Film, Brian Donaldson

Battle for Haditha

28 Feb 2008

WAR DRAMA (15) 96min Scottish documentary-maker Kevin Macdonald found when tackling Middle Eastern politics, as he did so memorably with One Day in September, that no matter how even-handed your approach, there’s little chance of pleasing any of the…

Kenny - DVD review

Spoof documentary

31 Jan 2008

When a film comes billed as ‘one of Australia’s best ever comedies’, it’s difficult to know whether to be excited or petrified. From a nation who has given us the rank hospital sitcom Let the Blood Run Free and the gruesomely overrated Kath and Kim…

Eagle Vs Shark

17 Jan 2008

COMEDY (15) 84min (Optimum DVD rental/retail) With its sweet soul and crumbly heart, you’d think that Eagle vs Shark would only be fit for shooting out of the sky or being drowned at birth. But in the hands of writer/director Taika Waititi and…

The Funhouse

4 Jan 2008

HORROR (15) 96min (Arrow DVD rental/retail) Originally released between his scary telly version of Salem’s Lot and the cursed Poltergeist, Tobe Hooper’s extras-free 1981 take on the teens-in-peril sub-genre takes so long to build up to very little…

What's Up, Tiger Lily?

4 Jan 2008

COMEDY (PG) 76min (Optimum retail) Despite insisting in the intro to his 1966 directorial debut (of sorts) that Gone With the Wind used the same strategy, this was the first film to remove the dialogue of one movie and dub a completely new stream of…

Adapt or die - from page to screen

1 Nov 2007

THE BEST The Godfather Mario Puzo had three novels under his belt before he penned the tale of Don Vito Corleone and his Family/family in 1969 which was immortalised in movie form by Francis Ford Coppola three years later. One bit of advice: if an…

Magicians

1 Nov 2007

A film written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb: it’s Peep Show The Movie, right? Well, not quite, though the script never asks the pair to shy too far away from their small screen personae of uptight posh one and…

Manji

4 Oct 2007

(Yume Pictures) 90min DRAMA As strange as it is sensual, Yasuzo Masumura’s 1964 melodramatic sizzler Manji succeeds in being various things to different people. At its best, it casts a visceral eye upon the codes of a sexual culture which would…

Dead or Alive

(18) 105min (Tartan DVD rental/retail)

9 Aug 2007

FUTURISTIC DRAMA In 1999, Takashi Miike released two films. The powerful and disturbing Audition was joined by this ramshackle futuristic affair which featured similar stunts to that year’s Matrix while bowing heavily to the influence of Sergio Leone…

Bad Timing & Insignificance

DVD

16 Jul 2007

EXISTENTIAL DRAMAS BAD TIMING (18) 117min (Network DVD rental/retail, 3 STARS) INSIGNIFICANCE (15) 104min (Network DVD rental/retail, 4 STARS) It seems a very long time ago, but there was a moment when a new film by Nicolas Roeg…

Mere Anarchy

2 Jul 2007

COMIC TALES Back in the day, the artist formerly known as Allan Konigsberg appeared hell-bent on making one classic comedy movie after another. He also seemed to find time to knock up a trio of books with silly stories, philosophically daft musings…

The Best Man

DVD

7 May 2007

ROMCOM

David Lynch

Wild at art

23 Apr 2007

At the Paris launch of David Lynch’s first major exhibition of his drawings and photographs, the 61-year-old director was asked to offer some insight into the work. To seasoned Lynch-watchers, the response was a typical mixture of beguiling and…

DVD - Twelve and Holding

Twelve and Holding

11 Apr 2007

COMING OF AGE DRAMA When a prank goes horribly wrong with one boy being burned alive in a tree house, his closest allies cope with the loss in their own ways. The dead lad’s brother Jacob, born with a massive birthmark, goes on a mission to make the…

DVD - See No Evil

See No Evil

26 Mar 2007

HORROR This rank imitation of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th and the orgy of weaker variations made since, pulls few punches with its gore content but is as predictable as a film can be that’s called See No Evil and features a…

Eros - DVD review

Eros

12 Feb 2007

ANTHOLOGY How could such an intriguing idea go so horribly, flaccidly wrong? If the demonstration of some pent-up sexual emotion was needed, who better to call than Messrs Antonioni, Soderbergh and Kar-wai to unleash a cinematic torrent? Except this…

Angel-A - DVD review

Angel-A

29 Jan 2007

FANTASY DRAMA For Berlin, read Paris. For Wings of Desire, transpose Angel-A. But while Wim Wenders’ 80s classic still sparkles, this occasionally charming Luc Besson effort instantly pales by comparison. The problems are several fold, but the jovial…

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…

Unknown White Male - DVD review

Unknown White Male

27 Nov 2006

DOCUMENTARY Having lost touch with his pal Douglas Bruce, now a successful New York stockbroker, word came to Rupert Murray that Bruce had woken up one day with his previous 37 years wiped from his memory. Having fended off other interested parties…

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…

Aardman's Darkside - DVD

Aardman's Darkside

2 Oct 2006

ANIMATION As a company renowned for the sweetly naïve, homely fun of Wallace and Gromit, Morph and Creature Comforts, it’s something of a jolt to the system to discover Aardman’s adult entertainment wing. Like the Sooty pregnancy episode or…

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…

Once in a Lifetime - DVD review

Once in a Lifetime

18 Sep 2006

SPORT HISTORY When you think of the US and football, you might conjure up images of Diana Ross inadvertently destroying goalposts during the 1994 World Cup opening ceremony or the US being horsed by Iran four years later, but whatever you think of…