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View from the Couch You are in: surefish > faith > DVDs Date: 26 June, 2008
Steve Couch reviews Juno, Sweeney Todd, Charlie Wilson's War, Mr Magorium's Wonder Empire along with other notable releases on DVD Click on the title of the film to buy the DVD from amazon.co.uk and part of the sale will go to Christian Aid Juno The fertile and rapidly expanding sub-genre of unwanted pregnancy films (see also: Knocked Up and Waitress) gains a new addition to the family. Juno is one of those indie-films that crossed over into the mainstream and has since suffered the inevitable backlash for daring to be popular. Ellen Page radiates precociousness as the 16 year old whose womb is at the centre of the drama. Page was – rightly – Oscar nominated for the title role, but Michael Cera (the tall, thin one from Superbad) is every bit as good with his understated and vulnerable turn as the unwitting father-to-be. The film is as smart and sassy as the eponymous heroine, and treads sure-footedly through the decisions that Juno’s situation forces upon her without offering any sense of judgement. Idealised To some extent Juno is an idealised teenager – staggeringly self-possessed about her pregnancy, never without a withering retort or wisecrack – but there’s also more than a hint of an adolescent trying to pin down a sense of identity and find her place in the world, and Page’s performance is textures insecurity amongst the swagger. DVD extras include a rambling commentary track from director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody, as well as a bunch of deleted scenes and the like. Throw in a neo-folky soundtrack of quirkily wistful oddities (centred on The Mouldy Peaches’ Anyone Else But You, but also including two tracks by the incomparable Belle and Sebastian) and there is much to enjoy in this delicious gem of a movie. • Click here for a Damaris video download discussing Juno
Somehow I don’t think that casting a stage show of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will be BBC1’s next take on the Maria/Joseph/Oliver talent show genre (Pie’d Do Anything? Any Scream Will Do?) If they did, they would be hard-pushed to beat the sublime pairing of Johnny Depp as Sweeney and Helena Bonham-Carter as the pie-making Mrs Lovett. Both give splendid acting performances and make a decent fist of their musical duties, even if Depp sounds like he’s listened to too much early David Bowie (is there such a thing? Discuss). Blood Bucketloads of blood flow, spurt and splatter as Sweeney gets on with his throat-cutting thing. This is a fine, dark performance from Depp. We understand the grief that led Todd to such despicable carnage, but there’s no soft-centre to this protagonist. Depp’s haunted eyes never let him – or us – off the hook by allowing him to been seen as any kind of sympathetic figure. Deceptions and betrayals cascade over one another to expose the gory truth and bring the whole misadventure to its gristly end. There’s a second disc of extras, including a thorough range of featurettes for anyone who wants to know more about the making of the film, the stage musical, the Grand Guignol tradition of horror and much more. All that remains is for some bright spark to show Sweeney Todd as part of a pie-related double bill (playing second after Waitress). Just make sure you eat your refreshments before the second feature. • Click here for a Damaris article on Sweeney Todd
One of the most anticipated movie releases of the year for this critic: West Wing legend Aaron Sorkin teams up with Tom Hanks to do American foreign policy. I wasn’t disappointed. Sorkin’s script is witty, engaging and intelligent (although a few lines could have been lifted from President Bartlet’s book of ripostes) and Hanks combines the righteous anger of a man on a mission with the snake-oil hustling of a born opportunist. Hanks is Charlie Wilson, the American Congressman who (almost) single-handedly ended the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a fine cynical foil to Hanks as the outcast CIA agent who gets Wilson involved in Afghanistan, and Julia Roberts glistens with evangelical zeal as a wealthy do-gooder whose campaign donations Wilson is desperate to keep hold of. The film shows how simple it was for a few well-placed individuals to bring the cold war to an end, only to sow the seeds for the current threat to world peace by bungling things at the last. • Click here for a Damaris video download discussing Charlie Wilson’s War Zach Helm wrote one of my favourite films of last year, Stranger Than Fiction, and here he combines writing duties with his directorial debut. There’s plenty of charm, and a winning turn from the ever-excellent Natalie Portman, but somehow this is a decent film with a much better one struggling to escape from its clutches. Ultimately, Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium stands too much in the shadow of Stranger Than Fiction. The relationship between Portman’s Mahoney and Jason Bateman’s straight-laced accountant (sound familiar?) shares a similar dynamic to that of Maggie Gyllenhaal and Will Ferrell in the earlier movie. More significantly, the same over-riding theme (the prospect of death prompting us to make the most of life) is shared by both films. Not as good as it should have been, and not nearly as good as Stranger Than Fiction. Also available No Country For Old Men The Coen brothers in Oscar winning (but not laughter-seeking) form. Javier Bardem gets the customary bizarre hair as a psychotic mass-murderer; Josh Brolin is the opportunistic hunter who gets more than he bargained for, and Tommy Lee Jones is the old-time lawman trying to make sense of it all. The narrative slowly unfolds to a climax that offers little by way of redemption. Powerful and engrossing. • Click here for a Damaris article on No Country For Old Men National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets Sequel to the enjoyable hokum of National Treasure. This is enjoyable hokum. Go figure. • Click here for a Damaris video download discussing National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets • Click here for a Damaris article on National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets The Golden Compass Disappointing first instalment of the film version of Philip Pullman’s excellent His Dark Materials trilogy. The anti-church angle has been largely airbrushed out, changing the moral (ahem) compass of the story. Director Chris Weitz says that the later films will restore the theological concerns. We shall have to wait and see. Click here for Damaris articles about The Golden Compass: Jumper An intriguing set-up (boy discovers the ability to teleport) which is wasted by the decision to favour stunts and special effects over, well, everything else. Samuel L. Jackson is Samuel L. Jackson, and weird stuff happens. If you’re looking for a dumb action film with unrealised pretensions to be something more, your quest is at an end. • Click here for a Damaris video download on Jumper • Click here for a Damaris article about Jumper Doctor Who: Series 4 Volume 1 Everybody in my office said Catherine Tate would ruin Doctor Who. I didn’t. They were wrong and I was right. I am smug. First three episodes of the new Tennant and Tate partnership for your consideration here. Click here for a Damaris article on one of the episodes on this disc: Cloverfield Gorgeous young people trapped in New York and filming an unknown disaster on a hand-held video camera. Godzilla meets Blair Witch Project meets Dawson’s Creek. Click here for three Damaris video download about Cloverfield: • Click here for a Damaris article about Cloverfield Definitely, Maybe High-concept romantic drama: a soon-to-be-divorced man tells his daughter how he met her Mum, with daughter trying to guess which of the women from his past is the one who brought her into the world. Definitely, Maybe? Definitely not for me, but it’s not a bad film and will suit some people. • Click here for a Damaris article on Definitely, Maybe Click on the title of the film to buy the DVD from amazon.co.uk and part of the sale will go to Christian Aid • Other DVD recommendations Steve Couch is a writer for Damaris Trust
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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Charlie Wilson’s War
Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
