Once Upon A Time In The West End

In recent years the Western has returned from the hinterlands of cinema. In their re-issue of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, perhaps distribution pioneers Park Circus know why the Horse Opera is ready for another stampeding encore. Andrew McWhirter talks to John Letham, one of founders of the Park Circus, based in Glasgow’s West End.

Italian maestro Sergio Leone’s 1966 final instalment of his Dollars Trilogy, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, blazes across cinema screens this weekend for the first time in an extended 179 minute cut. UK film industry success story Park Circus, which celebrated its fifth birthday in March, is behind the unveiling of a fully restored and remastered print. Founded by John Letham and Nick Varley, the venture has carried continuous momentum in a temperamental home industry and specialises in distributing classics and back catalogue films for theatrical release. Managing director Letham, perturbed at the lack of treatment towards the screening of classics, admits “We witnessed a niche, because when you show films at a cinema there’s two things you have to do: one is getting rights clearance and secondly is to secure availability. Time and again we witnessed good films not being showcased, either because people didn’t know who the rights holder was or if the rights cleared then there wasn’t always good material to show it.” That niche philosophy also underpins overall quirkiness to the business in being based outside of a bustling Soho, allowing for the added pragmatic bonus of reduced overheads.

At a time of resurgence in the Western, are the company’s plans a capital gain, cinephile-like dedication, or a combination of both in realising the popularity of debate surrounding a Western renaissance? Whilst the services of former Glasgow Film Festival Director Nick Barley come in fruitful with exhibitor relations, Park Circus are also switched on to cinema culture. This year they’ve handled David Lean and Bette Davis prints to celebrate respective centenaries, and hold awareness of other industry activities too. Letham says, “We’ve a lot of passion in what we do and are very focused. The BFI Southbank are hosting a Clint Eastwood Season, with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly as its key anchor, what we call an extended run for a few weeks so that other titles can gravitate around it.”

Boasting one of the most iconic three-way shootouts in film history, this most influential of Leone’s index sees the return of Clint Eastwood’s The Man With No Name hot on the trail of a $200,000 Confederate bounty alongside repulsive gunman Tuco (the enigmatic Eli Wallach) and scheming mercenary Sentenza (the face, Lee Van Cleef), set to a bloody backdrop of the American Civil War. With over the top violence, god-like gunplay and wry wit, this epic is Leone’s vision to deconstruct, with irony, a genre long recognised as a form of nostalgic escapism and to reinvigorate a whiff of staleness with long-lasting popularity. Passing into the parlance of our times are the words from a famous bath scene where Tuco’s mouthy assassin thinks him cornered until the unattractive anti-hero’s steel barrel emerges through the suds, “If you’re gonna shoot, shoot! Don’t talk!”

The black spectacled and bear-like Leone, similar to a young Kubrick, created such a revision of the Western that his trilogy invited subsequent politicised readings into his work, claiming commentaries on the violent atrocities and futility of the Vietnam War – an easier ability afforded to detached Europeans. With close-quarters gun battles, hangings, and prison camps, the relevance of the final piece of his trilogy to current concerns isn’t easy to ignore, nor are criticisms labelled towards a new cycle’s harsh violence in juxtaposition to contemporary ‘dark times’. According to Letham Park Circus’s motivations behind the release are a little more practical, “There’s a lot of reasons why we choose to do what we do, the first being our close relationship to exhibitors. If you’re leasing your James Bond picture, you put your block in the calendar, but if you are releasing a re-issue or smaller release you really have to work that bit harder. It’s crucial to know what they’ll take.” Regardless of allegorical and politicised readings of the Western, he does acknowledge a renewed thirst for the films, “Absolutely, with some of the poster artwork we’ve done we’ve really tried to capture that a little bit, Clint Eastwood with a modern twist”.

Although genre puritans might look for a showdown, narrative film and the Western began hand in hand with The Great Train Robbery in 1903. With the number of Western films dwindling as early as the 1950s, by all accounts the Hollywood favourite should’ve been bundled through the saloon doors and rode peacefully out of town by now. A glance at the oater in the last couple of years (Seraphim Falls, September Dawn, Broken Trail, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, 3:10 to Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and No Country for Old Men) offers fisticuffs in defense. The cult popularity of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly might seem adequate reasoning for its return, but Letham has his own philosophy as to why this genre endures, “When people talk about what makes a classic and what no longer works with contemporary audiences the period pieces like the Western always hold their own. The visuals don’t date like 1970’s or 1980’s movies set in that period and, unlike SF, the western isn’t all about effects. It’s the action, intrigue and the storylines that appeal.” It’s this demand that sees new projects on the horizon on both the large and small screens. The Last Horseman and The Hard Ride are just two of the many TV mini-series planned in the US for 2009, and Ed Harris directs Renee Zellweger and Viggo Mortensen in hired-gun mythical adaptation from Robert B. Parker’s novel Appaloosa later this year. Productions are not confined to horizons west though, as a release of Japanese director Takashi Miike’s postmodern flick Sukiyaki Western: Django is planned in the UK and the spurs continued to be spotted on Harry Potter (Goblet of Fire) director Mike Newell, reported to be working on a project about a native American bounty hunter. Further ahead still, plans to belatedly celebrate The Lone Ranger’s 75th Birthday in epic Disney style are in place. And Park Circus have already extended to making the full Dollars Trilogy (1964’s A Fistful of Dollars, and its 1965 sequel For A Few Dollars More) available to cinemas, “We’ve not reissued them as such, so some cinemas will, over a period, be doing the whole trilogy”.

A quick search of the organisation’s catalogue reveals that only a handful of their 7000 strong titles are Westerns, 12 to be exact. Letham believes he has a good mix between some of the best directors, like Robert Aldrich (Vera Cruz) and the biggest films, like The Big Country, but classification issues arise, “The Western catchphrase is interesting from the point of view of what actually makes a Western. There’s probably more in there, but we don’t have the majority of them. If you look at IMDB for example their top 50 westerns start with Leone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West, so if you are going to re-release stuff you’ve got to look at those types of titles, which are always going to be classics of cinema.” Whilst the genre is the longest lasting and largest in cinema history, the undersized presence it has at Park Circus reflects larger ideological concerns as to which Westerns are in fact celebrated. This bias has existed since writing about the genre became vogue in the critic’s circles of 1950s Paris. Scholar-fans have since selected a corpus of films from 1950s to the 1970s and excluded much else – which means 70% of overall production in the 1930s & 1940s heyday rolls along with the tumbleweed. Just as partiality exists at the heart of the selection of a Western canon, it also filters through to preconceived notions of what certain groups of Westerns represent.

From a director who made only seven feature films, Leone’s ‘spaghetti’ oeuvre in the ‘60s and ‘70s will always invite cultural readings into a troubled time for America (corruption, war, assassinations) played out on screen by the mythological iconography of its past. Asking why dystopia, then, is emblazoned across films today like No Country for Old Men appears as futile as asking Russell Crowe’s character, Ben Wade, in 3:10 to Yuma what time that deathly train departs. Films have simply readjusted violence into a new realm of realistic that makes Leone’s films seem tame by comparison. Therefore, Park Circus welcomes a re-examination of the X-rated trilogy, “The violence issues are interesting, and we obviously like to put things back through BBFC and they do respond well by looking at modern audiences, to be fair I think that 15 is the correct rating for it.”

As the years pass, each of today’s Western output may well be grouped under the banner of darker times and prophetic of unspeakable futures, just as Leone’s crop has. But there are never absolutes; just as Leone’s violently artistic Westerns may have been reactionary to other factors (declining cinema audiences of the 1960s or the abolishment of harsh censorship) the reasons behind a current cycle are plentiful: pleasure, prestige, rewriting myths, political, allegorical, etc.

That the genre, if not leading a cattle drive, is grazing famously on public appetite again is not to say it’s ever been away. In American life the mythological presence of the West never strays too far from Route 66 billboards or hero rhetoric to aid partisan politics. The point being, whilst there may be many answers to why Westerns existence thrives again, there’s never a definitive one. Just as old-styled action will entertain in 3:10 to Yuma, films like 2003’s The Alamo will display a knee-jerk reaction to atrocities like 9/11 in its failed attempts to rouse a nation, whilst a movie like September Dawn, recounting a 1857 massacre carried out by Mormons at the behest of the ‘American Moses’ Brigham Young, reminds fanaticism isn’t restricted to one race. The only certainty is that Westerns are doing what they always do, reminding of the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly plays at BFI Southbank, The Filmhouse in Edinburgh and other key cites from Aug 1st. www.parkcircus.com to find out where.

The Dark Knight - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: Christopher Nolan
Screenwriter: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer
Running Time: 152 mins
Certificate: 12A
Released: Out Now

It’s a rivalry that has been raging since Batman Issue #1 (1940), and has since been waged across all the visual mediums, be it comics, television, films or video games. Now, Batman and The Joker have returned to the big screen for the first time together in nineteen years in what has become the most anticipated film of the summer, if not the decade. Bolstered by a stunning viral marketing campaign and heightened by the media frenzy surrounding the untimely death of Heath Ledger, there was so much anticipation going into this film it’s a wonder it didn’t buckle under the weight of it. Instead, it has become a phenomenon, both at the box office, with the critics and with the audiences who are returning to see it several times. Is it really worth the hype?

Since Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has been looking to step down as the masked vigilante Batman in the hopes that an official, elected, hero, can protect Gotham City. He sees his chance in the fearless new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), and hopes his former love Rachael Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) will be awaiting him with opens arms. However Gotham has been rocked by the arrival of The Joker (Ledger), an urban terrorist who has seized power of the cities Mob families and is determined to destroy Batman, and prove that even a great man can be brought down to his murky moral depths.

What the Nolan Brothers and Goyer understand is what Tim Burton failed to grasp in the 1989 film; the true nature of the parallel relationship between Batman and The Joker. Where Burton forced a revenge narrative on them, The Dark Knight is the first film that successfully explores the mystic duality of the pair. Batman sees himself in The Joker; he sees where his own borderline psychosis could lead without his self-imposed rules. The Joker sees his greatest challenge in Batman; he is the one soul the self-proclaimed Agent of Chaos cannot corrupt. As The Joker says, “I think we are destined to dance like this forever.” At once a perfect summation of the classic hero/villain pairing, and also a taste of a possibility that will sadly never be fulfilled with these two actors behind the masks.

Now that it’s been brought up, yes, Heath Ledger is fantastic in the role. The Joker is a lip-smacking psycho with no morals and no cause. He just likes to watch the world burn, and thanks to Ledger’s magnetic presence; he ensures we’re all going along for the ride. While Ledger is the showiest, he is not the only great performer here: Bale returns to the role with aplomb, Eckhart effectively conveys the downfall of a great man and Gary Oldman, the most overlooked of all in this, is a wonderful Jim Gordon. Sensibly ignoring a trite origin story, The Joker simply exists, like Batman he is a constant, which allows Eckhart’s Dent arc to drive the film, which is essentially a battle for his soul between these two creatures of the night and by proxy becomes a war for the soul of Gotham City.

Speaking of which, said city has never been lensed quite as magnificently before. Nolan and his cinematographer Wally Pfister (who has photographed all of his films since Memento) take their influences from Michael Mann and Alan Mak & Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs), creating beautiful panoramas in which to stage their action. The wonderful chase sequence between the Bat-Pod and the 18-wheeler truck across Gotham is awe-inspiring in its lack of CGI and dependence on physical effects. Even the opening bank heist, used as an IMAX trailer last December, is thrilling and nerve wracking in its simplicity and choreography.

Naturally it’s not perfect, the film suffers most from over-ambition and there’s an awful lot of plot to be squeezed into its two hours thirty minute running time. Some of the quieter moments of reflection are rushed passed all too quickly, leaving some of the emotional pay-offs dangling. Yet a blockbuster with smarts, ideas and ambition is such a rarity these days that to chide it for not always hitting the mark does not take away from the impressive achievement. The Dark Knight is a fantastic film experience that cements this vision of Batman as definitive, and takes the comic book movie to new heights.

Top 10: Movie Villains - Part 3

In honour of the arrival of Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight, in cinema’s now, Robert Duffin concludes the countdown of his top movie villains with the final three…

3. Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) – Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

“Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas!”

More often praised for his Hans Gruber role in Die Hard, Alan Rickman’s ultimate treatise in villainy is surely this, the role he turned down twice before finally accepting. His snarling, over the top Sheriff with his pithy one-liners is diabolical and joyous to watch, so much so that it’s easy to wish Kevin Costner’s Robin would sod off back to Sherwood. His scheme to screw Robin over by marrying his woman is true evil genius, and his hurried attempts to impregnate her as the hero storms the castle is black-as-tar twisted. Remains feared, even after he begrudgingly reveals his real name to be George.

2. Rev. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum)- Night of the Hunter (1955)

“I can hear you whisperin' children, so I know you're down there. I can feel myself gettin' awful mad. I'm out of patience children. I'm coming to find you now.”

When director Charles Laughton described Harry Powell as a “diabolical shit” at the audition, Robert Mitchum rapidly shouted “Present!” securing him the role of a lifetime. Sporting the iconic LOVE and HATE tattoos on his knuckles, Powell is evil without the soft touch of humour of the Sheriff. This man of the cloth marries and then murders a woman, then stalks her children with his weapon of choice; the switchblade. Apparently Mitchum hated his co-star Shelly Winters so much that he claimed to have wished Laughton had used her in the scene where we see her character dead underwater. Truly creepy.

1.BOB (Frank Silva) – Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

“Bob is real! He comes in through my window at night. He's real. He's getting to know me now. He speaks to me.”

While some will continually spout the virtues of frequent poll toppers Hannibal Lecter or Darth Vader, I challenge anyone not to be truly terrified by Bob, the supernatural being from the television show Twin Peaks and it’s movie sequel. The horror of Bob is his twisted physicality, lurking behind bedroom dressers and hanging from your bedposts, or worse crawling over your living room couch to get you. Apparently, or so the legend goes, David Lynch one day had a sudden image of Frank Silva, who was at this point the show's set decorator, crouching in a sinister manner in Laura Palmer's bedroom. He went ahead and filmed the scene without really knowing how he could use it. Later on Lynch noticed that when he shot the scene of Laura's mother screaming that a reflection of Silva could be noticed in the mirror behind her, a freak accident that gave way to a legend. Watch these videos, and don’t have nightmares.

This concludes the top ten movie villains, agree or disagree with the choices? Then click on the comment box and let us know who was or should have been left out. Check out Montage over the weekend for our takes on The Dark Knight.

Top 10: Movie Villains - Part 2

Robert Duffin continues the countdown of his top ten movie villains in honour of the arrival of Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight, which opens in theatres this weekend…

7. Frank (Henry Fonda) - Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)

“People scare better when they’re dying.”

You can’t do a list of villains without someone from the Old West, and Fonda’s Frank just about pips all the others. One of cinema’s greatest heroes up until this point, Sergio Leone’s genius stroke of casting had Fonda play against type as a gunman for hire. The story goes that Fonda turned up on the set with a beard and contact lenses in an attempt to appear more like a bad guy. Leone quickly informed him that the best way to play it would be with his normal features, and suddenly those baby blues became the ice-cold stare of a killer.



6. Ming The Merciless (Max Von Sydow) - Flash Gordon (1980)

Zarkov: We are only interested in friendship. Why do you attack us?

Ming: Why not?

There’s just something incredibly satisfying about seeing a proper thesp ham it up a bit. Bergman’s actor of choice for displaying the intricacies of the human condition finally grows a silly beard, shaves his head and prances around in a red cape. Merciless ruler of the planet Mongo, Ming’s truly diabolical plan sees him sending the Moon out of orbit with his Death Ray in order to destroy the earth in a film producer Dino De Laurentiis had hoped Fellini would direct. Hmm. May the power of Ming compel you!



5. Baby Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) - Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

"Sister, sister, oh so fair, why is there blood all over your hair?"

Mired in the legendary feud between two great actresses is a truly iconic villain. Baby Jane is driven by something far more potent than a desire for power; she is an old woman desperate for the days when she was a child star, taking out her frustration on her invalid sister. Davis reportedly burst into tears when she saw herself in full make up on the set, and you can’t blame her. The caked on make-up mask adds a layer of horror to the wretched old hag whose shudder inducing performance of one of her childhood hit songs is equally disturbing and pitiable.



4. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) - No Country For Old Men (2007)

"What's the most you've ever lost in a coin toss?"

A contemporary choice, but one that will no doubt remain on villain lists for decades to come. There’s almost something perversely enjoyable about watching Chigurh go about his business, further adding to the darkly comic tone that imbues the film. He arrives in scenes like an ominous storm cloud, forever changing the landscapes that he crosses, usually leaving them dripping with the blood of those who get in his way. Bardem’s performance is positively chilling, proving that even the devil has bad hair days. “Are you going to kill me?”… “Did you see me?”

Check out Montage tomorrow for Robert’s final 3 villains as well as the Montage review of The Dark Knight. In the meantime, discuss your top movie villains using our comment box.

Top 10: Movie Villains - Part 1

With the release of The Dark Knight imminent, and Heath Ledger’s Joker finally unleashed, it’s a good time to take stock and look back at some of cinema’s greatest villains. Robert Duffin has trawled through the evil, the camp, and the sinister to bring to you his top ten movie villains. The countdown begins today…

10. Khan (Ricardo Montalban) - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

“From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.”

A Star Trek character that manages to out-ham William Shatner? Well that’s can only be Khan. A genetically engineered super-soldier with a penchant for quoting classic literature while sporting pseudo-S&M clobber, flanked by a gang of ex-Chippendales (in real life), Khan is unique in more ways than one. The most important one however is that his maniacal nature does not produce bland desires for ‘world domination’; instead he just really wants to hurt Mr. Shatner. Fair enough.

9. Maleficent (Voiced by Eleanor Audley) - Sleeping Beauty (1959)

“Now you shall deal with ME, o Prince - and all the powers of HELL!”

With Cinderella’s Evil Stepmother, and Disney’s greatest bitch Maleficent under her belt, perhaps this place should really go to the demonic vocal chords of Eleanor Audley. Unlike many of Disney’s villains there’s nothing goofy about Maleficent, and like Khan she isn’t driven by the usual villain causes. She doesn’t want to make her daughter Queen, nor is she governed by a murderous sense of vanity. What incurred the unstoppable wrath of Maleficent? She didn’t get invited to a party. Think about that next time you’re making up your invite list.

8. The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) - The Terminator (1984)

“Listen. And understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.”

Before it learned Spanish slang and became a 12-year-old boys best friend, The Terminator was ripping out hearts, shooting old ladies and taking names. Well, just one name – Sarah Conner. The dead eyed, blank faced killing machine was the perfect role for the similarly attributed Schwarzenegger before he began to think he could actually act. Personally, having watched Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) first, returning to the original and seeing Ah-nuld as the bad guy produced an even greater impact.

Come back tomorrow for Part 2, and in the meantime, use the comment box to discuss the choices so far and show support for your favourite movie villains.

Mamma Mia! - Review by Carmody Wilson

Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Screenwriter: Catherine Johnson
Running Time: 108 mins
Certificate: PG
Released: July 11th

Most musicals are plasteceine, detestable tripe-ridden journeys to a predictable ending, featuring transparent plot devices, insincere acting and alarming and unannounced bursts of idiotic song. Mamma Mia is really no different, but escapes the cheese of its predecessors sheerly by the talent and gameness of the cast, the smart direction and, naturally, the sing-out-loud music of Abba.

Set on a tiny Greek island, and abased on the stage show of the same name, Mamma Mia! tells the story of Sophie (Amanda Siefried) a young bride-to-be who invites all three of her potential fathers to her nuptials in the hopes of figuring out which one is the real deal. Meryl Streep is Donna, her rambunctious, aging hippy mother who runs a hotel on said island. All sorts of wacky reunions (complete with complex greeting rituals) take place as first Sophie’s British bridesmaids, then Donna’s American ( Christine Baranski) and British (Julie Walters) pals, and finally, the three dad candidates, an “American”, a Brit and a Swede respectively, ( Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard) arrive by boat to take their part in the musical mayhem.

The aggressive song bursts present in other musicals are actually enlivened here by the sheer dancieness of Abba’s upbeat song- smithing, and what is most grating about other musicals is quite engaging and fun in Mamma Mia! Streep sings well, her tender alto alternating between breathy on the more wistful numbers (“The Winner Takes It All”) and out and out belt-y bravado on the more robust numbers such as “Super Trouper.” But of course she can sing, she probably built the sets too. And that’s what’s surprising about this whole film is that while none of the title actors claim to be singers, everyone gamely tackles the disco-pop with spirit and panache. The only sore thumb-and it’s a big one- is Pierce Brosnan. His “American” Sam Carmichael is basically just Pierce Brosnan speaking in an accent undiscernable on either side of the Atlantic. And his singing? Well, he claims to have sung in a previous film, “Evelyn”, and Abba’s Benny Andersson has gone on record saying he thinks Brosnan’s voice is “great”, but it was a real sticking point. In the screening room there were gentle titters which eventually turned into out-and-out guffaws every time Brosnan set his steely gaze on the camera and huskily warbled out some of Abba’s more outlandish emotional projectiles. Stellan Skarsgard, incredibly, was one of the best parts of this crazily-assembled ensemble piece, and though he doesn’t really sing, captures the piratical role of the roving Swede Bill Anderson with a characteristic bohemium shrug and a gruff, earthy humour. Colin Firth pulls of his bumbling English schtick as well as usual and admitted that “Blind terror is a very bonding commodity” when tackling his singing role in the company of his fellow dads.

The complexity of the choreography and the freshness of the music add an unstoppable feel to this fun, uplifting summer film, and aside from the unexplained proliferation of British people on the island (shouldn’t they be at a foam party somewhere?) Mamma Mia! is the perfect, brainless, endlessly cheerful antidote to all the really stupid CGI flicks out there this summer. Hulk would be too busy tapping his toes to smash after seeing this one. Just hope that he turns a blind eye to the parts that Pierce Brosnan is in, and humanity is safe.

EIFF Winner: Somers Town- Review by Emma Lennox

Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film
Director: Shane Meadows
Screenwriter: Paul Fraser
Runtime: 75 mins

Shane Meadows follows up the fiery This is England with a tale of two unlikely lads in this comical and endearing tale of misfit youth. Thomas Turgoose takes on his second role for the director, and although he's grown in height, he's still a cheeky wee bastard. Playing teen drifter, Tomo, Turgoose is as compelling to watch as ever; full of naive and arrogant charm, which perfectly contrasts his co-lead, Piotr Jagiello as the quietly suffering Polish immigrant, Marek.

Although softly raising issues of immigration and teen culture, Meadows is aiming for a surprisingly feel good narrative in his typical style of improvisation and hand-held immediacy. A folksy soundtrack and black and white palette complete the aesthetic, however the London setting doesn't hold the same inclusive energy as Meadow's home town films. Light, but not light weight, Somers Town is an enjoyable escapade.

The Jury citation read: “It is a great pleasure to recognise Somers Town as the freshest, most imaginative, maverick work deserving of the Michael Powell Award. After viewing an impressive selection of films and a long deliberation we the Jury unanimously agreed that the award would go to Somers Town.”

This year the Michael Powell Award was significantly increased from £5000 to £20,000.

EIFF Winner: Good Dick- Review by Emma Lennox

Skillset New Director Award
Director: Marianna Palka
Screenwriter: Marianna Palka
Runtime: 86 mins

A video store clerk falling in love with his porn obsessed customer, doesn't nearly sum up this quirky, bemusing and overall original feature which is written, directed and starring the same wonder woman, Marianna Palka. Her unnamed character is a moody, bitter and mysterious woman who only ventures out into her home of LA to rent porn. Jason Ritter plays the unnamed love fool, who attempts to get to know her through dubious means. Tension is racked up between them with biting dialogue (“I don't like your face, you're disgusting to me,” “Well I know you find me attractive,” “Not at all.”) and physical, comedic performances. Even the video store diversions are filled out with rounded characters and entertaining banter with a male perspective including one video nerd's advice on finding the clitoris “it's the thing that looks like the flux capacitor”. Despite plenty of 'pussy' references, Good Dick never seems contrite, and is instead underpinned by a deeper psychological context; by turns a funny and disturbing view of sexual relations. Altogether a blistering and nuanced debut from Palka, Good Dick manages to be both edgy and warm hearted.