Writer-director Andrew K?ng has set his squalid tragedy in a rural community of vicious, half-witted crones, and his expressionist editing makes it yet more grotesque. Much as I hate to fall back on the most over-used of critical formulae, This Filthy Earth really is like Thomas Hardy on acid. It's destined to get more awards than viewers, but you have to hand it to K?ng. Films this extreme, perverse and singleminded don't come along very often.New Year's Day (18) is about two teenagers whose classmates are killed in an avalanche on a ski trip. Stricken by survivor's guilt, the boys pledge to leap off a cliff in a year's time, once they've ticked off all the tasks they've set themselves, from robbing a bank to burning down the school.At times, the movie can be as conceited and adolescent as its protagonists.
But, like This Filthy Earth, it has much more verve than most British releases, and the sharp dialogue, written by the actor Ralph Brown, proves that he can be funny even when he's not wielding a Camberwell Carrot in Withnail and I.The Animal (12) is another vehicle for a former Saturday Night Live comedian, hence it doesn't know whether to be a proper film or a string of sketches. Still, it'll go down well enough with a takeaway pizza on video. And anyway, you can't blame a film called The Animal for being dumb.n.barber independent.co.uk. Had he decided to be a jobbing contemporary dancer like his student dance programme colleagues, Richard Move – despite the Happy Families surname – is unlikely to have attracted attention.
But as it turns out, his unorthodox career choice has won him some very high-profile fans. Merce Cunningham has been a regular at his New York performances Mikhail Baryshnikov too Mark Morris has hailed him "a genius". Why? Because when Richard Move dons a Halston gown and lipstick, cranks his voice up half an octave and adopts a certain terrifying glare, these major-league movers and shakers delightedly quake in their shoes. Had he decided to be a jobbing contemporary dancer like his student dance programme colleagues, Richard Move – despite the Happy Families surname – is unlikely to have attracted attention.