This week's DVD release reviews
MILK
Directed by Gus Van Sant. Starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, James Franco,Victor Garber 15 cert
Moving, exciting – and surprisingly cheering – study of pioneering gay politician Harvey Milk. Oscar- winning Penn exercises admirable restraint (for once) as the man who secured election to a prominent position in San Francisco city politics before being gunned down by a conservative colleague. Sparse DVD extras. DONALD CLARKE
FROST/NIXON
Directed by Ron Howard. Starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Matthew Macfadyen, Sam Rockwell, Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones PG cert
Peter Morgan's stage play is opened out to dramatise the 1977 TV interviews between ambitious British broadcaster David Frost (Sheen) and disgraced former US president Richard Nixon (Oscar nominee Langella). This battle of wits proves wholly absorbing in a movie made with alert attention to detail, powered by accumulating dramatic tension and performed by an exemplary cast. MICHAEL DWYER
THE WRESTLER
Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Starring Mickey Rourke, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei 18 cert
Rising from the ashes of a career that appeared permanently burnt out, Rourke returns to prime form, vividly portraying a washed-up, self-destructive former wrestling star desperately seeking personal and professional redemption. The screenplay is schematic and contrived, but Rourke, in an Oscar-nominated performance, carries it off, immersing himself deeply under the skin of his wreck of a character. MICHAEL DWYER
JULIA
Directed by Erick Zonca. Starring Tilda Swinton, Aidan Gould, Saul Rubinek, Kate del Castillo 16 cert
Ambitious, naturalistic drama following Swinton's disturbed alcoholic as she joins in a scheme to kidnap a boy from his wealthy grandfather. Reminiscent of John Cassavetes in its loose-limbed form, the film is well-acted, but the arch dialogue fast becomes tedious and, at two hours and 20 minutes, it's wildly overlong. DONALD CLARKE
BRIDE WARS
Directed by Gary Winick. Starring Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Candice Bergen PG cert
Hathaway and Hudson play best friends who fall out when they happen to schedule their weddings on the same day. Somehow it took three writers to come up with the wispy, laboured screenplay for what's pitched as a comedy but isn't ever funny. MICHAEL DWYER
