Swimming with Sharks [1996] - Region 2 DVD

What makes the film work is inevitably Kevin Spacey's savage performance as Buddy, a bully and a toady who had a heart once but gave it up to his career producing schlock; though Buddy rants and raves and delivers killer one-liners, much of the strength of the performance is in subtle work with his eyes. Frank Whaley is almost equally fine as Guy in all the two-hander scenes; while Michelle Forbes is convincing as the woman director who forms a tentative alliance with Guy. George Huang's direction is perfectly competent: it never gets in the way of his fine script and the extraordinary performances.

On the DVD: Swimming with Sharks comes to DVD in its original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1. There's an extensive commentary by George Huang in which he talks us through his years of misery in a junior studio job and is entertaining about all the horrid bosses whose bad behaviour--abuse, exploitation, pretending to praise him to a dead phone--he has combined into Buddy. He is also charmingly modest about the major if abrasive contribution Kevin Spacey made to the film, not only as actor but also as someone who would always tell a director if he did something less than brilliant. --Roz Kaveney