This week I've selected a Blu-ray and DVD Pick of the Week. One is a little seen Robert Altman film starring HAROLD & MAUDE star Bud Cort and an underrated gem of a dark comedy actioner for a few years back. There is also a quad of releases that I'm interested in checking out and hope to hear more about from fellow fans who have seen them.
Blu-ray Pick of the Week
In Bruges
Martin McDonagh followed up his Oscar-winning short film, SIX SHOOTER, with this action-packed dark comedy. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play hitmen who have been sent by their boss, played by Ralph Fiennes, to Bruges, Belgium after Farrell's Ray botches a job. Gleeson is happy to take in the tourist spots of the medieval city, while Farrell fears he will lose his mind from boredom. Even though they are there to keep a low profile, the duo gets wrapped up with local drug dealers, a movie production and a dwarf. At times this pitch-black satire is gruesome, but it all serves the story and complex characters well. Don't miss it.
Buy "In Bruges" on Blu-ray Here!
DVD Pick of the Week
Brewster McCloud
BREWSTER MCCLOUD was Robert Altman's follow-up to his smash hit M*A*S*H. It is by far his strangest. Bud Cort plays a young man that dresses a great deal like Where's Waldo and hides away in a bomb shelter in the Astrodome trying to create a pair of wings so he can fly. He has a guardian angel played by Sally Kellerman and gets involved with cute Astrodome tour guide played by Shelley Duvall. Surrounding the entire story is a murder plot involving corrupt cops and politicians. Michael Murphy plays a white Shaft and Margaret "Wicked Witch of the West" Hamilton has the role of an overbearing and tone deaf band leader. Warner is releasing it as part of its made-to-order Warner Archive program. There's nothing quite like it.
Get "Brewster McCloud" on DVD at Warner Archives!
Buzzed About
8: The Mormon Proposition
This documentary had a short run in theaters earlier this summer and now arrives on DVD. California's Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage after it was ruled legal by the state supreme court, was passed, surprisingly to many, in 2008. After the fact it was revealed that most of the money funding the pro-Prop 8 campaign was from the Mormon Church. The film tries to uncover why the Mormons were so dedicated to this issue that they would break laws between religion and politics. They were eventually fined for their actions. I'm hoping for a film that's more investigative look at the blurring of the line between religion and politics than a hatchet job. But the campaign of misinformation and fear mongering that surrounded the pro-Prop 8 stance it's supporters were not only wrong, but will not find themselves on the negative side of history in the end.
Buy "8: The Mormon Proposition" on DVD Here!
Chloe
Director Atom Egoyan has made strange sexual politics a theme within many of his films such as EXOTICA, THE SWEET HEREAFTER and WHERE THE TRUTH LIES. Now he remakes Anne Fontaine's 2003 French film NATALIE… into an English languaged production starring Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried. Moore plays a doctor who hires an escort played by Seyfried to seduce her husband, played by Neeson. She believes he is cheating on her and wants to trap him, but her plot traps her in a scheme that has more profound affects on her life than she imagined. The reviews were solid and critics praised the performances — many making a point of highlighting Seyfried's mature (sans clothes) role.
Greenberg
I quite enjoyed Noah Baumbach's first film THE SQUID AND THE WHALE and respected this attention to character in MARGOT AT THE WEDDING. The trailer for GREENBERG, starring Ben Stiller, didn't strike me. But the reviews were good. In a more dramatic role, Stiller plays a New Yorker who comes to L.A. to live with his brother and find direction in his life. Baumbach is great with characters, but I'm hoping this has a better connection point than the unlikable characters in MARGOT.
Buy "Greenberg" on Blu-ray Here!
The Only Son/There Was a Father: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu
Criterion is releasing two films from Yasujiro Ozu on one disc. THE ONLY SON, Ozu's first sound film, follows a widowed mother who works a terrible job at a silk spinning plant in order to put her son through school. When his is older he moves to Tokyo, when she comes to visit him unannounced years after, she is shocked to find he is married and has a child.
THERE WAS A FATHER tells the tale of a poor schoolteacher who struggles to raise his son on his own.
Like all of Ozu's films, family dynamics are at the center of each film. The master filmmaker has a unique style. He films at eye level to his characters, which look just off camera. The approach brings an intimacy to his work that is striking. I look forward to getting to know more of his work.
Buy "The Only Son" and "There Was a Father" on DVD Here!
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
