DVD/Blu-ray Review Salad - Four Reviews in One!

Back in December I bewailed my own film-watching deficiencies in a post entitled Films I Missed in 2016. Well I've been catching up on a daily basis aboard my exercise bike (movies viewed translate into miles pedalled). Here for your edification are the results. All titles were 2016 UK cinema releases. 

1. Sing Street (12A)

Rock and Roll is a risk.

Gist - A young student at a dire Christian Brothers' school in 1980s Dublin promises the girl he likes that she can star in his band's music video. He then has to form the band... 
Good Stuff - A funny, sweet script in a coming-of-age tale to remember. The band's songs are original '80s-style tunes in their own right. Of a great cast Jack Reynor is the stand-out, as older-brother/stoner life-coach Brendan. You'll root for Conor and relish his musical journey. It's real and it's wish-fulfillment all at the same time.  
Best Scene - The '80s parody Riddle of the Model music video.
Down Side? - The ending is a bit divisive. I rolled with it easily, because I'd enjoyed the rest so much. 

2. Hell or High Water (15)

We ain't stealin' from you. We're stealin' from the bank.

Gist - Good brother Toby (Chris Pine) asks bad brother Tanner (Ben Foster) to help him rip off a series of small-town banks in their native Texas. He has his reasons. Jeff Bridges is the Texas Ranger charged with tracking them down.
Good Stuff - A lean contemporary Western-cum-road-movie with moral weight and insight into modern rural America. Bridges rocks it as the grizzled ranger and Pine is as you've never seen him before, not just because of his handlebar moustache. The country-blues soundtrack is the sort of gutsy music Hugo Duncan should be playing on his Radio Ulster show. And the ending is spot-on.
The Best Scene - Bridges' exchange with the waitress in the T-Bone Cafe. Absolutely priceless.
The Down Side? - Nope, got nothing.

3. Captain Fantastic (15)

I tell the truth to my kids. I don't lie to my kids.

Gist - Viggo Mortensen plays Ben, a Marxist-hippy-intellectual-survivalist-father-of-six bringing up his kids deep in the forests of Washington state. When a family bereavement drags them all back into civilisation, these highly literate kids-of-the-wild find themselves hopelessly out of their element...  
Good Stuff - This is a bizarre/funny/tragic original culture-clash story, that begs a host of questions about parenting choices and the nature of modern Western culture. The weighty themes are offset by the warmth, humour and truth of the family interactions. Viggo is somewhere between hero and deranged madman, while the kids are all splendid. George McKay (sensitive eldest son) and Shree Crooks (precocious youngest daughter) are stand-outs.  
Best Scene - How to make an entrance at a funeral.
Down Side? - The themes and characters are so rich with potential that this really would need a TV series to explore it all fully.

4. The Revenant (15)

As long as you can grab a breath, you fight.

Gist - DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a tracker on a fur-trading expedition in 1820s North American wilderness. When things go horrifically wrong, he finds himself in an excruciating struggle for survival, motivated chiefly by his lust for revenge.
Good Stuff - Based at least in part on the true story of frontiersman Hugh Glass, this is authentic throughout. It's shot in natural light and every frame is gorgeous; even when the human behaviour gets brutally ugly, the wilderness inspires awe. DiCaprio earns his Oscar by reliving much of Glass's cruel survival experience, while Tom Hardy and Domhnall Gleeson provide strong support. It's all surprisingly moving as well. 
Best Scene - The one with the bear. You've possibly heard about it, but the experience is a whole other matter.
Down Side? - Some people have problems with the mystical element. They should look up 'revenant' in a dictionary.

There you are - because 2016 had more interesting films than I can review in-depth. There are a lot of others I need to cover. Better get back on that bike...