"Actor: Helen Hanft"

• Manhattan | DVD | (10/07/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Manhattan, Woody Allen's follow-up to Oscar-winning Annie Hall, is a film of many distinctions: its glorious all-Gershwin score, its breathtakingly elegant black-and-white, widescreen cinematography by Gordon Willis (best-known for shooting the Godfather movies); its deeply shaded performances; its witty screenplay that marked a new level in Allen's artistic maturity; and its catalogue of Things that Make Life Worth Living. Allen's "Rhapsody in Gray" concerns, as his own character puts it, "people in Manhattan who are constantly creating these real, unnecessary, neurotic problems for themselves, because it keeps them from dealing with more insoluble, terrifying problems about the universe". It's a romantic comedy about infidelity and betrayal, the rules of love and friendship, young girls (a radiant and sweet Mariel Hemingway) and older men (Allen), innocence, and sophistication. (a favourite phrase is used to describe a piece of sculpture at the Guggenheim: "It has a marvellous kind of negative capability".) The film's themes can be summed up in two key lines: "I can't believe you met somebody you like better than me", and "It's very important to have some kind of personal integrity". OK, so they may not sound like such sparkling snatches of brilliant dialogue, but Manhattan puts those ideas across with such emotion that you feel an ache in your heart. --Jim Emerson

• Moonstruck (The Criterion Collection) | Blu Ray | (17/11/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Associate | DVD | (02/05/2005) from £7.65   |  Saving you £-1.66 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Behind every great man is a woman... Wishing he'd get the hell out of her way. After a backstabbing co-worker nabs her promotion a fast-track executive starts her own company by inventing a male business partner to sell her ideas. However the ruse works so well she must impersonate her fictitious associate in order to keep her hard-won clients!

• The Butcher's Wife | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £8.08   |  Saving you £4.91 (37.80%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Marina (Demi Moore), a blonde Southern belle with a clairvoyant streak, sees signs--a shooting star with two tails, a snowglobe that washes up on the beach, a wedding band inside of a fish--telling her that her true love is about to come ashore. And soon enough, a boat lands on the beach in front of her home; only the guy inside is a stout butcher from New York City named Leo (George Dzundza). Still, portents are portents, and the next thing you know she's married and running barefoot around a butcher's shop in Greenwich Village, where she inspires various residents with her predictions. Leo, however, is frightened by his wife's abilities and encourages her to see Alex (Jeff Daniels), a psychiatrist who works across the street. To placate him, she does--and soon begins to suspect that she's misread her signs and married the wrong man. The Butcher's Wife could use a little more humour about Marina's powers (her pronouncements are dizzyingly earnest) but the movie is buoyed up by a fantastic supporting cast, particularly Margaret Colin as a soap opera actress, Frances McDormand as a lesbian dress shop owner and Mary Steenburgen as a dowdy church choir leader who just wants to sing the blues. Like Marina, you know what's going to happen but the cast manages to make getting there charming. --Bret Fetzer

• Dummy | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Adrien Brody is Steven a wannabe ventriloquist who lives with his eccentric parents and his sister Heidi in the suburbs. They love him but don't understand him or his passion for the unusual dream of being a ventriloquist. But in a world surrounded by misfits and eccentrics his dream makes sense. His best friend Fangora is a punk rocker with a lot of attitude and a lot of bad advice. His sister Heidi is a wildly emotional wedding planner obsessed with Michael her ex-fiance who is currently stalking her. A sequence of hilarious events lead up to a wedding day in which everyone takes part including Fangora and her band Steven and his Dummy as entertainment and Heidi as the wedding planner. Michael shows up in a violent last ditch effort to get Heidi back. Steven in a surprising show of strength comes to her rescue gaining the respect of his family and friends and the love of Lorena the girl he longs for...