New DVDs

Donald Clarkeand Michael Dwyerreview the latest releases

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR
***
Directed by Mike Nichols. Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Ned Beatty, Emily Blunt 15 cert
The reliably liberal Nichols takes the true story of a dissolute congressman's efforts to fund the Afghan resistance against the Soviets and turns it into an agreeably slippery farce. Sadly, the film, released here in a bare-bones edition, loses some of its delicious cynicism in the last reel as it succumbs to the politics of The Great Man, but it's still fun. DC

4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS & 2 DAYS/ 4 LUNI, 3 SAPTAMANI SI 2 ZILE
*** **
Directed by Cristian Mungiu. Starring Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasilu, Vlad Ivanov 18 certThe 2007 winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Mungiu's chilling drama is set in late 1980s Romania, when one college student (Marinca) helps another (Vasilu) prepare for an illegal abortion. The film is deliberately unsettling, and made with remarkable conviction and honesty. MD

SHROOMS
**
Directed by Paddy Breathnach. Starring Lindsey Haun, Jack Huston, Max Kasch, Maya Hazen, Alice Greczyn, Robert Hoffman 18 cert
A bunch of stupid young Americans go mental after taking magic mushrooms in this fitful Irish horror film from the team behind Man About Dog. Appropriately enough for a film in its genre, Shrooms comes across as an ugly Frankenstein's Monster, poorly constructed from other men's discarded organs. A (hem, hem!) tantalising "Unseen Edition" is available on the DVD. DC

FEAST OF LOVE
*
Directed by Robert Benton. Starring Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Radha Mitchell, Jane Alexander, Alexa Davalos, Billy Burke, Toby Hemingway, Selma Blair, Fred Ward 18 cert
Having played God in two movies, Freeman takes on the roles of omniscient sage and Cupid in veteran writer/ director Benton's manipulative melodrama. It interweaves the complicated personal lives of diverse characters gravitating around a coffee shop in Portland, Oregon. MD