Bovie Movie

British theatre director Sam Mendes made an astonishing film debut with this sublime black comedy about midlife crises, starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening as a bored couple in suburban America. The sexually frustrated Bening begins an affair with estate agent Peter Gallagher; Spacey, meanwhile, fantasises about Mena Suvari, a teenage friend of his daughter’s. Their disparate needs make for a comic tragedy of misunderstanding that combines acute observations with side-splitting scenarios. This truly outstanding film (on which Steven Spielberg acted as an uncredited producer) deservedly picked up a clutch of Oscars, including best picture, best director and best actor for Spacey. 

Sarah Huttington, recently engaged, goes home to Pasadena with fiancé Jeff for a family wedding. She hears a rumor that “The Graduate” (book and movie) are based on her family. Did her grandmother and her mom have flings with the same man just before her parents married? Is she a strange man’s child; does this explain why she doesn’t fit in? Was her mother happy? Is she too facing a loveless marriage? Where can she seek answers: her mother’s dead, her father’s a pleasant naïf. Ask her salty grandma? Better to ask the man in the triangle, the real Benjamin Braddock. With Jeff’s blessing, Sarah heads for San Francisco, looking for the key to her past and to her future.

Swedish music-video director Jonas Akerlund made his first foray into feature films with this head-spinning affair. Part Requiem for a Dream, part The Salton Sea, it’s a grimy tale about “spun-out” crystal meth users that’s as hyperactive as its protagonists. Throwing together an eclectic cast that ranges from Brittany Murphy and a green-toothed Mena Suvari to Mickey Rourke and singer Deborah Harry, it takes a quirky and irreverent look at addiction and its consequences for junkie Jason Schwartzman and his misfit friends. The action unfolds over three days, during which time their dependency pushes them into increasingly bizarre situations. Frenetically shot and with enough jump cuts and imaginative visuals to give viewers whiplash, the movie has cult cool written all over it. However, its lack of morality, cheap shock tactics and sewer-mouth script mean it really is an acquired taste. 

Bawdy comedy American Pie was an unexpected box-office hit in 1999 and, amazingly for a sequel, the whole cast returned here, including Seann William Scott, Mena Suvari and the wonderful Eugene Levy as Jason Biggs’s embarrassing dad. The humour remains the same — rude, crude and lewd — as the gang gets together for lots of beer and sex at a beach house following their first year in college. Apple pie lover Jim (Biggs) realises he needs to improve his sexual experience when he hears the beautiful Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) is coming back to town, leading him to track down his only sexual partner (Alyson Hannigan) and ask for her advice. This involves the placing of a trumpet in an unusual location, but it might spoil your enjoyment to say where. Sure, the comedy here isn’t sophisticated and it’s often predictable, but if someone supergluing his hand to his, erm, member gets you giggling, you won’t mind a bit. 

If you thought Dumb and Dumber or There’s Something about Mary plumbed the depths of grossness, hold on to your lunch — you ain’t seen nothing yet. This laughter-packed comedy about four teenage boys who pledge to lose their virginity before prom night has enough crass gags to satisfy the most demanding fans of Porky’s-style farces. Yet it also boasts some spot-on performances from a hip young cast that includes Chris Klein, Mena Suvari, Tara Reid and Natasha Lyonne. The title refers to one of the more eye-widening sequences, in which Jim (Jason Biggs) gets a bit too friendly with his mom’s apple pie. This is definitely not one to show granny, but must-see fare for those not easily offended. 

Brooklyn, 1985. With the mob world as a backdrop, three life-long friends struggle with questions of love, loss and loyalty.

Nicolas Cage’s New Orleans-set melodrama isn’t a bad directorial debut, it’s just a stale one. With echoes of Tennessee Williams, Wild at Heart and any other Deep South slow-burner you care to mention, the film’s competently constructed but clichéd. James Franco is a handsome former gigolo who returns from the army in 1981 hoping to go straight, much to his trashy madam mother Brenda Blethyn’s dismay. Though his performance is sympathetic, Blethyn wildly overacts, while Cage’s cameo as a gay pimp is probably his career worst. Visually, the tale has appeal, with its retro-style colouring particularly attractive. However the occasional arty shots are a big mistake.