This week's DVD releases reviewed
Directed by Mark Herman. Starring David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, Rupert Friend, David Heyman, Sheila Hancock 12 cert
Set during the second World War, Herman’s film charts the friendship formed between two young boys on opposite sides of a Nazi concentration camp fence. Nothing is overplayed in this unsentimental yet moving and deeply involving film, which features an ideally chosen cast and remains admirably true to the numbing, devastating conclusion of John Boyne’s novella.
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR ***
The cinema spin-off from the hit TV show is set as the teen sweethearts (Efron and Hudgens) face separation when college looms. The grand finale, which lasts half an hour, is the full-on staging of their school’s end-of- year concert and the cast exults in the joy of performance with infectious enthusiasm.
THE WACKNESS ***
Directed by Jonathan Levine. Starring Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby, Famke Janssen, Mary-Kate Olsen 18 cert
Amusingly wallowing in nostalgia for the mid-1990s, Levine’s coming- of-age serious comedy stars Peck as a high school graduate and marijuana dealer, and Kingsley on fine form as his drug-addicted psychiatrist. Some dialogue sounds more scripted than natural, but the scenario is spiked with a refreshing directness.
PARIS ***
Directed by Cédric Klapisch. Starring Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini 18 cert
The relationship between a 30-year-old dancer (Duris), who has a serious heart condition, and his caring sister (Binoche) is by some way the most compelling and convincing strand in a film that over-ambitiously embraces more subplots than it can handle, leaving several underdeveloped.
PRIDE AND GLORY **
Directed by Gavin O'Connor. Starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight 18 cert
In a sturdy cast, Farrell smoulders ominously as a New York police officer whose disarming demeanour masks his capacity for corruption and viciousness. Norton plays his emotionally distraught brother-in-law and colleague in a violent, downbeat drama that’s overloaded with subplots and carries a strong whiff of deja vu.
