Recent Stories in Film & TV

You know it's a week full of quality movies on DVD when the biggest release is a television show. Yes, the biggest DVD for the week was the sixth and final season of Lost, which includes (zomg) another eleven minutes of never-before-seen bonus scenes of Ben and Hurley on The Island. There's also a new crazy-ass box set of the whole series.

Besides that, the next biggest release is The Back-up Plan, Jennifer Lopez's getting knocked up and then meeting the man of your dreams rom-com. There's also City Island, a family-with-secrets comedy that's actually one of the top box office earners amongst indie films this year. There's a mediocre movie version of Dorian Gray and the latest zombie installment from George A. Romero, Survival of the Dead.

Ajami is well-reviewed, but to me the intersecting storylines just sound like Crash in the Middle East. Shirin is an experimental film with Juliette Binoche, in which a theater audience watches a film based on a poem, while The Square is a noir thriller from Australia. Nightfur is a sci-fi romance with a soundtrack by Band of Horses, and Abandoned looks to be the final (direct-to-DVD) release with Brittany Murphy.

In terms of special editions, there's the 30th anniversary release of Shogun Assassin, the Bluray of cult British comedy Withnail and I, and 1969 gangster flick Machine Gun McCain, starring John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, Britt Ekland, and Gena Rowlands. This week also marks the release of three silent films by Josef Von Sternberg from Criterion: Docks of New York, The Last Command, and Underworld.... (more)

The Swan (at Artattack Theater most Thurs-Sun through September 25th) is one of those plays where the central conflict is introduced from the get-go, and then you sit back and watch as the cast of characters have to deal with it.

In this case, the conflict surrounds the title bird (played by Martyn G. Krouse) who crashes into Dora's (Tracy Leigh) living room window. The thrice-divorced/widowed nurse plans on caring for the wounded creature, who she dubs Bill, only until he's healed, much to the disapproval of her married milkman boyfriend Kevin (Daniel Wood). But eventually the animal won't leave—and then he starts to turn into a man. 

So it's your standard love triangle; it just so happens that one of the parties is an animal. And in a way, Elizabeth Egloff's play is a lonely woman's wish fulfillment. I mean, what girl wouldn't take the needy, shirtless hunk programmed to mate for life over the dopey guy who's already cheating on his wife?

Depending on your frame of reference, The Swan is either a fairy tale or magical realism, and the script (along with Selby's direction) allows each of the three actors a chance to shine. Leigh's Dora is homespun without being hackneyed and neurotic while still having genuine underlying emotion. Even Wood, whose kind and persistent yet frustrated and befuddled Kevin is the most one-note, is able to stretch his acting legs in the second act.

But it's Krouse who really has to hustle as an actor, playing both animal and man without it coming off as a joke. Throughout the swan's metamorphosis, Krouse squawks, preens, hisses, and then gets dressed, learns to speak English, to play checkers, and to fall in desperate love. His swan, after he learns to talk, speaks in poetry, and the word pictures he conjures are downright dreamy. And Krouse does it all so convincingly tenderly that he makes the absurdist conceit feel real. Same goes for the simple, practical set by Selby and Justin Lockwood, as well as Lockwood's sound design.... (more)

A Jazzman's Jazzman: The Gerry Carruthers Story from Paul Maupoux on Vimeo.

CRO-MAGNON PICTURES has written in to let everyone know about the premiere of their feature film, A Jazzman's Jazzman: The Gerry Carruthers Story. Look for it at The Fremont Abbey (4272 Fremont Ave N) on Friday, September 10, 2010. Screenings are at 7 and 9:30 p.m., with live music in between.

About the film...

A Jazzman's Jazzman is a hilarious and unique blend of mockumentary and stop-motion animation. Equal parts Spinal Tap and Ken Burns' Jazz, it follows the life and times of fictional pianist Gerry Carruthers as he struggles for fame and recognition against all odds.

The stories of Carruthers, his friends and enemies, and the club where he became infamous are brought to vivid life by a cast of skilled Seattle actors and musicians in improvised interviews, and "dramatized" in gorgeous stop-motion animation of characters created by Eric "Two Scoops" Moore.

The film also features a fantastic original score by local musicians Birch Pereira and Tim Kennedy.... (more)

Years ago, back when Cartoon Network was still part of the dumping ground of basic cable and network programming was still good, there used to be a great show called ToonHeads that was sort of like a Pop-Up Video for old MGM and Warner Bros. cartoons, except it was actually intelligent. Each episode, it would exhaustively cover the references to GI slang during World War II or near-forgotten radio personalities, things like that. ToonHeads was my first introduction to the magical world of banned cartoons.

I'm a little late to this party, I admit, but the Grand Illusion in the U District is in the midst of a series of screenings of cartoon shorts that for one reason or another now fall well outside the bounds of politically acceptable. Hosted by historian and curator Dennis Nyback, tonight through Thursday is "Bad Bugs Bunny," featuring a variety of shorts in which the iconic American hare does some, well, iconically American things of the sort we'd rather forget. Next week is "Compare to Disney (a.k.a. Fuck Mickey Mouse)" and then finally "The Dark Side of Dr. Seuss," a series of Army films animated by Theodore Geisel during the Second World War.... (more)

If only because attendance at the Northwest Film Forum's Vincent Moon retrospective has been appallingly far from sold out, here's another reminder that it continues tonight through Thursday and your life will be incomplete and wasted without making at least one viewing. The clip above, filmed with David Moore this winter in New York, is slightly "more cinematic" than many of Moon's early films while still capturing the joy of musicmaking and the wonder of spectating.

It's not incredibly related to this evening's Mogwai-related double feature of Burning and Adelia I Want To Love, but it is awfully pretty. As much as I love the Paris-based takeaway shows, his recent travelogue work is somehow even more lyrical and enchanting.... (more)

Here we are in the thick of August's silly season, which last year was focused on talk of death panels and this year is dominated by the threat posed by a ZOMG Ground Zero terror mosque.  It's almost as if the media has nothing else to do with their time, besides quash intellectual debate and foment fear.  Might we suggest they take a break from the crushing twenty-four-hour news cycle, in favor of a movie or two?  With that in mind, here's a look at recent DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

The silly season of August also means fewer new DVDs of note, but there have been a few out recently that are worth your while: last week brought Date Night and this week marked the release of The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, a Korean take on the spaghetti western. There's also Cemetery Junction, which I honestly don't know much about, but when the words "written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant" are used, I say, "yes please."... (more)

Tonight's program at NWFF includes a collection of these short films, including many that have not yet appeared online. The director will be present to help guide the musical travelogue and answer questions. I dropped in on his workshop yesterday afternoon and was thoroughly charmed; I'm hoping that tonight's presentation leaves plenty of time for conversation, too.

• TAKE AWAY SHOWS: EXPANDED CINEMA. 8:00 pm, $6-9. (NWFF)

That's the subject line of an email I received yesterday, promoting a tweetup this Monday morning with the monumental German director/intellectual madman himself. Ostensibly, it's an event to drum up interest in First Look Studios' upcoming DVD release of My Son My Son What Have Ye Done, Herzog's collaboration with David Lynch, which played at the Northwest Film Forum this spring.  But really, this is an opportunity to throw your thoughts at Werner and get one of his trademark dry-witted replies.  Animal-related questions encouraged, for sure.

Herzog will respond in real-time to questions tweeted to the First Look Studios' Twitter account, @1stlookstudios, with his responses posted on the First Look Studios' YouTube channel. Though Herzog himself is not a member of Twitter, his persona is quite popular on the social network, as seen through the popular trending topic #WernerHerzogvsChuckNorris, where users weigh in on who is tougher, Werner Herzog or action star Chuck Norris.

Tweeting to Werner commences Monday morning, so send your questions @1stlookstudios by August 23rd at 9:45 a.m. PDT.  Full press release after the jump.... (more)

To fans of emerging bands, particularly of artists whose skyrocketing careers mean that each subsequent tour is likely to take place in a venue less intimate than the one before, the immediacy of these films is a revelation that inspires held breath and exploding hearts. With their distillation of musical experiences to their most pure and creative, they are consistently among the best things on the internet.

Starting Friday evening, the Northwest Film Forum dedicates an entire week to the work of Vincent Moon (real name, Mathieu Saura), bringing the director to town to talk about his movies, conduct a workshop on music filmmaking, and to film some Seattle bands in takeaway shows of their own. As someone known to breathlessly await the arrival of the next installation from La Blogotheque, I have similarly been eagerly anticipating this series since it was first announced.... (more)

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle screens at the Northwest Film Forum from August 13 to 19, a homecoming for the David Russo film, which was produced with the aid of the Forum's Start-to-Finish Program, and includes the music of "Awesome" and animation by Russo and Dutch animator Rosto. Director Russo will be attending the screenings.

It joins the semi-august company of quirky indie succès de Sundance films, like Robinson Devor's Police Beat and Lynn Shelton's Humpday. (Paste Magazine said, "Little Dizzle is a triumph, and exactly the kind of film Sundance was created to discover and promote.") Play spot-the-local and give yourself points for Matt Smith, Sean Nelson, and John Osebold, among others.

It is generally acknowledged that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to summit Mt. Everest, a feat they accomplished on May 29, 1953.

But for many, their accomplishment, as bold and brave as it was, has always come with an asterisk because of something that may, or may not, have happened on June 9, 1924. That’s when a British team consisting of George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine set out for a summit attempt and never returned.

Whether or not Mallory and Irvine could have or did in fact make the summit that day is the subject of an excellent IMAX documentary, The Wildest Dream, currently showing at the Pacific Science Center's Eames IMAX Theater. [Ed: That's the theater to your west, if you're facing south at the ticket gate.]

Narrated by Liam Neeson, Dream is a fascinating look into what has come to be known at the Golden Age of Exploration. Mallory was definitely a man of that age, when men became obsessed with conquering some unknown territory or physical obstacle.

Mallory was obsessed with being the first to summit Everest. It was he who, in answer to a reporter’s question on why anyone would want to climb Everest, memorably answered, "Because it’s there." Mallory participated in three expeditions to Everest in 1921, 1922, and 1924 and the first surprise of Wildest Dream is that National Geographic Society filmed both the 1922 and 1924 expeditions.

The grainy, black-and-white footage is amazing. You are transported to a time when the Earth was filled with unexplored places and man was reaching out to close those gaps, sometimes at fearsome cost. There is a certain, tangible sadness in Mallory’s story, but his desire and bravery is also compelling. It’s amazing this story has never made it to film before.... (more)

Oh, hello there. Now that we've got a weekend of summer rain and Blue Angels under our belt, it's time to take a look at the latest releases on DVD, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. The big DVD out this week is Kick-Ass, which was a lot of fun. (And yes, while the film is ostensibly about Kick-Ass, it's really all about Hit Girl and Nic Cage's sly take on Batman.) But don't let the kids see that one--it's actually pretty violent. Instead, steer them towards Diary of a Wimpy Kid, based on the book series of the same name.

The Ghost Writer is the smart thriller that Shutter Island should've been, assuming you can get past the fact that it was directed by Roman Polanski. Oscar-nominated stylized French prison drama A Prophet (Un prophète), in which a new inmate learns how to work the system, also hearkens back to Scorsese's glory days. And there are two crummy releases with the word "life" in the title: To Save a Life, a glorified after-school special, and After.Life, a bad horror flick with Christina Ricci as a dead girl who doesn't accept she's dead just yet.

On the documentary tip, there's a look at the life of Jim Henson in Henson's Place: The Man Behind the Muppets, and a look at D&D nerds in Dungeon Masters. Meanwhile, Sweetgrass is a poetic paean to real-life current-day cowboys driving their sheep flocks through the West, while All God's Children examines the offspring of missionaries who faced abuse at the hands of their parents' colleagues. And if you didn't get enough hardcore harp action with Joanna Newsom in town, check out Harp Dreams: Inside the International Harp Competition, following the thirty-one young contestants who are amongst the best harpists in the world.... (more)

Their Wednesday, August 4, show "sold" out, so Central Cinema has added another night of Muppets, Thursday, August 5, 8 p.m. It's a free night of Muppet-viewing (curated excerpts from both Sesame Street and The Muppet Show) as part of a monthly series that Central Cinema calls "TV Dinner."

Gonzo will catch a cannonball with his bare hands. Chickens will play piano. Animal with drum like a maniac. Aliens will communicate with a telephone. The Count with count everything. Beaker will most likely be hurt in some way. We'll spend time with great guest stars like Alice Cooper, Rita Moreno, Vincent Price, John Cleese, and Debbie Harry.

While the TV viewing is free, the dinner portion is not. You can reserve seats in advance by buying a $5 food and beverage voucher. I usually sing the praises of Central Cinema's reasonably priced beer and pizza combinations, but the new menu (pdf) also boasts salads (Niçoise, antipasto, spinach, endive), small plates (prawns, mushrooms, empanadillos), sandwiches, and the Cinema Burger with Sweet Potato Fries.

It's time for another set of new DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. First, because I have to: Release the Kraken! Yes, this week brings Clash of the Titans, the widely panned epic mythology battle starring Bad 3-D. There's also Repo Men, which foretells our dystopian organ transplantation future.  It's not entirely stupid, but I just can't buy Jude Law as the ripped action hero.  There's also a couple crappy horror flicks: The Uninvited and Don't Look Up.

Looking at the foreign releases, check out Vincere, a biopic on Mussolini and the tumultuous relationship with his much-maligned longtime lover. There's also Ip Man, a biopic on the man who taught Bruce Lee martial arts. And Criterion has their edition of French-Turisian family drama, The Secret of the Grain, which is all about couscous.

Just a couple documentaries this week. I Need That Record! is a loving look at the independent music store. And The Art of the Steal is a documentary on a cache of modern and post-impressionist art and the many museums jostling for control of the $25B collection.... (more)

Seattle came through for the Grand Illusion in the last two weeks--the theater's managed to scrape together (barely) enough funds to keep its doors open for a while. And given the wonderfully unique programming they're busting out in the coming week, fans of left-of-center film fare can rejoice.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo Trailer from Myriapod Productions on Vimeo.

Anyone who's ever marvelled at the alien wonder of insects in general should find rapture in Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, screening at the GI today through August 5. One of the most popular docs to screen at SIFF 2010, it's about the Japanese fascination with insects as a source of mythology, adoration, study, and (in at least one case) income. Director Jessica Oreck explores this synergy between man and invertebrate with a poet's eye, concentrating less on the science and mechanics of beetles and butterflies and more on their visual elegance and magic, and the visceral awe that those armored and winged oddities engender in their human cohabitants.... (more)

It's a warm and wonderful summer day, so let's stay inside.  Whether you are avoiding those oppressive rays of sunshine or the unmitigated hellscape known as Capitol Hill Block Party, today's a good day to hole up and watch some movies.  So let's take a look at the new DVD releases this week, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

This week is actually light on new releases, which you can tell by the big studio films out this week.  There's The Losers, which even comic book nerds/action fans didn't like, and Cop Out, Kevin Smith's latest, which nobody liked.  Rock chick fan pic The Runaways fared better.  Yes, it ostensibly stars Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett (and Dakota Fanning as Cherrie Curie), but come on now--it's Michael Shannon as manager-svengali Kim Fowley who really steals the show.

In foreign films, there's Mother, Bong Joon-Ho's (The Host) latest thriller about a mom desperate to track down a killer in order to free her framed son.  There's also A Town Called Panic, which follows the adventures of a group of ragtag toys. WARNING: This is a French stop-motion comedy.... (more)

Another week, another set of new DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. Let me start by telling you to avoid The Bounty Hunter. I'm not alone in that thought, as it's one of the worst-reviewed films of the year. Look for many forthcoming Razzie nominations. Greenberg, on the other hand, is well worth your time, assuming you like Noah Baumbach's uncomfortable true-to-life studies in sociopathy and have longed to see Ben Stiller in a film without the word "Fockers" in the the title.

Weepy dead son drama The Greatest is over-the-top maudlin, but got a theater release due to strong grieving performances from Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon, as well as rising stars Carey Mulligan and Aaron Johnson. Meanwhile, Atom Egoyan's love triangle Chloe features some hot Julianne Moore on Amanda Seyfried action.

In terms of documentaries, this week brings 8: The Mormon Proposition, the Prop 8 doc recently at SIFF, narrated by Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black. In the same vein is Fagbug, in which a woman's VW Beetle is graffitied with anti-gay slurs, and in response, instead of getting a new paint job, she decided to go on a road trip and document others' reactions. Finally out on DVD is America the Beautiful, a 2007 doc about the American obsession with beauty and the subsequent deleterious effects on society. On a lighter note, Don't You Forget About Me is a love letter to dearly departed John Hughes.... (more)

Good lord, you're all so pretty.

Yeah, there's Toy Story 3, but that's not so much a summer popcorn flick as it is a chance for grown men to cry in a movie theater. Besides that, the cinemaplex is a vast entertainment desert. Everything else in wide release is for children or manchildren. So there's really no reason to spend much time at a theater between now and--oh, let's say October, just to be safe. 

Enter Inception. In a studio environment dominated by remakes, sequels, and sequels to remakes, Inception is truly something new.  While Christopher Nolan's dream-within-a-dreamscape has nods to 2001, Mission: Impossible, the entire James Bond franchise, and The Matrix, it does so in a winking way, rather than ripping off those ideas or beating you over the head with the references. Though it retains the structure of a heist flick, Inception is daringly original and unafraid to aim high. The film occasionally threatens to collapse under its own weight (and two-and-half-hour running time), but somehow it doesn't. And Nolan, along with his dexterous, high-flying cast, pulls it off in a rather sly fashion.

The plot? This is definitely one of those films where the less you know, the better. Leonardo DiCaprio (thankfully sans Boston accent, as well as Marty Scorsese) makes his living spelunking into others' dreams, with the help of a team of suit-clad professionals, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy. Usually, their work involves invading a dreamer's subconscious to extract information, but this time around, they've been hired by global business magnate Ken Watanabe to get into the dreams of one of his rivals (Cillian Murphy) and plant the seed that he needs to dissolve his corporate empire. You know, business stuff. Ellen Page plays the architect who creates the dreamworld they enter, and as the newest member of the team, she serves as character that helps explain The Rules to the audience.... (more)

Here we are in the dog days of summer, and there is basically nothing new out on DVD. That being said, let's still run down the current releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

Yes, there's Brooklyn's Finest, Antoine Fuqua's unofficial follow-up to Training Day. Pajiba says it's not as bad as you might think, but I'm not convinced. There's also The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first film adaptation from Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy (the second, The Girl Who Played with Fire, is in theaters now, locally at the Harvard Exit). You should definitely see the Swedish films before the sure-to-be-horrid Hollywood versions, starring...oh, let's say Brad Pitt and Kristen Stewart. And there's also A Single Man, fashion designer Tom Ford's luminous directorial debut, featuring nuanced Oscar-nominated performances by Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. While it is shot strikingly well (of course), the validity of the ending is up for debate.

But besides that? Nothing. And when I say, "nothing," I mean NOTHING.... (more)

The Grand Illusion sent out a Facebook post recently, with a humble but heartfelt plea for funds attached.  The venerable movie house (the oldest continually-running film theater in town) faces the very real possibility of closing its doors outright if they don't receive a serious cash infusion but quick, and that'd be a big loss to this allegedly movie-centric city.

The GI makes it a point to (almost) always screen films in glorious 35mm; the scruffy red interior and intimate auditorium possess a distinctive, funky warmth; and they program much more adventurous, expansive, and out-there fare than your average revival house. (Head over here to throw them a few bucks, for pete's sake.)

This weekend's lineup reflects the theater's customary range. Johanna, an Hungarian import, is a surreal 2005 musical (!) about a bus crash victim who miraculously recovers from her injuries and begins curing the ill and injured in her recovery hospital. It screens tonight through July 15.... (more)

It's the long holiday weekend, so it's good that there's lots of new movies out on DVD.  Let's run down the list of new films, care of our friends at Scarecrow Video (now with video games!).

The biggest release this week is definitely Hot Tub Time Machine, which I saw in a theater of people laughing so loudly that I will need to see it again, just to catch all the jokes I missed the first time.  There's also Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, based on the popular children's book series, and the remake of The Crazies, in which virus-infected water makes Timothy Olyphant something-something.

In terms of foreign films, there's the Oscar-nominated black-and-white looming dread of pre-WWI small-town Germany in The White Ribbon, which director Michael Haneke accurately described as "a horror film without the horror." There's also The Eclipse--no not that one.  This is an almost-perfect Irish ghost story set at a writers' conference.  Spooky scary!  Let's hope that there's never an American remake.  Same goes for Everlasting Moments, a delicate look at a female photographer challenging societal norms in early 1900s Sweden.  And for something completely different, Warlords features Jet Li and lots of epic Chinese battles.... (more)

The weather is getting summery, but if you still want to spend some time indoors, there's plenty of movies for your rental pleasure.  Let's check out this week's new releases on DVD, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. 

If you can't wait till Wednesday for your Robert Pattinson fix, there's the romantic drama Remember Me, in which R-Patz falls for Lost's Emilie de Ravin before tragedy strikes in the form of a spoiler you can easily look up all over the internets. A slightly less realistic romance occurs in She's Out of My League, with dweeb of the moment Jay Baruchel. If you're looking for the inner workings of a real relationship, please see The Last Station starring Christopher Plummer and Dame Helen Mirren as Leo Tolstoy and his wife Sofya.

This week also brings Green Zone, in which Matt Damon is a soldier in Iraq. It's directed by Paul Greengrass, which means there's lots of handheld camerawork, translating into action sequences where you can't tell what's occurring or who is chasing whom. We get it already--war is confusing!  Too bad this film culminates in the shocking reveal two-thirds of the way through:  there are no WMD in Iraq.  Do yourself a favor and avoid this Snore Identity.... (more)

After last night's screening of Cyrus--which opens at the Harvard Exit next Friday--John C. Reilly and director Jay Duplass were on hand for a Q&A. They discussed the ins and outs of the new movie (not to mention shooting on film vs. digital), as well as John's innate talent for improvisation, the Duplass brothers' potential for making a mumblecore sequel to Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, and what John has in common with Bob Dylan. Spoiler alert: This of course involved John doing a Dylan impression. 

Both John and Jay came off as smart, funny, and down to earth, with a strong belief in their work on Cyrus (with reason--the film's good). Just don't ask John to perform a duet with Will Ferrell at your wedding, buddy--it ain't gonna happen.

Laura Poitras' film The Oath won a documentary award at Sundance for its portrayal of two men's involvement in the War on Terror: Abu Jandal, a Yemeni taxi driver who was Osama Bin Laden's bodyguard, and his brother-in-law, Salim Hamdan, Bin Laden's driver who you might know from a little court case called Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. 

Poitras explores the divergent roads these men's lives took through interviews with the cagey Jandal, whose political views changed post-9/11, and Hamdan's letters written from Guantanamo Bay. I talked to Laura during SIFF—the first part of the interview is here. The Oath is following up its SIFF showings with a run at the Northwest Film Forum, through Thursday. 

An interesting topic that comes up in your film is the conflict between the old members of Al Qaeda versus the newer ones. They have different goals, different ideals, and different ideas of who is staying true to Islam and who isn't. We tend to view Al Qaeda as monolithic and paint the entire organization with a broad brush.

We do, the general public does, but the people working intelligence don't. And I think that it is important to recognize the difference between the younger and older generations. It's interesting that [Abu Jandal] is being threatened by the younger generation, by—in a sense—his own people. And I think that teaches us a lot about the inner workings.

Your film also takes a look at The Dialogue Committee [a kind of terrorist rehab], which is a movement you never hear about, with the idea that that jihadis can be reformed. It's also interesting to see Abu Jandal as terrorist turned family man, where he's just a dad and a taxi driver, but he also has this history, and he's still talking to men about jihad.

I found it pretty compelling…. It's the fact that people get older. I think that there is something about family and responsibilities that has its inherent de-radicalizing effect. So it's a combination of that, being in prison, and then having The Dialogue. Everything kinda contributed to him turning away from the tactics [of terrorism]. ... (more)

I gave this post a rest during SIFF, just because there were already more than enough movies to go around. That being said, you didn't miss much: the biggest new releases on DVD were Alice in Wonderland, Dear John, The Road, and Shutter Island (and you all know how I feel about that last one).

There was also Califone's first foray into film, All My Friends are Funeral Singers, the sequel to Planet Earth, BBC series Life, Oscar foreign film winner The Secrets in Their Eyes, David Cross' latest Bigger and Blackerer, and Saturday Night Fever by way of Pinochet Tony Manero. Let us not speak of The Wolfman, nor From Paris with Love.

Now let's take a look at more recent releases on DVD, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. Last week offered up terrible rom-com When In Rome, terrible post-apocalypse The Book of Eli, and terrible indie flick Happy Tears. I haven't seen Youth in Revolt, but I liked the book when I was a youth and it stars cutie pie Michael Cera, so I will reserve judgment at this time. There's also Mary and Max, a stop-motion animation feature with the voices of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette, and the Criterion edition of Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train.... (more)