DVD, Blu-ray and TV

A Kick Up The ’90s

Must-see documentary puts Britpop in wider context

Siouxsie & The Banshees—The Seven Year Itch

Siouxsie as a punk Monroe? Not quite, for despite the title, she looks more like a goth version of Marlene Dietrich in her pin-stripe suit. The jacket and tie later comes off to reveal a glittering bra as she works her voodoo on aged punks and new hedonists on the Banshees' 2002 reunion tour. Oldies such as "Spellbound", "Peek-A-Boo" and "Happy House" have lost none of their theatrical power and are augmented by one new track, an extraordinary version of The Beatles' "Blue Jay Way".

The Unbearable Lightness Of Being

Philip Kaufman's letter-perfect realisation of Milan Kundera's student classic describes the spiritual transformation of Czech doctor Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis, mercifully playing a 'real person') from pseudo-existentialist to moral being thanks to the loving idealism of waitress-turned-photographer Tereza (Juliette Binoche). Along the way there's a Russian invasion, an escape to Geneva, and plenty of sex with Lena Olin in a bowler hat.

The Poseidon Adventure

Hip and hunky priest Gene Hackman leads a motley gang of passengers through many a watery danger when a freak wave flips their passenger liner upside down. Classic disaster movie stuff, with the added bonus of a sweaty and thoroughly miffed Ernest Borgnine.

Donnie Darko

A recent landmark in US indie cinema, writer/director Richard Kelly's feature debut is a mind-warping rites-of-passage tale with a striking central performance from Jake Gyllenhaal as the troubled teen trying to make sense of time travel conundrums in smalltown USA circa 1988. Exceptional.

Peter Gabriel—Secret World Live

No stranger to stage dramatics, Peter Gabriel created one of rock's great spectacles on 1993's "Secret World" tour. Seen by over a million people across five continents, only U2 and the Stones have rivalled it for theatrical excess. Robert LePage's stage designs still astound—and a still youthful-looking Gabriel matches them with his own charismatic presence on songs like "Sledgehammer".

Ichi The Killer

Appallingly violent vigilante satire from Audition's Takashi Miike. The opening scenes, with the film's title spelt out in semen and the head baddie puffing smoke through his slashed-open cheeks, promise OTT entertainment. But as the plot unfolds, only the strongest stomach will handle the scenes of torture, mutilation and rape between the black laughs.

L.I.E.

Brian Cox delivers a towering performance as a paedophile ex-Marine in director Michael Cuesta's finely judged and exquisitely filmed drama from 2001. Co-starring screen novice Paul Franklin Dano as the teenager lured into Cox's orbit, L.I.E. refuses to make simplistic moral judgements in its exploration of this topical yet taboo subject.

The Transporter

Luc Besson oversaw this brain-batteringly stoopid collision between hopped-up, old-school kung-fu flick and Lock Stockish Brit gangster movie. Jason Statham just about gets his mouth around some sub-Tarantino dialogue as an ex-special forces getaway driver caught up in bad business involving a slave ring in Nice. Risible.

White Mischief

Ice-cold thriller with a downhome feel from the Coen brothers
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