Director - Spencer Susser
Mum dies in a car crash, dad finds it hard to leave the sofa and TJ (Devin Brochu) their teen son is getting into all sorts of post-traumatic trouble. So far so American indie drama. Then Joseph Gordon-Levitt turns up as the title character. It's almost as if he’s stepped out of a totally different movie. Hesher is a potty-mouthed delinquent. You know this as he has long hair and looks perma-stoned. The whole thing never really gels. Levitt tries his best to act like he imagines those sort of people are, but comes across as a total caricature. Could have been good, Brochu is a real find, but the film just doesn’t work. Best avoided.
Director - Benjamin Statler
The Kurt Cobain documentary that no one is talking about but really should be. Centred around private investigator Tom Grant’s time working for Courtney Love and all the weird shit that went down during his time in her employ. You would wave a hand in the air and mutter ‘bullshit’ to yourself at the facts that emerge in this doc, if it weren’t for the fact that Grant taped all of his conversations with the key players. It’s a bit of a jaw-dropping OMG doc, and a real must see. You’ll be shocked by the time it finishes. In the hands of a better director this would have been even better. Which just goes to show how the fascinating the story actually is.
Director - Guy Myhill
This superb coming of age flick is Guy Myhill's feature debut. The Goob (Liam Walpole) is our title character, a wild-card kid who we first meet on the last day of school, his whole life ahead of him, the world is his oyster except for the fact that he’s stuck in rural Norfolk with his brother, mum and her nasty bastard boyfriend, Womack (Sean Harris). It’s crop picking season, the Goob meets a foreign girl, makes friends with a flamboyant homosexual and constantly winds up Womack. Making this the film equivalent of kicking a wasps nest just to see what happens. Great acting, unfussy direction and refreshingly gritty take on this type of story mark it out as one of the years best films, and Myhill as someone to keep an eye open for in future.
Director - Andy Capper
Unintentionally comical documentary focusing on the recording of the Snoop Dogg LP of the same name. For some reason Snoop has decreed that rapping is yesterday’s news and wants to make a Rasta album. So he heads for Jamaica and just for good measure changes his name to Snoop Lion. In-between scenes of people smoking dope (I swear Bunny Wailer was smoking some through a carrot at one point), we get future Spinal Tap moments such as Snoop talking about walking “amongst his people” from the comfort of his people carrier. Oh and Snoop must be the only person in history to smuggle ganja into Jamaica. If you’re looking for any sort of insight into Rastafarianism then forget it. For that watch Kevin Macdonald’s excellent Marley instead.
