DVD OF THE WEEK

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE ****
Dir: Spike Jonze
Starring: Max Records, Katherine Keener, James Gandolfini

Since we find ourselves in the middle of the school holidays it seemed a good time to check out some 'kids movies”. And I'm glad I did. These two films – so totally different in tone and style – are among the best things I've seen in recent months.
The book of Where The Wild Things Are isn't a cherished childhood memory for me so, unlike every other review I've seen, I can't make comparisons. But I did like the film very much. In case anyone – like me – has no frame of reference I'll run you through the (brief) plot: Max is a small boy with anger problems, living with his mother and sister. He feels neglected and lonely though nothing seems particularly wrong with his life. One night he travels – in his imagination, presumably – to a wild island populated by destructive childlike monsters where he becomes the King and then has to try to take responsibility for these strange irrational creatures.
And it's all rather wonderful. While many backgrounds are CGI, the 'Wild Things” themselves are people in big monster suits and the resultant physicality gives a real sense of danger for Max – we genuinely worry that these creatures might, if only accidentally, hurt him. And although they are clearly aspects of Max's own troubled personality the underlying parallels are lightly handled and the sense of the pure exuberant pleasure of childhood play is palpable.

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS ****
Dir: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Voices: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan

In the fresh and very funny Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs the animation is as 'super-perky” as aspiring weathergirl Sam Sparks. Failed inventor Flint Lockwood, living in a town where the only food is sardines (yes, there is a reason for it), meets her when his latest creation unexpectedly works and transforms rain into food.
Complications come in the form of the greedy mayor bent on exploiting the tourism advantages of food falling from the sky and eventually the situation deteriorates until the whole world is threatened by giant mutant food. This is wildly imaginative stuff and that, along with a varied level of visual and verbal jokes, should allow the film to appeal to grown ups and kids alike.

An Education (***) is a fairly low-key English drama set in the very early sixties (the boring bit) in which a talented but naïve schoolgirl and her straight-laced parents find themselves taken in by a charming conman. Despite his clearly dodgy behaviour they willingly acquiesce when he whisks her off to Paris for a dirty weekend and introduces her to the glamorous world of jazz clubs and fashion. Cary Mulligan (Oscar nominated) is sensational and the period detail is spot on. A cautionary tale, told in refreshingly unjudgemental style, which is smart and satisfying to watch.

With The Invention of Lying (***) we at last have a Ricky Gervais film, as opposed to his previous Ghost Town, an all-American vehicle which he simply starred in. Set in a world where no one has ever told a lie, Ricky becomes the first man to discover duplicity and finds himself receiving much unwanted attention after subsequently 'inventing” god. And, while not being the best film in the world, there is much to enjoy, from the impressive array of comedians on display to Gervais' ever-watchable put-upon everyman.

'Are you serious?” one character asks early in [REC]2 (**), and it's a thought that reoccurs while watching this sequel to a perfectly decent little Spanish zombie-variant, wherein a bite-spread virus turned the occupants of an apartment building into flesh-eating crazies. Starting only seconds later, [REC]2 follows police entering the building and the revelation prompting the opening question is that this is all a Vatican exorcist's experiment gone horribly wrong, meaning the blood-hungry killers are not just crazies but in fact demons! It all gets rather silly from then on but is certainly not without scares and manic 28 Weeks Later-style action.