SCARFACE 18
Say hello again to De Palma’s classic…
1983 ★★★★★ OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS
The World Is Yours’ blinks the message on a Goodyear blimp, inspiring Cuban immigrant Tony Montana (Al Pacino) to rise to the top in a hail of bullets and a cloud of cocaine. Brian De Palma’s flash, brash crime movie enjoyed the same trajectory. Beloved by cinephiles and gangsta rappers alike, it flooded popular culture like Montana’s white powder floods the streets of Miami.
Back in cinemas for its 40th anniversary, the film that became so many people’s little friend on VHS, DVD and streaming can now be viewed big, its gaudy sets, bravura camerawork and extreme violence (for the time, normalised since) sensationally supersized. Largest of all is Pacino, mumbling vowels, munching furniture. Montana is impulsive and reckless and succeeds by sheer force of will. Subtlety doesn’t cut it. In fact, our antihero can’t even be bothered to cut a line of coke – he buries his face in a mound of the stuff.
Scripted by Oliver Stone, De Palma’s monumental drama utilises the rise-and-fall structures of classic Warner Bros. gangster movies (including Howard Hawks’ 1932 Scarface, based on Al Capone, whom De Palma would later include in The Untouchables). But it’s also an archetypal 80s movie, reflecting the excesses of Reagan’s America. There’s now talk of a remake: something the themes of immigration and socioeconomic division surely invite.
THE VERDICT ‘Every dog has his day…’ Pacino devours the screen and Michelle Pfeiffer pops, as De Palma holds a coke-streaked mirror to the American dream.
ELF PG
2003 ★★★★★
OUT 1 DECEMBER CINEMAS
No Christmas movie of the past 20 years has had the annual rewatchability of Jon Favreau’s seasonal staple, marking its anniversary with a big-screen re-release. Will Ferrell is at his endearing best as Buddy, the human raised by elves who journeys to New York to meet his birth father. The loss of two stars in recent years adds poignancy: James Caan is wonderful as the unsuspecting pa, his frostiness slowly thawing, and a cantankerous Ed Asner is one of the great screen Santas. Sweet, wholesome and as moreish as candy-and-syrup spaghetti.
ONE FALSE MOVE 18
1992 ★★★★★
OUT NOW BD, 4K UHD
EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentary, Featurette, Essay
Director Carl Franklin now helms high-end TV (The Leftovers, Mindhunter). This feature debut, whose critical success enabled it to dodge a straight-to-video release, established his talent. Starring and co-written by Billy Bob Thornton, it tracks three LA criminals who hightail it to Arkansas to hide out… but Bill Paxton’s sheriff lies in wait. This crackerjack neo-noir is full of surprises -plot twists, sudden violence and thrillingly unpredictable behaviour. Criterion extras include an archival Franklin commentary and a new director/ Thornton chat.
CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY PG
1951 ★★★★★
OUT NOW BD, DVD, DIGITAL
EXTRAS ★★★★★ Featurettes, Premiere footage, Stills gallery
A Black priest (Canada Lee) and a white landowner (Charles Carson) are thrown together by an act of violence in Zoltan Korda’s adaptation of Alan Paton’s book, shot with some guile in apartheidera South Africa. Best remembered for Sidney Poitier’s charismatic turn as an indignant reverend, the film (here with a 4K restoration) tells an affecting story with too much decorum. Yet decent extras make it worth discovering, not least by those who’ve seen the 1995 James Earl Jones/Richard Harris version.
PANDORA’S BOX PG
1929 ★★★★★ OUT NOW BD
EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentary, Featurette, Video essays, Booklet
A perfect pairing of actor and material, director G.W. Pabst’s scandalous psychosexual melodrama captures Louise Brooks – sporting that renowned bob – at her most alluring and effervescent. Ahead of its time (not least in its depictions of homosexuality and promiscuity), this silent classic was hacked about by censors around the world. Happily, it’s presented here on Blu-ray in a beautiful restoration that makes it easier than ever to fall under the spell of the carefree Lulu and the Jazz Age icon who brought her to life. Includes critic’s commentary and 60-page booklet.