STACK #140 Jun 2016

DVD & BD REVIEWS

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Portrait of a lady. THE DANISH GIRL

When they tried to silence him, he made the world listen. TRUMBO

Release Date: 09/06/16

Release Date: 16/06/16

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Coming so soon after his Oscar-winning turn as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything , the odds were always against Eddie Redmayne repeating the feat for playing another tortured real-life character. But as good as he is as Einar Wegener/Lilly Elbe, who in 1930 became one of the first recipients of gender reassignment surgery, it's only right that it was Alicia Vikander who took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The Swedish star gives a beautifully nuanced performance as his wife Gerda,

There’s no need to look under the bed, for the reds are right there onscreen! When the first tendrils of the Cold War started spreading unbridled paranoia post-WWII, Americans who had seen sense in Communist thinking and had joined the party previously became outcasts. Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was one such person, and soon found himself jailed and blacklisted along with several peers. To fulfil his need to continue writing (and to help combat a now yawning chasm in quality Hollywood flicks), he started farming scripts out pseudonymously

whose paintings of him as 'Lilly' set him on the path towards discovering his true sexual identity, and who then has to helplessly watch the man she loves gradually transform into a different person. A touching and unconventional love story. JF

– even nabbing an Oscar or two just to add to the ridiculousness of the situation. That sums it up – it was a ridiculous situation, given life here through a sublimely droll performance from that Breaking Bad bloke, who's supported by the likes of Helen Mirren, Louis CK and John Goodman. AF

LADY IN THE VAN

CAROL

brooklyn

SON OF SAUL

DVD&BD

Release Date: 09/06/16 Format:

Release Date: 02/06/16 Format:

Release Date: 16/06/16 Format:

Release Date: 09/06/16 Format:

She may be a long way from the grandeur of Downton Abbey , but Maggie Smith is still at her imperious best as the homeless bag lady of the title, reprising the role she first played on stage in Alan Bennett’s play of the same name. Loosely based on a true story, the film charts the unlikely relationship that develops between Bennett (an uncanny impersonation from Alex Jenning) and Mary (Smith), who lives in a beat up old van and ends up ‘temporarily’ parked on his driveway for 15 years. A witty, whimsical and ultimately poignant exploration of loneliness, middle-class guilt and the creative process. JF

Cate Blanchett is exquisite in the title role of this flawless

There’s sweetness and a joyful wonder at the heart of this nevertheless utterly believable coming-of-age drama set mainly in New York in the 1950s. Saoirse Ronan superbly captures the vulnerability, innocence and quiet determination of the young heroine Ellis Lacey, who moves from her sleepy Irish village to the bright lights of Brooklyn, eventually finding an adoring Italian boyfriend (Emory Cohen). However, an unexpected family tragedy forces her to reassess where she truly belongs. Directed with subtlety and dry wit by John Crowley, Brooklyn i s an understated delight from start to finish – to be sure. JF

Winner of this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Film, this Hungarian Holocaust drama is the closest you'll get – and ever want to get – to the horrors inside the Nazi death factory. It's also the closest thing to a found-footage Holocaust film, with the camera following protagonist Saul (Géza Röhrig) throughout, as he attempts to find a rabbi who can conduct a proper burial for a young boy. With a soundscape to match the tight visuals, it's a sensory experience, an intimate, over-the-shoulder descent into hell. However, Saul's resolve in his mission and the risks involved bring a humane perspective to an inhumane world. Highly recommended. SH

adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel, while Rooney Mara is equally superb as the object of her desire, young New York shop assistant Therese. The two meet when elegant and affluent Carol buys a Christmas present for her daughter from Therese and there is a subtle but electrifying connection between the pair. But it’s the 1950s and society wife Carol has everything to lose, including her child, if the women’s relationship is discovered. Director Todd Haynes ( Far From Heaven ) evokes the era with ravishing period detail and captures the tantalising thrill – and piercing pain – of falling in love. JE

JUNE 2016

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