DVD OF THE WEEK

A PROPHET *****
Dir: Jacques Audiard. Starring: Tahar Rahim,
Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif

This Cannes and BAFTA winner (from 2009) has taken a while to make its way here on DVD, but is simply sensational. It's a strong long film and one that immediately stakes its claim to a place alongside the most ambitious American crime epics, with comparisons being widely made to Scarface, The Godfather and others.
In all reality it's a very different film to those gangster classics. For a start it takes place almost entirely in prison. It also eschews the glamorous set-pieces that characterise those films in favour of a more down to earth approach.
A Prophet centres around Malik, a young Arab man about to start his first stint in adult prison (he has previously spent a lot of time in juvenile detention), with the initial intent of keeping his head down and doing his time. The prison is split between Arabs and Corsicans and Malik attracts the attention of the Corsican kingpin, a brutal Mafioso (vividly played by Arestrup) and becomes part of his operation, both inside and outside the prison. The film then follows his growth and rise through the prison hierarchy.
The prison itself, with all its brutality and complex relationships is an echo of France, the choice of a young Arab as the protagonist a smart reflection of modern French society. The many expertly-juggled plot strands make for a fascinatingly gritty tapestry while every aspect of the filmmaking, from casting to performance to cinematography is flawless. If you watch only one film with subtitles this year, make it this one.

Down Terrace (****) is an unusual but intriguing hybrid, a British gangster flick presented as a low-key kitchen sink drama. Rather like The Sopranos as directed by Ken Loach. It centres on father and son drug-dealers – played impressively by real-life father and son Robert and Robin Hill – waiting for a court case which might end in jail. But initial thoughts that this is an okay family, what with their love of music and dry humour, quickly turn to horror as rising paranoia about police informers lead to murders all round. The absolute naturalism and unsentimental presentation of events makes them even more alarming and believable.

In what is apparently a true story, Dear Mr Gacy (***) tells of a college student who for his thesis contacts serial killer John Wayne Gacy in prison and strikes up a ‘friendship'. To an extent it's a fascinating journey as the two mentally spar, doling out portions of the truth. But by the time Gacy starts freely calling the kid at home you start to wonder what sort of prison this is. Eventually they're both left alone in an unmonitored cell and you really doubt the veracity of the whole thing. But it is based on a ‘true' book so perhaps I'm just a natural sceptic.

Leaves of Grass (***) is a quirky little piece featuring a great double turn from Ed Norton as both Bill, a buttoned down university teacher and Brady, his feckless drug-dealing brother. Bill is called home on the pretext his brother's dead, but it turns out to be part of a bigger scam by Brady and his equally dubious sidekick Bolger (the film's director Tim Blake Nelson). Along the way the gentle comedy morphs into something blacker while a rather sweet love story develops on the side. Add in the ever-reliable Susan Sarandon as the boy's mother and you have a classy left-field piece of work.

A fairly decent indie horror outing that's been kicking around for a few weeks is From Within (***), set in a religious-minded American nowhereville in which young folk appear to be committing suicide. But we know, from the opening, that there is in fact some sort of (possibly supernatural) contagion occurring, leading to the spread of mysterious deaths. The closed-minded disapproving townsfolk give this an unusual vibe but ultimately, despite promising moments and a spooky atmosphere, it doesn't really seem to go anywhere.