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Isle of Dogs (DVD Review)

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Starring: Bryan Cranston, Ed Norton, Liev Schreiber, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Kotu Rankin, Scarlett Johansson
Directed by: Wes Anderson
BBFC Certificate: PG
Running time: 102 mins
UK Release Date: Out Now

Our Score

Wes Anderson can be an infuriating director sometimes – far too arch and quirky for the sake of it. However here, in this stop motion tale, he decides to use his imagination but reign in the gaucheness. The result is a film that radiates warmth, charm and a gentle humour, without trying too hard.

It’s an intriguing set up. In a corporate, greedy Japan of the future, the country has decided to get rid of its garbage on a tiny island. There too they put their dogs, after they discover the mutts all have dog flu and snout disease. The poor mutts scrape out a miserable existence, feeding on scraps and trying to stay alive.

However, the adopted son of the emperor finds his own pooch has been shipped onto the island, and so flies out to try and find Spots. He crash lands and befriends a gang of dogs, including stray Cranston, Norton, Murray, Goldblum and Johansson, who all join in a doggie version of Saving Private Ryan.

And what an adventure they have. There are all sorts of visual gags as the gang make their way across the polluted, ruined island which was inhabited by humans before a tsunami emptied it. My own favourite moment was the old golf course and country club, which now has “no members”. The attention to detail is fantastic, the dog shelter is made of recycled sake bottles, and the boy’s plane is a knackered piece of wonder.

There is clearly a message here about recycling and cleaning up our fragile planet, as well as the love of humans for dogs – say the title of the film quickly and you’ll see what I mean – but it’s never heavy handed.

Half of the fun is trying to place the voices to the actors, and Cranston is particularly good as the stray who has never felt the love of a human, or even the joy of a doggie snack.

Overall verdict: If you don’t go out and get a dog immediately after watching this joy you’re not, well, human. Wes Anderson has produced a gem. It’s one of his best films ever. Or the best, even?

Reviewer: Mike Martin

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The Bridge 4 (DVD Review)

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Starring: Sofia Helin, Thure Lindhardt
Certificate: 15
Running time: 480 minutes
Release date: July 2nd 2018
Language: Danish/Swedish (English subtitles)
DVD/Blu-Ray also available with Seasons 1-3 as box set

Our Score

Arguably the biggest shift in TV drama over the last years has been the rise of the Scandi noir. We Brits always love a murder mystery, but then The Killing came along it changed the TV landscape. We fell in love with the Scandi gloom, the atmosphere, the excellent acting and brilliant script. After The Killing came a flood of dramas, including Wallander, The Legacy, an Anglo-French version of The Bridge called The Tunnel, and of course, The Bridge. [Read more…]

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (DVD Review)

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Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges
Directed By: Martin McDonagh
Running Time: 110 mins
BBFC Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: Out Now

Our Score

For many Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri seemed to be the smart bet to win the Best Picture Oscar. While The Shape Of Water had made the early running, Three Billboards gained momentum through the Award season and seemed like it might cruise to a victory. In the end it didn’t get the big gong, although it did win for the exceptionally strong performance of Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. Many were also surprised it lost for writer/director Martin McDonagh’s screenplay, although it is a couple of issues with that screenplay that may be the reason it didn’t win the biggest award.

McDormand plays the hard-bitten Mildred, a woman filled with anger at the local police’s inability to catch whoever was responsible for the rape and murder of her daughter. To try and force the authorities into action she hires three billboards on a rural road, putting up massive posters asking why there have been no arrests and specifically calling out police chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson). [Read more…]

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The Post (Blu-ray Review)

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Starring: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Running Time: 111 mins
BBFC Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: May 21st 2018

Our Score

He may be in his 70s but Steven Spielberg shows no signs of slowing down. He managed to slot in The Post while simultaneously making Ready Player One, something most directors half his age wouldn’t even contemplate let alone succeed at.

The Post is a bit of an old school flick, set in the 1970s and telling the story of the Pentagon Papers, a leaked set of documents that revealed that while in public the military and government was still positive about the war in Vietnam, privately many felt that it was unwinnable and that official finding bore this out. The authorities from President Richard Nixon downwards unsurprisingly did’t want this made public, while the press felt it was imperative to publish it. [Read more…]

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The Florida Project (DVD Review)

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Starring: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Rivera, Valeria Cotto
Directed By: Sean Baker
Running Time: 107 mins
BBFC Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: March 12th 2018 (UK)

Our Score

Director Sean Baker had a significant success with Tangerine, which followed two transgender sex workers as one of them looks for the man who broke her heart. With The Florida Project he stays with people living a precarious existence, this time in the shadow of Disney World in Orlando.

The movie is largely set at a budget hotel managed by Bobby (Willem Dafoe), where six-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) lives with her young mother Halley (Bria Vinaite). It’s an insecure, day-to-day existence where there’s no security and where they must move out for a while once a month, as they’re not permitted to officially become residents. [Read more…]

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Loving Vincent (DVD Review)

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Starring: Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn, Chris O’Dowd, Saoirse Ronan, Helen McRory
Directed By: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
Running Time: 94 mins
BBFC Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: February 12th 2018 (UK)

Our Score

Irrespective of anything else, Loving Vincent is an impressive achievement. It’s the world’s first animated movie that’s ‘fully painted’. In practice that means that the entire thing was filmed with actors and the using that footage it was later animated by a team of over 100 artists using oil paintings for both the characters and the background – and all done in the style of Vincent Van Gogh.

The film is set a year after Van Gogh’s death. Vincent’s friend from Arles, Postman Joseph Roulin (Chris O’Dowd), forces his slacker son, Armand (Douglas Booth), to hand deliver the artist’s final letter to his brother, Theo. After Armand discovers Theo is also dead, he travels on to the place where Vincent spent his final days, Auvers-sur-Oise, to see whether he should give the letter to the man who was supposed to be looking after him at the time, Dr. Gachet (Jerome Flynn). [Read more…]

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