STACK NZ Nov #57

DVD&BD

REVIEWS

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The sins of the father CALVARY

West of Memphis. DEVIL’S KNOT

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Release Date: 05/11/14

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Release Date: 19/11/14

DRAMA

Following their successful collaboration on the 2011 comedy The Guard , Brendan Gleeson and director John Michael McDonagh reunite for this downbeat drama about a Catholic priest who receives a death threat from the confessional. Father James (Gleeson) becomes the target of a vengeful victim of childhood abuse at the hands of the clergy; an innocent substitute for the offending priest, who has since passed away. Given a week to prepare himself, James endures a Catholic backlash from

Director Atom Egoyan ( The Sweet Hereafter ) isn’t afraid of complex or sensitive material – his films frequently deal with sociopolitical intrigue and murder, with cleverly emotive character deconstructions within. Devil’s Knot is based on the case of three teenaged boys who were jailed in the mid- ’90s for killing three young boys in the American South, after a moral panic concerning Satanists emerged. Egoyan has sifted through the dense source material (the trial, conviction and subsequent release of the boys were covered heavily by documentary makers) for this dramatic reimagining, which

the locals (an ensemble that includes Chris O’Dowd, Dylan Moran and M. Emmet Walsh), any of whom could be his prospective killer. Calvary is bleak and brilliant, peppered with some disarming humour and anchored by an outstanding performance by Gleeson.

allows him to flesh out figures within the case who weren’t necessarily central to its mechanics – such as Pamela Hobbs (played with astounding candour by Reese Witherspoon), the mother of one of the victims. A beautifully-shot, intriguing look at grief, forgiveness and their murky overlap.

Proud scum STARRED UP

Is a picture worth a thousand words? WORDS & PICTURES

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Release Date: 27/11/14

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Release Date: 19/11/14

A young Ray Winstone made his name with his chilling portrait of a vicious young offender in the seminal 1977 British prison flick Scum . This harrowing drama may well end up doing something similar for Jack O’Connell ( Skins ), who is mesmerising as a violent borstal boy ‘starred up’ to adult prison for his out-of-control behaviour. As well as having to cope with a bigger and nastier breed of prisoner, his transfer to the high security prison also reunites him with his estranged father (Ben Mendelsohn, equally brilliant), a long-term

Dead Poet’s Society gets a rom-com-ish makeover in this slight but engaging comedy/drama set a minor American private school. Clive Owen plays a once promising poet who now coasts through life (more often than not in an alcoholic blur) as a maverick literature teacher, who is nevertheless loved by his students. However, his creative juices are reawakened by new art teacher Juliette Binoche – an acclaimed painter suffering from rheumatoid arthritis – who is determined to prove to him and his students that the visual image is more

convict and the right-hand man of the deceptively mild-mannered prison kingpin Peter Ferdinando. Prison dramas – British or otherwise – don’t come much better than this, with director David Mackenzie shining an unflinching light on the brutality of the modern prison system.

powerful than the written word. But will Owen’s self-destructive lifestyle derail both the school project and their own tentative relationship? Owen and Binoche spark off each nicely as the feuding teachers, effortlessly rising above the occasionally hackneyed dialogue and plot devices.

NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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