National

Unlikely San Franciscan loverman's rap/electronica party

A massive worldwide hit, Nia Vardalos' no-budget romp must be something special, right? Well, nope. Inoffensive as it undoubtedly is, it appears to the un-Greek eye to latch 99 per cent of its gags onto national stereotypes. The better scenes, lampooning office hierarchies, are like a good episode of Friends. The rest is Victoria Wood at her most tired. Granny'll love it on telly at Christmas.

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Celso Fonseca is a Brazilian singer-songwriter who has worked with the likes of Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil, as well as appearing on Bebel Gilberto's worldwide hit Tanto Tempo. Billed as his first international album, Natural is a pleasant affair of light bossa/samba, laidback in style and chilled-out in performance. The problem is that no translation of the lyrics is provided, which makes the "international" claim puzzling Mood music at best, then, for non-Brazilians.

Two strands of British comedy collide with utterly predictable results (all together now: "Oooh, Matron!") as the usual crew is augmented by the sublime Frankie Howerd and a positively quirky supporting cast (Anita Harris, Peter Jones, Julian Orchard). Post-irony, I think we should admit the Carry Ons are dreadful, but Sid James' laugh remains an imported national treasure.

George Clooney's stylised spy drama based on the unreliable memoirs of Gong Show host Chuck Barris

One of the last spasms from the gross-out "wave", this National Lampoon effort has—among the boobs, belching and frat-boy self-fingering—moments of comic charm from Ryan Reynolds. He has a knack for letting us know he's above it all while throwing himself into the stench. Bet he sleeps nights by telling himself Tom Hanks began his career in such muck.

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With Skyscraper National Park, the quiet ebb and flow of Paul Hayden Desser's cracked, sad-slow lullabies proved one of last year's more insidious treats. On record often hushed to the brink of fade, the Canadian's downbeat allure is set surprisingly aglow, however, before a pocket of punters.

Jane Campion's second film (1990) tells the life story of Janet Frame, a New Zealand author who overcame poverty, chronic shyness and (misdiagnosed) schizophrenia to achieve international acclaim. Kerry Fox stars, while Campion hones her own stylistic match of trippy fantasy and gauche intimacy. Earnest, with detours into the ethereal. DVD EXTRAS: Three interviews with Campion, filmographies, trailer, biography of Janet Frame.