Dean Spanley
Directed by Toa Fraser
By Robert Bell

Sure to wet the panties of the bridge and knitting crowd, who will most certainly gasp when men of the cloth drink Imperial Tokay and other men exclaim “poppycock!” during discussions about reincarnation, Dean Spanley is the sort of film that one would expect the Queen of England to watch while acting coyly offended and hiding her inappropriately erect nipples.

It is a comedy of manners and oh-so-clever wordplay that reeks of Oscar Wilde smugness but settles for lengthy analyses of canine customs and thought processes. Limited scope and sincere emotions give it a nudge towards copasetic regardless of being entirely forgettable and often self-righteous.

Set in Edwardian England, the film follows Fisk Junior (Jeremy Northam) as he seeks spiritual meaning despite some nay saying from his outspoken curmudgeon of a father, Fisk Senior (Peter O’Toole). His quest leads him to a discussion of reincarnation involving the souls of dogs and cats, where he meets Dean Spanley (Sam Neill), a man who appears to have some pearls of wisdom about the nature of closed-mindedness and the meaning of life.

Knowing that the Dean is a fan — to an uncomfortably sexual degree — of Imperial Tokay, a rare form of wine, Fisk Junior enlists his friend Wrather (Brian Brown) to find him the desired beverage in order to bribe Dean Spanley into accompanying him to a dinner. Once some Tokay is ingested by the man of God, he reveals details of his past life as a dog.

A great deal of time is spent exploring in detail the motivations behind the behaviour of a dog, which when all is revealed (to mildly inappropriate amusement) makes a little bit of sense but seems somewhat imbalanced considering the true emotional catharsis of the film, involving the loss of a child in wartime.

Within the film is a more interesting and ironic examination of a son whose spiritual quest becomes redundant when he discovers that the wisdom he was looking for existed in his father, whom he ignored and dismissed. (Alliance)
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Blessure Grave - Judged By Twelve, Carried By Six
Magnetic Fields / Laura Barrett
Hillside Inside Featuring Owen Pallett, Ani Di Franco, Basia Bulat, Bahamas, Hawksley Workman
The Golden Filter / LA Riots / Junior Boys
Hollerado - Record in a Bag
Orphaned Land - The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR
Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise
Watson Twins - Talking To You, Talking To Me
Buzzcocks - Another Music In A Different Kitchen / Love Bites / A Different Kind Of Tension
Sade - Soldier Of Love
Yukon Blonde - Yukon Blonde
Steve Kaldestad - Blow-Up
Galactic - Ya-Ka-May
Gil Scott-Heron - I’m New Here
Dawn Of Demise - A Force Unstoppable
Janine Stoll - Melancholia
Stygian - Fury Rising
Shining - VI — Klagopsalmer
The Kandidate - Until We Are Outnumbered
Troll - Neo-Satanic Supremacy
Meshuggah - Alive
Dark Fortress - Ylem
Massive Attack - Heligoland
Fear Factory - Mechanize
Reckless Kelly - Somewhere In Time
Arsis - Starve For The Devil
DevilDriver / Suffocation / Thy Will Be Done / Goatwhore
Asobi Seksu
James Blackshaw / Gary Higgins
Lil Wayne - Rebirth
Light This City - The Hero Cycle
Lightspeed Champion - Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - I Speak Fula
Georgia Anne Muldrow - King’s Ballad
Droids Attack - Must Destroy
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Ellen Allien / Various - Watergate O5
Through The Eyes Of The Dead - Skepsis
Pierced Arrows - Descending Shadows
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool
Pawel - Pawel
Children Of Celebrities - Stereo Bang Bang
Midlake - The Courage Of Others
Guns N’ Roses
Julie Doiron / Attack in Black
Tegan and Sara / An Horse
Nouvelle Vague
Arch Enemy / Exodus
Between the Buried and Me / Cynic / Devin Townsend Project / Scale the Summit
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Magnetic Fields - Realism
Strong Arm Steady - In Search of Stoney Jackson
Harvey Milk - Harvey Milk
Basia Bulat - Heart Of My Own
Ihsahn - After
Living Sacrifice - The Infinite Order
Ihsahn - After
Steve Earle / Joel Plaskett
Scuba / Various - Sub:Stance
Make Me Young - Make Me Young
Taking Dawn - Time To Burn
Postdata - Postdata
Woodhands - Remorsecapade
Buraka Som Sistema / Various - Fabriclive 49
Beach House - Teen Dream
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring
Various - Born Again Funk
Wetdog - Frauhaus!
Coolzey - The Honey
Rel!G!Ion - Revelations 1
Buraka Som Sistema / Various - Fabriclive 49
Chicago Underground Duo - Boca Negra
Cars & Trains - The Roots, the Leaves
Morton Feldman / Milton Babbitt / Phoenix Ensemble - Clarinet Quintets
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