Film, Reviews, Issue 639

Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde’s only published novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is tricky to adapt cinematically, requiring a deft balance between its sparkling wit and the Faustian darkness at its core. As the author himself wrote, ‘man sees his own sins in Dorian, what…

The Avengers - Series 1 & 2

(PG) 1520min (Optimum DVD retail) What joy! Every surviving episode from all six series of the marvelous cult British television show The Avengers, originally broadcast between 1961 and 1969, are to be released on DVD over the course of the next…

Away we go

After Revolutionary Road, director Sam Mendes takes a turn for the worse with this naff impersonation of an independent American comedy road movie written by publisher and memoirist Dave Eggers and his Mrs (Vendela Vida). Expectant parents Burt (John…

The Agent

Four months after submitting the manuscript of his second novel Black, author Stephen Parker (Stephen Kennedy) decides to pay a visit to his literary agent Alexander Joyce (William Beck). It transpires that the latter is not a fan of the new work, which…

Amsterdamned

(18) 105 min, Dick Maas’ 1988 Dutch thriller with elements of gory horror has the great merit of not taking itself too seriously as it bops along, and adds to that an admirable visual inventiveness about its striking locales. In it, a wetsuited…

Yellowbeard

(12) 96min (Optimum DVD retail) On paper, Mel Damski’s 1983 comedy has everything going for it. With a cast that includes four of the Monty Python crew, as well as Marty Feldman, Spike Milligan, Peter Cook, Peter Boyle and a host of other comedy…

Dynamic: 01 - The Best of DavidLynch.com

(15) 116 min (Scanbox DVD retail) Watching these sketches and skits that were first shown on David Lynch’s subscription-based website, we might think he is the Francis Bacon of film. In his features Lynch is the master of the tension between…

Miss March: Generation Penetration

Crude American teen sex comedy (is there any other kind?) about a kid played by burgeoning talent Zach Cregger who awakens from a four-year coma to hear his once virginal high school sweetheart (Raquel Alessi) is now a centerfold in Playboy. So he and…

Whiteout

Antarctica-based US deputy marshal (Kate Beckinsale) must investigate the frozen continent’s first murder before winter begins, but dealings with a UN operative (Gabriel Macht), also investigating the murder, making things complicated. Directed by…

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3D

Vivid and likeable animated version of Judi and Ron Barrett’s 1978 children’s book set in the town of Chewandswallow, where the weather comes three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan and Bruce Campbell give…

Three Miles North of Molkom

Serio-comic documentary about the Angsbacka No Mind festival in Sweden, an adult playground of shared consciousness. See feature, page 30. Selected release from Fri 18 Sep.

The Thing

John Carpenter’s excellent 1982 monster flick revived on digital big screen projection. Selected release from Tue 15 Sep. (18) 108min

Adventureland

(15) 106min Follically challenged Superbad director Greg Mottola writes and directs his first feature since 1996’s subtle and funny Manhattan road movie The Daytrippers with sweet and funny results. It is the summer of 1987 and English lit…

Fish Tank

Andrea Arnold’s remarkable second feature, following her Glasgow-based debut Red Road, is about Mia, an angry and aggressive 15-year-old who wants to be a dancer. When she’s not practicing in her room in the flat she lives in with her single mum and her…

The Firm

(18) 90min Writer-director Nick Love has taken a big gamble in remaking Alan Clarke’s 1989 television drama The Firm, which is widely considered to be the toughest and most insightful screen depiction of football hooligans. Wisely Love hasn’t tried…

The September Issue

(12A) 89min RJ Cutler, political documentary filmmaker and self confessed fashion-ignoramus, is an unlikely candidate to be granted access to the hallowed halls of Vogue magazine; yet in 2007, he received an invitation from the ‘high priestess’ of…

Anja Kirschner and David Panos: The Last Days of Jack Sheppard

The story of the 18th century thief told through contemporary eyes

The Last Days of Jack Sheppard showcases a film, placed among its filmic sets alongside rare archive material. It tells the story of the notorious 18th century English thief and proletarian hero, Jack Sheppard, through contemporary eyes. The hour long…

Julie and Julia

(12A) 123min Nora Ephron’s love affair with cookery initially surfaced in Mike Nichols’ 1986 comedy Heartburn, with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson starring in Ephron’s adaptation of her recipe book of the same name. Now Ephron and Streep have…

Morning Light

(PG) 97min The Morning Light is a boat owned by Roy Disney, nephew of Mouse-house king Walt, and for Mark Monroe’s feature-length documentary, 15 youngsters chosen for their sailing prowess (and good looks) duke it out to be one of the 11 who sail…