Review: Volver

There's a lot said and written about Pedro Almodovar, with praise heaped on him with every new film, to the extent that he's become a sort of Iberian Woody Allen who can virtually do no wrong.

But with 'Volver', he's really onto something special. Instead of elaborate and flamboyant but often unbelieveable characters , in 'Volver' we have a warm, funny and achingly touching portrayl of real, rounded and caring people.

The story is the 'volver'- return - of the mother of Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Duenas), who had both believed she was dead. Living hidden away in a Castillian village and keeping a family secret, Sole at first believes she is an apparition and hides her in her flat, telling visitors she is a Russian immigrant.

But Volver is the return of much more as well. In the case of Raimunda, it is the return to her childhood village and the discovery of family secrets, but also the return of her passion for life. After her oppressive husband dies, she re-opens the barrio restaurant to great acclaim, and finds again a passion for singing that even she had forgotten about.

As is typical Almodovar, (straight) men play a fleeting, and often negative, role in this film. But in Volver, this allows the female characters to breathe and develop, in such as way that suggests Pedro as a writer director is finding a much more confident, personal and human voice than ever before.

Review: A Scanner Darkly

Director Richard Linklater ('Before Sunrise'/'Sunset', 'School Of Rock', 'Fast Food Nation') has tackled Philip K. Dick's famous novel of substance abuse and paranoia 'A Scanner Darkly' and, from what I can tell, has done a pretty good job.

I say from what I can tell for two reasons: first, I haven't read the book, and second because if his intention was to create the feeling of being drug-induced while watching a film, he's done a pretty good job.

Keanu Reeves plays Bob Arctor, a cop who is so undercover he wears a scramble suit, a cloaking device that constantly changes to disguise his appearance. But when Bob is assigned to investigate a suspected high-level dealer of an addictive drug called Substance 'D', he finds he's spying on himself. So far, so trippy.

But it's the rotscoping animation overlayed on all the actors that really messes with your mind, forever ebbing and shifting. Add to that the petty, confused babblings of the characters Bob lives with- played by Woody Harleson, Winona Ryder, Rory Cochrane and, best of all, Robert Downey Jr.- and you can feel both the film and your head going sideways very quickly.

Towards the end, the film shifts tone and alludes that the private company controlling the public's rehabilitation from Substance D may actually also be the ones making and peddling it. But this feels a little rushed given the rest of the film's stoned tone, like spending 15 minutes discusing how a second-hand bike seems to have had half of its 18 gears "stolen".

But overall, a trip worth taking.

Sabotage marketing

Seems I'm a bit late on the uptake on this one, but there is a strategy to target consumers called 'sabotage marketing'.

I'd call it reverse marketing, and once you've heard of it, you sense you've probably known about it all along. The idea is this: that products and services are deliberately dressed down to encourage those who can afford it to 'trade up'.

The experts at this it seems are Starbucks, with a drink called the 'short cappuccino'. It's cheaper, stronger and technically more like a proper cappuccino than the Grande, Venti or the other silly-named one. But it's not on the menu board and the cup isn't on display with the others on top of the counter.

The aim is this: people who can afford it or who don't even look at the prices will blindly buy those on display. Only those who are watching what they spend will ask 'Do you have anything smaller?', implying they don't have the money like the rest of us. It's like assuming youwant to super-size on your meal unless you ask to 'go small' please. Coffee Republic do the same thing.

And when you stop and look around, shops and other names are doing it all around us. Another example is the 'Tesco Value' lines. Deliberately designed to look basic, they were all in fact 'normally' packaged products some years ago given a downmarket makeover.

This way, Tesco look like they're helpfully serving the financially challenged, while actually persuading everyone else to 'trade up' and buy their higher priced, nicely packaged products or name brand equivalents. Nearly all of the UK's other supermarkets pull the same trick, such as Sainsbury's 'Basics' and Asda's 'Smart Price' ranges.

Airports are another example often given. Lounges are designed to be not as comfortable as they could be, to encourage well-heeled travellers to fly Business or First Class so they can relax in the Member's Lounges. And of course, computer companies, car manufacturers and beer makers are known to make a standard product, then slow the processor, limit the engine or water pints down and market the result as a more basic product.

This tactic says two things really: how companies systematically try and extract more money from consumers for essentially the same product; and just as tellingly, how most of us are quite happy to go along with it and pay up every time.