Lola deals with love and loss
Lola Versus (Blu-ray)
Greta Gerwig stars as Lola in this romantic comedy about a 29-yearold woman who gets dumped just three weeks before her wedding.
Coming to terms with approaching the big 3-0 as a single woman is no easy task for Lola. She spends a tumultuous year on an emotional journey of self-discovery. Her wellmeaning friends, Alice (played by Zoe Lister-Jones) and Henry (played by Hamish Linklater) try to help prop her back. But their “support” leaves her even more confused.
There’s a lot of whining en route to Lola finally moving on with her life. Lots of drawn-out reflection, too. So it’s a blessing that the film doesn’t run a full 90 minutes.
Bill Pullman and Debra Winger are quite hilarious as Lola’s eccentric parents.
Obsessions. Confusions. Neuroses. This flick features them all. It’s also filled with love and loss.
Unlike the gals on Sex in the City who hop in and out of bed with fellas without causing us to blink an eye, Lola Versus tends to cause raised eyebrows.
“I’m slutty, but I’m a good person,” Lola says.
Perhaps. But she’s not the most likable character. No doubt because of all the whining she does.
Special features include deleted scenes and alternate ending, as well as outtakes.
—Irene Seiberling
The Crimson Petal And The White
This acclaimed BBC drama takes us to a very dark place indeed, Victorian London in the 1870s — “a place where violence and madness lurked everywhere.”
William Rackham ( Chris O’Dowd) is in despair at the growing mental illness of his wife Agnes (Amanda Hale) and his lack of success in his wealthy father’s perfume business. Looking for a temporary escape, he gets drunk and spends the night in a bawdy house with the renowned prostitute Sugar (Romola Garai).
Sugar is shrewd and ambitious sees him as a possible escape from her sordid life. As well as selling him her body, Sugar provides Rackham with smart ideas that help him become a success in business.
Finding Sugar indispensable, Rackham makes her his exclusive mistress, moving her into his grand home where she also becomes governess to his young daughter. The arrangement runs into trouble when Sugar becomes pregnant — and discovers the horrifying truth behind Agnes’ apparent madness.
With great period detail and a fine cast that also includes Gillian Anderson and Richard E. Grant, this is compelling, if often disturbing, viewing. The production runs four hours and this two-DVD set includes cast and crew interviews and deleted scenes.
—Andy Cooper
Absolutely Fabulous: 20th Anniversary Special
In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the gals from Absolutely Fabulous are back. This DVD includes three episodes which, if you were a keen viewer of the rollicking ’90s British TV series, will bring back a lot of familiar faces.
Top of the list are Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) — the champagne swilling, chain-smoking fashionistas who utter “dharling dharling, sweety sweety” as often as the average person says “and.” If you were a fan of the original series ( millions were) then you’ll be pleased they’re back.
The humour is the same, which means over-the-top acting, hideous fashions and a god-awful laugh track, but there are some gems in there. Patsy looking for her true age to pay back a drug dealer is one amusing plot line and the references to the London Olympics and modern day technology (“Shall I Twitter it?”) are a clever touch. There’s also a generous peppering of celebrities — think Baby Spice, Stella McCartney and Kate Moss, among others.
And, just in case you weren’t sure in which decade you were watching, Eddie and Patsy’s short diatribe on the Kardashians is hilarious. “They’re spreading like herpes,” Eddie says. “Yes,” adds Patsy, “each one has its own reality show. They’re multiplying like headlice.”
Surprisingly, there is very little in the way of extras. All you’ll get is a sketch the team made for Sport Relief — a charity which raises money to help vulnerable people in the U.K. and the world’s poorest countries — and the making of that sketch. Seems odd considering this is clearly aimed at fans of the show.
—Emma Graney
The Misfits: Season 1
From iconic comic book figures like The Flash to the lesser-known likes of Brother Power the Geek, the plot device of lightning bequeathing superpowers onto mere mortals is older than Frankenstein himself.
So the idea of four teenagers serving community service who are given special abilities after a freak electrical storm strikes south London could have been a thunderous faux pas or flash of brilliance.
Thanks to some clever writing, Misfits falls into the latter category. While the stereotypical angsty Millenials are all there — the jock, the introvert, the class clown and the spoiled princess — the scriptwriters crash headfirst through superficial portrayals into broader themes afflicting disaffected youth, all set to the backdrop of a bizarre murder cover up.
With each of their powers deeply rooted in personal insecurities as the series continues so does the exploration into the psyche of these teens. This is articulated perfectly in one impassioned monologue by Nathan as he screams to the huddled youth masses: “We’re screw ups. I’m a screw up, and I plan to be a screw up until my late 20s, maybe even my early 30s.”
The six episodes combine horror, suspense and action with large dollops of British wit.
Special features include some short films captured from the camera phone of one of the characters (some of which is used in the regular episodes) giving a fascinatingly fresh perspective.
—Juris Graney