DVD Marathon

We have just had a long weekend to celebrate the Queen’s official birthday – thanks ma’am. However, due to a combination of factors (crap weather, a hideous cold and the fact that Him Outdoors was working all weekend) we didn’t go away or do anything special.

Instead I lay on the sofa doing my needlepoint tapestry (I know – I also baked banana bread, and lemon and poppy seed muffins – how domestic am I?) watching films on DVD. You know the ones that you always sort of wanted to see but never quite got round to because other things came up? Yep, I watched a handful of those.

Water – the plight of widows in India was not a happy one in 1938. Mohandas Ghandi is beginning to battle for women’s rights, but for now when they are widowed they join a poor ashram on the banks of the Ganges. The leader of this ashram pimps out the widows to make ends meet. Chuyia is not yet in her teens when she is deposited here on the death of her husband.

Beautifully shot and almost Shakespearean in breadth, this is a film of fantastic characterisation. It’s not full of big bangs, but it proves that still waters do indeed run deep. It was Oscar nominated for best foreign language film in 2007 – it didn’t win but is a very worthy nominee.

The New World – with Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer and David Thewlis, this should have been great. It won accolades when it was part of the film festival and was nominated for an Oscar for best achievement in cinematography. It looks good, and that’s about it.

It is less about the establishment of a colony while interacting with the indigenous population and more about Farrell frolicking in the meadows with his Pocahontas to a weird ambient soundtrack and intense whispered voice-overs. It drags on remorselessly and if you’ve ever been to one of those raves where everyone is tripping out in the chill-out field and you haven’t taken the requisite drugs and don’t quite understand the fixation with the trees and the twinkly lights, you’ll understand the feeling.

Black Snake Moan – this is the sort of the film that Tarantino would love to have made. Craig Brewer did and, against all expectations, it’s very good. There’s plenty of sex and nudity but it never feels gratuitous and certainly not titivating. Despite the marketing suggesting this will be soft porn, it is a fresh twist on the classic redemption tale.

Christina Ricci gives an excellent performance as the trailer park trash with Stockholm syndrome for her bizarre captor, Samuel L Jackson, a man with a guitar and demons of his own. As soon as I get a minute I’m heading out to buy the soundtrack of gutsy blues music.

Cinderella Man – Americans (and Ron Howard) do the ‘little guy makes good and comes back to fight for the people’ films very well, even if this one does star an Australian in the lead role. Russell Crowe (in his Beautiful Mind rather than Gladiator style) plays the real-life boxer James Braddock who came back to boxing when he was on public relief and everyone thought he was down-and-out, because it was the only way he could feed his family. He proves he has the potential to be an acting heavyweight with this role, and the scene where he goes literally cap in hand to his former promoters to ask for money is a heroic piece of acting.

The whole package of 1930s depression with the rage and energy of the Madison Square Garden’s crowd is authentically executed. I was even convinced by the boxing scenes (which are usually woefully unrealistic), Paul Giamatti is excellent (he won the Critics’ Choice Award for best supporting actor), and Renee Zellwegger manages to keep her cute chipmunk factor turned down low.

It’s All Gone Pete Tong – strangely appealing, this tale of a high-profile dj (Frankie Wilde played by Paul Kaye) who loses his hearing is the surprise of the bunch. Great island scenery and throbbing beats remind me of teenage summer holidays. It’s all a bit footballer’s wives; sex and drugs and dripping with cash and no class until the tragedy kicks in.

Although Wilde is a complete tosser, Kaye makes you feel sympathy for the man who loses the sense that lets him do his job. As he learns a form of humility and the ability to feel the music rather than hear it, the mockumentary becomes curiously uplifting. I like the splicing with interviews of other djs about the legend’s mysterious disappearance, and I like house music. It made me happy, with a big yellow smiley face.