film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: BRWC

  • 25th Raindance Film Festival Launches Programme

    25th Raindance Film Festival Launches Programme

    By Orla Smith.

    On the morning of August 15th, the curators of the Raindance Film Festival gathered with members of the press at Vue Leicester Square to announce the programme for the 25th edition of the festival.

    ‘Discover. Be Discovered’ is the phrase that adorns the festival’s posters. Raindance is a festival dedicated to unearthing hidden gems on the indie scene. As such, the majority of the programme will be unfamiliar to most – and all the better for it. There’s a sense of intrepid adventure to leafing through the programme and picking out films on a whim.

    //www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dpQf5lQj_o

    There are a few notable name: Oh Lucy! premiered at this year’s Cannes film festival, and it will open Raindance. Directed by Atsuko Hirayanagi, the film follows a lonely woman living in Tokyo who adopts an American alter ego. It co-stars Josh Hartnett.

    Additionally, Laura Schroeder’s Barrage brings international star power to the festival. Another Cannes premiere, it features Isabelle Huppert acting alongside her real life daughter, Lolita Chammah. The two play mother and daughter in a road trip drama about three generations of women.

    The programme is split into several categories: including International Features, Documentary Features, the Discovery Award for Best Debut, and UK Features. Additionally, a selection of short films and web series’ will be screened in different categories.

    Oh Lucy!
    Oh Lucy!

    One of the festival’s most exciting new additions is ten different categories of VR experiences that will run from September 28th – October 1st. Over 40 wildly varying VR experiences will be showcased, including animation, narrative and cinematic experiences.

    The films will be judged by an impressive jury filled with industry professionals, including Jack O’Connell, Sean Bean, Christopher Eccleston, Ewen Bremner, Jamie Campbell Bower and composer Rachel Portman.

    The 25th Raindance Film Festival runs from September 20th – October 1st 2017. It will take place at Vue Leicester Square. Tickets are open to the public now. The full programme can be found here. More information about the festival can be found here.

  • Rooney Mara: 5 Definitive Performances

    Rooney Mara: 5 Definitive Performances

    By Orla Smith.

    Any half decent actor can make words on a page sound real; what makes a master is moment to moment unpredictability.

    It’s why we all adore Isabelle Huppert. It’s why Kristen Stewart is the latest arthouse sensation. It’s what Rooney Mara has too ― the ability to be so in touch with a character that each glance and intonation is unprecedented. She thinks beyond the obvious. Every moment brings something new.

    However, Mara has something more than mere talent. There are hundreds of great actors playing character roles and working in theatre who are obscure to the masses. Hollywood fixated on her where it ignored many worthy others. Sure, her rich family’s high status was able to help her gain visibility quicker than she might have otherwise, but that can only do so much: the lukewarm (so far) career of her talented but less distinguishable sister Kate is evidence enough of that.

    Mara is divisive: some outright dismiss her and others seem to devote their entire online existence to defending her and claiming her for their own. That’s only further proof that her success is not simply built on likeable prettiness and passable talent. She has a quality to her that sets her apart from all of her contemporaries.

    I wouldn’t be the first to call her ‘otherworldly’: as Therese Belivet in Carol she was described as having been ‘flung out of space’. It’s a phrase that will likely follow Mara for the rest of her career, so perfectly does it capture her appeal. Like Tilda Swinton, her odd and entrancing combination of features ― and the rounded tone of her voice ― makes her an object of fascination. Her indefinable appearance also allows her to dissolve and reform with each new role.

    Yet Mara is a bundle of contradictions. She seems flung out of space, but her understanding of how humans work is acute and perceptive. In interviews, she’s identified herself as a ‘people watcher’. It shows: she not only understands people, but she understands what it is that we find interesting about each other. She understands why we have a compulsion to watch actors. She is fascinating to watch when a director lets her exist in a space, because she understands the root of that fascination ― and how to feed it.

    It’s easy for a director to misuse her talents. Her collaborations have been mostly stellar lately, but such a prolific actress is bound to have some missteps.

    Earlier this year, Charlie McDowell’s The Discovery reduced her to a type, and despite Mara’s best efforts, her defining qualities began to feel like affectations ― because she was given nothing else to work with. Her first appearance in the film feels like we’re being thrown a life raft ― with her excitingly alternative star appeal acting as a rescue from the film’s pervading dullness ― but eventually her intriguing energy is stifled.

    Luckily The Discovery is one of a few exceptions to the rule (let’s not mention Pan, shall we?). A list of her best films would be different from the one I’m about to unveil: for starters, Her would figure highly ― a film in which her uniqueness works well to make a series of brief flashbacks feel vivid. A list of greatest performances might also be slightly different: a lesser thought of ― and flawed ― film such as Side Effects might have earned a spot. Instead, here are the five performances that have defined Mara’s career thus far, in honour of her quietly stunning turn in A Ghost Story ― out in UK cinemas today.

    5. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013)

    //www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga0c0v-stK0

    Before A Ghost Story, Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck collaborated with David Lowery on his second feature: Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. The two stars remain separate throughout most of the film, and they have roughly equal amounts of screen time ― but Mara is the one that matters.

    Set in 1970s Texas, the film’s rustic stylings make it feel even further back in time than it is. It’s a fable, so distant from our modern world that even the late-on appearance of a landline phone feels invasive. At the very beginning, Mara and Affleck’s married couple are split apart by his arrest for a murder she committed, and that they were both complicit in.

    The film follows his jailbreak and journey to be reunited with her ― while her life goes on after having his child. Like A Ghost Story, this lyrical, gentle, sunlit tale is about moving on. The mechanics of the plot depend on Affleck, but the thematic heart lies solely with Mara’s journey to find peace and independence. It is a transcendent piece of cinema, and she helps it soar.

    4. The Social Network (2010)

    //www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RB3edZyeYw

    It only took one scene for Rooney Mara to announce her arrival. The year before David Fincher helped her to her first Oscar nomination with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, he cast her as the muse to Jesse Eisenberg’s Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network ― the story of the creation of Facebook.

    The film’s iconic opening scene is perhaps the finest concentrated example of Aaron Sorkin’s rapid fire, intricate dialogue ― and Eisenberg and Mara devour it. They war with words, and Mara’s presence is fierce enough to give Eisenberg’s ensuing journey motivation: she starts the film by dumping him and barely appears again, but his desire to get his own back fuels the entire story. It makes total sense that, after all is said and done, he ends up back where he started ― fixated on the girl who left such an unforgettable impression.

    3. A Ghost Story (2017)

    //www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_3NMtxeyfk

    Rooney Mara eats a pie in this movie.

    Based on the initial Sundance reactions, you might think that that’s all that happens in A Ghost Story. It’s not: this movie spans lifetimes, and manages to encompass the whole of life on earth within 90 minutes. Still, many reduced it to one ten minute scene, mostly shot in a single static take. Yes, Rooney Mara does eat a pie in this movie, and as much as I hate to reduce the film down to that… it is glorious.

    The scene’s fast-growing mythology already makes Mara’s performance as the unnamed M one of her most ‘definitive’ ― but it’s not just the novelty that makes it notable. Mara’s acting throughout the film is some of her most nuanced. Without a hint of melodrama, she gently articulates the isolated experience of grief.

    The pie scene is the pinnacle, being the clearest example in the actress’ career of that moment-to-moment magic she’s able to conjure. During those near-silent five minutes, spent doggedly attacking the pie while sitting on the floor, the stakes are lowered so much that a crumb falling to the floor becomes a major event. However, while all Mara is doing is eating and snivelling ― in a shot that doesn’t even allow us to see her whole face ― every forkful feels different. She is not simply eating a pie. She is cannibalising her grief. We feel it all along with her.

    2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)       

    //www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVLvMg62RPA

    The Social Network may be a more important film, but when it comes to Rooney Mara’s career, nothing was more revelatory than The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Mara often makes subtle physical transformations, but Dragon Tattoo is a whole different ball park ― she is unrecognisable. The role of Lisbeth Salander was previously taken on (in acclaimed fashion) by Noomi Rapace, and devotees to the original were hesitant to accept David Fincher’s American version. Still, there was little doubt when it came to Rooney Mara’s performance.

    It defined Mara as an actress who is unconcerned with her star image ― only the image of the individual characters she plays. Curiously, the role hasn’t led to similar roles for Mara ― perhaps because people aren’t writing many female characters similar to Lisbeth ― but it has come to define how we see her and the amount of professional respect she is afforded. There are those who unfairly criticise actresses similar to Mara for a lack of range, but with Dragon Tattoo she silenced them before they had a chance to open their mouths.

    1. Carol (2015)

    //www.youtube.com/watch?v=679wr31SXWk

    Rooney Mara’s best performance is in Carol. It is the performance that most defines her image. It also might just be the best film she has ever starred in ― high praise that is easily earned by Todd Haynes’ masterpiece.

    It is a beautiful love story, that expands the book’s scope to include the perspectives of both main characters ― Therese Belivet (Mara) and Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) ― rather than keeping us confined within Therese’s headspace. However, the film still works exceptionally well as a detailed character study of Therese, largely because of the extraordinarily nuanced, incremental transformation that Mara executes throughout the course of the film.

    It is not a screamingly obvious physical transformation like the one in Dragon Tattoo, but rather one of strengthening physicality ― the growth from girl to woman. Throughout, Mara makes a strong case that she should be cast in an Audrey Hepburn biopic: the resemblance is uncanny. During the film she seems to grow in stature, as if she is filling out her own skin. She becomes more and more refined, slowly coming to resemble the glamorous side of Hepburn’s celebrity persona. She embodies the way that a person can totally transform when afforded the luxuries of a love that gives them self confidence and a sense of self worth.

    Startlingly, the Academy placed her in the Supporting Actress category… which couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, she acts across from a superlative, career-best Cate Blanchett ― and still manages to steal the show.

  • Smashing The Glass Ceiling

    Smashing The Glass Ceiling

    There are countless obstacles that thwart, limit and restrict women in the film industry. There is a distinct lack of female directors and screenwriters in film; but not due to lack of talent (see the recent successes of Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay and Patty Jenkins) and leading roles for actresses beyond a certain age are also often said to be rare, as scripts that incorporate this demographic are not being written or optioned as frequently.

    The campaign to change these injustices is ongoing, and there have been visible successes in recent times, with the likes of Jennifer Lawrence driving a hard bargain to rectify the pay gap, but the battle is also taking place on the screen itself. In Their Finest, a WWII-set comedy drama directed by Lone Scherfig, we see a female scriptwriter overcome the tiresome misogynistic view that her only use to the film is to write the “slop”, AKA “the female dialogue”, and Gemma Arterton’s Catrin blazes the trail as a result.

    Their Finest releases on digital platforms on August 14th and on DVD & Blu-ray on August 21st, and to celebrate we’re taking a look at celluloid’s finest trailblazing women who stick it to the man (quite literally), and have well and truly smashed through the various glass ceilings on screen.

    Holly Golightly – Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

    The already iconic Audrey Hepburn takes on the greatest role of her career in the adaptation of Truman Capote’s novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The film follows a lonely, struggling writer who becomes enchanted with his neighbour: an independent young woman who strives to be a high-climbing socialite with a penchant for high-fashion and wild parties.

    He soon discovers the woman’s innate vulnerability, and her true identity as an estranged wife from Texas, who has run away in pursuit of a better life. Hepburn’s portrayal of Holly Golightly as the naïve, eccentric socialite is as powerful now as it was upon its 1961 release, showing true courage and will that inspired generations of women.

    Ripley – Alien (1979)

    Fast forward a few years and Ridley Scott presents a completely new vision of a female lead: hard-as-nails Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who needs no man to assist her in kicking alien ass, and unlike the multitude of female leads to precede her, Ridley is not sexualised in the slightest. In this terrifying first instalment of the franchise, Ripley quickly realises that she must gather all the courage she can muster, and destroy the beast that has swiftly devoured her ship’s crew in the dark depths of outer space.

    By casting a female in the lead role, Scott’s created a heroine foil to the archetypal male action hero of the time, marking a breakthrough for female roles in cinema that was soon replicated for years to come in films such as Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Kill Bill and The Hunger Games.

    Marge Gunderson – Fargo (1996)

    In this Coen Brothers classic about an organised kidnapping that goes horribly wrong, Francis McDormand plays the pregnant Police Chief Marge Gunderson who is investigating the case that is linked with a series of homicides across the frozen tundra. McDormand brilliantly captures the tricky juxtaposition of being incredibly sweet and loveable, whilst also operating in a particularly no-nonsense manner, as she tries to make sense of the twisted world in front of her.

    The fact that Marge is heavily pregnant barely figures into the film, even as she’s pointing her gun fearlessly at a man doing unspeakable things to a wood chipper, again proving that she is a truly multi-faceted character that does not conform to any of the female screen stereotypes of the time.

    Erin Brockovich – Erin Brockovich (2000)

    Julia Roberts’s Oscar-winning performance as Erin Brockovich is as fierce as they come. The single mother of three who loses a personal injury lawsuit starts work as an assistant at a law firm. Whilst struggling to find time to dedicate to work and to her children, she becomes enthused by a case against Pacific Gas and Electric, and begins to lead the battle against the corporation, earning respect from the lawyers that once looked down on her and the community that she represents.

    Eventually she unearths a systematic cover-up of the industrial poisoning of a city’s water supply, which threatens the health of thousands of residents, doing what her male counterparts couldn’t, all the while raising a family, and proving the haters wrong.

    Juno – Juno (2007)

    There are many things about this smart and witty indie comedy written by the brilliant Diablo Cody that can be food for thought, but Ellen Page’s brilliant lead performance of an intelligent teenage girl determined to have her ‘unexpected’ child is nothing short of mesmerising. Throughout the film Juno is pushed and pulled this way and that by people trying to convince her of what to do with her own body, but she remains resolute and does exactly what she sets out to do.

    All the while, Juno is determined not to lose sight of the fact that she is a regular high school teenager who just wants to have fun. Valiantly battling against the emotional and social fallouts of her decision to keep the baby, this plucky young woman takes a situation most would be terrified of and makes it into her own journey, and although she makes mistakes along the way, it was always hers.

    Catrin Cole – Their Finest (2017)

    Lone Sherfig’s London-set World War II drama-comedy presents a 1940s female scriptwriter’s struggles to be taken seriously in the workplace. Gemma Arterton plays Catrin who is hired to help bring a “woman’s touch” to the propaganda films by writing all the “slop”, but ends up becoming the driving force behind the production of a feature length film based on the Dunkirk rescue, commissioned to inspire America to join the war. During the film’s production, Catrin manages to disprove all the men who doubted her talent and worth, including her husband and colleagues; something that will definitely ring true for modern day audiences.

    THEIR FINEST IS AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ON AUGUST 14TH, AND ON BLU-RAY AND DVD ON AUGUST 21ST, 2017, COURTESY OF LIONSGATE HOME ENTERTAINMENT UK

  • Why A Bronx Tale Is A Great Film

    Why A Bronx Tale Is A Great Film

    By Anthony Reyes.

    “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.”

    Almost 25 years after its release, Robert De Niro’s A Bronx Tale remains one of the most poignant coming of age dramas in cinema history.

    As movies have shown us, there are many ways to grow up in America. While films such as Stand By Me, Dazed and Confused, and The Breakfast Club have portrayed the experience of growing up in small town America wonderfully, coming of age dramas set in urban areas are almost its own genre. Being a young kid in the city would be a hard time for anyone, and A Bronx Tale puts its own spin on the concept by portraying the life of people living in the Bronx, New York in the 1960s. The film’s inclusion of themes such as racism, the gangster lifestyle, and what it means to be a man are ideas that are universal, and continue to touch audiences after all these years.

    Based on Chazz Palminteri’s own experiences growing up in the Bronx, A Bronx Tale centers around young Calogero, an impressionable nine-year-old kid who lives on his stoop located only a few doors down from a hangout for the local mafia. He spends his days fooling around with his friends, riding the bus his blue-collar father Lorenzo, played by Robert De Niro, drives for a living, and idolizing Sonny, played by Chazz Palminteri, the mobster next door who is the epitome of everything Calogero looks up to. After witnessing a crime and standing by Sonny to the police, Calogero becomes close with Sonny. Years later, the relationship between Calogero and Sonny strengthens, with Calogero regularly coming to Sonny for advice on life and women to his father’s dismay. Only after experiencing the many highs and lows of life does Calogero make sense of what both men in his life have been telling him.

    In one of the more emotional exchanges between father and son in A Bronx Tale, Lorenzo tries to explain to Calogero why Sonny is not a good person to look up to.

    With tears in his eyes, all Calogero could say is “I don’t understand Dad.” Like any father, Lorenzo picks up his son, comforts him in his arms, and whispers, “You will when you’re older”. That is such an easy idea to breeze by, but it is integral to the entire arc of this film. It solidifies A Bronx Tale as a coming of age story, instead of the gangster film many paint it as. At the end of the film, Calogero tells the audience that he finally understands everything his father had been teaching him. The viewer sees a boy grow into a man, a man who knows what life expects of him. This film is filled with these kinds of lessons. People quote A Bronx Tale all the time because the magic of the film is in the way these two men talk to Calogero. One man is a hard-working family man, devoted to his wife and kid. The other is a gangster making his way up the crime ladder. But when they talk to Calogero one on one, they talk intimately. They forget all that is wrong with their lives when they look at this boy’s face and try to tell him how the world works. A Bronx Tale blurs the line of who is wrong and who is right, but what is clear is that Calogero is lucky to have them both in his life.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPxwBHoxHI8

    The dichotomy of Sonny the gangster and Lorenzo the family man symbolizes the internal struggle that Calogero goes through throughout A Bronx Tale. He sees his father work day after day just to afford a small apartment and enough food to get by. And while he admires and looks up to his father, which can be seen in the way he sits on his father’s bus and talks to him, he cannot help but continue to look at Sonny. He sees how everybody in the neighborhood respects Sonny. How they listen to him and protect him. In Calogero’s young mind, he believes that the way Sonny is respected is on the same level as to how Lorenzo is respected. “Everybody loves him, just like everybody loves you on the bus. It’s the same thing.” says Calogero to his father. And if you are respected either way, why waste his life like Lorenzo does working for someone else? As he gets older, Calogero has no interest in being a working man like his father, in being a sucker. His source of inspiration is Sonny, a man who has everything, who takes what he wants. It is not until he sees that it is fear that keeps people loyal to Sonny that he understands what his father has been telling him all his life. It is not until he sees that Sonny cannot trust another living soul that Calogero understands that he does not want to be like Sonny. One of Lorenzo’s most important lessons to his son is “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.” Sonny is the epitome of that lesson. Calogero is the person that knew him best. He saw Sonny as not only the mob boss that he was, but as a romantic who created the “door test”, an intellect who read Machiavelli in prison, and as a father figure who truly cared for Calogero. Sonny could have been a wonderful person to so many people, but he wasted his talent. And Calogero finally understood that as he was standing over his body at the funeral home. Sonny was a wasted talent, and Calogero knew that he did not want to end up like him.

    Aside for the drama that comes with coming of age films, one of the most important aspects of A Bronx Tale is establishing the home of Calogero. The film opens on an aerial view of New York City. Just when the viewer thinks that the film will be just another New York film, the camera pans slowly. There is a crossfade that focuses on the Bronx as Calogero’s voice explains that what the viewer is looking at is the Fordham section of the Bronx, his home. He explains that although the Bronx is a borough of a much larger city, it encapsulates his whole world. Not only do we see the streets of the neighborhood of Belmont and hear Calogero talk about the home he loved dearly, but we hear a doo wop group singing “The Streets of the Bronx”, fully establishing the sense of nostalgia that Calogero feels. The Bronx. The corner of 187th St. and Belmont Avenue. Our Lady of Mount Carmel church. City Island. Webster Avenue. The whole film treats the Bronx as its own character, and as a person who was born and raised in the Bronx, it is emotional to see the tenderness that De Niro and Palminteri has for the borough. The Bronx is a part of Calogero. He would not be the same person if he lived anywhere else. From the opening voiceover narration, the romance he feels in his heart for the Bronx is what brings the viewer in and allows them to fully appreciate the world of the film.

    The lessons of A Bronx Tale do not stop at Calogero learning how to become a man and to use his talents for good.

    Throughout the film, Calogero learns about the world around him, including the racist habits of his friends and family that poisons his mind. The neighborhood Calogero lives in is an historically Italian-American neighborhood, which can be seen throughout A Bronx Tale. But what can also be seen is the tension between the Italian-Americans of Belmont Avenue and the African-Americans of Webster Avenue. Severe racism towards blacks practiced by Italian Americans is not a new concept in America, nor is it in American cinema. Many films that center around Italian Americans have made it a point to share the racist tendencies of their subjects such as in The Godfather when they agree to only sell drugs to blacks because “they’re animals already. Let them destroy themselves.” Robert De Niro uses that reality to further the tension between Calogero and the two father figures in his life. When Calogero falls for a black girl he meets on his father’s bus, he hesitates from following his heart. Because he knows the crap he would get from his friends, whom the viewer has already seen throw sticks at black kids on buses and run after black kids riding bikes down their neighborhood. Even Calogero’s father, while he does not approve of people being disrespectful to each other, expresses his desire for his son to be with an Italian girl instead of a black girl. It is actually Sonny who tells Calogero to forget about stupid things like race. The only thing that matters is how two people feel about each other. It is the gangster that tells Calogero to forget about a hatred shared by his whole neighborhood when it comes to love. By the end of the film, Calogero sees the result of such hatred and is a changed person because of it. He embraces this girl and allows himself to be a better person for her.

    Robert De Niro’s A Bronx Tale is an important film for so many reasons. It is a coming of age drama about a kid trying to decide between two paths put in front of him. That is what the whole circles around, the choices that Calogero makes. He is the dynamic character that we follow and observe. It is his decisions that decide where the film is going to go. And behind every decision he makes, we understand why he makes them. It is a wonderful thing to witness a boy become a man and discover how he must live his life. To ignore the temptations of the criminal life that wasted Sonny’s life and choose a life where you do not have to keep looking over your shoulder seems like an easy decision, but A Bronx Tale proves the cost of learning that lesson. This film is a gem of American cinema, because it has America written all over it. Lorenzo talks about his family immigrating from Italy to New York. Calogero and his father obsess over jazz, doo wop, and baseball. Sonny represents the mafia presence of the era, especially in the Bronx. Not only is this story a Bronx tale, but it is an American tale. A tale that shows how tough it is for kids to grow up and make right choices. Because the saddest thing in life is wasted talent.

  • Dax Vs. Peña

    Dax Vs. Peña

    CHiPs: Law & Disorder arrives on DVD on July 31 and is available now on Digital Download. Dax Shepard (Hit & Run, Parenthood) and Michael Peña (Ant-Man) star in the action comedy CHIPS: Law & Disorder the latest American Buddy Cop movie. Strap in for a comedy adventure full of witty one-liners and outstanding performances from your favourite comics.

    In CHiPs we witness extreme rivalry between Ponch and Jon, so to celebrate the comedy duo of the year pitting against each other; we take a look at some of Dax Shepard and Michael Pena’s past films…

    CHIPS: Law & Disorder arrives on DVD on July 31 and is OUT now on Digital Download

    Hit and Run

    Hit and Run is a 2012 comedy starring Kristen Bell and comedy legend Dax Shepard as a young couple. Charlie (Shepard) was once a getaway wheelman for gang bank robbers, but when he falls for Annie (Belle), Charlie’s criminal past fades into the background. When Annie lands an interview for her dream job in L.A., Charlie vows to take her on a road trip to California.

    However, complications arise when Annie Charlie find themselves being chased by a friend from the past (Bradley Cooper), a federal Marshall (Tom Arnold) and a band of misfits. This postmodern rom com is packed with goofy charm and a cast full of unpredictable, humorous characters, proving Shepard’s comedy prowess.

    War on Everyone

    2016’s action-packed comedy, War on Everyone sees the hilarious Michael Peña and Alexander Skarsgård as two crooked New Mexico police offers. Terry (Skarsgård) and Bob (Peña) take on a major robbery while on suspension for abusing their authority one too many times. Familiar with the crime world, the pair set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path.

    Brilliantly executed, Peña is clever and hilarious in this witty, dark comedy.

    Let’s Go to Prison

    Let’s Go to Prison is a 2006 crime comedy starring Dax Shepard and Will Arnett. After a series of schemes carried out by Felon John Lyshitski (Shepard), the son of the judge who put him in jail, Nelson Biederman IV (Arnett), is wrongly convicted of a crime.

    John manages to become Nelson’s cellmate, pretends to be his friend, and offers Nelson terrible advice on how to survive life in prison. However, to John’s surprise, after one year in jail Nelson is the “top dog” in the prison heirarchy.

    In this adult jail-house comedy, Shepard plays the antagnoist and nightmare of every spoiled, rich kid.

    Observe and Report

    Alongside Seth Rogen and Ray Liotta, Michael Peña stars in the cop comedy Observe and Report. Ronnie (Rogen), an ambitious mall cop, is called into action to stop a flasher from turning Forest Ridge Mall into his personal peep show. Ronnie, along with Dennis (Peña) and the Yuen twins (John and Matthew Yuan) seize the opportunity to showcase their detective talents.

    When these mall cops can’t catch the culprit, Detective Harrison (Liotta) is recruited to close the case. Peña’s take on the stereotypical Hispanic cop laughs in the face of American intolerance.

    CHiPs: Law & Disorder

    CHiPs: Law & Disorder put the two comedy heavy weights Michael Peña and Dax Shepard in unlikely circumstances in this take on the 1977 television series. Jon Baker (Shepard) and Frank “Ponch” Poncherello (Peña) have just joined the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in Los Angeles, but for very different reasons.

    Baker is a former freestyle motorcycle racer desperately trying to patch up his battered marriage. On the other hand, Poncherello is an FBI agent working undercover to investigate an armed car robbery. These two couldn’t be more different, but Jon’s loyal and patient character proves to be a good match alongside Poncherello’s fiery Latino temper.

    CHIPS: Law & Disorder arrives on DVD on July 31 and is OUT now on Digital Download