Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Lou (Lyonne) is a self-destructively hard partying trailer dweller who, when not occasionally working a cleaning job for a hotel, spends her time taking drugs and getting fall-down drunk with her small group of like-minded friends. The aimless Lou lives in the kind of place where either bad things happen, or nothing happens at all. Young women disappearing, experimental drugs of dubious origin and military conspiracies fill the background noise of her perpetually wasted life.

 

After one night of particularly vigorous imbibing at a party in an abandoned warehouse, Lou wakes up remembering little but experiencing strange symptoms that suggest she is pregnant. This puzzles Lou as she hasn’t slept with anyone in months. It’s just the start of Lou’s problems as it will become horrifyingly likely whatever is growing inside of her was not exactly naturally conceived. Not that Lou intends to let pregnancy stop her doing whatever she can to forget how crappy her life is. Lou continues to drink, smoke and take whatever drugs she can lay her hands on even as her denial becomes more difficult to maintain. Hallucinations, paranoia and disturbing physical symptoms mean facing up that something very wrong is happening.

 

It’s a welcome lead role for the talented Lyonne who is hopefully putting the health issues and troubles – that for a while blighted her career – firmly in the past. Certainly she commits fully to the role of Lou. In the hands of a less talented actor Lou’s destructive behaviour could have come across as infinitely more tiresome or just plain unlikeable, but Lyonne plays the character as the sad, damaged result of her cumulative experiences with skill. Though supported ably by the likes of Sevigny, Meg Tilly and Mark Webber, Lou’s story rests on her shoulders, and to the film’s immeasurable benefit it’s a challenge Lyonne meets in full.

 

Antibirth is a grungy, profane and twisted experience and probably not for everyone. Writer and director Danny Perez isn’t so much concerned with making a totally coherent film with a traditional beginning, middle and end but rather it works more as a bad trip writ large for the screen. It’s not explicitly a horror (though there’s body-horror aspects throughout) but a film that straddles more than one genre, creating the queasy, grim atmosphere of a half-remembered night of shame and regret turned outright living nightmare.

 

Though there’s arguably not much substance, it uses its many influences, from ‘50s and ‘60s sci-fi to ‘80s horror and plenty more, with style. A final reel that just goes full tilt for crazy only adds to the charm of a film that’s totally willing to go there. We recommend you do too.

 

ANTIBIRTH / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: DANNY PEREZ / STARRING: NATASHA LYONNE, CHLOË SEVIGNY, MEG TILLY, MARK WEBBER / RELEASE DATE: 10TH APRIL

In which J.K. Rowling abandons prose in order to take full control of the cinematic Potter-verse, Fantastic Beasts being the first film in the franchise not to be adapted from one of her novels but rather from an original screenplay. And while the cast and the setting might have changed – this being set the better part of a century before the class of Harry, and on the other side of the Atlantic – behind the cameras there’s enough continuity to make this business as unusual.

Hogwarts alumnus Newt Scamander arrives in New York in 1926 on a mission of mercy, but when magical creatures escape from his bigger-on-the-inside suitcase, he soon becomes associated with the mysterious incidents that have been causing chaos around the city. Dark secrets, strange beings and extensive destruction follow, until Rowling’s plot ties everything up in familiarly coherent and almost overwhelmingly spectacular, but nevertheless satisfying and consummately entertaining ways. More than anything, the end product resembles a prohibition-era superhero movie, complete with ditzy blonde and an underground bar – and although some not entirely welcome tonal shifts, between kiddie-friendly beast wrangling and wholly adult religious proscriptiveness, make it slightly unclear just where the audience for Fantastic Beasts was intended to be, the relationship Rowling has built up with Steve Kloves and director David Yates over the course of the Potter films means this new franchise begins with eminent assuredness.

Although it isn’t as light on its feet as it might be. While the American setting keeps the usual Rowling predilections from feeling too predictable, Yates’ cameras are maybe a bit over-fond of charging around, and the two leads are slightly saddled with quirks that mean their co-stars are actually more attractive to watch. Indeed, whether by accident or design it’s Dan Fogler’s muggle who is by far the easiest character with which to identify. Having said that, there isn’t an underwritten or weak performance to be seen. In some respects, this new series might even be an improvement on the originals, then.

In keeping with the supernatural theme, Yates’ New York feels like it’s almost entirely a CGI creation, and if the occasional disconnect between humans and computer generated wildlife might leave you pondering just how little of what you’re seeing is actually real, in general the effects make for an immersive experience. This is confident filmmaking of the first order, although whether you find it over-confident is perhaps down to how much you enjoyed the Harry Potters. Either way, Fantastic Beasts is funny (if not particularly witty), engaging (if not overly engrossing) and rewarding (if not especially substantial). It is thoroughly successful in achieving every aim it sets itself. But its ambition is limited by its forerunners.

Special Features: The Magizoologist / Meet the Fantastic Beasts

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: DAVID YEATES / SCREENPLAY: J.K. ROWLING / STARRING: EDDIE REDMAYNE, KATHERINE WATERSTON, DAN FOGLER, ALISON SUDOL, EZRA MILLER, SAMANTHA MORTON, JON VOIGHT, CARMEN EJOGO, RON PERLMAN, COLIN FARRELL / RELEASE DATE: 27TH MARCH

Thirty-six years ago, there wasn’t much that would convince this reviewer and his geeky homeboys to miss an evening of playing Dungeons & Dragons in the pub. Where else would you play it? But one night in the spring of 1981, the locals had to find some other weirdos to stare at because John Boorman’s Excalibur had arrived at the local fleapit and we’d gone off on a collective jolly to drool over it. This was the movie we’d been waiting for.

We’re not going to dwell on the plot as we all know the legends of King Arthur but this is a fairly straight telling of Sir Thomas Malory’s 15th century Le Morte d’Arthur version of the story. So we start with an implausibly armoured Uther Pendragon (Gabriel Byrne) conceiving Arthur (Nigel Terry) with a bit of magical assistance from Merlin (Nichol Williamson) and end with Arthur’s death and flinging that sword back into the lake. Along the way, there’s swords in stones and missing Holy Grails. You know the routine.

Boorman had made an attempt at getting a Lord of the Rings movie off the ground but that never came off and he had to settle for Arthurian fantasy instead. As it turns out, this was probably just as well. It got a lot of stick at the time for being a bit of a confusing mess as far as storytelling was concerned but it’s easy enough to follow and characters talking cod-medieval nonsense is exactly what you want in this sort of caper. Anything else just wouldn’t be quite legendary enough. In fact, Nichol Williamson gives a pleasingly eccentric performance as Merlin but it’s worth having a look at the rest of that stellar cast. This was 1981. Williamson is actually the only one who was a reasonably big name star at the time. For many of that lot, this was their screen debut. Blimey.

But what is brilliant about Excalibur is just how stylised it is. It looks fantastic. While King Arthur (2004) goes for a vague attempt at accuracy for the 5th century legend by sticking him in Roman-style armour, Excalibur gives two fingers to that and has everyone clanking around in medieval armour in the way that even 15th century knights never actually clanked. Who wants Arthurian legend to be historical? And they wear armour all the time. When Camelot is going through good times, the armour is shiny. In bad times, it’s covered in mud and blood. The look of those nice bits is pure Pre-Raphaelite as befits a story whose place in modern popular culture was established with Alfred Lord Tennyson and Malory’s work being re-printed in the 19th century. But, unsurprisingly, there’s also more than a hint of Tolkien in the visuals along with epic fight scenes in the mud accompanied by Carl Orff’s O Fortuna. The Holy Grail sequence is wonderfully apocalyptic.

Basically, Excalibur is brutal, beautiful, sexy and epically legendary. You need this movie.

Special Features: Commentary from John Boorman.

EXCALIBUR (1981) / DIRECTOR: JOHN BOORMAN / SCREENPLAY: JOHN BOORMAN, ROSPO PALLENBERG / STARRING: NIGEL TERRY, HELEN MIRREN, NICHOLAS CLAY, CHERIR LUNGHI, NICOL WILLIAMSON, LIAM NEESON, PATRICK STEWART, GABRIEL BYRNE, CIARÁN HINDS, ROBERT ADDIE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

As Train To Busan continues on its unwavering course to gather fans and box office revenue, writer / director Sang-ho Yeon releases his second zombie-epidemic-horror-thriller in a year, Seoul Station. Filmed in real terms before the frantic Train To Busan, this film serves as an animated prologue of sorts, reflecting events directly before the latter’s dramatic departure, and focussing on Yeon’s continuing interest, and comment, on South Korea’s social situation.

 

Much smaller in scale, Seoul Station begins in the titular terminus as an old homeless man staggers to his regular evening spot. Bloody and ill, he is dismissed as just another “stinky homeless guy”, as the man’s younger brother strives to find help but is met with sniffy resentment from the police and social workers. Predictably, the old man soon turns into a ravenous fiend and the outbreak is underway.

 

Following on from his earlier work The King Of Pigs and The Fake, Yeon doesn’t hold back with his political views. The central story of Seoul Station involves a dysfunctional family unit comprising a reformed brothel worker, her low-life boyfriend whose idea of support is to pimp her online, and her vengeful, over-protective father. As the outbreak spreads, it is the journey of these three characters across Seoul that pushes the narrative along, as they encounter various disparate groups struggling for survival. Only in the final act does Yeon finally reveal his cards as government forces seek to contain both the increasing number of zombies and the rising unrest in the city’s residents.

 

Not as thrillingly, exhaustingly engaging as Train To Busan, Seoul Station is an interesting work in its own right as it establishes, with less subtlety, themes present in both films. A fractious, unfair class system is laid bare as the protagonists struggle to survive when battling against the social disease of a zombie infection without assistance, and often with active obstruction, from those empowered to provide it. The messages and morals are clearly written, in bold and underlined, and yet never does Seoul Station feel like an inescapable lecture. The characters are given depth despite the brevity of their screen time, with the motivations of each clear if often abhorrent. Hope still exists, but is extinguished before it can really provide any respite from the suffering.

 

As a standalone film, Seoul Station is both interesting and entertaining, but it is as a companion piece that it really finds its place. If you haven’t yet seen Train To Busan – and, honestly, why haven’t you? – seek out this animated accompaniment, set an evening aside, and settle down for a true cinematic double-bill.

 

SEOUL STATION / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: SANG-HO YEON / STARRING: RYU SEUNG-RYONG, SHIM EUN-KYUNG, LEE JOON / RELEASE DATE: 3RD APRIL 

Long before Robert Downey Jr. or Benedict Cumberbatch ever portrayed Sherlock Holmes on our screens to widespread success, Basil Rathbone donned the deerstalker cap. The best actor to play the great detective onscreen is open to debate, but none were more prolific than Rathbone, who portrayed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation in no less than 14 films, alongside Nigel Bruce as his sidekick Watson. Now, thanks to the fine folks over at Umbrella Entertainment, all of those films have been collected in a digitally restored, seven-disc DVD set.

 

Chronicling Holmes and Watson’s Victorian beginnings all the way up to their latter adventures during World War II, the duos investigations saw them solve mysteries throughout the decades. The first film in the set is the iconic Hound of Baskervilles, which remains one of the most entertaining and popular Holmes’ tales to this day – and for good reason, as it never gets old. Other gems featured are Sherlock Holmes and the Faces of Death and Sherlock Holmes and the House of Fear, along with rest; there really isn’t a subpar film in Rathbone’s Holmes canon.

 

The restoration looks absolutely stunning. Even in black and white it holds up superbly, though the power of the storytelling and performances of the actors has solidified these movies in pop culture for years to come anyway. However, with this set, there’s no better time to introduce new fans to the old films, and watching it, they don’t feel as if they’ve aged at all. Furthermore, some of the films are accompanied by some insightful commentaries supplied by experts, which alone make this worth picking up.

 

Overall, if you’re a fan of the classic Holmes films then this is going to please you as they look better than ever. However, if you’re only familiar with the recent BBC series and the Hollywood blockbusters starring the guy who plays Iron Man in the Marvel movies, then this would serve as a perfect starting if you’re interested in exploring the character’s rich cinematic history.

 

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION / CERT: PG / DIRECTORS: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: BASIL RATHBONE, NIGEL BRUCE, MARY GORDON, DENNIS HOEY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Polish writer/director Walerian Borowczyk was quite the card. In a 40-year career (he died in 2006), he built a reputation as an agit-provocateur through a series of highly regarded, often artily pornographic, but never less than beautifully-produced films that channelled his fascination with the absurdities and constraints of polite society and religion. His output was nothing if not eclectic; alongside high profile, critically lauded works such as bonkers anthology Immoral Tales (aka ‘the one with the cucumber’) and its companion film The Beast (both 1975), he found time to branch into more conventional horror with Blood of Dr Jekyll (1981, featuring genre stalwarts Udo Kier and Patrick Magee) and franchise erotica with Emmanuelle 5 (1987, apparently one of the better ones).

By his own standards of censor-bating, 1975’s The Story of Sin – a rare post-1960’s excursion back to his native Poland – is fairly tame but still has a lingering eye for the naked female form in the tradition of Tinto Brass or Ken Russell at his most mischievous. Adapted from the novel by Stefan Żeromski (1864–1925), this period melodrama is actually the third filmed version of the tale (the others being in 1911 and 1933) but is widely regarded as best of the three.

Giving a virtuoso performance, Grazyna Dlugolecka is Ewe (“Eve”), an early 20th Century lady not too far from removed her Old Testament counterpart in that she is a source of great temptation to mankind, a troubling issue we find her discussing with a (leering, obviously) priest at the film’s start. But her pious state of grace is turned on its head when a handsome lodger called Luasz (Jerzy Zelnik) moves into the spare room of the stately house she shares with her lascivious father (men generally equal ‘slime’ in this one). This lodger chap is in the process of seeking a divorce from his wife and before you can say ‘Bigos Marrowsky’ the two of them are at it like knives. But the path of true love does not run smoothly; soon they are separated by fate and she’s off down a rabbit hole of prostitution and crime, all the while trying to get him back. As the film progresses, she is pursued and lusted after by various blokes who generally treat her like a sexual plaything. The allegory isn’t subtle, nor does it try to be.

While the plot is rather undemanding (did they really need to make three versions of this?) The Story of Sin is Borowczyk right at the top of his playfully polemical game. The eroticism is never gratuitous, the satire is well judged and the dialogue in English translation is delightfully on-the-nose. The episodic structure and use of natural lighting is very reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (also released in 1975) but, on the downside, it also shares that movie’s rather detached attitude to its characters which means that, at 130 minutes, it’s a bit of a slog for non-believers.
 

Not for the casual viewer in search of lightweight frivolity, this remains a provocative and unusual work from one of Polish cinema’s true originals.

THE STORY OF SIN (1975) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: WALERIAN BOROWCZYK / SCREENPLAY: STEFAN ŻEROMSKI, WALERIAN BOROWCZYK / STARRING: GRAZYNA DLUGOLECKA, JERZY ZELNIK / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Getting a new release from the BFI following their recent Scorsese celebration, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is one of the most atypical films from his filmography. Released between the potently male Mean Streets’ exploration of guilt, loyalty and ambition and the none-more-dark Taxi Driver, it’s a light drama that focuses on a female character as the lead. So coming at a time when Scorsese was vividly exploring violence of both the emotional and physical kind, it stands out.

 

Ellen Burstyn, following the trauma of The Exorcist, stars as Alice. When her truck-driver husband is killed, Alice decides to leave the unsatisfactory memory of him behind and, selling off much of their belongings, packs up what is left and heads off with her wiseass young son Tommy back to the town she grew up in, Monterey in California, and a second attempt at a singing career. But money’s tight and that journey finds Alice and Tommy waylaid along their route in Arizona so Alice can find work, coming into contact with a number of people (including Scorsese regular Harvey Keitel) and possibly a second chance at love with divorced rancher Kris Kristofferson. Meanwhile Tommy strikes up a friendship with the slightly older Audrey (Jodie Foster) and Alice has to decide whether where life has lead her to might be the place she’s meant to be.

 

This is Burstyn’s picture, driven by her desire to make a film for and truly about women. Her collaboration with Scorsese pays dividends. The script fights itself over how to present women, modern expectations scrapping with the traditional structure and elements in the writing which leads to a somewhat uneven journey for Alice. But Scorsese’s approach, whilst informed by cinema history, was resolutely modern at the time. It’s immeasurably helpful to the film as it gives Alice an edge, and genuine verisimilitude, it would otherwise lack. The film acknowledges that push and pull, referencing classic melodramas from Hollywood whilst trying to bring that influence into the style of contemporary films of the day, and in that it’s mostly successful.

 

Scorsese trusts the actors and gives them space, and from Alice and Tommy’s genuine relationship to the other characters they meet along the way, it feels just as real as his depictions of ruthless gangsters. It’s an example if one was needed that Scorsese is certainly capable of putting more than machismo and violence onscreen and a reminder of what a singularly talented filmmaker he is. Burstyn’s Alice is really the motor that runs the film and her warm, multi-layered performance deservedly won the Best Actress Oscar. It’s a bright, funny, heartfelt film with everyone involved at the top of their game.

 

ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: MARTIN SCORSESE / SCREENPLAY: ROBERTGETCHELL / STARRING: ELLEN BURSTYN, KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, DIANE LADD, JODIE FOSTER  / RELEASE DATE: 27TH MARCH 

Make no mistake, this isn’t competing with the likes of The Abyss or Das Boot, either for expansive realism or for sweeping bottom of the ocean storytelling. But writer / director Ben Parker’s debut feature – made almost entirely in a single studio in Wales – is an impressive calling card that will almost certainly lead to much bigger and theoretically better things.

Ostensibly the story of four people trapped at the bottom of the sea, Parker makes a virtue of his single set and limited cast by calling in the clichés of his genre but playing his cards so authentically and naturally, it’s very easy to forget you’ve seen most of these moves before. Johannes Kuhnke is Mats, a Swedish submersible operator whose craft and expertise are co-opted by a three-man Special Ops team, searching for a piece of military equipment that has sunk to the bottom of a relatively shallow stretch of the Yellow Sea not far from the North Korean coast. Tensions are understandably fraught from the beginning, but while the mission proves initially successful its second phase doesn’t go so well, ratcheting up the tension as it becomes apparent that not everybody is going to make it back alive.

The premise itself is interesting but vague enough, a simple MacGuffin designed to isolate an unwilling Mats with three people he could presumably not have cared less about above water, but whose survival is now his first priority. James McArdle is Parks, who runs on a short fuse but never descends into exaggeration, while Elliot Levey is the team geek, while still managing to convince of his military origin. Charlotte Salt, meanwhile, plays team leader Red as a strong-willed woman without a hint of the caricature such characters often descend into, and Kuhnke himself is just as believable as the loner whose private world has been invaded quite so prejudicially.

The camerawork and editing are unfussy and make the most of the limited space, selling the claustrophobia without dwelling on or overemphasising it. And the Manics’ James Dean Bradfield has provided a score that is equally lacking in pretension, an uncluttered but galvanising backdrop to the action that adds to the tone of the film without distracting attention from the actors. And it is the acting that sells The Chamber, Parker teasing out four central performances that manage to be both nuanced and unyielding, avoiding theatricality while being resolute and convincing in commitment and authenticity.

The Chamber might easily have felt like a derivative home movie production blessed with an overachieving cast, but instead Ben Parker has created something that stands the comparison of its much more expensive counterparts and manages to eke out an identity of its own.
 

Special Features: commentary / making of featurette

THE CHAMBER (2016) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: BEN PARKER / SCREENPLAY: BEN PARKER / STARRING: JOHANNES KUHNKE, CHARLOTTE SALT, JAMES McARDLE, ELLIOT LEVEY, DAVID HOROVITCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

First released in 1987, Wartime was the first independently released Doctor Who spin-off video. John Levene returned to the role of Sgt Benton and this is very much his story, diving as it does into his personal history. Writers Andy Lane and Helen Stirling deserve credit for putting together an interesting if somewhat surreal tale, though some elements are left entirely unexplained. As an unofficial product this is forgivable. Less forgivable is how long fans have had to wait for a DVD version.

The story was re-released in 1997 this time with some other material (including behind the scenes content). The story also picked up a Nicholas Courtney cameo at the start, reprising the role of Lethbridge-Stewart. It has taken until now for this to become available on DVD, and it comes not only with a collection of documentaries, but also a second disc giving us a whole hour of Jon Pertwee at Panopticon.

The story itself centres on Sgt Benton’s ghostly reminiscences of his father going to war, his brother and his mother. As Benton approaches the epicentre of past tragedy we learn a lot about his motives and relationship with his father. Michael Wisher (the original Davros) is very strong as Benton’s father and the scenes where the two interact are the best of this short tale. If you don’t blink there’s also an appearance by Nick Briggs as an unnamed soldier. Nick appears on the extras, as does Katy Manning and producer / director Keith Barnfather.

Although the story of Wartime is better than it might have been, this far out it is somewhat of a curiosity and may well only be of interest to the most dedicated of fans. At just over 30 minutes it is shorter than the Jon Pertwee footage, and that is as collectable in its own right. The set is inexpensive though, and there are worse products for fans to spend their money on.

THE WARTIME CHRONICLES / CERT: PG / AUTHOR: ANDY LANE, HELEN STIRLING / PUBLISHER: REELTIME PICTURES / STARRING: JOHN LEVENE, MICHAEL WISHER, NICK BRIGGS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Though Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris, based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem, is often regarded as a masterpiece of science fiction cinema, western audiences may be more familiar with the George Clooney remake from 2002. This new Blu-ray release from the Criterion Collection is a good opportunity to feast your eyes on the original.

 

Cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is sent to a space station orbiting the planet Solaris to investigate strange transmissions coming from its three remaining crew. When he gets there, he finds one crew member has killed himself, and the other two are… well, they insist that, however it looks, they’re not going mad, and that, in fact, some alien intelligence in the planet’s ocean really is making simulacra of their memories appear.

 

This strange phenomenon soon hits Kelvin hard, as he’s visited by a being who appears to be his wife Hari – who died ten years ago. Terrified, he tricks her into a space capsule and launches her out into space. But then, that evening, she comes back. This time, Kelvin allows ‘Hari’ into his life, and they’re soon inseparable.

 

At once an epic and a very insular movie, a combination that much sci-fi aspires to but falls short of, Solaris cuts between sweeping shots of the mysterious planet and deep psychological exploration of how these ‘guests’ affect the crew. It’s a film that’s been discussed at length with regards to what it has to say about faith and memory, but which at heart seems to be about the need for human connection. Humanity isn’t ready to explore new worlds, says one of the crew, because we’re more interested in looking at ourselves, a statement reflected in Kelvin’s growing love for the being as if she is really Hari and in the themes in which Tarkovsky seems interested.

 

At times, it’s a captivatingly beautiful film, with this thought-provoking drama taking place against the backdrop of an impressive but worn-down space station, which seems to fall apart alongside the protagonist’s mind – proof that the dilapidated style of sci-fi didn’t originate with Star Wars five years later, as is often claimed. At other times, the movie’s lingering nature can irritate; one particular shot of a car travelling down a road before we’ve even gone to space lasts uncomfortably long.

 

Nevertheless, the whole film looks stunning in this new restoration, Criterion having done an excellent job transferring the movie to Blu-ray. The special features – an audio essay from Tarkovsky scholars Vida Johnson and Graham Petrie, deleted scenes, some interviews, an excerpt from a Stanislaw Lem documentary, and a booklet with essays from Phillip Lopate and Akira Kurosawa – are interesting but ultimately too slight to make this a real collector’s must-have.

 

SOLARIS (1972) / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: ANDREI TARKOVSKY / SCREENPLAY: ANDREI TARKOVSKY, FRIDRIKH GORENSHTEYN / STARRING: DONATOS BANIONIS, JÜRI JÄRVET, NATALYA BONDARCHUK, ANATOLIY SOLONITSYN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW