Latest releases reviewed
Directed by Jafar Panahi. Starring Sima Mobarak Shahi, Safar Samandar PG cert
Naturalistic comedy following a group of female Iranian football fans as they seek to gain entry to the stadium where their country's team is playing a crucial World Cup qualifier. Depspite a light, optimistic tone, the film still manages to deliver worrying information about sexual politics in the Islamic Republic.
Directed by Olivier Marchal. Starring Gérard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil, Valeria Golino, André Dussollier 16 cert
Depardieu (ruthless) and Auteuil (flawed but decent) trade shrugs as two rival cops seeking to solve a series of robberies. The picture fails to add anything characteristically French to its stew of American influences. But it remains an efficient, stylish thriller with a satisfactory stock of surprising twists.
Directed by Rian Johnson. Starring Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Richard Roundtree 15A cert
Johnson's debut feature brings the tone and subject matter of the noir thriller to a California high school. Brick could have been appallingly arch. But the writer-director's fine eye for location shooting and his ear for twisty dialogue help deliver compulsive entertainment. Deleted scenes on the excellent two-disc edition solve a few more mysteries.
Directed by Debbie Isitt. Starring Martin Freeman, Olivia Colman, Robert Webb, Jessica Stevenson 15A cert
Enjoyable improvised English comedy following the efforts of three couples to win a competition seeking the most bizarre wedding. The cream of British TV comedy delivers a consistently high standard of jokes, even if they fail to come up with a plot. A decent DVD offers fans of this Christopher Guest-style entertainment more than an hour of extra action.
Directed by John Fawcett. Starring Maria Bello, Sean Bean 16 cert
Bello goes a bit bananas when her daughter vanishes while strolling near her father's haunted house in Wales. Ancient spirits and possessed sheep are implicated. Fawcett, director of the fine Canadian shocker Ginger Snaps, evocatively summons up memories of admired British horror classics, but the story is far too muddled and unstructured. Useless DVD extras to boot.
Directed by Simon West. Starring Camilla Belle, Brian Geraghty 15 cert
Uninspired remake of the middling 1979 shocker in which a babysitter discovered that those menacing calls were coming from inside the house. It's about as much fun as being pestered by telemarketers for 90 minutes. Anybody with time enough to listen to the DVD commentary by the screenwriter should probably think about getting out more.
