DVD OF THE WEEK

THE RED RIDING TRILOGY *****
Dir: Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, Anand Tucker. Starring: Andrew Garfield, Paddy Considine, David Morrissey

This is a bit of an epic, and brilliant it is too. English author David Peace's quartet of northern noir novels have been made into a series of three films by UK television, each directed by a prominent filmmaker, and starring a cast of top British talent. The result is an outstanding achievement, three remarkable films that paint a bleak and chilling portrait of corruption and violence in the Yorkshire police.
The films are set at the time when the Yorkshire Ripper was murdering and terrorising women. 1980 has the greatest direct connection, following detective paddy Considine who has been brought it to review the case. The deeper he digs, the murkier things become, as he uncovers a copycat cover-up.
Meanwhile 1974 pits young journalist Andrew Garfield against shady local businessman Sean Bean with Rebecca Hall caught in the middle as a solo mother whose daughter is missing, and 1983 digs more deeply into the character of a detective played by David Morrissey – a side character in the first two films – whose conscience starts to trouble him. It also has a great turn from Peter Mullan as a dodgy reverend.
It's all too big and complex to précis here but is riveting viewing. The Guardian described it as 'The evil twin to Life on Mars” and it's an fair call. That series saw the lighter side of UK policing in the seventies and eighties, where a bit of roughness and a bashing here and there were just fine. The Red Riding Trilogy looks at the dark underbelly of that same world, a world ruled by lies and deception, cover-ups and corruption.
It is dark sobering viewing and all the more impressive for its unflinching focus on the evil that lurks in the hearts of men. Essential stuff.

Times have changed and films that explore the complexities of the US/Iraq war now seem a relic of the past. Shame, because Nick Broomfield's Battle For Haditha (****) is possibly the most powerful yet even-handed film to be made yet about the conflict. It examines the (true) incident in Haditha (19 November 2005) when a bomb attack killing a Marine officer led to violent house-searches and the death of 24 Iraqis, many women and children. Broomfield is more known for his documentaries (Aileen Wournos: The Selling of a Serial Killer) and uses real people and often the real locations, giving about as accurate and blood-chilling account as we are likely to see.

Soul Power (***) is an accompanying documentary to We Were Kings, the enthralling account of the Ali/Foreman 'Rumble in the Jungle”. That event also included a huge music festival combining the likes of James Brown and BB King with African artists. It's pretty cool stuff and wonderful that the archival footage has been saved and is in such good quality.

An aspiring filmmaker with relationship problems decides to make a documentary about himself and the result is A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (***). The nice thing is that the guy is basically a self-involved tosser so, as he trawls back to meet old girlfriends who have dumped him to find out why, there is both great amusement and great pleasure to be had from seeing them happily tell him how useless he was. Things drift in the second half but there are still laughs to be had.

The Entrance (**) is another no-budget horror with an intriguing premise, as a drug dealer in police custody lays out a story of being kidnapped and forced to play lethal 'games”. It also has demons and descends into a relatively incomprehensible mess, but is an object lesson in effective direction and acting, and - curiously enough - features no blood whatsoever, despite the eventual bodycount.