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Kevin's Digital Week 11: MJ and Dali
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 30 January 2010 05:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
This Is It
(Sony)
Though it wasn’t planned as a Michael Jackson memorial, the rehearsal footage from his comeback concerts slated for London that had already been shot in Los Angeles became the focus of this celebratory film after the singer died this past summer.
Directed by choreographer Kenny Ortega, This Is It displays Jackson’s enormous talent while in his element onstage: the moves, the music and the charismatic presence are present in spades. The movie also gives us backstage glimpses, which are especially interesting when Jackson and his cohorts are shown creating new choreographed movements for the stage show. For MJ’s rabid fans, a big draw of this release is definitely the 90 minutes’ worth of extra material, including a lot more behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, along with Blu-Ray exclusives: vignettes for “Billie Jean” and “Smooth Criminal,” and a making-of the “Smooth Criminal” vignette.
DVD of the Week
Little Ashes
(E1)
Director Paul Morrison’s biopic about a trio of Spanish geniuses—surrealist painter Salvador Dali, leftist poet Federico Garcia Lorca and anarchic filmmaker Luis Bunuel—falls square between English-language clarity and Spanish-language authenticity. Although certainly not as good as Carlos Saura’s wonderfully surrealist exploration of these men, 2001’s Bunuel and King Solomon’s Table, Morrison’s film nicely captures the revolutionary era when art was thought to make a difference, even against Franco’s fascism.
There’s superior acting from all involved, even from Robert Pattison of Twilight fame, who convinces as the mercurial Dali. It’s too bad that there’s not more contextual info in the meager extras—short interviews with Morrison and several actors (sans Pattison)—which would definitely help those Twilight fans who might accidentally find these artists fascinating while watching the movie for their favorite vampire.
