DVD REVIEWS
SLOW WEST (out of 4) This brainy and genre-defying western by newcomer John Maclean, a Sundance 2015 prize winner, stars Kodi Smit-McPhee as naïve 16-year-old Scots aristocrat Jay Cavendish.
He’s searching for his missing love Rose, (Caren Pistorius), in the lawless Colorado territory of the late 19th century.
Rough gunslinger Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender) offers to help him find her — for a price.
Jay does need someone to watch his back because psychopaths like Payne (Ben Mendelsohn) roam the range.
Maybe it’s not Rose who needs saving, as a “Wanted” poster suggests early on.
Slow West subverts genre at every turn, tipping its Stetson to the Coen Bros. as well as John Ford, with character motivations slowly unfolding and always in question.
This film’s not here to satirize or politicize, and with a running time of just 84 minutes, it certainly doesn’t outstay its welcome. Dialogue is sparse and lean, giving us just what we need and nothing more.
Extras include deleted scenes and a making-of featurette.
MERCHANTS OF DOUBT (out of 4) “You can fool some of the people all of the time,” Abraham Lincoln famously said, but he only knew the half of it.
This urgent documentary exposé by Robert Kenner ( Food, Inc.) shows how you need only sow doubt about an idea to a gullible minority to keep real social change from happening.
Merchants of Doubt unmasks the corporate mouthpieces: chequecashing scientists and bogus experts who advance the causes of everything from Big Tobacco to global warming deniers. All with the aim of keeping governments confused and slow to legislate.
Meaningful change would make the planet better but also cost dirty firms billions of dollars. This film’s a true eye-opener.
Extras include deleted scenes, an audio commentary with Kenner, as well as a TIFF Q&A with him. Reviews by Peter Howell