Famous for it’s bloody portrayal of the D-Day landings in 1944, Spielberg’s classic has been a long time coming. Now it’s been released, glitch-free, and we’re left with  the inevitable questions:

Can Blu-ray work its magic once again? Can the violence get any more graphic? Can the explosions get any scarier? Can Tom Hanks’ stare get any more piercing?

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating…

Set on and just after D-Day in 1944, Saving Private Ryan chronicles the journey of a group of US Rangers as they embark on an unusual mission. Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) is the last surviving member of a quartet of brothers, all of whom had been fighting overseas in the epic struggle that was the Second World War. When word reaches the US Department of War that three of the four brothers have perished, it is decided that the remaining brother should be pulled out of front line combat and brought home in order to spare his mother the tragedy of losing all four of her sons.

Tom Hanks plays Captain John Miller, the soldier charged with leading the squad of soldiers sent to find Ryan and bring him off the line safely. They journey from the bloody landings at Utah beach on D-Day itself through the chaos of wartime France, constantly questioning the usefulness of their assignment, given that the lives of eight men are being risked to save just one.

This film is famous for having probably the most exhausting opening 25 minutes of any movie ever made. Director Steven Spielberg creates a truly harrowing, awe inspiring representation of the near-disastrous landing by US troops on Utah beach on 6th June 1945. I remember reading somewhere once that when the sequence was shown to a group of WW2 vets, many of them were actually quite disturbed by the accuracy of his portrayal of the sheer chaos that surrounded that fateful event.

Like owning World War 2 in a box.

When I first saw this film in the cinema back in 1998 I remember feeling roughly the same way. It’s an ordeal watching Hanks and the other US troops battle their way over what was in reality only a few hundred yards, and Spielberg plays it out in what almost feels like real time. You come out of the end of that truly brilliant opening half hour feeling like you have just personally been there.

After that somewhat electrifying first chapter, the pace of Saving Private Ryan slows somewhat as the troops start to dig in, preparing for the onslaught ahead. The rest of the film plays out as a less frenetic, but certainly no less vivid, ensemble piece with likes of Edward Burns, Giovanni Ribisi and Tom Sizemore delivering admirable performances alongside the always reliable, and in this instance really quite superb, Hanks.

The sudden change of rhythm from crazy-ass explosion fest to contemplative morality tale does jar a little and the action is only really sporadic until the big showdown at the end. This comes as a little bit of a disappointment, especially when viewed from the other side of HBO’s (and Hanks’ and Spielberg’s) masterpiece Band Of Brothers, which arguably gets the action to drama balance almost exactly right.

Saving Private Ryan is also a rather long movie, weighing in at a chunky 169 minutes. There’s an argument that the stop-start nature of the film, its tendency to go from second to fifth gear and then back again frequently and rapidly, is actually another masterstroke on Spielberg and screenwriter Robert Rodat’s part, seeing as the business of going to war has, for the ordinary soldier, often been described as “long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror”. Boredom’s a strong word for the calmer moments in this film, but it’s not exactly a smooth ride and you can’t help but feel that these pace issues could have been addressed, and that the film could have come in a good half hour shorter and been better for it.

Still, though, Saving Private Ryan is undeniably a classic piece of modern movie making for its scale, its ambition and its human drama.

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A low budget indie from South Africa produced by a New Zealander known for his high-budget antics, District 9 was the under-the-radar hit of 2009.

Now it’s arrived on Blu-ray, and it seems to have lost none of its off-beat charms along the way.

For the past 25 years a large spaceship has hovered ominously over the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Arriving unheralded, in the first few months after the ship’s appearance the government simply watched and waited for something to happen, nervous of the idea of ‘first contact’ with an unknown alien species. Then they hacked their way in to the ship to discover a collection of malnourished, disease-ridden insect-like life forms huddled in fear deep within its bowels. These creatures were rounded up and placed in a large area on the borders of the city as the government of Johannesburg figured out what to do next. And there they have stayed ever since, living in abject squalor and poverty, their shantytown home known to all as ‘District 9’.

Fast forward to 2008, and Wikus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is an eager young bureaucrat working for MNU, a private company charged with the task of moving the alien population of District 9 to a more ‘habitable’ camp some miles outside of Johannesburg. Relations between humans and aliens have been degenerating steadily for a quarter of a century; distrust, disgust and ignorance stirring the already heavily churning melting pot of these new slums. The aliens don’t help themselves, of course. These are no Avatar-esque, misunderstood enlightened beings. They are intergalactic scum of the earth, trading in prostitution, mixing with Nigerian gangs, and obsessing over cat food, to which they have developed an addiction comparable to a human crack habit.

Wikus, a largely unremarkable man keen to please his father-in-law who is a high ranking MNU officer, is placed in charge of clearing the slums ready for the move. The movie opens with us following him through the corrugated iron shacks and asbestos huts, blindly filling out forms and mistreating the alien populace, or ‘prawns’ as they a pejoratively called. While clearing one such hovel, Wikus is comes into contact with a mysterious biological liquid, which slowly starts to change his physiology.

More prawns than a Chinese takeaway.

His body changing fast, Wikus suddenly goes from hunter to hunted as it becomes apparent that he is the first human to possess the ability to operate extremely sophisticated prawn weaponry, making him a valuable commodity to both his government and MNU, as well as a source of great interest to the human gangs inhabiting and exploiting District 9.

On the surface a straight forward sci-fi action flick, ‘District 9’ is an incredibly complex film. It’s primarily a journey of change for its central character, as Wikus learns the truth about these weird intergalactic creatures, and the implications of their mistreatment by himself and the rest of his race. But it’s also a comment on racial tensions in the real world, with particular reference to apartheid South Africa and the development of race relations in that country since apartheid ended. There are also other parallels, with references to the Nazis’ treatment of Jews (the new ‘home’ for the prawns is eventually referred to by Wikus as “a concentration camp, really”), the prevalence of gang culture and the unchecked power of large, private corporate organisations.

Where this film is at its most powerful, though, is on the simplest level. It’s an original, exciting, interesting story told superbly via the medium of both cinematic and pseudo-documentary styles. The idea of setting an alien-based movie in a run down, backward, technologically and socially deprived area of the world works very well. Images of run down townships full of filth and depravity inhabited by large, gangly insectoid life-forms who build disgusting egg nests inside ramshackle huts are simultaneously at odds with each other and in stark, shocking contrast. Add to that the beautifully underplayed, semi-improvised performances from Copley and the rest of the cast, and you get a startlingly original, grimy, gritty, realistic piece of political sci-fi.

There’s not many movies can be described in that way and be deemed a huge success creatively, but District 9 is certainly one of them.

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109 minutes of profanity-laced hilarity

In The Loop is basically a film version of the BBC television show The Thick of It. I’m sure any British readers out there already realize this, and conversely, I’m sure practically no American readers know this. If the television series is anywhere near the quality of this film, I’ll be a happy man once I track it down.

In The Loop is a scathingly, brilliantly hilarious political satire that pretty much never stops with its one-liners and vitriolic arguments.

It’s pretty obvious early on — or from any of the trailers — that In The Loop is poking fun at the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. There are people on both sides that want to go to war and vice versa, and they are all entwined in a web of confusion and absurdity.

The events of the movie are kickstarted when British minister Simon Foster (played by Tom Hollander) says that war is “unforeseeable” in a radio interview, and the media runs with it, as Simon is berated and emasculated by his superior Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi). Simon doesn’t quite realize the storm he’s created until he is confronted in the street by reporters and provides yet another soundbite that is blasted over the airwaves. It just seems that every time he opens his mouth, things only get worse.

Starting on the day of the “unforeseeable” quote, Toby Wright (Chris Addison) becomes Simon’s assistant throughout the entire affair, shuttling between meetings in both the UK and America. He manages to do damage of his own, accidentally leaking information to the press and also destroying his romantic relationship back home in probably the most embarrassing fashion imaginable. Simon and Toby make for an immensely amusing disaster of a team.

There's a lot of this in the film.

Meanwhile, the two Americans they work with, the US Assistant Secretary of State Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy) and her assistant Liza (Anna Chlumsky), seem on the ball and mostly treat the two Brits as the bumbling — if well-intentioned — idiots they are. They work together with Gen. George Miller (James Gandolfini) to try to stop the seemingly unstoppable march to war. They are mostly up against another Assistant Sec. of State, Linton Barwick (David Rasche), who is naturally the most unlikeable character in the film. I think you can guess how it turns out.

The star of the film is undoubtedly Capaldi, who seems to be ripping someone apart in every other scene. Every time he opens his mouth, a geyser of expletives shoots out, hitting whoever happens to be around square in the face. You may think *he* would be the most unlikeable character, but it’s hard to hate someone who is capable of effortlessly eviscerating anyone within shouting distance. There’s a reason why the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay — and that reason is that insults have never been piled on top of each other so well outside of a David Mamet film.

Probably the only complaints I can think of are the subplot that has Steve Coogan complaining to Simon about a wall that is about to fall and possibly crush his mom and perhaps that the movie just kinda of ends. But the former is still pretty funny and the latter — well, I wasn’t really watching the film for a twist or tidy, meaningful ending. I think it works fine and shows that politics just go on. And go on as dysfunctional as they’ve always been.

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Even the cover looks indie.

Parenthesis in the title. Zooey Deschanel dressing up in silly clothing. The two main characters sharing a love of The Smiths. A musical number complete with a bit of hand-drawn animation. Could a movie get any more indie?

Perhaps surprisingly, you don’t need to be a hipster to enjoy this film.

You also know from the start that the movie is non-linear, which was probably the best way to spruce up the fairly humdrum relationship. The film touches on key events that both initiate and destroy the relationship, usually skipping back and forth between good and bad. I say humdrum because looking back, it’s not the most original or interesting course of events, but the story is told in a way that is consistently entertaining. Although, some people who have just suffered a tough breakup might not feel the same way.

The film is anchored by a great performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the naive young Tom who, the minute he sees Summer (Deschanel), knows she’s the one. As the relationship develops, he never understands why she doesn’t feel same about him as he does about her, even though she stated from the beginning she wasn’t looking for something serious. Deschanel does her job of looking pretty and being — arguably — a bitch. It’s all about perspective!

This doesn't actually happen!

The small supporting cast does a pretty great job, from Tom’s friend McKenzie asking Tom what the hell is wrong with him, to Tom’s little sister dispensing advice as if she were an experienced 40-year-old woman. Between the sister character in particular and the musical dance scene in the middle of the movie, there’s a bit of light-heartedness that tempers the ultimate crushing of Tom’s soul.

Those unrealistic, and possibly too cutesy, components of the film allowed me to handle the final word of the script a bit better than some other people I’ve come across. Sure, roll your eyes, but it fits well enough. You’ll see what I’m talking about.

But even with those parts, the film manages to stay true to its emotional roots, and that’s the most important thing, isn’t it? Tom’s bewilderment and broken heart really do hit home. It’s about him learning from his first love and heartbreak. It’s about his growth coming out of that world of hurt. And it’s told in a way that is clever, energetic, and heartfelt.

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Better than a Pink Floyd album!

It’s a big ball of cheese in the sky.

What would happen, wondered first-time feature director Duncan Jones, if Aretha Franklin lived on it? She’d probably eat it all, he quickly concluded. So he put Sam Rockwell up there instead. You know, just to see what would happen.

As it turns out, the result was really quite something.

Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, an astronaut working in about as remote a place as you can imagine – a tiny, one-man mining outpost on the dark side of the moon.

He’s been there for 3 years, away from his wife and child, entirely alone except for his robotic assistant GERTY (Kevin Spacey) and his own thoughts. His only communication with his home planet comes via pre-recorded satellite messages, received sporadically via a faulty comms link-up.

A pretty bleak way to earn a living. Let’s hope the money’s good.

And so our lonely protagonist spends his days coordinating and maintaining the ‘helium 3’ mining harvesters which scour the vast surface of the moon. It is on one such day, barely two weeks away from his trip home, while out repairing a fault on one of these machines, that Sam meets with an accident and only barely survives.

Waking up dazed back at the mining outpost, things take a rather bizarre turn as he discovers that he is no longer totally alone. He finds a perfect double version of himself, a doppelganger, if you will, inhabiting the station with him. Spooky.

Cool as the dark side of the moon.

It seems to me that what we have here is a science fiction movie. Not a film set in space with aliens and warp-drives and lasers and magic bloody powers. An actual work of science fiction. By this I mean (and I’m more than prepared to state that I am by no means an authority here) a film that imagines a future existence which actually raises questions about mankind and, for want of a better, less poncey expression, ‘the human condition’. Sam’s isolated existence, the necessity of his job for Earth’s survival (for ‘helium 3’ is a new, super-green source of energy), the way in which he is treated by his employers, not to mention the film’s big plot revelations, are all used to great effect by director Duncan Jones to provide us with some fascinating and actually quite intimidating existential and moral posers.

Besides the deeply philosophical script, there’s one other aspect of this film which really makes it stand out, and that’s the absolutely superb turn put on by Sam Rockwell. Considering that this is a man who has spent significant parts of his recent career lending his voice to a talking guinea pig (‘G-Force’), and whose only other sci-fi output of note is as a two-headed narcissistic space pirate (‘Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy’), the sheer scale and subtlety of his performance here is pretty mindblowing.

Rockwell is on screen for almost the entire length of the movie (97 minutes), and has to spend an awful lot of that time acting opposite ‘himself’. Not an easy task, but one which Rockwell seems to have no trouble tackling, creating an entirely believable two-hander entirely on his own, backed up ably by a suitably spooky-voiced, HAL-like Kevin Spacey as GERTY, his robotic assistant-slash-butler.

Simply put, ‘Moon’ is a superb film. Eerie, contemplative and minimalist, it’s a real “thinker”, and if you’re anything like me you’ll be contemplating your own navel for days after watching it.

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Muggles not allowed.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the second to last installment in the Harry Potter films, released earlier this year to the delight of its age-spanning fan base.

The Blu-ray, released just last month, is the latest in a series of solid, if not always perfect, Blu-ray discs in terms of video and audio quality. How does this latest installment shape up?

Overall, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has everything you are expecting if you are a Harry Potter fan, with some changes to the books which you may or may not like. Screenwriter Steve Kloves returns to pen the screenplay in what I find to be the most humorous and enjoyable of the films to date, with the possible exception of the Alfonso Cuaron directed Prisoner of Azkaban.

The audience rejoins Harry (played again by Daniel Radcliffe) in an Underground coffee shop, reading in the newspapers about the events unfolding in the wizarding world. The waitress serves him, comments on the paper, and flirts briefly with Potter, before Potter notices Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) outside of the window, appearing into thin air. The opening scene subtlety sets the tone for the rest of the film.

When Harry and his friends Ron and Hermoine (Rupert Grint and Emma Watson) return to Hogwarts, even after the revelation to the wizarding world that super antagonist Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has returned, the tone is much more lighthearted then the previous film in the series, Order of the Phoenix.

The best way to describe the tone is an exaggerated version of high school and summer camp combined. Hogwarts is somewhat separated from the rest of the wizarding world. Most of the restrictive atmosphere has been replaced due to the Ministry of Magic no longer caring about Hogwarts as it has in the last installment, which allows Harry and the students to be kids.

Plots such as Harry and Ron’s love lives and Ron’s success playing Quidditch (the wizard sport) are touched on humorously and often throughout the film. The cast yet again brings a good acting performance, which greatly helps these parts.

Harry Potter and the Succession of Introspective Glances.

This high school atmosphere is interrupted at times by the threats of the outside world, through scenes where Dumbledore teaches Harry about Voldemort’s past, and through Harry’s suspicions that school bully Draco Malfoy (in Tom Felton’s best performance) is secretly part of Voldemort’s sworn followers.

The cinematography of Half-Blood Prince is brought to life in these scenes especially. Academy Award nominated cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel is a notable addition to the crew of the Potter films, and his work shows in the leap of quality in how the film is shot. Scenes as simple as Malfoy walking down a hallway are brought to life with great camera angles. I actually prefer the cinematography to the only other series standout, Prisoner of Azkaban.

Half-Blood Prince is brought to a close when the whimsical high school environment crashes with the dark reality of the outside world and Voldemort’s looming presence. If anything, I must complain the film ends too quickly in comparison with the book, which was a decision by director David Yates in order to build up for the two film finale.

My only other gripe with Half-Blood Prince is the film may confuse viewers who haven’t read the books. The film does a poor job explaining who the Half-Blood Prince is other than the owner of the potions book which Harry uses throughout the duration. While not as annoying as this detail was in past films (making Goblet of Fire a garbled mess of misguided storytelling) it does harm the viewer’s comprehension of some important plot items in relation to the film’s third act.

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Balloons not included.

Another year, another offering from Pixar beloved by critics and adults and kids and whoever else has a functional heart and brain.

Somehow Pixar manages to cultivate wonderful creativity and originality in almost every film they make. Up is no different, centering the story around an old man who lifts and flies his house with the help of an insane amount of balloons. Somehow, Pixar created an engaging story from that starting point.

Up sails by at a brisk pace – clocking in at only 96 minutes – but it manages to fill that hour and a half with more than enough backstory, tender moments, comedic gags, and action.

The story begins following a little boy named Carl with dreams of grand adventure, inspired by his hero Charles F. Muntz. He soon runs into Ellie, an energeric young girl who shares the same love of adventure and Charles Muntz. It is then that Carl makes the promise to Ellie that he will help her get to Paradise Falls in South America.

The subsequent sequence is a 5-minute encapsulation of Carl and Ellie’s long-lasting marriage. It’s a totally silent collection of scenes, except for the Michael Giacchio-supplied score. It may not be the absolutely brilliant dialogue-less first act of Wall-E, but it’s quite a heartfelt and useful way to establish the backstory that sets up the heart of the film.

Carl is left alone in the house he and Ellie fixed up and truly made their own. He’s getting pushed out by building contractors, who will do or pay anything to get his old house out of the way. When Carl leaves them an opening, they take it, leaving Carl with seemingly no options – until he unleashes a massive collection of balloons that lift his house off the foundation and kick off the action of the film.

What Carl didn’t realize when lifting off was that a young boy named Russell – who he had sent off on a fool’s errand the day before – was on the deck upon liftoff. Much of the story from that point on revolves around the relationship between Carl and Russell, the old curmudgeon and the excitable, curious young kid. I found myself siding with Carl most of the time, if only because I found Russell as annoying as he did.

Once the two land in South America, there are all sorts of things going on, but for the most part, everything works flawlessly. Without giving too much away, it involves a giant colorful bird, dozens of dogs wearing speech-collars, and the reemergence of a figure from the beginning of the film. Within the universe Up establishes (one where a house can be lifted up by balloons) every whimisical and providential occurrence makes perfect sense.

The film does alternate between action and dialogue frequently, but it always handles the transition well. It helps that the relationship between Carl and Russell truly grows in their intimate scenes, and that the action setpieces are exciting, easy to follow, and carry meaning and consequence.

By the end of the film, Carl has learned to move forward by letting go of the past he can never get back. I hate to do this, but it’s pretty uplifting. See what I did there?

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The biggest waste of three discs ever.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the McG-helmed Terminator sequel will perhaps be best remembered for Christian Bale’s profanity laden on-set tirade rather than for the film itself.

That’s not to say that the film is memorable – whatsoever – but it almost makes you pity the production rather than resent it. It helps that Jonathan Mostow and Terminator 3 already popped our Cameron-less cherry, so another Terminator sequel doesn’t feel quite so offensive this time around.

With the sacred cow fully slain, and Hollywood milking its dead corpse without remorse, it’s kind of unsurprising to find out that this Terminator sequel is roughly the same quality as the last Terminator sequel.

(Except this one is in the future.)

McG’s dark and grimy look at a post-apocalyptic future that Cameron only hinted at with his first two installments is fully realized with this solid Blu-ray release, but its supplemental material doesn’t do the underwhelming production any favors.

So does the audio and video presentation carry the film?

1. Public Enemies Blu-ray Review This is one Blu-ray you might want to lock up and throw away the key.

Why can't we be public friends instead?

If you’re into gangsters and the like, then the chances are you’ll already know who John Dillinger was.

Bank robber, Public Enemy #1 and something of a Robin Hood-type figure, his heisty-shooty-chasey Great Depression era exploits have become the stuff of American legend.

So you’d think a biopic starring none other than Johnny Depp and Christian Bale would be a great idea, right?

Maybe not.

He and his accomplice break in, and then promptly break back out again with several hardened criminals in their wake. And so it begins. This opening sequence is actually based on historical fact and these escapees went on to become the ‘First Dillinger Gang’, gallivanting up and down the Midwest with their eponymous leader, taking from the hated banks and gaining a very positive rep amongst the common people of downtrodden, poverty-stricken 1930’s America.

Johnny Depp is serious business.

It’s not long before the authorities begin to take notice of Depp and his gang’s rather brash style, and it becomes apparent to them that something must be done to stop him. That something comes in the form of a man, and that man’s name is, believe it or not, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale). Yes, he sounds like an accountant, but he’s really a tough, methodical and tenacious cop with a jaunty-hat-and-badge combo to prove it.

An elaborate game of cat and mouse ensues, with Dillinger deftly dodging detectives and frustrating feds, and Purvis desperately trying to make the most of limited resources and political interference. Dillinger meets his love interest, Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard), bullies her into dating him (but they fall in love anyway so it’s OK), and this story plays out in tandem with the overarching ‘catch-me-if-you-can’ plotline.

It’s not actually that easy to summarise what happens in this movie and there’s one very, very good reason for that. It’s because, story-wise, it is a big rambling mess. Quite what was going through director Michael Mann’s head when he was putting this together is anyone’s guess, but I’m pretty sure I know what wasn’t going through it, and that was any kind of coherent grasp of what this film should be about. I

’ve watched it twice now and I honestly still couldn’t even offer up a theory. We jump from gun battle to prison cell to gun battle, occasionally excited by the action but always slightly confused as to who’s doing what and why. There seems to be little direction, no detectable themes, and certainly no character development to speak of.

Depp turns in a low key performance, underplayed and way below his best. Bale does slightly better, managing to pull off a convincingly straight, methodical Purvis, but neither of these two usually fine actors are given enough to work with.

We end up with two lead characters with very little depth and absolutely nothing whatsoever about them that might enable an audience to make that crucial connection which will pull them through the story. Special mention here should go to Marion Cotillard, who does, albeit briefly, manage to engender some sort of sympathetic response as Dillinger’s confused, heartbroken moll.

There are some positives. There are some great ideas lurking in amongst the confusion, and some fantastic set pieces, with gunfights aplenty and some gruesome violence worthy of the genre.

There is a sense of the great bank robber, the ‘Public Enemy’, as a dying breed, detectable in the slow picking off of Dillinger’s gang, and the idea that cooking the books is becoming a far more profitable, and less physically risky, activity. The film’s historical period is very well realised, with the sort of fine detail you’d come to expect from a director like Mann.

But these plusses are not enough to pull the story out of the mire. If you like a good shootout, or you’re a diehard fan of underworld gangster movies such as this then fine, you’ll find something salvageable, but for the rest of us it just seems like a wasted opportunity.

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A cover only a mother could love.

It is with regret that I must inform you that there are no foals, voles, bowls, shoals or holes in this film.

On the plus side, there are a few goals, but to be honest it’s not really about that.

Gritty northern improv-master Ken Loach delivers us a tale of redemption, gangsters, football and, joy of joys, (Ooh-ahh) Eric Cantona. Will it be back of the net, or left back in the changing rooms? In order to answer this question, I watched the film, then wrote about it, then posted it on here.

You might as well have a read, now that you’ve come this far.

Bitterly disappointed in himself, he has taken on the air of one who has given up hope of ever achieving happiness. Even his usually reliable group of mates at the local post sorting office can’t cheer him up.

Then one day, just as everything seems to be getting on top of him, with stacks of undelivered mail threatening to burst out of the cubby holes in which he has hidden them and his rebellious teenage sons on the verge of turning from mere wayward adolescents into full-time Manchester crims, something unexpectedly magical happens.

Eric Cantona, King Eric, “the greatest footballer what ever lived” appears in his bedroom.

Director Ken Loach is quite dandy on set.

What follows is a heart warming tale of returning from the brink and the power of friendship. Loach successfully eliminates any residual warm fuzziness, associated with the presence of Cantona’s magical appearance as Evets’ ‘guardian spirit’, by injecting a dose of gangster and gun violence, which allows Eric Bishop’s story to unfold without lapsing into daft fantasy.

This, believe it or not, is a Ken Loach movie. In some respects you can tell – the harsh ‘kitchen sink’ northern realism and the naturalism of the performances are obvious trademarks of his and they’re here, front and centre. But what marks this out as an unusual Loach flick is the introduction of a sort of psychological magic to the mix.

We never know for sure why Cantona appears for Eric (although the fact that he smokes copious amounts of his son’s hidden hash stash is a strong indicator), but when it happens it’s as real to us as it is to him.

Although this film’s USP is the presence of Cantona, the Roi lui-meme only actually plays a rather minor role in the grand scheme of things. Dominating the film is the superb performance from Steve Evets as Eric Bishop.

As ever, the actors in ‘Looking for Eric’ have been given a loose reign by Loach, and allowed to improvise around their characters and scenes, talking over each other, adding extra depth and believability to their roles. Evets makes this look effortless.

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