DVD OF THE WEEK

LOOKING FOR ERIC ****
Dir: Ken Loach
Starring: Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, Stephanie Bishop

Ken Loach, social realist and political polemicist, is not a director from whom one would expect a warm-hearted comedy, but that's exactly what you get in Looking for Eric, and – despite what sounds like a gimmicky set-up – it's a little gem of a film.
Eric is a Manchester postman in the early nineties and his mates are concerned about him. He is permanently depressed, living with the ghastly teenage sons of a wife who has left him and pining for his true love, his first wife, whom he abandoned years earlier. His hero is mercurial Manchester United captain, Frenchman Eric Cantona, and he often asks advice of the Cantona poster on his wall. Then one day the poster becomes real and Cantona appears to help sort out his life.
I realise this sounds odd, and has probably already put off anyone who cares nothing about soccer or Manchester United. Don't worry – it doesn't matter. This isn't a sports flick. As the film follows Eric's slow progress in sorting out his wayward step-family and recourting his old love, the blend of reality and what I guess counts as working class magic realism works beautifully.
The obvious comparison would be Woody Allen's Play It Again Sam but this film is far less broad. The humour comes from genuine honestly-drawn characters (Eric's postmen mates are a balst and completely believable) and the finale is perfectly handled while making you want to stand up and cheer. Oh, and Cantona, in a laid-back French way, is actually very funny.

The Education of Charlie Banks (***) is the first film directed by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Fred Durst, and he makes a good job of it. We're in American indie territory, Sundance material, but the various strands of this low-key university-set drama are well-handled. Teenage Jesse Eisenberg's goofy everyman has a run-in with the neighbourhood bully and turns him in to the cops. Years later the bully turns up, a friend of Eisenberg's university roommate. Will revenge be taken or will university life mellow the violence-prone but charismatic hoon? Perhaps some characters could have been given more space but this is, overall, solid stuff.

Assembly (*****) is a much-praised Chinese film set largely during the late 1940s civil war. A captain's much-reduced battalion is tasked with fighting off an enemy attack in virtually a suicide mission. With 46 others he bravely holds a mountainside, waiting for the 'Assembly” bugle call to sound the retreat. This is based on a true story and the call never came. We then follows his attempts to have his men recognised after – as the only survivor – finding they have been listed as missing in action or deserters. The intense battle scenes are reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan and offer an interesting perspective as seen through the eyes of a very different army than regularly on screen. A must-see for war film buffs.

Strange and original are the obvious words to describe Franklyn (***). It has four main characters, three in modern day England and one (Ryan Phillippe) an assassin in a futuristic dystopia ruled by oppressive religions. This is one of those outing where to reveal too much will ruin things, but praise is due for impressive design and general imagination and for the fact that the various strands do all come together satisfactorily. Prior to that you'll be wracking your brain trying to work out the resolution, which is half the fun. Oh, and the gorgeous Eva Green is in it, which is recommendation enough as far as I'm concerned.

Touted as a razor sharp teen satire (it comes from Juno writer Diablo Cody), high school comedy-horror outing Jennifer's Body (**) is something of an anticlimax, being neither as smart nor – overall – as interesting as it would like. Cheerleader Megan Fox becomes a zombie courtesy of a satanic rock band and proceeds to munches her way through a bunch of jocks. It never really catches light but do watch out for the end-credits which are a lot of fun.