMEDY/HISTORY /DRAMA Wit is indeed the ultimate weapon and there was no place more dangerous than the doomed opulent court of Louis XVI in 18th century Versailles. Into this world comes an impoverished French nobleman Grégoire Ponceludon de Malavoy…

Preview of the year 2007

2007 is about the future. And about the past. It’

3 Jan 2007

THE FUTURE Cyberspace invaders We may not be flying around in hover cars or wearing spangly all-silver outfits, but thanks to the internet the future has truly arrived. And the revolution will continue apace in 2007, argues Suzanne Black. A…

Art School Confidential - DVD review

Art School Confidential

3 Jan 2007

COMEDY/DRAMA The surprisingly swift DVD release of Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes’ adaptation of Clowes’ graphic novel is saddening but hardly surprising. By far and away the weakest film that Zwigoff has made (following on from the off kilter joys…

Do You Remember Dolly Bell? - DVD review

Do You Remember Dolly Bell?

11 Dec 2006

COMEDY/ROMANCE Emir Kusturica usually works a combination of nostalgia and rumbustiousness, but often the former loses out to the latter and many of his films (like Underground, Black Cat, White Cat) end up like crazy multiple circus acts. Which is…

Dark Horse

11 Dec 2006

The first hour of Icelander Dagur Kári’s follow up to Nói Albínói is just as good as his quirky debut. Daniel (Jakob Cedergren) is a graffiti artist who makes money by taking commissions to write girls’ names on walls for men who are trying to impress…

Jerkbeast - DVD review

Jerkbeast

11 Dec 2006

MUSIC COMEDY The people at Videosyncratic are so painfully desperate to prove their really cool independent credentials that they remind us of them in this DVD’s accompanying brochure and at the beginning of this ‘film’. But the definition of…

Stranger Than Fiction

27 Nov 2006

We’re so used to Will Ferrell playing the crazed maniac that it’s a pleasant surprise to see that he can play the straight guy equally well. He’s Howard Crick, a taxman with an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder whose life is turned upside down when he hears…

Big Nothing

(15) 85min

27 Nov 2006

Sometimes things just don’t work out. Particles and elements shift and design gets de-railroaded. That’s how you end up with a koala bear instead of a kangaroo or in this case a Big Nothing instead of Blood Simple or Fargo Big Nothing is a smalltown…

Sir Kenry at Rawlinson End - DVD review

Sir Kenry at Rawlinson End

27 Nov 2006

SPOOF/COMEDY Confoundedly eccentric, inordinately shambolic and downright hilarious, this one-of-a-kind British cinema oddity plays like a collaboration between Luis Buñuel and the Monty Python team. It’s actually the fever dream of Vivian Stanshall…

Grapevine - showbiz gossip

Grapevine

21 Nov 2006

Christopher Walken has played some pretty crazy guys in his time but he’s in for the challenge of his career in The Dirt. In the film based on the book about Motley Crue, Walken will make a cameo as Ozzy Osbourne while, equally as intriguing, Val Kilmer…

Green Man, The - DVD review

The Green Man

14 Nov 2006

COMEDY Aside from being quite possibly the great comic actor Alistair Sim’s finest hour, The Green Man is also one of the very best post-war British comedies. Directed by camera operator Robert Day, with the uncredited assistance of old pro Basil…

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

The devil plays guitar

13 Nov 2006

Tearing modesty a new asshole, Tenacious D describe themselves as ‘the world’s greatest rock band’. The D’s two members, Jack Black (vocals and rhythm guitar) and Kyle Gass (lead guitar and backing vocals), name check among their inspirations Kiss, Dio…

Grapevine

Plucking fruits from the cultural bush

13 Nov 2006

Odd couples certainly make for entertaining viewing (whether in the arts or in life) but does a pairing get any stranger than Robert De Niro and 50 Cent ? Very unlikely. Talks are ongoing for them to appear as cops in New Orleans, in which Bobby thinks…

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny - review

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

13 Nov 2006

COMEDY/MUSICAL Jack Black and Kyle Gass formed rock band Tenacious D a dozen years ago. Noteworthy, mostly, for their wild and profane lyrics, their existence has witnessed a best selling album, a short-lived HBO series, and the movie stardom of lead…

Little Britain Live - DVD review

Little Britain Live

13 Nov 2006

LIVE COMEDY Live versions of TV comedies are nearly always disastrous, and this is no exception. Lucas and Walliams have based their inexplicably successful careers on a handful of half-decent ideas ruined by lazy writing. In fact they blatantly rip…

Peter Sellers Collection, The - DVD review

The Peter Sellers Collection

17 Oct 2006

COMEDY Master or monster? Idol or idiot? Genius or jackass? The debate still simmers upon which side Peter Sellers’ legacy should fall, but it would be a shame if his reel life was tainted by his clear failings as a husband or father. Just prior to…

It's Nice Up North

(U) 95min (Cadiz Music DVD retail)

2 Oct 2006

COMIC TRAVELOGUE John Shuttleworth is a man with a mission. Can it possibly be the case that the further north in the British Isles you go, the more pleasant people become? This is the kicking-off point for this charming little movie by Graham…

Accepted

(12A) 90min

2 Oct 2006

COMEDY Steve Pink the director of Accepted also wrote High School tribute movie Grosse Point Blank, adapted Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity so there was much hope that this film would herald a second coming. Alas, Pink’s movie lacks two vital ingredients…

Clerks II

(15) 97min

18 Sep 2006

COMEDY ‘With no power comes no responsibility,’ declares the tagline on the poster for Clerks II, neatly summarising the minimal progress made by Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) as they leave behind their jobs as time wasting…

Hoodwinked

18 Sep 2006

Like a bedtime story told by an amiable drunk, Hoodwinked is a hackneyed narrative redeemed by great creative embellishment of the telling. Writer/directors Corey and Todd Edwards have come up with a noir setting that’s equal parts Raymond Chandler…

Nina's Heavenly Delights

18 Sep 2006

When Pratibha Parmar, the multi-award winning filmmaker, went to the UK Film Council for funding for Nina’s Heavenly Delights, her debut mainstream lesbian feature, she was told either the lesbian stuff goes or the money does. Considering that…

Merchant City Festival

Tales of the Merchant City

7 Sep 2006

This year’s celebration takes place from 20-24 September across Glasgow’s vibrant artistic quarter, and features more than 300 events in 70 venues, which this year includes the recently renovated Old Fruitmarket and City Halls. Jason Byrne and Adam…