DVD OF THE WEEK

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK *****
Dir: Charlie Kaufman
Starring: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener

This is Charlie Kaufman's first film as director. He has previously pretty much created his own genre as a writer - Being John Malkovich, Human Instinct, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – an extraordinary mixture of surreal whimsical comedy and intellectual metaphysical exploration. With Synecdoche, NY he has created a film unlike anything you've ever seen.
Again it is loosely a comedy, stuffed with visual gags and clever metaphors, but it is also a mournful meditation on the passing of time and the ways we view our life. Sound heavy? Well it is, sort of. This is dazzling stuff, demanding a second (and possibly third) viewing, and insisting that the viewer think and engage. Fortunately there is more than enough here - on every level – to reward attention.
The bizarre plot has Hoffman's theatre director awarded a 'Living Genius” grant and using it to buy a huge New York warehouse where he intends to mount a play that will recreate and examine his own life. Soon he is being followed by a doleful Tom Noonan, playing him, and various women playing his wives and lovers. Then, as the years pass, the warehouse contains another warehouse and there is another actor playing Noonan, playing Hoffman, and – with actresses playing the actresses playing the wives - confusion reigns.
Throughout this, time seems to slip forward (and sometimes backwards) with only the subtlest indications and there are constant themes of illness, mortality, loss of identity, all sorts of stuff…
Like I said, you've never seen anything like it. Some may find it frustrating, others will luxuriate in its insane brilliance like a warm bath.

Oliver Stone continues to examine recent political history from his own unique perspective, though there is – predictably – little depth to mine in W. (***), a film that will intrigue political junkies. It's actually not a bad film, examining how a wastrel at age 40 can turn around and become president 15 years later, and implying that those same forces (largely paternal envy) led to the Iraq debacle. Most fun is watching various actors coping with real-life characters: Josh Brolin is superb as Bush, as is Richard Dreyfus as Cheney, while Toby Jones makes for a slimy Karl Rove and Thandie Newton is simply bizarre as Condoleezza Rice.

Right at your Door (***) is a tense claustrophobic little drama imagining the aftermath of a series of toxic bomb attacks on Los Angeles. It's essentially a two-hander as houses are sealed against the deadly chemicals, stranding a husband inside and his wife outside. The film explores their changing relationship as sickness infects the city. If a tense character drama is what you're after, this fits the bill – those wanting bigger budget thrills should head for more blockbuster territory.

The DVD market is largely responsible for totally unexceptional films spawning multiple sequels. Case in point, The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations (**), where the only revelation is that the makers decided to simply recycle the plot from the first rotten sequel. In case you're not up to speed, a guy who can go back in time cannot resist changing things to try and save his murdered girlfriend. Bad move. As time travel buffs well know this can only lead to the present being changed in increasingly bad ways. If only they were increasingly interesting ways…

Val Kilmer seems to be trying to rehabilitate his Hollywood career by using a series of low-budget films as acting showcases. It worked OK with Columbus Day but The Steam Experiment (**), while certainly a vehicle for Kilmer's nutty professor, is too light on ideas to really grab. It strands a small group in a sauna with the heat rising to deadly levels while Kilmer 'confesses” to the police. Eric
Roberts hams it up briefly as one of the captives, but the lack of incident and ultimately ludicrous motivation sink this.