The Smell Before the Rioting Started

Director: Greta Schiller
Main Cast: Rita Mae Brown, Ann Bannon, Allen Ginsberg.

Before Stonewall is a documentary that records, with immense ambition, the making of the modern gay and lesbian community. However, whilst admirable for its attempt to challenge preconceptions and to meticulously record the many different social strands that have contributed to our modern understanding of what it means to be a member of the community - from the underground movement of the 1920’s, to the counter-cultural and the political activism of the 1960’s - the film is ultimately undermined by its own ambition. In trying to cover too much ground the film never really achieves any depth in its coverage.

DVD Release Date: 22nd June 2009

Smells Like Biggie Ain’t So Small

Director: George Tillman Jr.
Main Cast: Angela Bassett, Jamal Woolard, Derek Luke, Naturi Naughton, Antonique Smith

To discover your calling in life at an early age is truly enviable – to then die so young is a tragedy. There is no doubt that Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls / Christopher Wallace) was a talented rapper – spitting rhymes and defining his flow in the school yards and streets of Brooklyn. He was an inspiration to a generation and the subject of much media hype, so a film about the man himself was begging to be made. However, with creative talent too close to the subject, Notorious plays like rap by numbers, rather than an in-depth exposé.

DVD Release Date: 22nd June 2009

Smells Like a Crime and a Lie

Director: Andrezj Wajda
Main Cast: Artur Zmijewski, Maja Ostaszewska, Andrzej Chyra, Danuta Stenka, Jan Englert

Octogenarian Polish director, Wajda, has finally delivered his deeply personal Katyn after over a decade of setbacks, re-writes and finding his moment. It tackles both the horrific crime of the massacres in the Katyn forest in 1940, and the subsequent lie regarding its perpetration that the Soviets held fast until 1989. It traverses the personal and political with great intricacy but strangely lacks a through-line energy and psychological tension.

Cinema Release Date: 19th June 2009

Smells Like it’s Bigger and Better

Director: Ivan Reitman
Main Cast: Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson

The classic comedy returns on Blu-Ray to celebrate its 25th anniversary with improved picture and audio quality and a whole host of extras. It simply reminds you just how much fun the original film was before the sequel sullied its good name and of course, just how funny the sardonic Murray, hyperactive Aykroyd and geeky Moranis were back in their prime. It slimes all over most so-called comedies even a quarter of a century on – has it really been that long since we were first charmed by the Ghostbusters?

Blu-Ray Release Date: 15th June 2009