Lastest DVD releases reviewed

GOMMORAH *****
Directed by Matteo Garrone. Starring Tony Servillo, Gianfelice Imparato, Salvatore Cantalupo, Marco Macor, Ciro Petrone 18 cert

Gritty, powerful and harrowing, and charged with documentary-style urgency, Garrone’s riveting film, a prize winner at Cannes last year, is unflinching in confronting the power and ruthlessness of the Camorra, the notorious Neapolitan equivalent of the Mafia. The movie pulsates with dramatic energy as it graphically depicts an amoral environment awash with money but where life is cheap or worthless.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR ****
Directed by Ari Folman 18 cert

Folman made this animated documentary to confront his blocked memories of serving with the Israeli forces in the early 1980s. His imaginative and provocative film features scene after scene of haunting imagery.

LAKEVIEW TERRACE ***
Directed by Neil LaBute. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Jay Hernandez, Ron Glass, Justin Chambers 15 cert

An interracial couple (Wilson and Washington) move into a bland suburb of LA – there’s no lake and it’s not a terrace – and quickly fall out with the black policeman next door (Jackson). The first three quarters of LaBute’s odd thriller play interesting games with our preconceptions about race and class. Then it all goes a bit crazy.

CHOKE ***
Directed by Clark Gregg. Starring Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald, Brad William Henke, Bijou Phillips, Joel Grey 18 cert

This edgy, dark comedy, based on Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, features Rockwell in an intriguingly complex portrayal of a sex addict confused about his own identity. Trying to distinguish between fact and fiction is the most bemusing aspect of a film that frequently confounds assumptions.