GAMES
FORZA HORIZON 3, XBOX ONE
Six months ago we would have recommended a PS4 over an XBox One without hesitation. But with the sharp new Xbox console and a handful of strong exclusive titles like Gears of War, the equation has become much more finely balanced. For fans of driving games, it's actually a no-brainer: in the absence of the long-awaited Gran Turismo update the PS4 still offers nothing of note, while XBox has this, already widely regarded as a classic. While Forza was originally a track racing simulator, it's mutated of late into a free-roaming world, with the latest episode set in Australia. And it's a treat not only playing with Aussie vehicles, but driving down the Great Ocean Road, Byron Bay, Surfer's Paradise or through the outback, all rendered in incredibly anal detail, down to street signs, phone boxes and even the sky, which they filmed for hours at a time to get right. Best of all, while it's packed with detail (various modes, upgrades, point-accumulating etc), it's rewarding just to cruise around and watch the world go by. AH
Don Cheadle as Miles Davis in Miles Ahead. Photo: Erin Munro
DVD
MILES AHEAD (Universal Sony) M
Don Cheadle's fictionalised portrait of Miles Davis is a bold riff on the familiar device of portraying a legendary artist through the eyes of an awestruck civilian. Cheadle himself plays Davis, living a fraught, reclusive life in the mid-1970s as his record company tries to coax him back into the spotlight; Ewan Macgregor is a Rolling Stone reporter who offers to help out as a way of getting the story. Thrown together, the two men find themselves tangling with gangsters and chasing after a stolen tape as they journey into the night. Davis' music dominates the soundtrack throughout, but Cheadle's concept is that it should be more than background—that the narrative itself should have the unpredictability of modern jazz, with swerves, changes of tempo, and recognisable pop themes interpreted in new ways. It doesn't all work (the flashbacks tend to slow things down) but Cheadle's own performance is a tour-de-force: often pigeonholed as a "reliable" character actor, he seizes the chance to cut loose, playing Davis as an unfazable trickster who sets his own rules in life as in art. JW
Still from British comedy The Windsors.
FREE-TO-AIR
THE WINDSORS, OCTOBER 11, SEVEN, 9.45PM
It's amazing that this utterly silly but very funny new satire about the British Royal Family hasn't yet resulted in any lawuits in the UK - although it has upset The Daily Mail, so you know it's doing a good job.In the tradition of '80s puppet show Spitting Image, The Windsors is co-written by Bert Tyler-Moore and George Jeffrie who had a UK hit with a similar premise taking the piss out of celebrities in the BAFTA-winning Star Stories back in 2006. Here, they've made a Dynasty-style soapie of the royals, headed up by comedy legend Harry Enfield as a bumbling Prince Charles, with Haydn Gwynne as the bitchy Camilla, Hugh Skinner as Prince Wills (who gets off easiest), Louise Ford as Kate, portrayed as a dim-but-sweet gypsy, while her sister Pippa (Morgana Roberstson) - and her oft-referenced "fantastic arse" - is a scheming bitch. The best caricature though, might be Prince Harry (Ripper Street's Richard Goulding), a loveable buffoon who can't read and who, in an upcoming episode where he must marry Malcolm Turnbull's daughter to save the Commonwealth, is addressed by the priest as "Henry Charles Albert David Windsor, also known as Shagger, Spliff Head, E Monster, Ginge Minge, Adolf, Shit For Brains." KN
Still from the 1941 film Sullivan's Travels, with Veronica Lake and Joel McCrea. Photo: Supplied
CLASSIC
SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (Umbrella) PG
Preston Sturges' brilliant 1941 satire retains its relevance as a comment on Hollywood directors suddenly struck with the urge to do something "serious". John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) is a successful maker of musicals who decides to atone for his past frivolity with an awful-sounding prestige project about the plight of society's forgotten men. Having no direct knowledge of this subject, he decides to disguise himself as a hobo and see how the other half live — a plan greeted with deep disapproval by those around him, not least his class-conscious servants (Sturges stand-bys Robert Greig and Eric Blore). The odyssey that follows has its grim moments, though Sturges' typical helter-skelter energy tends to override issues of tonal consistency or strict plot logic (Veronica Lake shows up midway as Sullivan's travelling companion because "there's always a girl in the picture"). A proudly brash, all-American entertainer, Sturges nonetheless seems as divided as his hero — mocking intellectual pretensions while raising questions about popular art and its relationship to its audience that would hardly have occurred to a filmmaker less self-aware. JW
Anthony Weiner in a scene from the documentary, Weiner. Photo: AP
DVD
WEINER (M), MADMAN, 92MINS
As a snapshot of modern American political history, this one is an absolute keeper. This documentary was shot in 2013 when Anthony Weiner, a former US Democratic congressman from Brooklyn, New York, who resigned in disgrace in 2011 when he admitted to his involvement in scandalous sexting with anonymous women, had decided to re-enter politics and run for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City. Weiner begins his campaign leading the polls. He's an energetic, natural politician (well, yes, he's arrogant and narcissistic too), married to Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton. But his campaign unravels in front of our eyes when he admits to a new sexting scandal that becomes public. The documentary, by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, records the tension among campaign staff and between Weiner and his wife – her silence at critical junctures speaks louder than anything else in the film. Of course, just last month Weiner was caught sexting with a 15-year-old girl and is now under investigation for possible sex crimes in two states. And now, his wife is divorcing him. JK