“I am prepared for amazing things to happen. I can handle it.” Such is the attitude in Miranda July’s indie hit, rewarded for Originality of Vision at Sundance last year. July’s first feature is a continuation of her work as a performance artist — and yes, the alarm bells start ringing as we first meet her character, Christine, at work on her video art in her bedroom. Before you can say “quirky suburban Americana”, however, the film develops its own beautiful palette of colour and sound, with wickedly dark humour to boot. In an ensemble piece where children are often more adult than their adult counterparts, July weaves together a community of lonely individuals, finding the greatest pleasure in simple human contact. Interviews with director and cast shed more light on this kaleidoscopic film. Four stars
Louis Wise
Cinderella Man
Buena Vista, 12, 139 mins; £19.99
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Ron Howard’s biopic is pallid where it should be colourful and inspiring. James J Braddock (Russell Crowe) was a depression-era hero, a boxer who, despite injury, returned to the ring to put food on his family’s table. A year after being on the breadline, he was world champion. It’s a knockout tale, yet, despite fine acting, only the boxing scenes achieve true pace and pathos. The mawkish domestic scenes, with support from Renée Zellweger as Braddock’s wife, Mae, never ring true; and the New Jersey slum sets, though rendered in shades of downtrodden brown and annoyingly dimly lit, still look like a Hollywood lot. For those keen on pugilism, the fight scenes, and an extra featuring Norman Mailer discussing their reconstruction, are definitely worth seeking out. The other extra is a curio: Ron Howard’s commentary is not on the film, but on the scenes he cut out. Three stars
Patricia Nicol
Red Eye
Universal, 12, 82 mins; £17.99
In which a hotel manager, Lisa (Rachel McAdams), meets the charming Rippner (Cillian Murphy) on an aeroplane home and is blackmailed into co-ordinating a political assassination. After A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream franchise, Wes Craven aims to deliver a taut thriller, but the result is uneven and the tension slack. The action takes place in confined spaces, yet Craven never fully captures this claustrophobic potential — a shame, as the DVD offers not only a “making of” and a commentary, but a eulogy to Craven, with chapter titles such as A Legend and An Actor’s Director. Meanwhile, the soundtrack boasts a battery of violins, swirling with every close-up. But, really, you don’t need the Royal Philharmonic to convey the sheer horror of downing sea breezes in the Tex-Mex restaurant of an American airport. Only when we reach the finale does Craven manage to revive his glory days. Not trashy enough to be an A-list B-movie, and not classy enough to warrant its humourless approach. Two stars
Louis Wise
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The Aristocrats
Pathé, 18, 92 mins; £15.99
This documentary may be touched by brilliance, but its ideal viewer needs a high disgust threshold and a high interest in stand-up comedy techniques. It centres on a single joke that has been passed (often off stage) around comedians. A man visits a vaudeville agent’s office to offer an interesting family act; he is asked what they do, and launches into a lurid and lengthy description, including incest, faeces and vomit; finally, he is asked their name, and answers, “the Aristocrats”. The point is, it’s all in the telling — both verbal inventiveness and physical performance — and raises serious “how far can you go?” questions about taste and obscenity. A host of comics, among them Billy Connolly, Eddie Izzard, Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg, offer versions and analyses. The film-makers Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette create impetus by pacy cross-cutting and by cranking up the shock factor. Thorough extras. Three stars
Adrienne Connors
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Slow Motion (Sauve qui peut)
Artificial Eye, 18, 84 mins; £19.99
Denise (Nathalie Baye) is leaving the city for the country. She is also leaving her television-director lover, Paul Godard (Jacques Dutronc), who has an awkward relationship with his daughter and ex-wife. Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert), who will encounter both of them, is a prostitute looking for a flat. Marguerite Duras delivers pensées in an occasional voice-over. Jean-Luc Godard’s 1980 film is confusing, beautiful, funny, sexy, unsettling, repellent and difficult to follow, but, unlike some of his later efforts, never boring. It’s about dysfunctional modern life, the commodification of sex and the sexualisation of other relationships, in a way that will often make you queasy and wonder what’s up with Jean-Luc (and you won’t want to know). A 20-minute “making of” meditation is as Godardian as the main feature. Three stars
David Mills
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