"Mel Brooks: Make a Noise" (Shout! Factory), the new profile of the legendary writer / director / actor / producer / all around funnyman from filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg, premieres on the PBS arts showcase "American Masters" on Monday, May 20, and debuts on DVD the next day. "A raconteur of the first order, Brooks is also gifted with near-total recall, and a wit that hasn’t ebbed with the passage of time," writes Variety TV critic Brian Lowry. "In Robert Trachtenberg’s film, Brooks concedes every bad review is like “a knife through your heart.” In savoring this valentine, that organ and every other can rest easy."

Shout! Factory has been doing right by Brooks, with its deluxe five-disc set "The Incredible Mel Brooks" (featuring some other standout documentaries and specials on Brooks) released in 2012. This joins the ongoing tribute, and the disc features bonus segments filmed for but not included in the documentary.

 

"Citizen Hearst" (HBO) profiles William Randolph Hearst, the legendary media mogul and yellow journalist, and the empire that continues on in his wake. "Sometimes "Citizen Hearst" feels as breezy and electric as the newsreels Hearst pioneered," observes Village Voice film critic Alan Scherstuhl, "other times it feels like the video they'll make you watch during orientation on your first day at 300 West 57th." Leslie Iwerks directs and William H. Macy narrates. DVD, with 30 minutes of bonus footage and the "Heart Castle" episodes of the A&E series "America's Castles."

 

Theatrical:

"Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters" (Zeitgeist) profiles the acclaimed photographer as he worked on his magnum opus, a collection of massive prints he called "Beneath the Roses." "For those unfamiliar with Crewdson’s oeuvre, the docu serves as a delicious eye-opener, while for fans it furnishes an unprecedented look at his long-secret methods, utilizing crews and budgets suitable for independent features, by which his eerily frozen moments of Americana come into being," writes Variety film critic Ronnie Scheib. The DVD includes deleted scenes, bonus interviews, and a Q&A at a screening at LACMA with director Ben Shapiro, Crewdson, and writer Jonathan Lethem.

 

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Last year saw a distinct uptick in films about the unwitting and ultimately nebulous roles that characters themselves would play, a theme epitomized by the likes of "Holy Motors," "Cloud Atlas," "Ruby Sparks," the long-delayed "The Cabin in the Woods," hell, even "Wreck-It Ralph." I'm happy to report that Ari Folman's piece of satirical sci-fi, "The Congress," is very much of that theme, committing to Big Ideas of identity and integrity with Robin Wright remarkably anchoring it all as... well, herself. (Sort of.)

As major American filmmakers, the Coen Brothers -- Ethan and Joel -- have had their share of distinctly minor films, while others have earned a greater reputation following repeat viewings and prolonged consideration. To call "Inside Llewyn Davis" a minor work doesn't render it any less a pleasure to watch; it's to admit that the film's melancholy depiction of the '60s folk scene in Greenwich Village (and beyond) may only improve in the interim.

"French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1928" (Flicker Alley) presents of the DVD debut of five silent classics from Film Albatros, a French studio founded by Russian artists: "The Burning Crucible," "Kean," "The Late Mathias Pascal," "Gribiche," and "The New Gentlemen."

 

Three of the films star Ivan Mosjoukine, the great Russian actor who fled the revolution and landed in Paris, and the other two are directed by Jacques Feyder. All of them are examples of the sophisticated filmmaking coming out of France in the twenties.

 

Which is not to say that they are all masterpieces -- "The Burning Crucible" (1923), which not only stars Mosjoukine but is written and directed by the actor, is inventive and full of lively images and playful techniques but is all over the place and jumps willy-nilly through styles and episodes -- but they are all tremendously entertaining and full of filmmaking energy. Mosjoukine plays eleven roles in "The Burning Crucible," including the leading role of Detective Z, a man of many disguises, and Mosjoukine the director rolls Russian formalism, German expressionism, and French surrealism together in a simplistic but richly imaginative story that at times borders on craziness of Louis Feuillade's serials of the previous decade.

 

Mosjoukine also stars in "Kean" (1924) as the great 19th century stage actor Edmund Kean and in "The Late Mathias Pascal" (1926), the fantasy epic directed by Marcel L'Herbier that Flicker Alley released on Blu-ray earlier this year. I reviewed it for Videodrone here.

 

The final pair of films in the set are from Jacques Feyder.

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For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for week of May 14

Another colleague -- a different one from he of my first dispatch -- had greeted me at the Nice airport earlier in the week with a smile and a word of warning: "Everything in Cannes is hard." I suppose that a reality check might be better appreciated by a first-timer than delusions of convenience, but as the days went on, each new hurdle only seemed to further validate that notion.

The rainy weather continued as I made my way down to the Palais for a press screening of François Ozon's "Jeune et Julie (Young & Beautiful)," due to take place in the Grand Lumiere, perhaps the most iconically featured of the festival's venues. (The steps of the nearby Debussy are similarly clad in red carpet, but each is devoted to different arenas of programming.) The film was fine, a slight yet enjoyable coming-of-age tale concerning 17-year-old Isabelle (a very good Marine Vacth), whose loss of virginity results in a voluntary year-long stint as a supposedly 20-year-old prostitute in a discreet effort to earn some extra money and satisfy her burgeoning sexuality.

The Lumiere's mandate that all bags and umbrellas must be checked before entering the auditorium resulted in a lengthy post-movie wait at the coat check counter, forcing one to hastily relocate to the umbrella-friendly Debussy, proceed through identical security procedures and scamper for a seat in time for Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring" (my review) to begin. I joked after the film that it was tempting to follow the gang's lead and rob the celebrity yachts of Cannes as their owners walked the red carpet at pre-listed call times, but then someone went and beat me to it.

In 2008 and 2009, a group of L.A. teens used their Internet savvy to determine where celebrities lived, when they'd be out of town (as well-documented by tabloid sites and the like) and how best to help themselves to more than $3 million worth of designer clothes, goods and cash, with their victims either unaware of the burglaries or unwilling to report the break-ins. What's more, their eventual capture would only result in the type of arbitrary celebrity status that their own glamorous role models enjoyed.

It's a fascinating story that encapsulates today's entitled youth culture, online transparency and do-anything desire for attention, one which namely resulted in a 2010 feature in Vanity Fair (brilliantly titled "The Suspects Wore Louboutins") and, now, a film in the form of Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring," which doesn't explore the who's and why's of the scenario so much as the how's and why-not's.

Fans of the number one paid app of all time are finally getting what they want, which bizarrely seems to mean making said app into a movie that doesn't involve any kind of gameplay, can't be held in your hand, and will cost even more to enjoy. That's right, "Angry Birds" is going to be a movie!

Bing: More on 'Angry Birds'

Sony Pictures Entertainment announced this week via press release that they've picked up the worldwide distribution rights to the "eagerly anticipated" film from Rovio Entertainment, which will unsurprisingly be an animated 3D feature (want to get us interested in an "Angry Birds" movie? make it live action). The film does not yet have a writer, director, or voice cast in place, but while we'll make fun of such a film until the pigs come home, Sony has certainly had great luck with their other animated properties, including "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," "Arthur Christmas," and "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," so they will likely trot out some big name talent to puff up their new prize property. 

Bing: More on Rovio Entertainment

There's also no word on the finer plot details of the film, but we can only assume that it will center on some pissed off birds, desperate to exact revenge on the green pigs who have stolen their eggs. Perhaps the film will be an origin story of sorts, one that explains why the pigs are green and why they would steal oodles of eggs from some birds with anger issues. There's so many questions to answer!

The "Angry Birds" movie will open on July 1, 2016.

Let's all take a moment to remember the first "Hangover" film, a relatively simple story about three idiots, a tiger, a naked man, a baby, a stripper, Las Vegas, and a quest to find a dear friend. Remember how things seemed so innocent back in 2009, when the worst thing that could happen was that dear friend Doug (Justin Bartha) wouldn't be found in time to make it to his own wedding? Remember how shocking things like Mike Tyson and an abandoned baby and a visit to a strip club were back then? Remember the singing? Oh, the good old days.

When director Todd Phillips hit the jackpot with the first film, there was no question that the film would spawn a sequel, if not an entire franchise, but the film's immediate follow-up proved that perhaps comedic lightning really only does strike once. After all, "The Hangover Part II" was so clearly a complete rip-off of the first film (just set in Thailand, and made all the more wacky and over-the-top and totally impossible to believe) and that's what most audiences didn't like about it, so what could possibly happen in a third film that would endear the franchise to people again?

Apparently, nostalgia, plenty of f-bombs, and stakes a whole hell of a lot higher than "oops, I may not make it to a major life event!" - at least, that's what at play in a new red band trailer for the film. The first half of the red band trailer mixes up plenty of scenes from both the first film and its sequel (have fun trying to pick which scene is from which film!) in order to ramp up audience emotion for the final film (aw, the Wolfpack!), and it's followed by a bigger look at the final film (including tons of Ken Jeong and enough swearing to really earn that red band designation). If this trailer won't get you pumped for "The Hangover Part III," nothing will, and that's probably what Warner Bros. is betting on. Are you sold?