January DVD Previews
Little Miss Sunshine was of the hits of last year's Sundance Film Festival
| 11 Jan 2007
Thank You For Smoking
Dir. Jason Reitman
"If you argue well enough, you're never wrong" is the internal logic that powers this inky black comedy. Set around a spokesperson for the tobacco industry but focusing on spin and personal morality in the workplace. Thank You For Smoking could be about any major commodity. This frees up the film, enabling it to take many hilarious potshots at both sides of the smoking debate and allowing the slightly feelgood ending to seem fair.
Release Date: 8 Jan
Little Miss Sunshine
Dir. Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
One of the hits of last year's Sundance Film Festival, this crowd-pleasing roadtrip comedy should provide one of the most enjoyable January rentals. It takes the fairly standard premise of a dysfunctional family going on a trans-American journey, and injects a good dose of warmth and humanity into a selection a characters who could quite easily come across as unlikeable or just plain odd. Special mention should go to Greg Kinnear, whose subtle and engaging performance underpins the movie, allowing Steve Carrell as the
suicidal Proust scholar and Alan Arkin as the heroin-addicted granddad to provide the bellylaughs.
Release Date: 22 Jan
A Scanner Darkly
Dir. Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater's second animated feature is an adaptation from a Philip K Dick novel. Set in a drug soaked, surveillance police state in the near future, an undercover agent played by Keanu Reeves tries to investigate a group of users. This is a complicated, visually arresting film that is destined to be a cult favourite. Linklater uses the same animation technique (rotoscoping) as his earlier film, Waking Life, but this time to better effect. It lends itself well to depicting the drug addled lives of the addicts (played by Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jnr and Woody Harrelson) and their paranoid lives. This is probably the most faithful adaptation of any of P.K Dick's novels.
Release Date: 22 Jan
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
Co-directed by Turner Prize-winning artist Douglas Gordon and French artist Philippe Parreno this piece of modern art will divide viewers into two teams. Winners and losers. Like it, or just don't get it. Be you a fan of football or not the way these artists have constructed this feature will draw you in and take you on a 90 minute journey of highs and lows with one of the greatest players of all time. A stunning soundtrack by the mighty Mogwai makes this piece all the more engaging.
Release Date: 29 Jan
Also available at Alphabet Video in January:
8 Jan - Black Dahlia, Echo Park LA
15 Jan - Art School Confidential, Talladega Nights, Lady In The Water
22 Jan - Russian Dolls: Pot Luck 2, Dirty Sanchez The Movie, Brothers Of The Head, EROS, Alpha Male, Keane, 20 Centimetres, Allegro, Shanghai Dreams, Fighting Elegy, Tokyo Drifter
29 Jan - Ghost Of Mae Nak, Look Both Ways, Antibodies, Ozu Vol. 4, World Trade Centre, Click
Dir. Jason Reitman
"If you argue well enough, you're never wrong" is the internal logic that powers this inky black comedy. Set around a spokesperson for the tobacco industry but focusing on spin and personal morality in the workplace. Thank You For Smoking could be about any major commodity. This frees up the film, enabling it to take many hilarious potshots at both sides of the smoking debate and allowing the slightly feelgood ending to seem fair.
Release Date: 8 Jan
Little Miss Sunshine
Dir. Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
One of the hits of last year's Sundance Film Festival, this crowd-pleasing roadtrip comedy should provide one of the most enjoyable January rentals. It takes the fairly standard premise of a dysfunctional family going on a trans-American journey, and injects a good dose of warmth and humanity into a selection a characters who could quite easily come across as unlikeable or just plain odd. Special mention should go to Greg Kinnear, whose subtle and engaging performance underpins the movie, allowing Steve Carrell as the
suicidal Proust scholar and Alan Arkin as the heroin-addicted granddad to provide the bellylaughs.
Release Date: 22 Jan
A Scanner Darkly
Dir. Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater's second animated feature is an adaptation from a Philip K Dick novel. Set in a drug soaked, surveillance police state in the near future, an undercover agent played by Keanu Reeves tries to investigate a group of users. This is a complicated, visually arresting film that is destined to be a cult favourite. Linklater uses the same animation technique (rotoscoping) as his earlier film, Waking Life, but this time to better effect. It lends itself well to depicting the drug addled lives of the addicts (played by Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jnr and Woody Harrelson) and their paranoid lives. This is probably the most faithful adaptation of any of P.K Dick's novels.
Release Date: 22 Jan
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
Co-directed by Turner Prize-winning artist Douglas Gordon and French artist Philippe Parreno this piece of modern art will divide viewers into two teams. Winners and losers. Like it, or just don't get it. Be you a fan of football or not the way these artists have constructed this feature will draw you in and take you on a 90 minute journey of highs and lows with one of the greatest players of all time. A stunning soundtrack by the mighty Mogwai makes this piece all the more engaging.
Release Date: 29 Jan
Also available at Alphabet Video in January:
8 Jan - Black Dahlia, Echo Park LA
15 Jan - Art School Confidential, Talladega Nights, Lady In The Water
22 Jan - Russian Dolls: Pot Luck 2, Dirty Sanchez The Movie, Brothers Of The Head, EROS, Alpha Male, Keane, 20 Centimetres, Allegro, Shanghai Dreams, Fighting Elegy, Tokyo Drifter
29 Jan - Ghost Of Mae Nak, Look Both Ways, Antibodies, Ozu Vol. 4, World Trade Centre, Click