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Melancholia
BD -
Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) are
celebrating their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of
her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law (Kiefer
Sutherland). Meanwhile, the planet, Melancholia, is heading
towards Earth... MELANCHOLIA is a psychological disaster movie
from director Lars von Trier. Blu-ray Release date: January
23rd, 2012
The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner - When
Alexander (Carlo Ljubek,
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX) is in a
road accident and his parents are killed - Vasil (Hristo
Mutafchiev) and Yana (Ana Papadopulu) - his "Backgammon King"
grandfather Bai Dan (Miki Manojlovic, THE BURMA CONSPIRACY)
travels from his home in Bulgaria to care for him and discovers
that the young man is suffering from retroactive amnesia. The
doctors advise Bai Dan that telling Alexander about his parents
could do more harm than good; however, the old man grows tired
of trying to jog his grandson's memory when he won't even leave
his hospital room. He breaks the news of their deaths to
Alexander, who still does not remember anything. Bai Dan decides
to take Alexander back home to Bulgaria; however, he chooses to
do it in a way that will hopefully help him recover his memories
(by traveling back along the same route that Alexander and his
parents took to escape communist Bulgaria years before). DVD
Release Date: December 20th, 2011
Mammuth - Not really the "X-rated MR. BEAN written by Charles Bukowski" - as the critical blurb on the cover pronounces it -
MAMMUTH could be just as much about an indictment of a cracked
system or a pro-establishment biker movie (Serge dropped out of
school, did his own thing - he calls spending all of the money
in the summers that he made working in the winters "paid
vacations" - and is now left to deal with outstanding debts and
health care issues). Although the relationship between Serge and
Solange is touching, we don't really see the parallels between
them (Adjani's ghostly visitations make more sense in pushing
Serge into realizing what's important). There are a handful of
comic interludes that are just there to pile on the eccentricity
and the bits with the hooker have no pay off (she accepts a ride
from a guy named Jean-Luc - the name of Serge's brother - and
disappears from the film); however, the film works as a piece of
film festival-bait with some threads to ponder in a time of
economic instability and increasingly obvious bureaucratic
incompetence. DVD Release Date: December 6th, 2011
Two-Lane Blacktop
BD - Hellman, as his later inactivity
testifies, seems to have turned himself into box-office anathema
by toying once too often with his beloved actes gratuites, so
open-ended that they would delight even the most demanding
existentialist. Here two young hot-rodders (Taylor, Wilson),
making their way across America by picking up racing bets on the
side, challenge (or are challenged by) the boastful middle-aged
owner of a gleaming new Pontiac (Oates). As their mesmeric duel
unfolds within a landscape that narrows down to a claustrophobic
tunnel of highways, filling stations and roadside cafés, it soon
becomes apparent that Hellman is less interested in allegory
(class and generation conflicts as in
Easy Rider) or in the race
itself (which simply fizzles out), than in the mysterious
process whereby a challenge is subtly metamorphosed into an
obsession. Self-enclosed, self-absorbed, and self-destructive
(as the last shot of the film catching in the projector and
burning suggests), it's absolutely riveting.
Blu-ray Release
Date: January 23rd, 2012
Witchfinder General
BD - Not as well-known as Robin Hardy's more
eccentric and complex The Wicker Man (which was also packaged
and sold by its distributors as a common exploitation flick),
this third film by then-24-year-old Michael Reeves (his last
film before an untimely death) is nevertheless one of the best
examples of the witchcraft subgenre of horror film. Starring
Vincent Price as real-life witchhunter Matthew Hopkins (ca. 1619
- 1647), Witchfinder General is an intense and brutally violent
film not merely for its time (which resulted in multiple cuts
made at the behest of the British Board of Film Censors) but
even now, retaining its power to shock much more so than gore
films of the same period, as the emotional stakes here are
established with beautiful economy. It is possible that Price
never gave a better performance than this one, as he completely
eschews camp theatrics in favor of a subduedly sinister and
menacing depiction of sadistic evil masked behind a cloak of
piety. Price plays Hopkins as an unmerciful reptile with a
genteel manner and an appetite for torture, creating in
Witchfinder General one of cinema's most frightening villains.
Blu-ray Release Date: June 13th, 2011
Repo Man
BD - A volatile, toxic potion of satire and nihilism,
road movie and science fiction, violence and comedy, the
unclassifiable sensibility of Alex Cox's Repo Man is the model
and inspiration for a potent strain of post-punk American
comedy. Otto, a baby-face punk played by Emilio Estevez, becomes
an apprentice to Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), a coke-snorting,
veteran repo-man-of-honor prowling the streets of a Los Angeles
wasteland populated by hoods, wackos, burnouts, conspiracy
theorists, and aliens of every stripe. It may seem chaotic at
first glance, but there's a "latticework of coincidence" (as
Tracey Walter puts it) underlying everything. Repo Man is a key
American movie of the 1980s--just as
Taxi Driver,
Nashville, and
Chinatown are key American movies of the '70s.
Blu-ray Release
Date: February 20th, 2012
The People Against O'Hara - James Curtayne (Spencer Tracy) was
once a brilliant defense attorney, saving scores from
prison-time and death row. But that was before a part of him
crawled inside a bottle and never crawled out. He now practices
civil law…it’s safer that way. But when John O’Hara (James
Arness), a kid from the neighborhood, gets hauled up on Murder
One, he allows himself to get cajoled into returning to his
former vocation. It’s a mistake. The DA runs circles around the
alcohol addled attorney, and O’Hara now faces execution. It’s
Jimmy’s worst nightmare come true. The question is, what’s he
planning to do about it? A young John Sturges (The Magnificent
Seven) teams up with seasoned cinema vet Tracy for this
noir-tinged legal drama, and it proves a potent combo – a solid,
by-the-numbers thriller rises above the machinations of plot to
provide a compelling portrait of a very good, but very weak man
in thrall to some very bad, very strong impulses. DVD Release
Date: November 22nd, 2011
Safe in Hell - Gilda (Dorothy Mackaill) thought she had fallen
as far as a woman could fall when she got a call telling her a
client was requesting her “services.” But when the client turns
out to be the man responsible for her fall from grace, Gilda
flies into a murderous rage. Taking it on the lam, Gilda finds
shelter in the arms of a sailor boyfriend (Donald Cook) who
smuggles her to sanctuary and safety, or so he thinks. In
reality he has booked her a bridal suite in hell. Too long
imprisoned by obscurity, Safe in Hell is released at last. This
pre-code crime classic, touted at the time as “Not For
Children,” is frank, startling and arresting, as gripping today
as it was eight decades ago. Directed by William A. Wellman,
Safe in Hell is full of terrors and delights, including the most
striking ensemble seen this side of
Freaks and a truly twisted
stunner of a finale. DVD Release Date: November 8th, 2011
Hollow Triumph - "The Scar" (1948) Originally released under the
title "Hollow Triumph," (and also known as The Man Who Murdered
Himself), this dandy little film noir thriller from Eagle Lion
features Paul Henreid with a chance to lose his leading man
image for not one, but two sinister performances. When crooked
gambler (Henreid) seeks to hide from a rival mobster, he hatches
a plot to take the place of a psychiatrist that he's a
dead-ringer for. But it's not long before the good doctor's
secretary (Joan Bennett) is on to his scheme. Koch Media DVD
Release Date: November 25th, 2011
Futurama Vol. 6
BD - During its original run, Futurama was one
of the highlights of the TV schedule. The misadventures of the
Planet Express crew - Fry, Leela, Bender, Zoidberg, Amy et all -
make for some outstanding re-visitation - years post initial
cancellation. This is great fun and fans should rejoice at the
13 NEW episodes! Most impressive is the inventive writing and
hilarious animated execution of the plots and characters. I
could watch this 24/7 and never grow tired of the comedy and
unique situations. Let's hope this runs as long as
The Simpsons!
Bravo! Blu-ray Release date: December 20th, 2011
Love Exposure - Although epic in length at three minutes shy of
four hours (Yu's story is the prologue and it runs exactly one
hour - before the film's title card finally comes up!), Sion
Sono's LOVE EXPOSURE is strangely intimate in scale with three
intertwining perspectives overlapping action in a story that
could have easily formed three different shorter feature films.
The running time goes by fast as Sono seamlessly moves from
melodrama to utter hilarity to Tarentino-esque violence
(including Koike's backstory which seems like something suited
to a KILL BILL villain) to tragic drama to a poignant close.
Despite some outrageous bloodshed and various perversions, shock
value seems to be the least of Sono's concerns; however, the
impressive three-and-a-half hour build-up of this absurd story
leads to a somewhat hasty and episodic resolution in the last
half-hour. Although quite entertaining, the film should probably
not be approached as one's introduction to Sion Sono (try
SUICIDE CLUB or COLD FISH). DVD Release Date: December 20th,
2011
The Undying - Seduced by the ghost of a Civil War soldier, whose
spirit dwells in her new home, Dr. Barbara Haughton contrives to
have him live again in the body of a man who died in her
hospital. But, it's this man's violent past that may affect
Barbara's desired future. Is this ghost now the gentle soul he
appears to be? Or someone much darker? DVD Release Date:
December 13th, 2011
The ABCs of Love and Sex - In between the mondo mayhem of
AUSTRALIA AFTER DARK and the softcore teenage classic FELICITY,
producer/director John Lamond schooled the continent with this
graphic grindhouse jaw-dropper: What was ostensibly presented as
a serious study of sexual behavior is actually an
erotically-charged trip through an alphabet of deviant sexual
pleasure, including mile-high clubs, female masturbation,
mincing homosexuals, hot lesbians, enormous genitals, disco
music, rape fantasies, interpretive dance, socio-cultural
blathering, relentless nudity and even a bit of creepy
stop-motion animation. Marilyn Rodgers (FELICITY) and Maj-Brith
Berström-Walan of The Swedish Institute For Sexual Research star
in this delightfully dubious documentary relic, now fully
restored from a print originally seized by the Australian
Classification Board and presented uncut & uncensored for the
first time ever in America. DVD Release Date: January 10th, 2012
Australia After Dark - Five years before he turned the world on
with his schoolgirl sexploitation classic FELICITY,
producer/director John Lamond made his indelible debut with this
mondo -style look at the depraved underbelly of a land
down-under. It s an ultra-sleazy, full-frontal journey through
the weird and the pathetic, the ugly, the obscene and the
beautiful, featuring strippers, swingers, murderers, devil
worshippers, nutty gurus, drunken aborigines, and much more.
From the back alleys of the big cities to the savage cruelty of
the outback, discover a continent of pleasure, pain, erotic art,
wriggling cuisine, tiny bikinis, alien landings, record-breaking
beer consumption and insane amounts of 70s nudity, now fully
restored from a print recently discovered in the cellar of the
Lower Wonga Drive-In and presented uncut & uncensored for the
first time ever in America. DVD Release Date: January 10th, 2012
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