Home Media Magazine - August 31 - September 6, 2008 - (Page 18) REVIEWS I SUMMER SCARS Prebook 9/2; Street 9/30 TLA, Thriller, $19.99 DVD, Unrated. Stars Kevin Howarth, Ciaran Joyce, Amy Harvey, Jonathan Jones, Darren Evans, Chris Conway, Ryan Conway. www.homemediamagazine.com S ummer Scars is a dark coming-of-age tale about six 14-year-olds who are faced with a lifechanging experience when they ditch school to hang out in the woods. Not looking for trouble as they sit around smoking and drinking beers, the teens soon find it in the form of a deranged drifter, Peter (Howarth), who two of the boys accidentally run over while riding around on a stolen moped. Feeling lucky he isn’t hurt, they grudgingly welcome the stranger into their group, won over by his daft antics. As the afternoon wears on, Peter’s horseplay turns into a sadistic game of torture that he considers “valu- able” life lessons for the kids. Now their only hope is Bingo (Joyce), the alpha male of the group, who is able to escape and go for help after taking a beating from Peter. With Bingo gone, Peter holds the rest of the teens hostage at gunpoint, subjecting them to humiliating, unspeakable mind games, which turn to a sexual nature when he takes a liking to Leanne (Harvey), the group’s lone girl. Unfortunately, instead of the police, Bingo comes back with his father’s pistol, forcing a standoff with Peter that will leave the once naïve teens scarred for life, both mentally and physically. Summer Scars is an end-of-innocence British thriller, based on an actual incident from director Julian Richards’ own teenage years, which plays out like a twisted version of Stand By Me. It’s this intimacy that Richards brings to the film, along with a vibrant cast of youngsters and the intense acting of Howarth (featured in Richards’ The Last Horror Movie), which has made it a hit at film festivals worldwide and garnered it two BAFTA awards. – Matt Miller I WE ARE TOGETHER Street 9/9 Palm, Documentary, $19.98 DVD, NR. A nyone looking for a film brimming with family values could hardly do better than We Are Together. The story of the children of the Agape Children’s Center in South Africa is an exercise in building hope from tragedy, told mainly through the eyes of the Moya family children. Several of them live at the center, an orphanage for youngsters whose parents died of AIDS. The eldest children live in their family home, but only one sister has a job and it’s not enough to provide for all the little ones. Eldest brother Sifiso is too sick to work, and we know why, even as the younger siblings hope it isn’t so. The hope for their future lies in Agape, where they sing every day after school in the hope of making a CD and traveling to London to raise money for the orphanage. Their songs illustrate the role of singing in South African tribal life, but also the roots of gospel music all over the world. Life – and death – go on around them. Slindile Moya, 12, is credited as a co-writer on the film and has one of the strongest and most beautiful singing voices in the group. Her insights help us understand the plight of 1.2 million AIDS orphans in South Africa. Eventually American charity groups hear their beautiful harmonies and a year later make a trip to New York, where the children perform with Alicia Keys and Paul Simon. The film makes it clear that these are the lucky ones, and at the end directs viewers to Web sites where they can buy the CD or make other contributions to ease the suffering in South Africa. – Holly J. Wagner I THE CASE OF THE GRINNING CAT Street 9/2 First Run/Icarus, Documentary, B.O. $0.02 million, $29.98 DVD, NR. S oon after the attacks of 9/11, images of a yellow grinning cat began to pop up around France and other parts of Europe. The graffiti image looked like a logo designed for a T-shirt, inspired by the Cheshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland fame. For French documentarian Chris Marker, the ubiquitous cat became a symbol for freedom and the re-emergence of French political activism. As his hour-long film begins, the first image of the cat appears during a silly gathering in which a group of people gather in a public square to prance around with their umbrellas. The demonstration serves little purpose but to occupy the attentions of a collective consciousness in need of a diversion. Marker regarded the youth of the current generation as apolitical. Then the attacks of 9/11 would change the world. In 2002, the attentions of French activism would turn toward a controversial election that saw Jacques Chirac overwhelmingly re-elected as president. Then came demonstrations against not just the Iraq War, but also any perceptions of imperialism. Marker also depicts a rally in support of fighting AIDS. This isn’t a political documentary per se, but rather a collection of observations and a call to constant vigilance. Marker’s esoteric imagery is best appreciated by fans of independent experimental cinema, many of whom are likely familiar with the director’s works. Among his best-known films is La Jetée, the 1962 film upon which 12 Monkeys is based. The Case of the Grinning Cat (known as Chats Perchés in the original French), is a 2004 work included as part of a wave of Marker films being released on DVD. Others include The Last Bolshevik, The Sixth Side of the Pentagon and Remembrance of Things to Come. The Grinning Cat DVD also includes a number of Marker’s short films that focus on animals, in keeping with the feline theme of the DVD. – John Latchem 18 Home Media Magazine August 31–September 6, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com
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