MIKE WARD’S SMALL SCREEN
DAPHNE (15) (Download and DVD) THIS British indie comedy has only the thinnest of storylines and just one properly three-dimensional character – namely, Daphne herself (Emily Beecham), an early-30s single woman leading a rather unhappy, stimulant-fuelled life in modern-day London.
She’s not even very nice, to be honest, but spiky and tetchy and almost exhaustingly cynical. But she’s fantastically believable.
And by the end, after she’s realised she needs to ask herself some serious questions about her life and where exactly it’s heading – prompted by her reaction to a violent incident she’s witnessed – I think you’re going to love her. You won’t exactly know why, but you will. Geraldine James plays her mum. MOTHER! (18) (Download, DVD and Blu-ray) THIS is very odd. Shriekingly, chillingly, brain-bogglingly odd. But in a good way.
On face value it’s a stylish horror, centred on a married couple (Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem), their idyllic home and the nightmare that develops as random weirdos arrive and take up residence. But it turns out it’s deeper than that.
According to director Darren Aronofsky, it’s a reference to the Bible, and, adds Lawrence, “depicts the rape and torment of Mother Earth”. You will be satisfyingly freaked out. COLD MOON (15) (Download and DVD) A SUPERIOR ghost story, based on a novel by Michael McDowell, the writer behind the hit Beetlejuice. HOUNDS OF LOVE (18) (DVD and Blu-ray) THIS fact-based thriller is about a serial killer couple who targeted girls in 1980s Australia. It’s well crafted but very disturbing. REVOLT (15) (Download and DVD) LEE Pace and Berenice Marlohe play a desperate pair who join forces as alien invaders threaten to eradicate the human race. I AM HEATH LEDGER (E) (Download, DVD and Blu-ray) USING interviews and archive clips, this is a fitting tribute to a fine actor, who passed away 10 years ago this week, aged just 28.