Flick Picks: Leigh Paatsch on films Mr. Pip, Fruitvale Station and Searching for Sugar Man DVD

THERE'S severe jolts in Mr. Pip set in Bougainville Island and Fruitvale Station is a powerhouse drama. Plus Searching for Sugar Man now on DVD.

WHAT movies to see this weekend and the best new DVD to watch if you want to stay home.

WALK AN ISLE IN HIS SHOES

The true star of Mr. Pip ... Bougainville schoolgirl Xzannjah.

Adapted from the best-selling novel by Lloyd Jones, MR. PIP is a movie coming from a good place, destined to take you to a bad place. While in no way a total downer of an experience, it might be wise to steel yourself for a few severe jolts along the way. The setting is Bougainville Island, in the east of Papua New Guinea. It is here, in the late 1980s, that a dispute between PNG military separatists and foreign mining interests has escalated into a desperate struggle for the local community. Caught in the middle is the last white civilian left on the island, a socially awkward schoolteacher (Hugh Laurie). The highly emotive approach employed by writer-director Andrew Adamson (The Chronicles of Narnia) in telling this story will not be to all tastes. However, having lived in PNG for an extended period in his youth, it is clear that Adamson has a grasp of this unusual part of the world that many filmmakers would not. {General release.}

Leigh Paatsch's full review on Mr. Pip

DEPARTING IS SUCH PURE SORROW

Based on a tragic actual event ... (From left) Michael James, Michael B. Jordan, Trestin George, Thomas Wright, Kevin Durand and Alejandra Nolasco in a scene from . (AP Photo/The Weinstein Company, Ron Koeberer)

FRUITVALE STATION is a powerhouse drama based on a tragic actual event. On New Year's Day 2009, a young African American was shot dead by a police officer on a train station platform. Oscar Grant (played by Michael B. Jordan) was unarmed, and posing no visible threat to those nearby. Such sad outcomes are all too commonplace in the United States, and this simple, stridently moving film drives home the pointlessness of a life lost for no reason. First-time director Ryan Coogler zeroes-in on the final 24 hours of Grant's life, a time that becomes all the more poignant as we know what lies ahead. The film has been criticised in the US for blatantly making a martyr out of Grant. Rather, it saves him from becoming just another statistic. Co-stars Octavia Spencer. {Limited release}

Leigh Paatsch's full review of Fruitvale Station

THE SWEET SMELL OF (BELATED) SUCCESS

Superb music documentary ... featuring Rodriguez.

The superb 2012 music documentary SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN has been released with some serious bonus features added. The subject is Rodriguez, a gifted singer-songwriter who plied his trade briefly in the early 1970s. At his barely detectable peak, the troubadour played a handful of small clubs, released two albums that tanked, and then disappeared for good. Or did he? The compelling mystery at hand - for the first half of the doco at least - is determining whatever became of Rodriguez in the years that followed. A wonderful story, told with great feeling and sincerity. Oh, and the music is ace as well! Package includes a CD of Rodriguez's seminal debut recording Cold Fact and mucho extra footage.

{DVD, Blu-ray}