NewDVDs

The latest DVDs reviewed

RED ROAD  ****

Directed by Andrea Arnold. Starring Kate Dickie, Tony Curran 18 cert

A prize-winner at Cannes last year, Arnold's remarkable first feature film stars Dickie as a lonely CCTV operator in Glasgow who takes great risks in following a violent ex-convict. There are shades of Michael Haneke's best work about this often unbearably gripping psychological thriller. Michael Dwyer

IMAGINE ME & YOU **

Directed by Ol Parker. Starring Piper Perabo, Lena Headey 15 cert

Who wouldn't welcome a romcom that presents its lesbian heroines as average folk? Unhappily, this is not such a film. Telling the story of a recently married woman (Perabo) who falls in love with a florist (Headey), this nauseatingly twee picture features posh characters whose smug complacency might cause even Richard Curtis to run to the bathroom with his hand over his mouth. Donald Clarke

IDLEWILD

Directed by Bryan Barber. Starring André Benjamin, Antwan A Patton, Paula Patton, Terrence Howard, Cicely Tyson, Ben Vereen, Ving Rhames, Patti LaBelle 15 cert

OutKast, that imaginative Georgian hip-hop duo, bring their expansive, restless sensibility to bear on a movie musical. Telling the confusing, rambling tale of two old pals from the south, one a musician, the other an impresario, who run into trouble during prohibition, Idlewild is beautifully made, nicely scored and, sadly, a total mess. André is, as always, engaging. Big Boi should, however, stick to the rap. Donald Clarke

STEP UP

Directed by Anne Fletcher. Starring Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan PG cert

Duane Alder recycles his Save the Last Dance screenplay, infusing it with elements from Fame and 42nd Street, for a cliche-strewn romance between a bourgeois dance student and the poor boy who becomes her partner on and off the floor. Michael Dwyer