"Director: Lance Bangs"

• The Work of Director Spike Jonze | DVD | (01/12/2003) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-6.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  When you experience The Work of Director Spike Jonze, you enter a world where anything can happen and frequently does. From the innovative director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation., this superior compilation of music videos, documentaries, interviews and early rarities offers abundant proof that Jonze is the real deal--a filmmaker ablaze with fresh ideas and fresh ways of filming them. While collectors will regret that only 16 of Jonze's 40 plus music videos are included here, this glorious sampling represents the cream of Jonze's bumper crop; for sheer ingenuity it doesn't get any better than this. From the Beastie Boys' popular TV cop-spoof "Sabotage" to the intensely disciplined backwards-filming technique of the Pharcyde's "Drop", it's clear that Jonze has an affinity for inventive street theatre, culminating in the sad/happy vibe of Fatlip's introspective "What's Up Fatlip?" and the pop-jazz effervescence of Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet". Technical wizardry is also a Jonze trademark, especially in the elaborate "Happy Days" nostalgia of Weezer's "Buddy Holly" and the graceful fly-wire dancing of Christopher Walken to Fatboy Slim's pulsing "Weapon of Choice". No doubt about it: every one of these videos is an award-worthy testament to Jonze's ability to combine hard work with fun-loving spontaneity. On the DVD: The Work of Director Spike Jonze is a double-sided DVD (one in a series that includes the equally dazzling work of Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham) accompanied by an informative 52-page booklet. The second side explores Jonze's artistic evolution with an entertaining selection of video rarities and three half-hour documentaries, the best being a revealing and very funny interview with rapper Fatlip after his dismissal from the Pharcyde. Commentaries for the music videos are consistently worthwhile, supporting Jonze's own belief that his best videos were made for artists whose work he genuinely enjoyed. Lucky for us, his pleasure is infectious. --Jeff Shannon

• The Work Of Director Michel Gondry | DVD | (01/12/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The Work of Director Michel Gondry invites the lucky viewer into a wonderland of childlike imagination. Before the Versailles-born Gondry turned his creative ingenuity to feature films (beginning with the underrated Human Nature and the 2004 Jim Carrey comedy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), these 27 music videos and assorted "stories and things" formed a legacy of supreme cleverness, suggesting a creative lineage from the pioneering film magic of Georges Méliès to the groundbreaking experimental films of Norman McLaren. It's perfectly fitting that the accompanying 75-minute documentary is titled "I've Been 12 Forever," because Gondry (b.1964) never lost the sense of wonder and inventiveness that children display when their minds are allowed to flourish in a creative environment. No wonder he's best known for his dazzling collaborations with Icelandic pop star Björk, resulting in music videos (seven included here) that redefined the magical potential of the medium. Each, in its own way, is a masterpiece of the fantastic. What's also remarkable about Gondry's work is its technical progression, from the homemade crudeness of his earliest videos for the French band Oui Oui, to the technical wizardry of Kylie Minogue's "Come Into My World", in which the Australian pop star is seamlessly multiplied as she strolls around a busy Parisian intersection; like many of Gondry's videos, it's a stunning "how-did-they-do-that?" work of art, reminiscent of Zbigniew Rybcynski's prize-winning 1982 short "Tango". From the hilarious dreamworld of the Foo Fighters' most popular video "Everlong" to the painstaking pixilation of Gondry's videos for the White Stripes (one made entirely of animated Lego blocks), this DVD is packed with Gondry's tireless pursuit of perfection; he'll do whatever's necessary, no matter how simple or complex, to achieve perfect harmony between song, artist, and visual concept. All the while, he's drawing from a seemingly endless well of inspiration, as evident in the delightful 52-page booklet of stories, drawings, photos, and interviews that chronicle the eternal sunshine of a brilliant mind. --Jeff Shannon

• The Work Of Director Chris Cunningham | DVD | (01/12/2003) from £21.32   |  Saving you £-3.33 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The Work of Director Chris Cunningham, like the other volumes in the acclaimed Director's Series (Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry) offers a feast of visual ingenuity, with one major difference: unlike the relatively playful brightness of Jonze and Gondry, Cunningham wants to involve you in his nightmares. From the urban monstrosities of Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" to the limb-shattering weirdness of Leftfield's "Afrika Shox", Cunningham's music videos emphasise the freakish and the bizarre, but they are also arrestingly beautiful and otherworldly, as in the aquatic effects used for Portishead's "Only You", combining underwater movements with ominous urban landscapes. Some of Cunningham's shock effects are horrifically effective (his 'flex" video installation, excerpted here with music by Aphex Twin, is as disturbing as anything conjured by David Cronenberg), while others are cathartic or, in the case of Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker", outrageously amusing. And while the eerie elegance of Madonna's "Frozen" arose from a chaotic production, the signature work in this collection is clearly Björk's "All Is Full of Love", a masterfully simple yet breathtaking vision of intimacy involving advanced robotics and seamless CGI composites. In these and other videos, Cunningham advances a unique aesthetic, infusing each video and commercial he makes with a dark, occasionally gothic sensibility. That these frequently nightmarish visions are also infectiously hypnotic is a tribute to Cunningham's striking originality. --Jeff Shannon

• Green Day - International Supervideos! | DVD | (12/11/2001) from £6.46   |  Saving you £8.53 (132.04%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A DVD accompaniment to their greatest hits album, International Supervideos collects together American punk rockers Green Day's entire visual history to date. Now something of the elder statesmen of the movement, the compilation starts with tracks from their breakthrough major label debut Dookie and brings us up to date with the Warning album and its three singles. While their music has always stuck fairly close to the three-minute punk-pop template, the band have explored the video medium well. Managing to avoid the clichéd live performance approach, the majority of the clips instead place the band in various environments, from a mental hospital (the excellent "Basket Case") to the clever sports pastiche of "Nice Guys Finish Last". Ironically, the best track of the lot is the one that owes nothing to their usual influences, the emotive, acoustic "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)". With this willingness to step outside of there own parameters and the later material easily equal to the best of their career, International Supervideos is not only an essential purchase but one that hints at a bright future for the band. On the DVD: While punk rock isn't always about sound quality and clarity, International Supervideos is blessed with hi-fi crispness, providing an equally satisfying aural and visual experience. The almost cartoonish, Day-Glo quality of many of the videos is enhanced by the picture quality. Extras, however, are at a frustrating minimum. There's a web link, chapter selection and a subtitle facility, at last helping to make sense of Billie Joe's less than defined lyrics. --Phil Udell

• Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' first DVD, Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow, comes after the release of just one album, one EP and a bucketload of hype. The focus here is the full live concert recorded at San Francisco's Fillmore, which showcases the band at their best and singer Karen O in full-on charismatic exuberance--she's a natural performer and a rock star through and through. But with only so many songs in their repertoire, they do tend to draw things out a bit between tracks. When she takes the time during the intro of "Miles Away" to eat a bunch of grapes on stage, it all seems a bit Yoko (surely not the type of art that needs to be in artrock). Still, mild pretensions aside, they do put on a heck of an entertaining show. Bonus features include the videos for "Y-Control" (eerily directed by Spike Jonze), "Pin", "Date with the Night" and "Maps", some bonus concert footage and some wholly unnecessary backstage footage. As a full package, Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow works well and whets the appetite for the second album. --Robert Burrow

• Belle And Sebastian - Fans Only | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Considering their reputation for hating interviews and photo sessions, Belle & Sebastian's Fans Only is a surprisingly intimate affair. Over 136 minutes, the main feature documentary follows Belle & Sebastian from their inception in 1996 through every step of their six-album career, tracking the band to America, Brazil, and Japan, and hanging out with them in their hometown of Glasgow. At times, Fans Only feels like a lovingly crafted home video, with private photos and previously unseen segments of super-8 footage merging with the commercial promos and television appearances. It's all here: childhood snaps, Stuart Murdoch behind the wheel of an orange city bus, a song from the legendary Session At West 54th (still the holy grail for some devotees), a self-made documentary of a band rehearsal from 1999, Richard and Mick's acceptance speech at the Brits (with Richard captioned as Nick Cooke), Stevie and Stuart serenading the queue at the Bowlie Weekender, the band appearing on a Brazilian chat show, it goes on and on. Belle & Sebastian have always been a fans' band, close to those that understand them and inaccessible to those that don't. Fans Only is that relationship caught brilliantly on video. On the DVD: Fans Only on disc also includes live versions of "Dog on Wheels", "Landslide" and "The Kids are Alright" from The Bowlie Weekender. There are questions from the band's press conference for Fold Your Hands, You Walk Like a Peasant, plus Stevie singing "Darlin'" at Coachella, a 60s' version of "Jonathan David" and a Discography. --Ian Watson

• David Cross - Bigger and Blackerer | DVD | (02/08/2010) from £20.23   |  Saving you £-5.24 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £14.99

  During his illustrious career David Cross has played recurring roles on the TV programs Arrested Development and The Colbert Report and won an Emmy Award for his contributions to The Ben Stiller Show. He has also starred in such films as Waiting for Guffman Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind the Bob Dylan fantasy I'm Not There (in which he portrayed Allen Ginsberg) and Kung Fu Panda. Bigger and Blackerer was taped during two shows back-to-back on the same evening at Boston's Wilbur Theatre.