January '12 Digital Week II

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 15 January 2012 15:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week
Anna Bolena
(Deutsche Grammophon)
Anna Netrebko might have sung Anne Boleyn at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time this season, but she was already a veteran in the title role, as last April’s Vienna staging makes clear: her ravishing presence and singing are on display throughout this bel canto classic, as are the equal talents of costar Elina Garanca as her rival for the British throne, Jane Seymour.

Eric Genovese’s directing gets to the heart of this historical soap opera; Evelino Pido conducts the Vienna Opera Orchestra and Chorus for maximum effectiveness. The lone extra is Garanca’s charming German-language plot synopsis.

Belle de Jour
(Criterion)
Luis Bunuel’s sardonic 1967 study of a prim housewife (a brilliantly typecast Catherine Deneuve) who spends her afternoons as a high-class prostitute makes its points too obviously, but Bunuel’s masterly control helps keep things intentionally off-balance.

The Criterion Collection release features a superb new hi-def transfer--this is the first Bunuel film on Blu-ray--but the extras disappoint: unilluminating video essay, brief interview with co-writer Jean-Claude Carriere and excerpt from a French TV program featuring Deneuve and Carriere interviews.

Finding Life Beyond Earth
(PBS)
This fascinating two-hour Nova program takes a tantalizing look at the possibilities of life on other planets through interviews with scientists and other experts along with glimpses at alien words via telescopic images and CGI effects.

In addition to visiting far-flung places to test for conditions that might sustain life in what might be considered inhospitable environments, the show also speculates on the possibilities of even primitive life forms in our galaxy and throughout the universe. The Blu-ray image is, happily, spectacularly good; there are no extras.

Higher Ground
(Sony)
Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut is an unsentimental study of a closely-knit religious community thrown for a loop when one of their own begins questioning her faith. Farmiga herself plays the lead, a character based on Carolyn S. Briggs’ memoir. There’s a terrific ensemble cast of New York theater actors: Donna Murphy, Norbert Leo Butz, Nina Arianda, Jack Gilpin and Dagmara Dominczyk.

The movie, which was shot on the Hudson River around Kingston, NY, has a believable small-town vibe and a big beating heart. The Blu-ray image is solid; extras include commentary, deleted/extended scenes, outtakes and making-of featurette.

The Poolboys
(e one)
This would-be soft-core comedy stars Matthew Lillard and Brett Davern as cousins who hope to get rich quick off a scheme involving prostitution. Needless to say, it soon goes off the rails, but not before they become good at pimping.

The humor is coarse and--most damagingly--unfunny, while the women are lovely but simply window dressing and the acting is pretty much non-existent. The movie at least looks decent on Blu-ray; extras include a making-of featurette.

Sid and Nancy
(MGM)
Alex Cox’s 1986 paean to Sid Vicious and girlfriend Nancy Spungeon--whom he killed before committing suicide--uneasily mixes hero-worship and a cautionary tale.

Despite Cox’s confusion over whether to excoriate or laud the couple, there’s no quibble with the acting: Gary Oldman’s Sid is dead on-target, while Chloe Webb--in a performance now seen as obvious typecasting (she was never as good in anything else)--is a sensational Nancy. Cox’s striking visuals look superb on Blu-ray; extras comprise two behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Sinners and Saints (Anchor Bay)
This hard-hitting if derivative cop flick follows an unorthodox New Orleans detective whose tactics uncover a vast conspiracy pitting local gangs against violent mercenaries. Many violent scenes in this gritty picture might make some viewers look away, but despite the derivativeness, there’s decent acting and an energy level that helps gloss over the many shortcomings.

The Blu-ray image is good; extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette and deleted scenes.

What’s Your Number?
(Fox)
This witless, crude sex comedy has an extremely dumb premise: before getting to 20 guys that’s she slept with in her life, a young woman decides to pick from the previous 19 to settle down and not be labeled “whore.” Anna Faris tries to make this absurd plot work, but even she can’t overcome outright inanities like playing a game of strip horse basketball or jumping naked into a harbor at night.

Amazingly written by two women, this laughless comedy makes you wonder what gets green lighted in Hollywood. On Blu-ray, the movie looks sharp; extras include deleted scenes and a gag reel.

DVDs of the Week
Aurora
(Cinema Guild)
The slow accumulation of ordinary events to gradually reveal the underbelly of Romanian society worked in Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005), but not here. For three hours, the antisocial protagonist (played by the taciturn director) goes about his menial business, rarely connecting with other. An hour in, there’s a murder, and the movie soon becomes risible.

It’s daring of Puiu to choose mundane subjects to develop his singular style. (There are apparently four more films to come, snippets of life in Bucharest.) Long takes interrupted by startling cuts can either mesmerize or stupefy: Lazarescu did the former, Aurora the latter. Batting .500, Puiu is still a director to watch. The lone extra is Puiu’s 2004 short, Cigarettes and Coffee.

The Man from London
(Zeitgeist/KimStim)
Based on, of all things, a swift-moving Georges Simenon mystery, London plays like a flatfooted Bela Tarr parody: Mihaly Vig’s ominous music repeats itself ad nauseum, the actors (including a dubbed Tilda Swinton) spit out minimal dialogue, and those oh-so-slow camera moves are simply an exercise in lugubriousness.

Tarr’s visual sense was borrowed from compatriot Miklos Jancso, who used elaborate camera choreography to more dynamic dramatic and psychological effect. But Jancso, the master, has moved on to recent films that are carefree and playful, unlike Tarr, who recently called it quits after his latest film, The Turin Horse.

Protektor
(Film Movement)
Marek Najbrt’s handsomely mounted drama explores how Czechoslovakia dealt with the 1938 Nazi annexation preceding WWII. Emil (perfect everyman Marek Daniel), a Prague radio reporter with a familiar voice, is married to movie star Hana (subtle Jana Plodkova), who initially doesn’t blink when the Nazis come. But since she’s Jewish, she soon loses her status…and career.

Najbrt understands Czech cultural history by smartly showing how Nazis utilized celebrities depending on their ability to be useful propagandists. The title has multiple meanings: “Protektor” (which refers to Emil as well as a murdered Nazi leader) can also be read as “Protect Her.” The lone extra is a touching animated short by Canadian director Ann Marie Fleming, I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors.

The Windsors from George to Kate
(Athena)
This matter-of-fact overview of the current British Royal Family is a treasure trove of archival footage of coronations, weddings and even--in the case of Edward VIII--abdication.

Narrated by Brian Blessed, the 105-minute documentary includes original voiceovers from vintage newsreels, and takes viewers swiftly from Georges V and VI to Queen Elizabeth II and her offspring--son Charles and grandsons Harry and William, whose recent marriage to Kate Middleton closes out the program. Valuable extras include footage of George VI’s visit to FDR in Washington, DC and William and Kate’s wedding.

New Movies in Brief: Mellencamp, Murder and 'Margaret'

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Wednesday, 11 January 2012 05:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

It’s About You, Kurt and Ian Markus’ documentary, follows John Mellencamp through sessions for his most recent album, 2010’s No Better Than This, and the tour that followed. Using historic locations like Sun Studios in Memphis and primitive techniques like mono and a single mic (the producer was T Bone Burnett), Mellencamp‘s record superbly marries his roots-rock writing style with his usual social awareness.

When there’s recording, rehearsing or performing, It’s About You is first rate: Mellencamp accompanies himself on acoustic guitar on one of his strongest new songs, “Clumsy Ol’ World,” and he and his crack band literally shred both new and vintage tunes like “Pink Houses” onstage. But there’s an annoying self-indulgence at work, since Kurt Markus took Mellencamp’s admonition seriously when he started filming to make the film about himself--the filmmaker--instead of the musical artist we are interested in.

So Kurt’s sophomoric, stream-of-consciousness narration dominates the movie, and it comes off arty and pretentious. Too bad Markus couldn’t leave the wit and wisdom to Mellencamp’s songs and simply remain behind the camera: since Markus is a photographer, his 8mm footage is often striking, especially what’s shot in the studio and the tour’s cities and small towns. That imagery says more about Mellencamp’s ongoing lyrical concerns about the direction America is headed than any of Kurt’s outbursts.

Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s earlier films Distant, Climates and Three Monkeys were interesting but ultimately frustrating failures. His latest, Once Upon a  Time in Anatolia, is a leap forward for Ceylan and immeasurably superior in every way.

The movie begins as a police procedural: a group of law enforcement officers travels to a remote area with two murder suspects to find where they dumped the body. While spending interminable time waiting around, the men engage in small talk (including discussing the pluses and minuses of buffalo yogurt), and we gradually discover that those involved--the lawmen, a district attorney and a local doctor--have their own ethical and personal problems. 

Ceylan’s long uninterrupted takes begin with the film’s haunting opening shot from afar, as headlights of three vehicles move through a deserted landscape. The magnificent compositions keep viewers alert, even when the narrative hits a snag or two: would the police really be so inept as to forget a body bag and not have room in any vehicle to fit a body, and would an autopsy be conducted with the victim’s wife and son right outside the room? The director’s singular visual talent compels us to keep watching for more than 2-½ hours of what turns out to be a shaggy corpse story.

The struggle to finally bring Margaret to the screen has been well documented: writer-director Kenneth Lonergan made this illuminating character study of Lisa Cohen, an Upper West Side teenager who witnesses a gruesome (and life-changing) bus accident, back in 2005. It has since been sitting on the shelf, and now--edited by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker--although clocking in at 2-½ hours, it’s worth catching wherever it’s playing.

Like You Can Count on Me, his excellent 2000 feature film debut, and his off-Broadway plays This Is Our Youth, Lobby Hero and The Starry Messenger, Lonergan’s Margaret is less concerned with plot than character and dialogue; the film’s textures are like real life, as people interact in ways that are completely antithetical to typical Hollywood movies. Showing scene after scene of Lisa at school, at home or dealing with the aftermath of the fatal accident, Margaret seems like a cinema-verite documentary or even a reality TV show--that is, if the latter had any brains or empathy for its characters.

The acting by Anna Paquin as Lisa and J. Smith-Cameron as her harried actress mother is impeccable; Lonergan himself has juicy scenes as Paquin’s divorced father, Josh Hamilton, Matthew Broderick, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon and Allison Janney provide smart support, and even Jeanne Berlin--normally an exasperating actress--is very fine.

Margaret doesn’t pretend to have any clear-cut answers for Lisa’s difficulties--the final sequence, set during a performance of The Tales of Hoffman at the Metropolitan Opera, is a perfectly pitched catharsis--making it mesmerizing but messy, like life. 

It’s About You
Directed by Kurt and Ian Markus
Through January 12, 2012
IFC Center, 333 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY
http://ifccenter.com

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Through January 17, 2012
Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY
http://filmforum.org

Margaret
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan
Through January 12, 2012
Cinema Village, 22 East 12th St, New York, NY
http://cinemavillage.com

January '12 Digital Week I

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Saturday, 07 January 2012 15:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week
Contagion (Warners)
Steven Soderbergh’s nail-biting suspense drama realistically paints a horrifying portrait of the outbreak of an unknown disease that engulfs much of the planet. In a series of plausibly shot, edited and acted sequences, the movie scarily shows what our globally connected 21st century world might look like.

A superb ensemble cast, from Matt Damon and Kate Winslet to Laurence Fishburne and Jennifer Ehle, make this a most entertaining but truly frightening film. On Blu-ray, Soderbergh’s stark, documentary-like style is preserved; the extras comprise featurettes about the film and the science behind it.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (Sony)
In keeping with cowriter Guillermo del Toro’s cinematic obsessions, this semi-frightening thriller features a young child terrorized by monsters only she can see--and it appears that the adults can do nothing about it. Eerie and suspenseful moments are negated by the too-literal appearances of tiny creatures who are lethal except when it’s convenient that they’re not.

Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes are wasted, but young Bailee Madison is a rip-roaring screamer of the first order. The movie’s hi-def image is very good; extras include a three-part making-of featurette.

The Guard (Sony)

If you want to see the great Irish actor Brendan Gleeson knock heads with our very own Don Cheadle, then don’t miss John Michael McDonagh’s uproarious, pitch-black comedy about an unorthodox Galway cop who teams with a visiting FBI agent to bust a cabal of  international drug smugglers. 

The maniacal Gleeson, on the same wavelength as the acidic script, expertly demonstrates how to walk the overacting tightrope without falling off. The Blu-ray image is super; extras are McDonagh’s short, The Second Death; deleted  scenes/outtakes; and McDonagh, Cheadle and Gleeson’s commentary/film festival Q&A.

I Don’t Know How She Does It (Anchor Bay)
He once made the better 2006 Truman Capote movie, Infamous, which did not have Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning performance; now Douglas McGrath is reduced to helming an inoffensive but forgettable rom-com (from Allison Pearson’s novel) with Sarah Jessica Parker as the ultimate career woman who’s destroying her family.

Parker is always one-note, but an appealing supporting cast--Greg Kinnear, Pierce Brosnan, Kelsey Grammer, Christina Hendricks and Olivia Munn--makes the 90 minutes palatable. The movie has a decent hi-def image; lone extra is a conversation with Pearson.

Proof (Miramax Echo Bridge)
David Auburn’s magnificent drama--2001 Tony and Pulitzer Prize Best Play winner--reached the screen in 2005 to mediocre results, thanks to John Madden’s uninspired direction and a dull cast: Anthony Hopkins never convinces as Gywneth Paltrow and Hope Davis’s father, they are not believable sisters and poor Jake Gyllenhaal looks confused.

If they kept the original stage cast, it would have worked far better: but Larry Brygmann, Ben Shenckman, Johanna Day and the incomparable Mary Louise Parker are apparently not big enough names. The muted Blu-ray image is an acceptable improvement over the original DVD release; no extras.

Puncture (Millennium)
This compelling, strange-but-true story follows a lawyer (Chris Evans, who’s excellent) that’s also a drug addict, and whose personal-injury firm takes a case involving contaminated needles. Adam and Mark Kassen directed, and Mark plays Evans’ partner, giving the whip-smart attorneys a believable rapport.

The movie is low-key for the most part, so its scenes of drug taking--culminating in a final, fatal instance--become that much more powerful. The hi-def image is solid; unfortunately, there are no extras.

Shark Night (Fox)
A tongue-in-cheek shark-attack movie was done with far more wit and style than David R. Ellis’ cheesy 3-D mock-thriller: of course, I’m talking about Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, 36 years ago. Here, Ellis is stuck with a goofy premise, cardboard characters and a need to have stuff fly at the camera to induce 3-D effects for viewers.

The lone time it works is the final shot; otherwise, the killings--and technique--stale quickly. The movie looks fine on Blu-ray even without the 3-D effects; extras are four behind-the-scenes featurettes.

DVDs of the Week
Eames: The Architect and the Painter and Jane’s Journey (First Run)
Two terrific documentaries take the measure of three of the most important people in their respective fields in the past 50 or so years: Eames chronicles the extraordinary lives and artistry of designer Charles and his wife, painter Ray; Jane’s Journey is a straightforward portrait of beloved chimpanzee expert/activist Jane Goodall.

Both intelligently made films include insightful interviews with their subjects, colleagues and close friends. Eames’ extras include deleted scenes; Jane’s extras include Angelina Jolie interview.

I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive (Strand)
Veteran director Claude Miller and son Nathan’s thoroughly absorbing character study features a splendid cast of unknown faces in a true story about a young man, whose mother gave him and his little brother up for adoption, who tracks her down and begins an unsettling relationship with her and his half-brother.

This sober, reflective tale is made all the more remarkable by the performances of its leads, Vincent Rottiers (son) and Sophie Cattani (mother),who lend an authenticity and immediacy that bigger stars would obviously lack.

Justified: Season 2 (Sony)
After shutting down a criminal family’s ruthless reign, U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens (a perfectly-cast Timothy Olyphant) returns to battle another menace to society in the form of Mags Bennett (splendid Emmy-winning performance by Margo Martindale).

This fast-moving, very entertaining crime drama justifies its existence by equaling the taut short story by Elmore Leonard on which it is based. All 13 episodes are included on 3 discs; extras include outtakes, deleted scenes and on-set featurettes.

The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (Naxos)
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s epic fantasy opera needs a first-rate staging. In this 2008 production from Sardinia, Italy, it’s only partly forthcoming: director Eimuntas Nekrosius cleverly evokes the Russian folk tale about a city that miraculously holds off Mongol invaders but does not visualize all the story’s riches.

Still, Rimsky-Korsakov’s glorious music is well-played by the orchestra under conductor Alexander Vedernikov and the vocalists, led by soprano Tatiana Monogarova and bass Mikhail Kazakov, are luminous. One quibble: the video and audio are not synched on disc one.

Transform Your Body with Brooke Burke (Sony)
40-year-old Dancing with the Stars winner Brooke Burke is a mother of four, and these two workout DVDs display how she keeps her amazing figure.

Each disc contains three separate workouts, so by getting both Tone and Tighten and Strength and Conditioning, women will have a half-dozen chances to try and look like Brooke, while husbands and boyfriends will have a half-dozen chances to look at Brooke. Extras include interviews with Burke and workout guru Greg Joujon-Roche.

CD of the Week
Reger, Violin Concerto (Hyperion)
Max Reger’s Violin Concerto is, at 56 minutes in length, the ultimate in Romantic era music (Reger died at age 43 in 1916). Its surging strings and emotional washes of sound provide a sturdy orchestral base for the formidable solo lines for the showcase violinist, and this recording has a superb soloist in Tanja Becker-Bender, who dispatches this uneven but eminently worthy work with ease.

Also on this disc are Reger’s Two Romances for violin and orchestra, played beautifully by Becker-Bender and the Berlin Concerthouse Orchestra under conductor Lothar Zagrosek.