DVDs 

Moonlight & Manchester by Sea
The Academy judges uncharacteristically got it right this year awarding top gongs to Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea—two powerful stories about troubled outsiders in today’s America. Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan won the Best Screenplay Oscar for Manchester by the Sea. His script is clever, frequently very funny and unflinching in its depiction of a family falling apart through grief. Leading man Casey Affleck deservedly won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance while Michelle Williams was unlucky to miss out on the Best Supporting Actress award for which she was nominated. Best Picture award went to Moonlight—a coming of age story set in a tough neighbourhood in Miami. A terrific cast, lead by Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris and Ashton Sanders, and deft direction by Barry Jenkins make for a compelling film exploring issues of race, sexuality and poverty in America’s south. Both stories sound grim but they are treated with such style and intelligence as to be richly rewarding viewing. Highly recommended.


20th Century Women: Dir. Mike Mills
Dorothea Fields (Annette Bening) is a determined single mother, raising her adolescent son Jamie (newcomer Lucas Jade Zumann, in a breakout performance) at a moment brimming with cultural change and rebellion. Dorothea enlists the help of two younger women in Jamie’s upbringing—Abbie (Greta Gerwig), a free-spirited punk artist living as a boarder in the Fields’ home, and Julie (Elle Fanning), a savvy and provocative teenage neighbour.


Elle: Dir. Paul Verhoeven
Isabelle Huppert is Michèle LeBlanc; founder and CEO of a successful video game company, who is attacked in her own home. Taking what appears to be a desire to shrug off the terrifying incident, she locks the door after her attacker and refuses to tell the police—then Michèle begins to track down her assailant, and soon they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game, one that at any moment may spiral out of control. A gripping multi-layered psychological noir thriller from filmmaker Paul Verhoeven that recalls Hitchcock & Polanski.


Frantz: Dir. François Ozon
In a small German town after World War I, Anna mourns daily at the grave of her fiancé Frantz, killed in battle in France. One day a young Frenchman, Adrien, also lays flowers at the grave. His presence so soon after the German defeat ignites passions.