Frank Capra's festive classic is one of those rare standards which not only lives up to its rep but reveals new treasures on every viewing. James Stewart is forlorn George Bailey, who thinks life just isn't worth living, 'til it's revealed to him how meaningful his meaningless existence really is. Containing more snow than a TV presenter's nostril, it'll melt even the frostiest among you.
Dennis Hopper got an Oscar for his supporting role to Gene Hackman's high-school basketball coach in David Anspaugh's heart-tugging 1986 tale of sport-equals-life heroics. This was based on a real basketball comeback fight in '50s Indiana and released as Hoosiers in the US. Aptly enough, Hopper was fresh back from his own decade-long trip through chemical hell at the time. Sentimental slush, but redeemed by a knockout cast of veteran heavyweights.
It's easy to be cynical about a windy old narcissistic diva but less so to heckle one who's come back from a horrible brain disease: 18 months ago Minnelli was told she'd never walk or talk again. That she battled back to do these live shows at New York's Beacon Theater is the kind of courage that wins you a whole new audience, possibly even including some heterosexuals. On the other hand, if she's really unlucky, she might just get saddled with further Pet Shop Boys collaborations.
DIRECTED BY David Cronenberg
STARRING Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, Lynn Redgrave
Opens January 3, Cert 15, 99 mins
Over the years, with films like Rabid, Videodrome, Crash and eXistenZ, we've come to expect eerie, special-effects-laden, futuristic horror fare from David Cronenberg. His latest is a sinister but understated study of a schizophrenic (Ralph Fiennes) known only by his childhood nickname of Spider. The film opens in the 1980s with Spider checking into a grim halfway house in a run-down area of east London after 20 years in psychiatric care.
