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Where the Wild Things Are
BD - Spike Jonze and Dave
Eggers rethinking of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book
could be thought of in developmental terms as about sharing,
control, autonomy – all things that a latency age kid,
especially a boy, needs to have in place if he – or she – is to
graduate to adolescence. The protagonist here is Max (Max
Records), who is not so good at dealing the loss of a father,
the sharing of space with a sister who fails to defend him when
she should, and a mother who, though evidently caring of Max,
needs to make some space for own needs as well.
Blu-ray Release date: March 2nd,
2010
Geharha - the Dark and Long Haired Monster
BD - I have to say this one
of the strangest Blu-rays that has come across my desk. For
starters, Geharha (the title, by the way, does not appear in
English anywhere on the cover) has to be one of the most
expensive per minute of feature film in this format in
existence. The entire feature runs about 19 minutes. As of this
writing YesAsia’s price of $54.99 makes that about $3.20 per
minute. Perhaps more peculiar is that the Making-Of documentary
is three times longer than the feature film. The feature,
including its coming attractions and credits, has 32 chapter
stops. That’s one about every 40 seconds. Want more: The feature
is merely the proposed first in a series of episodes.
Blu-ray Release date: September
30th, 2009
Bigger Than Life
BD - Though ignored at the
time of its release, Nicholas Ray’s Bigger Than Life is now
recognized as one of the great American films of the 1950s. When
a friendly, successful suburban teacher and father (James Mason,
in one of his most indelible roles) is prescribed cortisone for
a painful, possibly fatal affliction, he grows dangerously
addicted to the experimental drug, resulting in his
transformation into a psychotic and ultimately violent household
despot. This Eisenhower-era throat-grabber, shot in expressive
CinemaScope, is an excoriating take on the nuclear family.
Blu-ray Release Date: March 23rd,
2010
Days of Heaven
BD - One-of-a-kind
filmmaker-philosopher Terrence Malick has created some of the
most visually arresting movies of the twentieth century, and his
glorious period tragedy Days of Heaven, featuring Oscar-winning
cinematography by Nestor Almendros, stands out among them. In
1910, a Chicago steel worker (Richard Gere) accidentally kills
his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his
girlfriend (Brooke Adams) and little sister (Linda Manz) to work
harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer (Sam Shepard).
A love triangle, a swarm of locusts, a hellish fire—Malick
captures it all with dreamlike authenticity, creating at once a
timeless American idyll and a gritty evocation of
turn-of-the-century labor. Blu-ray
Release Date: March 23rd, 2010
Yojimbo
BD - The incomparable
Toshiro Mifune stars in Akira Kurosawa’s visually stunning and
darkly comic Yojimbo (The Bodyguard). In order to rid a village
of corruption, masterless samurai Sanjuro turns a range war
between two evil clans to his own advantage. Remade both as A
Fistful of Dollars and, more recently, Last Man Standing, this
exhilarating gangster-Western remains one of the most
influential and entertaining genre-twisters ever produced.
Blu-ray Release Date: March 23rd,
2010
Sanjuro
BD - Toshiro Mifune swaggers
and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Akira Kurosawa’s tightly
paced, beautifully composed Sanjuro. In this sly companion piece
to Yojimbo, the jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group
of young warriors weed out their clan’s evil influences, and in
the process turns their image of a “proper” samurai on its ear.
Less brazen in tone than its predecessor but just as engaging...
Blu-ray Release Date: March
23rd, 2010
Far From the Madding Crowd
- Alas, when Schlesinger abandons Bathsheba's inner life and
constricted universe, he's stuck with a simplistic love story
and lots of pretty scenery (both of which, it should be added,
will appeal immensely to a great many moviegoers). The spacious
landscape of Dorset is photographed in stunning beauty, and we
get panoramas of hillsides with heroic characters running up and
down them. But when we get to close-ups we find that Hardy's
people have been ironed out by a bland and empty "treatment."
They are no longer interesting enough to absorb us for three
hours. DVD Release Date: January 27, 2009
The Guns of Navarone - The
settings, fighters, and armaments change, but the fervor,
terror, heroism, cowardice, agony, resentment, egotism, majesty,
relief, pain, death, joy, love, corruption, humor, and insanity
abide, as does the desire to mythologize war's grotesquerie.
Unlike his progeny, though, Homer didn't bother with scoring
political points. Neither pro- nor anti-war, he offered no
special succor to those appalled or elated by it. For that,
we've got liberals, conservatives, and, for lack of a better
term, libratives — those who count receipts before taking sides.
DVD Release Date: May 8, 2007
A L'aventure - A sexually
unfulfilled young woman embarks on a series of graphic erotic
encounters and becomes involved with a student of psychoanalysis
who offers to put her under hypnosis. Yes, the notorious
Jean-Claude Brisseau, director of 'The Exterminating Angels' and
'Secret Things,' is back with his latest provocation. Another
idiosyncratic philosophical meditation on the enigmas of female
sexuality, it features the director's latest discovery, Carole
Brana. Pretentious smut for high-brows, a dirty old man's
fantasies writ large, or a profound and daring exploration of
society's sexual taboos? You decide. DVD Release Date:
January 12th, 2010
Killer of Sheep - "If
[Killer of Sheep] were an Italian film from 1953, we would have
every scene memorized,” Michael Tolkin once said. Yet rather
than basking in instant name recognition, Burnett’s masterpiece
is only now receiving a proper theatrical release. Coming right
after the blaxploitation craze of the early to mid-’70s and more
than a decade before the in-the-’hood phase of the early ’90s,
Killer of Sheep explores what it means to be a man, a woman, a
child just barely eking out a marginally comfortable
existence... BFI DVD Release Date: October 20th, 2008
My Brother's Wedding - The
least known of Charles Burnett's first three features (1983) -
the other two are Killer of Sheep and To Sleep With Anger -"
focuses on the family pressure exerted on a young man in Watts
(Everett Silas), who works at his parents' dry cleaners, to
abandon his disreputable ghetto friends and adjust to a more
middle-class existence. This struggle is pushed to the limit
when he has to choose between attending his older brother's
wedding to a woman from an affluent family and attending the
funeral of his best friend, a former juvenile delinquent.
Burnett's acute handling of actors (most of whom are
non-professionals) never falters, and his gifts as a storyteller
make this a movie that steadily grows in impact and resonance as
one watches. DVD Release Date: October 20th, 2008
Clash of the Titans
BD - Before history and
beyond imagination! The machinations of gods above and the fates
of man and monsters here below play out in a Clash of the
Titans. Decades prior to the sensational 2010 version of the
tale, Harry Hamlin took up sword and shield to play valorous
Perseus, mortal son of Zeus (Laurence Olivier) who sets out to
fulfill his destiny by rescuing beloved Andromeda from the wrath
of goddess Thetis (Maggie Smith). Perils await Perseus time and
again. And eye-filling thrills await viewers as stop-motion
effects legend Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts)
unleashes snake-haired Medusa, fearsome Kraken, winged Pegasus,
two-headed dog Dioskilos, giant scorpions and more. Rejoice,
fantasy fans: the movie gods gift us with adventure that’s
innovative, heroic, titanic. Blu-ray
Release date: March 2nd, 2010
Silk - The critical
hyperbole on Tartan's DVD cover refers to it as possessing the
"realism of WHITE NOISE with the sheer terror of THE EYE." While
the film does make use of the usual long-haired women and creepy
ghost children as well as the usual digital effects, SILK is
putting a new spin on the genre with a plot that extends beyond
the usual "find the corpse to free the spirit, oh wait, it's not
over yet and is far more complicated than that" that mars most
post-RINGU/GRUDGE Asian horror movies (then again, it may not
seem so to viewers approaching these one at a time compared to a
reviewer with a stack of these on his desk) such as the
thriller/ghost hybrid ARANG. DVD Release Date: 12 June 2007
Up in the Air
BD
- Ryan Bingham is the Organization Man for the 2000s. He never
comes to the office. Technically, he doesn't have an office, he
has an address where his employer has an office. His life is
devoted to visiting other people's offices, and firing them. “Up
in the Air” takes the trust people once had in their jobs and
pulls out the rug. It is a film for this time.
Blu-ray
Release date: March 9th, 2010
The Founding of a Republic
BD
- Just ten minutes into The Founding of a Republic, the 60th
anniversary docudrama that follows the events that led from the
end of the WWII in the Chinese theatre to the founding of the CCP in 1946, I found myself longing for the looseness of another
anniversary celebration, the movie musical, 1776. From what I
think I know about my own country’s history, what 1776 gets
right is the sheer improbability of it all.
Blu-ray
Release date: December 9th, 2009
M
BD
- Of all Fritz Lang’s creations, none have been more innovative
or influential than M, the film that launched German cinema into
the sound era with stunning sophistication and mesmerising
artistry. A spate of child killings has stricken a terrified
Berlin. Peter Lorre gives a legendary performance as the
murderer Hans Beckert, who soon finds himself chased by all
levels of society. From cinema’s first serial killer hunt, Lang
pulls back to encompass social tapestry, police procedural, and
underworld conspiracies in an astonishingly multi-faceted and
level-headed look at a deeply incendiary topic.
Blu-ray
Release Date: February 22nd, 2010
Soul Power
BD
- Presented in conjunction with the landmark 'Rumble in the
Jungle' boxing match between Ali and Foreman, Zaire '74 was a
three-day music festival in Kinshasa organised by South African
musician Hugh Masekela and American record producer Stewart
Levine, and featuring performances by such famed musicians as
James Brown, Bill Withers, and B.B. King, among others. Many of
the American musicians performing at Zaire '74 had been
emboldened by the American Civil Rights movement, and saw their
journey to Africa as a unique opportunity not just to perform
for a new set of enthusiastic fans, but to explore their roots
as well.
Blu-ray
Release Date: January 26th, 2010
Scream - A rafting tour
visit a ghost town and find themselves trapped there as a
possibly supernatural presence starts picking them off one by
one. That's really all there is to it. Stunt man Byron
Quisenberry got some money together, rounded up some name cast
members (including Woody Strode, Pepper Martin, Hank Worden, and
Alvy Moore) he had worked with on films as a stuntman (along
with Ethan Wayne, youngest son of John). The film lacks the
expected gore, sex, and nudity and is cast of characters is
composed of believable-looking tourists rather than obnoxious
teenagers. DVD Release Date: 16 February 2010
Girly - Mumsy (Ursula
Howells), Nanny (Pat Heywood) and overgrown "children" Sonny
(Howard Trevor) and Girly (Vanessa Howard) are a happy family
living in a sprawling, decaying mansion (Hammer Films' famous
Oakley Court). Sonny and Girly bring friends home to play but if
they don't obey the rules, they are tried and "sent to the
angels" but they are just as likely to end up as target practice
for Sonny playing cowboys and Indians or as one of Girly's
broken toys. DVD Release Date: March 30, 2010
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
BD
- Close Encounters takes the favoured dream of every UFO
enthusiast (that the US government has been operating a
cover-up) and turns it into a majestic and finally unprecedented
adventure story. As early references to The Ten Commandments and
Chuck Jones's Warner cartoons show, the film seems less
concerned with science fiction than with recapturing the wonder
of a child's first experience of the cinema, and the surprising
thing is that Spielberg moves into this territory so
effectively. There are some awkward touches (Truffaut never
ceases to be Truffaut, while some of the comedy scenes are a
little overplayed), but they're small price to pay for the first
film in years to give its audiences a tingle of shocked emotion
that is not entirely based either on fear or on suspense.
Blu-ray
Release date: November 13th, 2007
Dorm - While waiting for
something sinister to happen, the viewer is blindsided by how
humorous and moving the film turns out to be; managing to
balance the somber ghost story with the "coming of age" style
comedy/drama (like a lighter Thai boys school variation on the
Korean girls school horror films like MEMENTO MORI). The child
actors are excellent and are given characters with depth...
DVD Release Date: May 22nd, 2007
Death Proof
BD
- Close as we are in time to the low-budget exploitation and
slasher movies of the 70s, Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof isn't
exactly Grindhouse, despite the title. It's too expensive, too
well photographed, too well written and it has the benefit Kurt
Russell and Zoe Bell.
Blu-ray
January 26th, 2009
Phenomena - Though not
Argento's best film, it is certainly his most enjoyable as the
director crams so many odd touches into the 110 minute running
time (a lot of which was trimmed for the 84 minute US version).
There are razor-wielding chimps, kilos of coffee-grounds
standing in for flies (a clever antiquated optical trick), pits
full of maggots, skulls, and body parts, a monster child, Iron
Maiden's recurrent "Flash of the Blade", Daria Nicolodi's
frazzled teacher, striking Dalila Di Lazzaro's stern
headmistress who believes in the diabolical "Lord of the Flies",
and an ethereal Jennifer Connelly (14 at the time) running
around the Swiss mountains chasing insects and being chased by a
spear-wielding assassin. DVD Release Date: May 27th, 2008
Out of the Fog -
Working-class dreamers Jonah (Thomas Mitchell) and Olaf (John
Qualen) fish the Brooklyn waters and ponder their glorious plan:
buy a big boat and head for sunny Cuba. Then an amoral gangster
(John Garfield) puts the squeeze on the few bucks they've saved
and puts the moves on Jonah s daughter (Ida Lupino), a restless
good girl who d just as soon be bad. And the two friends, the
two gentle souls, begin a new plan: murder. Garfield inhabits
his role with the amiable cruelty of a top rodent in a
rat-eat-rat world, dominating this early-noir gem based on an
Irwin Shaw play originally produced by Garfield s Group Theatre
colleagues. On screen it s polished diamond hard by trenchant
performances, Anatole Litvak s sure-handed direction and moody
cinematography by the great James Wong Howe. DVD Release
Date: November, 2009
The Unfaithful - The wages
of sin are deceit, heartbreak and possibly murder in The
Unfaithful, a thriller about a wife who has an affair while her
GI husband is off fighting in the Pacific. Then, after the war
and happily reunited with her husband, she stabs the castoff
lover in what may or may not be a case of self-defense. Ann
Sheridan gives one of her finest performances – variously
calculating, terrified and remorseful – as a woman desperate to
keep her past a secret and her marriage whole. As her attorney, Lew Ayres turns the film’s courtroom scenes into riveting drama.
Is the wife a good woman who made a single mistake? Or is she a
cold-hearted seductress capable of murder? The Unfaithful lets
you decide. DVD Release Date: July, 2009
Bird With the Crystal Plumage
BD
- This is Dario Argento's directorial debut and with it, he
pretty much put giallo movies on the map. That's how potent and
influential this movie turned out to be. The premise is nothing
special: an American writer in Rome sees a murder attempt but is
helpless to try and stop it, and so gets entangled in the
investigation to stop the murderer. The premise is not so
important as how everything plays out.
Blu-ray
Release date: February 24th, 2009
Penny Points to Paradise
BD
- Two valuable early Peter Sellers performances, rescued from
obscurity and restored by the BFI National Archive. Penny Points
to Paradise sees all the Goons beside the seaside in a cheap and
cheerful comic escapade climaxing in a Brighton waxworks. Shot
around the same time Lets Go Crazy, is a madcap selection of
variety turns, with memorable performances from Spike Milligan
and Sellers in multiple roles. Both films provide an important
insight into British comedy history and, specifically, chart the
beginnings of Sellers' rise to stardom. A must-have for all
Goons fans.
Blu-ray
Release date: August 3rd, 2009
The Night of Truth - Set in
an unnamed African country, after ten years of bloody war, The
Night of Truth dramatises the process of truth and
reconciliation, echoing the recent histories of South Africa,
Sierra Leone and Rwanda, and highlights not only the female
perspective but also the subtleties and complexities of learning
to live together again in trust and respect. DVD Release
Date: April 24th, 2006
A Tale of Legendary Libido
BD
- In a remote and timeless village (there is electricity, but no
phone), the balance of Yin has tipped the scale, and the sexual
appetite of its women is too much for the average man. The women
all look healthy; the men look pretty much worn out. The few
with sufficient Yang are prized.
Blu-ray
Release date: November 11th, 2009
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