Review: World Trade Center

UK Release: 29th September 2006

Oliver Stone uses all the tricks in the modern Hollywood film-maker’s book to convey the enormity of the attacks on New York, using disaster-movie effects and one breathtaking, digitally-created aerial shot.

With four times the budget of Paul Greengrass’s United 93, which dramatised the events of 11 September 2001 in a hand-held, documentary style, Stone’s film takes us deep into the rubble of the collapsed buildings, as two Port Authority cops (Michael Pena and an admirably subdued Nicolas Cage), await their rescue. Meanwhile, their wives, a tightly-wound Maggie Gyllenhaal and a stoic Maria Bello, play their own fraught waiting game as they watch the disaster unfold on television.

In focusing on the real-life experiences of the McLoughlin and Jimeno families the film switches from spectacle to close-up human drama — and sidesteps the politics. The outcome, though based on fact, might seem a bit contrived, and there are inevitable moments of sentimentality. But overall, Stone brings restraint to this portrayal of real-life heroism and fortitude in America’s darkest hour.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 129mins

Review by Andrew Collins

Review: Life & Lyrics

UK release: 29th September 2006

Former So Solid Crew rapper Ashley Walters delivers a smouldering performance in this likeably ambitious attempt to relocate the rap battles of Eminem’s 8 Mile to the south London “’hood”. Walters plays Danny “D-Biz” Lewis, a DJ who’s about to compete in an “open mic” competition with his crew of mouthy MCs.

As the title suggests, it’s a film of two halves: acid-tongued rappers fight scathing lyrical battles on stage (“She looks suicidal/She’s only here ‘cos she got lost on the way to Pop Idol”), while Danny struggles to avoid the dangers of the ghetto between the breakbeats. Its street cred never entirely convinces — soap opera melodrama undermining its location-shot authenticity — but Walters is a powerful presence, his brooding manner occasionally hinting at a heart of urban darkness beyond the reach of this movie.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 99mins

Review by Jamie Russell

Review: Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait

UK release: 29th September 2006

Following the lead of Hellmuth Costard’s 1971 study of George Best, Football like Never Before, this audacious documentary tracks Zinédine Zidane for the duration of a La Liga game between Real Madrid and Villareal in April 2005.

Technically, the film draws attention to itself far too often, with its tricksy shifts between camera angles and distances. But, as a study in sporting concentration and an avant-garde experiment in spatial disorientation, it’s as compelling as it is impressive. Particularly striking is the unswerving intensity that seems to isolate Zidane from his team-mates, as he rarely calls for the ball or issues instructions throughout the match. Indeed, he remains emotionless — apart from a grin at Roberto Carlos just before joining the goalmouth mêlée that results in him being sent off.

Revealing the flaws as well as the genius, this is clearly a portrait of an artist at work.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate PG
Running time 95mins

Review by David Parkinson

Review: Nina’s Heavenly Delights

UK release: 29th September 2006

A unlikely concoction of Indian cuisine and issues of ethnic and sexual diversity is served up in this Glasgow-set comedy that’s as light as a soufflé. Nina (Shelley Conn), a young Scottish-Asian woman, returns home for the funeral of her father, with whom she fell out over her last-minute refusal to marry the son of his rival restaurateur Raj (Art Malik) and unite the city’s two great curry houses. She soon forms a close bond with Lisa (Laura Fraser), who is now part-owner of the family restaurant, and the pair compete in a prestigious cooking competition against Nina’s former fiancé Sanjay (Raji James).

With its many diverse elements and subplots — including Nina’s friendship with a cross-dressing Glaswegian/Bollywood choreographer — director Pratibha Parmar’s film seems determined to challenge expectations and stereotypes at every turn. Yet the basic philosophy of this inoffensive tale — “follow your heart”, no matter which unlikely direction it takes — will probably appeal to the same audience that made Billy Elliot and Bend It like Beckham into major hits.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate PG
Running time 94mins

Review by Brian Pendreigh

Review: Hoodwinked

UK release: 29th September 2006

Little Red Riding Hood gets a low-grade Shrek makeover in this cheap-looking slice of computer-generated animation. Fitfully clever rather than funny, sluggish when it should be sassy, this uses a Rashomon approach to retell the classic tale from four perspectives.

Kung fu fighting Red (voiced by a strident Anne Hathaway) remains closest to the original characters, while extreme-sports enthusiast Granny (Glenn Close), undercover reporter Big Bad Wolf (Patrick Warburton) and down-on-his-luck Woodsman (James Belushi) wander off the page. A moustached frog named Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers) is the Poirot of the piece, trying to unravel the anachronistic puzzle.

Despite the occasional amusing line and non-stop references to other fairy tales, the sameness of each character’s version of events soon becomes tedious, while the bland songs, ranging between hard rock and show tunes, don’t help.

Radio Times rating:

**

UK cinema certificate U
Running time 81mins

Review by Alan Jones

Review: Echo Park LA

UK release: 29th September 2006

This touching rites-of-passage drama from co-directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (The Fluffer) has undoubted charm, despite the shortcomings in its storytelling. The Spanish title — Quinceañera — refers to the traditional Mexican celebrations held for teenage girls to mark their 15th birthday.

Magdalena (Emily Rios) is a young Mexican-American girl whose own festivities are thrown into turmoil when she reveals she is pregnant — without, she claims, having had sex. Banished by her ultra-religious father, Magdalena goes to live with her great-uncle Tomas, who is already playing host to her gay cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia).

The film shows how LA’s Echo Park neighbourhood has become increasingly gentrified, with the old ways of the Mexican community changing for the better — and for the worse. A heavy-handed gay subplot briefly skews the story’s direction, but when the closing credits roll all that really matters is the young cast’s passion and vivacity; shame we couldn’t see just a little more of it.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 90mins

Review by Damon Wise

Review: Click

UK release: 29th September 2006

Adam Sandler reteams with director Frank Coraci (The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer) in this high-concept comedy that’s undermined by a queasy sentimentality. Sandler plays a workaholic architect who acquires what he thinks will be the solution to all his problems — a universal remote control that allows him to literally fast-forward his way through things that peeve him. But he soon realises that skipping life’s little obstacles means he misses out on a lot more, too.

This is Sandler at his least likeable, and the starry supporting cast struggle to make much headway: David Hasselhoff has fun as his nasty boss but Christopher Walken is on wacky autopilot as a mysterious boffin, while Kate Beckinsale is wasted as Sandler’s long-suffering wife.

Radio Times rating:

**

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 107mins

Review by John Ferguson

Review: Children of Men

UK Release: 22nd September 2006

England, 2027: this green and pleasant land is now a dirty dystopia in which humanity has become infertile and its childless society is crumbling as refugees and terrorists fight the fascist powers that be. Submerged in this chaos is alcoholic former activist-turned-bureaucrat Theo Faron (Clive Owen), who watches from the sidelines until a surprise visit from an ex-lover (Julianne Moore) offers an unlikely glimmer of hope.

Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También) here delivers a truly startling take on PD James’s downbeat novel, reworking its apocalyptic theme through the cracked prism of the post-9/11 era. Owen is excellent and there’s a glorious turn from Michael Caine as an ageing, pot-smoking ex-political cartoonist.

But it’s Cuarón’s film: his hand-held camerawork aping news broadcasts as it records nerve-shredding action set pieces in tense, unbroken shots. True, the proceedings are occasionally marred by a surfeit of plot exposition, yet the stark triumph of Children of Men lies in how its visceral vérité style brings the realities of a War on Terror fought in distant lands crashing back onto British soil.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 109mins

Review by Jamie Russell

Review: Keane

UK Release: 22nd September 2006

Director Lodge H Kerrigan’s third feature purveys the sort of sparse, jittery, devastatingly powerful realism that characterises the work of the Dardennes brothers, a handful of British directors (Ken Loach, Paul Greengrass) and almost no-one in American cinema since the death of John Cassavetes.

Glass-eyed William Keane (Damian Lewis) may be deranged by anxiety about his missing child, simply deranged, or both at once. In between his manic prowls around New York City, he befriends single mother Lynn (Amy Ryan) and her little girl Kira (Abigail Breslin) who live in the same seedy welfare hotel as Keane.

The mood of angst is here enhanced by Kerrigan’s use of long takes, but it’s Lewis’s taut, entrancing performance — as good as Peter Greene’s portrait of a schizophrenic in Kerrigan’s Clean, Shaven (1993) — that makes this nearly unmissable. Be warned, though: this is grindingly grim viewing.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 94mins

Review by Leslie Felperin

Review: The Black Dahlia

UK Release: 15th September 2006

This adaptation of James Ellroy’s crime novel from Brian De Palma showcases all the director’s strengths, as well as some of his faults.

Loosely based on an actual unsolved murder case from the 1940s, this stylish movie sees tough-as-teak LA cops Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) investigating the grisly demise of would-be actress Elizabeth Short. The trail leads to socialite Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), a Short lookalike and member of one of the city’s wealthiest families. Meanwhile, Bleichert becomes involved with Blanchard’s glamorous wife (played by Scarlett Johansson).

The performances are uniformly strong, with Hartnett surprisingly good as the bewildered but basically decent gumshoe. Dante Ferretti’s sumptuous production design is atmospherically shot by veteran cinematographer Vilmos Z sigmond and De Palma delivers his trademark touches — complex camera shots, razor-sharp editing, labyrinthine plotting and deft nods to other film-makers.

De Palma’s enthusiasm doesn’t always extend to the humanity of his characters, but this is still a superior, deeply enjoyable piece of film-making from a director on top form.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 120mins

Review by Adam Smith

Review: The Queen

UK Release: 15th September 2006

New Labour modernism is pitted against old-fashioned Royal Family protocol in this poignantly amusing mix of fact and fiction set in the aftermath of Princess Diana’s fatal car crash in 1997. How newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) finally convinced the Crown (in the shape of Helen Mirren’s Queen Elizabeth II) to acknowledge the British public’s overwhelming collective grief and avoid a constitutional crisis makes for a fascinating and affecting memoir that’s superbly scripted by Peter Morgan.

Destined to become the apocryphal truth — despite mainly being pure fabrication — the movie benefits from director Stephen Frears’s clever manipulation of iconic newsreel footage and flawless re-creation, with powerful and surprisingly moving results.

The acting is exemplary, with Sheen’s Blair spot on, Sylvia Syms a joy as the Queen Mother and James Cromwell hilariously pompous as Prince Philip. But it’s Mirren’s faultless, lookalike Queen Elizabeth facing the demands of a changing monarchy that resonates most with pure regal brilliance.

Radio Times rating:

*****

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 102mins

Review by Alan Jones

Welcome to the Pocket Films blog

If you’ve found this before the start of October 2006, it’s not quite ready yet. Come back for our launch in a week or so…