News

It’s the start of another week, so you know what that means: yet more DVD and Blu-ray releases hit the high street, ready and waiting to swallow up all your hard-earned cash – that’s if you have any left. I know I haven’t until payday! Anyway here’s the rundown of what’s available to buy from today, January 16th 2012.

Pick Of The Week

Rogue River (DVD/Blu-ray)

When scattering her father’s ashes at a remote part of the beautiful Rogue River in Oregon, Mara’s (Michelle Page) car is towed away by the over-zealous local police. She accepts the offer of a ride into town by a kindly passerby Jon (Bill Moseley - Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The Devil’s Rejects) but they must first make a quick stop at his place to tell his wife what he’s up to. These people aren’t what they...

By Neil Pedley

This week sees the opening of "The Dark Knight." Advance marketing and coverage might have you believe that that, apparently, is all, but there are other films coming out this week well worth your time. (Besides, "The Dark Knight" is totally going to be sold out.)

"A Very British Gangster"

With Britain in the midst of a youth crime epidemic, Irish investigative reporter Donald McIntyre takes an unflinching look at Dominic Noonan, a granddad of the English gangland who's spent over half his life behind bars. Having legally changed his name to Lattlay Fottfoy (an acronym of the Noonan motto . "Look After Those That Look After You; Fuck Off Those That Fuck Off You"), the openly gay head of Manchester's most notorious crime family shows off his gentler side as a man who uses his reputation to position himself as a "problem solver" more concerned with the...

Stuart Jeffries on how Donal MacIntyre became a gangland auteur

When Donal MacIntyre's documentary A Very British Gangster was shown on Five last year, TV critics didn't bother to review it. How very wrong they were. Little did they know that the film is a masterpiece or, as they say in France, un chef d'oeuvre

MacIntyre's directorial debut has this year not only been nominated for a grand jury prize at Robert Redford's Sundance film festival, but also recently won the top prize at the Festival du film Policiers (the Detective film festival) in Cognac, France - an award previously given to such highly regarded film-makers as Larry Clark, Danny Boyle, Carl Franklin and Curtis Hanson.

Continue reading...

• I had a really great time at Sundance, and have to say that for the most part, every film I saw was a pretty solid effort from the filmmakers. There were a few that really impressed me, and a few that didn’t. Here’s an overview of how I spent my time in Park City:Top 5: Black Snake Moan director Craig Brewer’s follow up to his breakthrough Hustle and Flow is another tale set in the south that centers on the transformative power of music. Here we have the blues instead of rap music, and the change sought is spiritual rather than socio-economic. Christina Ricci stars as a small-town Tennessee sex addict left for dead, Samuel L. Jackson the broken down blues guitarist who saves her life, then aims to save her soul. It’s nice to hear Jackson quoting scripture again. Offscreen: From award-winning Danish filmmaker Christoffer Boe,

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• “Look after those that look after you. Fuck off those that fuck off you.” says Dominic Noonan, reciting the advice given to him by his father. Noonan, the subject of Donal MacIntrye’s World Documentary competitor A Very British Gangster. Noonan takes this advice seriously – seriously enough to have his name legally changed to Lattlay Fottfoy. Has this advice served Noonan well in his career as one of Britain’s most notorious organized criminals? Dominic Noonan does not look like the type of person you want to fuck with. With his shaved bald head and stocky frame, he looks like a cross between Tony Soprano and Ben Kingsley’s character in Sexy Beast. And he’s the real thing. The film begins with an anecdote about how a Manchester pub got the nickname ‘The Dog’s Head’ – early on in his career, Noonan beheaded

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PARK CITY -- From his girth to his fondness for family, Manchester mob boss Dominic Noonan could be Tony Soprano's English cousin. Donal MacIntyre, one of the UK's foremost undercover journalists, was granted total access to make A Very British Gangster, a fascinating portrait of a larger-than life crime figure. Documentary seems like a natural for a savvy cable outlet.

Like Tony, Noonan is a complex character -- a brute who will cut off a dog's head to make a point and a pillar of the community who puts on fireworks for the neighborhood kids. And on top of everything, he's gay.

All the conventions of gangster films are here -- murder, revenge, family, guilt, even the church. Three major trials for kidnapping, torture and narcotics give the film its shape as Noonan gets off twice and isn't as lucky the third time. Of his 39 years, he has spent 22 of them behind bars.

Noonan got started in the business and made his reputation high-jacking armored security vans. Ostensibly he now runs a legitimate security business of his own, but even he can't keep a straight face about how he makes his money. Police estimate that his family has made $8 million in heist and bank robberies alone.

He prefers to work with a young crew, some no more than 17, toughs with buzz cuts who look like they stepped out of central casting. Noonan also surrounds himself with his extended family -- two kids of his own, numerous nieces and nephews, a godson and his cousin Eileen, who opens her house to kids who have nowhere else to go. Despite his wealth and power, Noonan has never left the neighborhood.

Sharing the spotlight with him is his eleven-year-old son Buddy, who wants to grow up to be a boxer, and his nephew Sean, who aspires to be a singer like Frank Sinatra and performs for weddings, funerals and acquittals.

The biggest set piece in the film is the funeral of Noonan's brother, who was stabbed by his drug dealer. Trailed by a brigade of bag-pipers, the deluxe coffin, adorned with scenes from the last supper, is laid to rest as Sean sings a rendition of My Way that moves Noonan to tears. Such is the power of the Noonan clan in the community that schools and businesses close down for the funeral.

Noonan really functions as the godfather of the neighborhood, with people preferring to come to him instead of the cops with all sorts of disputes and issues. A Very British Gangster is not only Noonan's story but a profile of a community dealing with poverty and drugs, and seeing no way out. In a sense, Noonan and his cronies are born into a life of crime.

With his doughy face, shaved head and engaging spirit, Noonan is an ideal leading man, but he is not a character you want to cross. In one scene, MacIntyre is filming him on the street telling a story when some people off-camera are making noise. His eyes grow cold and his mood turns dark as he warns them in no uncertain terms to shut up or else.

MacIntyre captures all the nuances without glorifying a despicable character. The film is beautifully shot by Mike Turnbull and Nick Manley, including a moody black and white scene in the cemetery and a lovely crane shot looking out at the doomed neighborhood. MacIntyre has also used an impressive array of British rock and rap to create emotional connections to this violent but fascinating world apart.

A Very British Gangster

A Dare Films production

Credits: Director: Donal MacIntyre; Producer: MacIntyre; Executive Producer: Chris Shaw; Director of Photography: Mike Turnbull, Nick Manley; Editor: Sally Hilton.

No MPAA rating, running time: 97 minutes.

• Quick Links  Complete Film Listing:  Premieres:  Dramatic Comp:  Docu Comp:  World Dramatic Comp:  Spectrum:  Park City at Midnight:  New Frontier:  Short Film Programs January 18 to 28, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 18, 2007'); • "Acidente" (Brazil), directed by Cao Guimaraes and Pablo Lobato, an experimental, poetic expression of everyday life culled from images of 20 cities in Menas Gerais, Brazil. • "Bajo Juarez, The City Is Devouring Its Daughters" (Mexico), directed by Alejandra Sanchez, an examination of the societal corruption backdropping the many cases of sexual abuse and murders of women in a Mexican industrial border town. • "Cocalero" (Bolivia), directed by Alejandro Landes, which follows the campaign of Aymaran Indian Evo Morales to becomed the first indigenous president of Bolivia. World premiere. • "Comrades In Dreams" (Germany), directed by Uli Gaulke, a look at four people in different parts of the world who bring cinema to locals. • "Crossing the Line" (U.

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