Beginning the working week on a Tuesday is one of life’s little joys, and Rialto Channel has an interesting collection of films to help keep the joy alive this week.
Beginning the working week on a Tuesday is one of life’s little joys, and Rialto Channel has an interesting collection of films to help keep the joy alive this week.
American actor Will Ferrell is currently taunting us in trailers as Ron Burgundy, announcing the follow-up to 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Anchorman 2 will be shot this year and released in 2013; but this Saturday you can get another perspective on this comedian and actor - one that doesn’t require him to blow his “hot breath” in your ear.
Everything Must Go (Saturday 9th June, 8.30pm) is one of those relatively simple films filled with metaphors about life. Ferrell stars as Nick, a sales executive and incurable drunk who loses his job, wife and house in one day. With his possessions scattered across the front lawn of the house he can no longer access Ferrell finds redemption by letting stuff go, helping a young local kid (Christopher Jordan Wallace), and in the friendship of a new neighbour (Rebecca Hall).
It’s not the first time Ferrell has taken a relatively straight role - let’s not forget Stranger than Fiction and Melinda and Melinda, but what I like about his performance here is he’s convincing as the “average guy”. He doesn’t demand our sympathy, and manages to throw just enough humour into this adaptation of Raymond Carver’s short story to keep us engaged.
Also featured this week is a documentary by investigative journalist and director Donal McIntyre that will both confirm and defy your perceptions of a modern day gangster. Taking three years to shoot, A Very British Gangster (Thursday 7th June, 8.30pm) follows one of England’s most notorious living gangsters, Manchester’s Dominic Noonan, and his gang who spend their time appearing in court and policing (in their own unique manner) the streets of Manchester. There are plenty of surprises, and while McIntyre never looks entirely comfortable with his subject, he does a great job of getting Noonan to open up and talk honestly about his criminal and personal lives.
This isn’t the only real life crime story on Rialto Channel in June. Following in the footsteps of the fascinating Dominic Noonan is a series of Crime Documentaries screening every Thursday evening at 8.30pm. From Mr Untouchable, the “original gangster” Nicky Barnes in New York in the 70s, to the extraordinary miscarriage of justice story in Give Up Tomorrow, there is plenty to surprise, and enough to encourage good behaviour.
Enjoy.