DVD reviews: Relative strangers

DVDs released this week include the superb Junebug - a study in family tensions that isn't played for laughs - and James Whale's surprisingly meaty follow up to 1931's Frankenstein, The Old Dark House.

Junebug
Eureka Entertainment, 15, £17.99
Review: Nina Caplan
****

Newlyweds George (Alessandro Nivola) and Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) can't keep their hands off each other. Sadly, marriage isn't all smooching: art dealer Madeleine must meet George's blue-collar, North Carolina family. Junebug is a study in family tensions but it's not played for laughs or tragedy; director Phil Morrison and his writer, Angus MacLachlan, have chosen realism over chortles or tears, which is far harder to get right. George's mother is a knowall with an almost catatonic husband; George's brother is sulky, violent and inept, especially when dealing with his sunny, heavily pregnant wife, Ashley (Oscar-nominated Amy Adams). These people are complicated, which shows not in finely tuned dialogue but in quiet asides and how they behave. This is a gentle film, and anyone expecting Meet The Fockers will be disappointed. But it's beautifully realised and acted, so nobody else will.
Extras: Commentary, deleted scenes, Q&A with Adams.

Clean
Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment, 15, £19.99
Review: Nina Caplan
**

Glorious Maggie Cheung had black circles painted under her eyes to play a tough-yet-fragile drug addict in Clean and she promptly won Best Actress at Cannes in 2004 for the role. Which suggests that actresses getting ugly are like actors depicting disability: great for the mantelpiece. Not that Cheung isn't good: she's convincing as Emily, who has spent time in prison after her rock star husband died of a heroin overdose and now wants a career of her own and to get back in contact with her small son - in that order, at least initially. But this film, directed by Olivier Assayas (whom Cheung was divorcing at the time), isn't one of her best. Emily simply isn't interesting enough to carry a film; even excellent support from Nick Nolte as her father-in-law can't rescue this movie from the doldrums.
Extras: Cast and filmmaker interview.

The Old Dark House
Network, PG, £12.99
Review: Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
****

With its macabre themes of sin and insanity - and Boris Karloff as a mad, mute butler - James Whale's surprisingly meaty follow-up to 1931's Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, still certainly shivers the timbers - and raises camp, cobwebby chortles. Charles Laughton is among the naive travellers stranded on a rain-lashed night in Wales, with only a Gothic castle for shelter. They're soon at the mercy of sensational, atmospheric visuals and their hosts - Miss Femm, a shrunken Mrs Danvers who hellfires about 'fleshly joys' while lasciviously pawing her young lady guest, and her feeble brother, whose eccentric catchline is 'have a potato'. Both clearly have frogs in the attic - but then that's not all that's up there...
Extras: Commentary from horror expert Kim Newman; 1999 TV interview with Sir Ian McKellen about James Whale.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Universal Playback, 12A, £34.99
Review: Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
****

Before Buffy was a twinkle, before Mulder got his Scully, there was... Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Each week, this 1974 TV series had a grumpy, hard-bitten Chicago newspaper investigator in a porkpie hat and battered tennis shoes taking on baddies as diverse as vampires, robots, Indian spirits, zombies and werewolves - only for 'the Truth' that's 'out there' to be discredited or destroyed in the final minutes. This is a seductive, escapist blend of disturbing fantasy/horror/comedy/ crimebusting, kinetic camerawork and quirky details (think Columbo meets The Avengers). But what really makes Kolchak a forgotten legend worth rediscovering - despite the occasional dud episode - is the strong characterisation. David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, cut his scriptwriting teeth as a writer on the series, while The X-Files creator, Chris Carter, proudly declares its direct influence. Well worth investigating.
Extras: None.