GAINSBOURG (****)

Dir: Joann Sfar. Starring: Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta

Serge Gainsbourg made little impact outside France, though most will probably have heard his most well-known song ‘Je T'Aime… Moi Non Plus'.
If that name rings no bells, let me mention that it is a charming organ instrumental with sexy French words and orgasmic female noises. It was banned widely.
In France, however, he was – for over 30 years – a living legend, bigger than Dylan and Mick Jagger combined and a man who regularly scandalised the country. He was a strangely ugly singer/songwriter of Corsican descent whose very public girlfriends included Brigitte Bardot, Julie Greco and Jane Birkin. And this film is equally wonderful and contradictory, part fantasy, part biography.
Director Sfar is also an artist and uses his graphics to portray Gainsbourg's insecurities and fears with giant puppets. The film dwells on both his upbringing, Jewish, in Nazi-occupied Paris, and his ‘50s and ‘60s success as a songwriter and celebrity. It is lively, imaginative, and recreates its eras with verve. The cast are solidly brilliant from Almosnino's uncanny Gainsbourg to perfect takes on Bardot and Birkin.
I realise this is a hard sell for those coming new to Serge but I'd urge you to take a leap and watch Gainsbourg. It is a fascinating and fascinatingly-made film.

There was a lot of hype surrounding Sanctum (**), what with its 3D caving and the big producer's credit for James Cameron. It's hard to work out why. A group of cave divers get trapped in a cave after bad weather. They have to find a way out. The cast are a motley bunch of clichés – irresponsible millionaire, novice girlfriend, expert caver, his son (they don't get on), loyal sidekick – and the plot ticks along without surprises. One particularly unpleasant drowning shows the level of tension the film aspires to but it's hard to care about these characters. Where are the flesh-eating monsters from The Descent when you need them?
Nicolas Cage models his latest unlikely wig in Season of the Witch (***) and trudges through medieval Europe. He and Ron Pearlman have deserted from the crusades for noble reasons and are charged with escorting a probable witch to an improbable castle in order to end the plague and save the world, etc. There was a lot of that going on at the time if recent films are to be believed. This was apparently sanitised in order to get a lower censor rating in the US, but still remains fairly grimy. It's sort of predictably okay if this is the bag you're into.
Perhaps it's because I never dug him in the first place, perhaps it's because the film appears aimed firmly at 8-year-olds, but I really struggled to find anything to like about Yogi Bear (**). Actually, I did like a couple of things: Dan Ackroyd and Justin Timberlake make a great job of their respective character voices. The animation of Yogi and Boo Boo – 3D computer graphics – are well integrated with the live action cast. And that's about it. The fatuously unoriginal plot sees the evil mayor deciding to sell Jellystone Park. The bears and the ranger (and a cute young reporter) try to stop him. Yawn.
And if you missed any or all of the recent TV ‘re-imagining' of Sherlock Holmes in modern garb then the good news is that Sherlock (****) is now out on DVD. The scripts, from the pen of Steven Moffat – the man behind the Dr Who revival – are fast and smart. The remarkably named Benedict Cumberbatch and Bilbo Baggins himself, Martin Freeman, make a fine pairing as Holmes and Watson respectively, while the subtext questioning Holmes' possibly unhealthy attraction to crime adds depth. The third story here ends with a cliffhanger but, fear not, more Sherlock is promised next year.