Gigantic (2008)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Matt Aselton

Writers: Matt Aselton, Adam Nagata

Cinematographer: Peter Donahue

Composer: Roddy Bottum

Cast: Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman, Edward Asner, Zach Galifianakis, Clarke Peters, Jane Alexander, Brian Avers, Ian Roberts, Robert Stanton

An unmarried 28-year-old Manhattan mattress salesman in the process of adopting a Chinese baby (a life long dream), whose father has just turned 80, and who is inexplicably being trailed by a distinctly violent homeless man, falls for the kooky daughter of a lumbago-afflicted, eccentric millionaire, putting a gigantic question mark over his future, in Aselton’s generally entertaining, dream-like quirk-fest. Iain.Stott

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Survival of the Dead (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

Canada

Feature Film

Writer/Director: George A. Romero

Cinematographer: Adam Swica

Composer: Robert Carli

Cast: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Devon Bostick, Richard Fitzpatrick, Athena Karkanis, Stefano Di Matteo, Joris Jarsky, Eric Woolfe, Julian Richings, Wayne Robson

Although almost universally panned by critics and fanboys alike, Romero’s low-budget horror film, the sixth instalment of his Dead series, in which an age-old feud between two bigoted, insular communities – despite the raging zombie apocalypse – continues unabated, is still something of an improvement upon Diary of the Dead (2007), and is (if somewhat uninspired and perhaps a little nonsensical at times) never less than enthralling; a minor work, none the less. Iain.Stott

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The Wire: Season 1 (2002)

USA

Television Series

Creator: David Simon

Cast: Dominic West, Wendell Pierce, Lance Reddick, Deirdre Lovejoy, Sonja Sohn, Seth Gilliam, Domenick Lombardozzi, Clarke Peters, Wood Harris, Idris Elba, Larry Gilliard Jr., John Doman, Andre Royo, Michael Kenneth Williams, Jim True-Frost, Frankie Faison, Corey Parker Robinson, Delaney Williams, J.D. Williams, Michael Kostroff, Tray Chaney, Hassan Johnson, Leo Fitzpatrick, Michael B. Jordan

David Simon’s painfully authentic feeling and justifiably much-hyped series – funny, moving, gripping, intelligent, and decidedly human – in which a specially formed police unit goes after the local drug kingpins, intricately weaves together dozens of small, personal stories, forming a grand overall picture of cops and crims in West Baltimore, highlighting the political machinations and bureaucratic red tape that tend to get in the way of any real police work. Iain.Stott

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The Damned United (2009)

Recommended

UK/USA

Feature Film

Director: Tom Hooper

Writers: Peter Morgan, David Peace

Cinematographer: Ben Smithard

Composer: Robert Lane

Cast: Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, Stephen Graham, Jim Broadbent, Elizabeth Carling, Peter McDonald, Martin Compston

Hooper’s witty, thoroughly human, and surprisingly moving if factually rather dubious bromance cum (sort of) football revenge drama charts Brian Clough’s disastrous 44 day tenure as manager of Leeds United in 1974, filtered through flashbacks to his incredible time at Derby County, who he transformed from a relegation threatened second division side into the champions of England, highlighting both his oft one-sided and generally unhealthy rivalry with Don Revie and his love for his regular assistant Peter Taylor. Iain.Stott

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CFB's Top 30 Obscure Films of 1960 (2010)

1. Macario (1960)
   The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960)
2. The League of Gentlemen (1960)
3. The Cloud-Capped Star (1960)
4. Naked Island (1960)
5. School for Scoundrels (1960)
6. The Lady with the Dog (1960)
7. Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960)
8. The Housemaid (1960)
9. Strangers When We Meet (1960)
10. The Angry Silence (1960)
11. Conspiracy of Hearts (1960)
12. Era Notte a Roma (1960)
13. Comanche Station (1960)
14. Bell Antonio (1960)
15. The Savage Innocents (1960)
16. Peter Pan (1960)
17. The Testament of Orpheus (1960)
18. The World of Suzie Wong (1960)
19. Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960)
20. The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960)
21. Where the Boys Are (1960)
22. The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales (1960)
23. The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)
24. Murder, Inc (1960)
    Can-Can (1960)
25. The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960)
26. The Good Time Girls (1960)
27. Two Way Stretch (1960)
28. The Wild, Wild Rose (1960)

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CFB's Top 30 Films of 1960 (2010)

1. Psycho (1960)
2. The Apartment (1960)
3. La Dolce Vita (1960)
4. L'Avventura (1960)
5. The Virgin Spring (1960)
6. Peeping Tom (1960)
7. À Bout de Souffle (1960)
8. Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
9. Spartacus (1960)
10. Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
11. Eyes Without a Face (1960)
12. Plein Soleil (1960)
13. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
14. Le Trou (1960)
15. Wild River (1960)
16. Late Autumn (1960)
17. Inherit the Wind (1960)
18. Elmer Gantry (1960)
19. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)
20. Tunes of Glory (1960)
21. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
22. Zazie dans le Métro (1960)
23. The Young One (1960)
24. Two Women (1960)
25. The Time Machine (1960)
26. Village of the Damned (1960)
27. The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
28. The Entertainer (1960)
29. The Sundowners (1960)
30. Devi (1960)

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Avatar (2009)

Best Avoided

USA/UK

Feature Film

Writer/Director: James Cameron

Cinematographer: Mauro Fiore

Animator: Andy Jones

Composer: James Horner

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, CCH Pounder

Populated by cardboard characters spouting clichéd dialogue, Cameron’s gooily scored, intermittently diverting, and occasionally spectacular but generally merely overblown and decidedly overlong action movie cum (ideas light) sci-fi epic rather awkwardly imposes a blockbuster aesthetic onto a painfully unsubtle allegorical tale, which is likely to leave the more discerning of viewers decidedly cold. Iain.Stott

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