Best DVDs Out Now

DEATH OF A SUPERHERO:

Ian Fitzgibbon’s Death Of A Superhero balances dark humour and sentimentality. Thomas Brodie-Sangster casts off his Love, Actually innocence to play Dubliner Donald – an acerbic, volatile teen with a head bald from chemotherapy. Andy Serkis plays Donald’s “death therapist”, the adolescent’s unconventional confidante. The intelligent and complex performances from Serkis and Brodie-Sangster are engaging. While sympathetic, the tone never veers into overt sentimentality. Beautifully-shot Dublin coastlines and cityscapes add to the visual delight, and a breathy score featuring Angus and Julia Stone tugs the heartstrings. Death Of A Superhero is a unique and life-affirming coming-of-age tale – with not a crocodile tear or cancer cliché in sight. No extras on reviewed copy.

THE ORANGES:

A comedy about a middle-aged dad who has an affair with his neighbour’s daughter, Julian Farino’s The Oranges does not taste freshly squeezed. Though the cast is first-rate, the script covers familiar American themes of midlife crisis and family dysfunction in leafy suburbia. Along with the requisite alt. rock soundtrack, there’s the de rigueur sardonic voice-over from 24-year-old Vanessa, a frumpy-smart aspiring designer. Despite an indie dream of a cast, including Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt and Alison Janney, the film fails to evoke the same spark of originality as Pieces Of April or Please Give, and too often descends into farce or timidity. As the philandering David, Laurie is warm, his friendship with Platt moving. However, despite some nice initial flirtations, his romance with Leighton Meester’s vapid Nina is underdeveloped. Though Keener and Janney are largely wasted in shrill wife roles, the cast do their best to elevate the material, Extras include cast interviews.

FLIGHT:

A story about addiction, redemption and our unquenchable thirst for heroes, Flight stars Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker, an alcoholic pilot who chooses the wrong day to fly while jacked up on coke and booze. After a tragic accident, investigators are bearing down and Whip is under intense scrutiny.
Washington has rarely given a performance as nuanced and complex. Whip is in a spiral of denial and self-destruction. However, there’s a tragic humanity to his failings. Washington’s double-edged performance beautifully plays on the moral ambiguity of the film. The audience grapples with whether he can really be forgiven if he goes unpunished. Unfortunately the film suffers an excess of cliche. An overwrought religious message proves alienating, while the 12 Step Programme is pushed like an After School Special. Kelly Reilly is stunning as a heroin-addicted love interest who ironically becomes a healthy foil to Whip. In the end, though, their intriguing relationship is abandoned in favour of by-the-book courtroom dramatics.

GANGSTER SQUAD:

Proving even the most phenomenal ensemble cast will flounder without a steady director, helmer Ruben Fleischer is out of his depth in this soulless send-up of gangster noir. In a no-man’s-land of homage and pastiche, Gangster Squad fails to do anything particularly well. An elite and clandestine mob squad – Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi – are determined to bring down infamous crime lord Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). Fleischer does well with the early action scenes, imbuing climactic shootouts with visual flair. However, the dialogue is clunky and the action repetitive. If you want gangster camp, watch Dick Tracy – for something more serious, try LA Confidential. Either way, give this a miss.