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‘The Big Night,’ ‘The Missing Juror’ and a new edition of ‘The Black Book’
"Screaming Mimi" (Sony Pictures Choice Collection), directed by Gerd Oswald from a novel by Fredric Brown, is a real cult item in the film noir filmography, weird and lurid and kitschy, but fascinating all the same. Anita Ekberg stars as Yolanda, an exotic nightclub dancer who survives an attack from a serial killer and becomes much more than a story to "night beat" reporter Bill Sweeney (Philip Carey), a combination crime reporter and nightlife columnist who accepts free drinks from the clubs he plugs. Carey comes off as an oily Richard Carlson, a B-movie version of a second-tier performer, while Ekberg is pure sexual fantasy: voluptuous, scantily clad, dancing as if in a trance, and inviting the reporter's advances with every glance. Or at least it seems to Sweeney, who clashes with Yolanda's possessive manager (Harry Townes) as he traces the killer back to the Screaming Mimi of the title, a statue of hysterical woman.
A hothouse atmosphere of sex and obsession pervades this picture, as much due to the low-rent environs of the low budget sets as to the nightlife culture itself. Her manager is also her doctor (from when she was the best dressed patient in the asylum) and, we can assume, her lover, while the nightclub matron (Gypsy Rose Lee) shows an equally possessive interest in the petite cigarette girl (Linda Cherney), who she keeps around like a pet. I don't know if "tea for two" was a cultural euphemism for female couples, but when Sweeney says it, it sure sounds like it. And when Yolanda runs out on the reporters and spends the night at Sweeney's home, the two cigarettes burned to butts side by side in the ash tray says all you need to know about the sleeping arrangements, regardless of the fact that she emerges from a separate bedroom. Oswald knows how to cue the details of this dime novel world behind the restrictions of the production code. Even the deficiencies of the performances, from Ekberg's breathy vacancy to Carey's smugness to Gypsy Rose Lee's overworked folksiness and sass to Red Norvo's smart-aleck jazzbo comments, add to the weirdly off-key tone. The screenplay is largely faithful to Brown's novel, except that it irons out his storytelling twists, dropping the detective story discoveries into the prologue. Curiously, it doesn't affect the mystery much, it merely establishes the sordid attitude much earlier.
The disc is presented in 16x9 anamorphic widescreen, approximating the original release aspect ratio just fine, and the image is solid, from a clean, well-kept black-and-white print.
"The Big Night" (MGM Limited Edition Collection), the final American film made by Joseph Losey before he fled Hollywood and the blacklist for Europe, has a title just generic enough to suggest anything from a musical extravaganza to a teen sex comedy. But vagueness aside, it's really quite a provocative youth noir with John Drew Barrymore as an angry young man out to revenge the brutal beating of his old man (Preston Foster), a modest barkeep, by a bullying sports reporter with the marvelously ironic name of Al Judge (Howard St. John). Neither juvenile delinquent drama or a wild youth thriller, this is a portrait in rage and shame and disappointment in fathers and father figures. On this big night, as he arms himself with a handgun and hunts down the newsman, he is let down by one authority figure after another, from his father to a friendly but cowardly professor who takes him under his wing to a corrupt, predatory cop in the pocket of Judge. This is some coming of age as he discovers over this long night that his heroes and the authority figures he's been taught to respect are not merely flawed, but often corrupt, petty, and unreliable.
Losey made this for an independent producer on a small budget but his direction is commanding, making his odyssey through the city at night into a journey through the heart of darkness. John Drew Barrymore (billed here as John Barrymore, Jr.) never really established himself as much of an actor (though I'll always love him for his beat poetry history lesson in "High School Confidential"), but Losey pulls a vivid, tormented character out of him here, almost dizzy with hurt and fury and confusion as he pushes himself to follow through on his vengeance. There is a powerful undercurrent to this modest production.
"The Black Book" (Sony Pictures Choice Collection) is another kind of cult noir: pure American urban film noir sensibility dropped into the Terror of the French Revolution, with guys and dames in flouncy costumes and flamboyant hats talking like gangsters and street thugs. It's been available in some truly wretched PD editions, until VCI released a decent copy a couple of years ago. While it was fine, this edition is far superior, really providing an appropriate showcase to Anthony Mann's shadowy scenes of death and double crosses in the alleys and dungeons of 18th century Paris as suggested on backlot sets. This is, in a word, formidable!
Also recently released:
"The Missing Juror" (Sony Pictures Choice Collection), one of the very first features helmed by westerns master Budd Boetticher (credited as Oscar Boetticher, Jr. early in his career), is a typical B-movie mystery about a glib newspaperman (Jim Bannon) chasing a story about members of a high-profile jury turning up dead. What should be an ominous thriller is knocked off-balance by outsized personalities and comic by-play, like a film trying to split the difference between crime movie, screwball romance, and snappy newspaper film, all played out on cheap backlot sets. Boetticher doesn't bring much to the film beyond energy: this film moves along with a momentum that almost fools you into thinking there's something going on.
"Vice Raid" (MGM Limited Edition Collection) gives top billing to Mamie Van Doren, playing a brassy working girl hired by mobster Brad Dexter (in smirking sleaze mode) to frame incorruptible cop Richard Coogan (a charisma-free stiff), who gets kicked off the force and goes rogue to take down the syndicate. Mamie is actually the classiest thing in this cheap little crime 1959 knock-off from Imperial Pictures, which isn't really noir as much a noir by product. It never creates an appropriately sordid atmosphere to match the culture of corruption, just a general generic sleaziness. The disc is presented in the square 1.33:1 format (what was once called full frame, a term that has become rather confusing in the era of widescreen monitors), but was shot to be seen wider and is better watched zoomed to fill the 16x9 screen.
Sony Pictures Choice Collection
"Screaming Mimi"
"The Black Book"
"The Missing Juror"
Available by order only from Sony Pictures Choice Collection, from Amazon, Critics Choice Video, Classic Movies Now, Warner Archive, and other web retailers.
MGM Limited Edition Collection:
"The Big Night"
"Vice Raid"
Available by order only from the MGM Limited Edition Collection, from Amazon, Screen Archives Entertainment, Critics' Choice Video, Classic Movies Now, Warner Archive, and other web retailers.
MOD stands for "Manufacture on Demand" and represents a recent development in the DVD market, where slipping sales have slowed the release of classic, special interest and catalogue releases. These are DVD-R releases, no-frills discs from studio masters, ordered online and "burned" individually with every order. You can read a general introduction to the format and the model on my profile of the Warner Archive Collection on Parallax View here and on the MGM Limited Edition Collection on Videodrone here.
The 1967 medieval epic from Czechoslovakia is the (re)discovery of the year to date
"Marketa Lazarová" (Criterion), the 1967 epic based on one of the revered masterpieces of Czech literature (considered unfilmmable by many), was voted the greatest film Czech film ever made in a 1998 pool of Czechoslovakian film critics and professionals. Yet it is all but unknown in the U.S., rarely revived and never before on home video. Its director, František Vláčil, is a self-taught filmmaker who skipped film school and brought a sensibility rooted in painting and poetry to the screen, is also largely unknown in the U.S., overshadowed by fellow Czech directors like Milos Forman, Jiri Menzel, and Ivan Passer. Criterion's release is the first chance most of us have to see this film, and the label's reputation (for its curatorial taste as well as its dedication to superior presentations) is just the stamp of approval that many viewers need to take a chance on this unique film.
Set in 13th century Czechoslovakia, in a medieval culture of warring feudal lords, it's a film of primal imagery, poetic filmmaking, and ephemeral storytelling that looks hewn out of the stone and wood and the very earth of the ground beneath it. It's an ancient tale, says the narrator, and it unfolds like chapters of overlapping stories, or perhaps stanzas of an epic poem, with sketches of characters and impressions of moments and images that sculpt an untamed world into magnificent visions both primal and poetic.
Kozlík (Josef Kemr), the brutish pagan patriarch of a predatory bandit clan preying on travelers, and Lazar (Michal Kozuch), the king's man and a Christian, go to war when the Kozlík's boys kidnap the son of a visiting German count and Lazar is charged with recovering the boy and punishing the captors. It begins a brutal campaign of ambushes and tortures and escalates to open warfare, all played out against a vast sky of perpetual gray a landscape wild and untamed but for the protected human habitats (where the earth is worn down to muddy bogs between the lonely stone buildings), littered with the human dead lost to war and vengeance and medieval justice.
Marketa (Magda Vásáryová) is the virginal daughter of Lazar, an innocent blonde beauty in a world of grimy, predatory devils, promised to the convent but defiled by the Kozlik clan. Contrasted against the violence of the men and the barbarian brutality of Kozlik, a man who crippled his own mute son to teach him a lesson, her resilience and unbroken spirit is a glimmer of hope in a savage world.
I can't pretend to fathom it all on one viewing -- this is clearly a film that invites repeated visits -- but it was the transporting cinematic experience I've had in months. For all the death and human horrors, I come away with the beauty of some of the images captured against this landscape, at once majestic and desolate, and the grace and forgiveness that some of these characters bring despite the horrors of this life. The images and themes and narrative mysteries turned through my head for days after seeing it.
The 165-minute film is released on single-disc Blu-ray and two-disc DVD, in Czech and German with English subtitles, transferred from a 4K digital restoration made from the original camera negative and a fine grain print. It looks, in a word, stunning, and in addition to the superb restoration, Criterion offers a rich collection of new video interviews.
"Marketa's Actors" is a 40-minute interview featurette with actors Magda Vášáryová, Ivan Palúch, and Vlastimil Harapes, who talk about working on the film as well as their own careers outside of the film. Film historian Peter Hames and film critic Antonín Liehm provide helpful background and context, and there are interviews with the film's costume designer Theodor Pištek and restoration technical director Ivo Marák.
On the archival side is the 20-minute documentary "In the Web of Time" featuring an interview with director František Vláčil himself, talk generally about his career and his filmmaking approach, and a gallery of Vláčil's storyboards. The accompanying 40-page booklet features new essays by film scholar Tom Gunning and author and translator Alex Zucker and a 1969 interview with Vlácil by Antonín Liehm.
See the glorious opening minutes of the film and a portion of the interview with actress Magda Vášáryová after the jump. Click on "More" below.
You can read Tom Gunning's essay at Criterion Current.
Plus Britain's take on 'The Wild West,' another season of 'Call the Midwife,' and more
"Rectify" (Anchor Bay), the acclaimed Sundance original series, is one of the best shows of 2013 and arrives on DVD weeks after its six-episode run. Videodrone's review is here.
"Body of Proof: The Complete Third Season" (ABC, DVD) is the final season of the crime procedural with Dana Delaney as Dr. Megan Hunt, Medical Examiner of Philadelphia, genius forensic pathologist, and divorced mother of a teenage girl.
Season Two ended with (spoiler alert) the murder of her police department partner (Nicholas Bishop), and Megan returns from a forced leave with half the cast replaced. Her medical team and department boss (Jeri Ryan) are intact, with Ryan playing politics as she prepares for public office, but her ex-husband is gone from the show as are tetchy detective team of John Carroll Lynch and Sonja Sohn. In their place is Mark Valley as Detective Tommy Sullivan, transferred from New York and bring a shared history with Megan, along with Elyes Gabel, Lorraine Toussant, and Marisa Ramirez.
The series had settled into a well-made show that simply didn't stand out from the rest of the TV procedurals and the cast shake-up didn't change that. The final run arrived midseason for 13 episodes and they went for some big stories: terrorist bomb threat, Megan's daughter kidnapped by a killer, possible demonic possession, a plane crash, and even brought some closure to the show in the finale, though I can't say I found the final revelation is all that satisfying.
13 episodes on three discs on DVD, with the featurettes "Getting the Shot," "VFX: The Ultimate Makeover," "All Kinds of Props," and "Creating the World," plus a gag reel.
"Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli" (Shout Factory, DVD) collects the entire 1989 animated series from Japan: 52 episodes on six discs. It’s the English language version, of course.
BritTV:
"The Wild West" (BBC), a British co-production with Discover Channel from 2006, looks at the true stories behind three of the most famous figures of the American frontier: General George Custer, Wyatt Earp, and Billy the Kid. Toby Stephens and Liam Cunningham star in this mix of documentary and historical recreation.
"Call the Midwife: Season Two" (BBC, Blu-ray and DVD) continues the hit BBC series set in 1950s East London and starring Jessica Raine and Vanessa Redgrave (as the same character at different ages) with 8 episodes, all in the UK versions with footage unseen in the American run on "Masterpiece Classic." Three discs on DVD, with cast and crew interviews.
"Springhill: Series One" (Acorn) collects the complete run of this dark evening soap opera made for Britain's Channel 4 by creator Paul Abbott in 1996. 26 episodes on four discs on DVD.
Another season:
"Wilfred: The Complete Season Two" (Fox, Blu-ray and DVD), with Elijah Wood as a manic depressive who sees his neighbor's pet dog as a man in a dog suit, has all 13 episodes from the FX run, plus a bonus short and other supplements. Also new: "Drop Dead Diva: The Complete Fourth Season" (Sony, DVD) from Lifetime (13 episodes on three discs), "Workaholics: Season Three" (Paramount, Blu-ray and DVD) from Comedy Central (20 episodes), and "Web Therapy: The Complete Second Season" (eOne, DVD) from Showtime (12 episodes).
Joe Dante's werewolf movie gets the special edition treatment
The same year that "An American Werewolf in London" opened up the possibilities of the werewolf horror with a mix of black comedy and horrific transformations, Joe Dante went a different direction with "The Howling" (Shout Factory). Working on lower budget, Dante discarded the usual lone wolf route to frame the drama in terms of the wolf pack. His wolves weren't mad dogs on the rampage, but a primal force balancing survival with primal urges.
Dee Wallace, just a year before making "E.T.," stars as an investigative TV reporter recovering from a brush with a serial killer in a retreat called "The Colony," a mix of new age commune, primal therapy, and red meat culture. It also happens to be the hub of a werewolf pack that quickly adds her husband (Christopher Stone) to their ranks, transforming the easy-going vegetarian into an aggressive, meat-eating hunter in the process.
It's more clever than compelling, to be fair, an interesting take with inventive effects (thanks to Rob Bottin), impressive moments of horror, an undercurrent of dark humor, and an earthy, feral sensibility. John Sayles (who previously wrote "Piranha" for Dante) came with Dante from the Corman movie factory and contributes a clever script (adapted from a novel by Gary Brandner) with some character nice touches in the supporting roles (many of them played by his B-movie heroes and genre character actors, from Kevin McCarthy and John Carradine to Roger Corman and Forrest J. Ackerman) and a modicum of wit in the dialogue.
It's a real film buff feast but Dante also uses the opportunity to stretch himself. He shows off his chops in a riveting opening sequence, where Wallace goes undercover to nab a serial killer and goes into shock at the horror of the experience, and some well-turned wolf encounters, and he balances the genre-movie love with adult material. Not just violence and nudity (and yes, it delivers both in the best grindhouse tradition) but mature relationships, sophisticated threats, and a social satire that both spoofs and embraces the psychological trends of the era. The story isn't as smart as Dante's treatment (the motivations as foggy at best, and the pack mentality doesn't mesh with the lone wolf madness of the serial killer in the flock) but the mix of dark humor, animal instincts, and a mature take on a genre piece makes it much more interesting than a lot of subsequent films with better actors, bigger budgets, and more lavish production values.
Joe Dante reflects on the film in an interview at USA Today.
It gets the special edition treatment for Blu-ray and DVD, which features a decent transfer that fails to hold the intensity of the blacks in the nocturnal scenes (and there many of them) but otherwise has decent color and clarity (DVD Talk reviewer Tyler Foster notes that they used the Studio Canal transfer from the French Blu-ray release).
Carried over from the previous MGM DVD are some meaty supplements: commentary by director Joe Dante and stars Dee Wallace-Stone, Christopher Stone, and Robert Picardo, the excellent 50-minute documentary "Unleashing the Beast: Making The Howling" from 2002, the archival "Making a Monster Movie: Inside the Howling" from 1981, and outtakes, and an interview with stop-motion animator David Allen is rescued from the original laserdisc release. New to the disc are a new commentary with novel author Gary Brandner moderated by Michael Felsher, interviews with producer Steven A. Lane, editor Mark Goldblatt, and co-screenwriter Terence H. Winkless, a location tour, and a reel of deleted scenes.
And if you don't like the new artwork on the disc cover, just turn the sleeve inside out; the original poster art is on the other side.
Take a look at the disc menu, with a montage of clips from the film, after the jump. Click on "More" below.
Ray McKinnon's whisper of a TV drama made for the Sundance Channel comes to DVD
One of the best shows of 2013, the Sundance original series "Rectify" (Anchor Bay) follows a week in the life of Daniel Holden (Aden Young) a man released into the world after spending 19 years -- over half of his life -- on death row. His sentence is vacated after DNA analysis undercuts prosecution evidence, but that's not exoneration and the question of guilt hangs over him when he returns home.
Created and written by actor Ray McKinnon, who is also an Oscar-winning director ("The Accountant," Best Live Action Short in 2001), this isn't a murder mystery -- the series doesn't provide with the comfort of certainty of his guilt or innocence. It's a character drama built around the shell-shock of a man who seems to be stuck at the age at which his life was suspended.
Holden plays Daniel with quiet and stillness of a man unsure of his place in the world and uneasy in social situations (he has essentially been in solitary for half of his life). He was considered an odd kid then and now he's even more withdrawn: speaking with a carefulness that betrays no emotion, filled with the philosophical depth of the books he's lived through while incarcerates but without the worldly experience to transform the ideas into life lessons. The show's most touching moments show Holden reconnecting with the world he lost: eating a sandwich alone on an empty sports field, his shoes off and his gaze lost in the distance; finding the Walkman and the mix tapes his 18-year-old self left behind and becoming the boy he once was; bicycling with his younger half-brother like a child; embracing his step-brother's wife (Adelaide Clemens), a fragile soul trying to save Daniel's soul, and fighting his hunger for a physical connection.
But it's also about the other lives touched by his release: his fiercely devoted sister (Abigail Spencer) who never stopped pushing to re-open the case and stop his execution and now doesn't quite know how to be with him; his uneasy mother (J. Smith-Cameron), who feels almost guilty that she's remarried since Daniel's incarceration her husband's death; the step-brother (Clayne Crawford) convinced Daniel is guilty and protective of the inheritance he's afraid he'll now lose to him; the community still convinced of his guilt. He confessed, after all. Why would he confess if he was innocent?
McKinnon writes most of the episodes and sets the tone as director of the first episode, and it has a sensibility very different from other shows. "[T]he series has a loping rural rhythm, an understated awareness of how complicated people can be, and a subtly theatrical sense of characterization and dialogue," writes New York TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz. "Daniel, in particular, carries on like the questing hero of a Play of Ideas. His elaborate locutions and spiraling monologues suggest that McKinnon’s stint on "Deadwood" amounted to more than an acting credit. Milchian language abounds, along with literary references that would seem forced if the show hadn’t established that these are educated, in some cases self-educated, characters."
Six episodes on two discs on DVD with a collection of short featurettes: "Sundance on Set: Rectify," "Meet the Cast," "Inside Job: Behind the Scenes," "Inside the Episode with Ray McKinnon," and "Behind the Screen." You can view "Sundance on Set: Rectify" after the jump. Click on "More" below.
The series exists as a self-contained story just fine, but Sundance has picked it up for a second series, slated to run in 2014.
Plus 'Quartet' with Maggie Smith, 'Brass Teapot,' 'The Last Exorcism Part II,' and more
"Stoker" (Fox), the American debut of South Korean director Park Chan-wook ("Oldboy"), stars Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, and Nicole Kidman as an uneasy family with a dark legacy. Videodrone's review is here.
"Jack the Giant Slayer" (New Line), Bryan Singer's entry in the fairy tale-as-big-screen-adventure-spectacle moviemaking, stars Nicholas Hoult as the titular Jack, Ewan McGregor as a dashing knight who leads the charge up the beanstalk to save the princess (Eleanor Tomlinson), Stanley Tucci doing villain duty as the snide turncoat, and Ian McShane and Bill Nighy. It also reunites Singer with longtime collaborators Christopher McQuarrie (who takes a hand in the screenplay) and John Ottman (music and editing).
"[A]n impressive cast and an action-packed second half make the film suited to anyone eager for an escapist fantasy outing," recommends MSN film critic Kate Erbland. ""Jack the Giant Slayer" struggles to find proper pacing and tone for its first half, bogged down by Singer's apparent eagerness to get up the stalk and into the action while also attempting to get his audience invested in a multitude of characters. It's all much better (and much more entertaining) once the herd has been thinned and we can focus on the characters and plots that are truly engaging."
Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and DVD, with deleted scenes, a gag reel, and an UltraViolet digital copy for download and instant streaming. The Blu-ray editions feature the "Becoming a Giant Slayer" mode, which allows you to branch off to see featurettes and other supplements while watching the movie (hosted by Nicholas Holt). Also On Demand
"Quartet" (Anchor Bay), the directorial debut of Dustin Hoffman, takes us into more grown-up territory, with Maggie Smith as flamoyant opera diva who moves into a home for retired musicians just as they prepare for a fundraising concert. Tom Courtney is her former husband and Pauline Collins and Billy Connolly fill out the foursome of the title. "All these very conventional setups and machinations being what they are, the movie actually becomes an active pleasure once the players are finally set in their places," recommends MSN film critic Glenn Kenny. "The writing -- the movie was scripted by Ronald Harwood, who won an Oscar for "The Pianist," and he adapted it from his own play -- is sharper and wittier and more generally astute than you get in almost every other help-the-aged picture that comes along these days."
Blu-ray and DVD, with commentary by director Dustin Hoffman and a collection of short featurettes. Also On Demand and at Redbox
"The Brass Teapot" (Magnolia) stars Juno Temple and Michael Angarano as a young couple who discover a magical brass teapot that pays off every time they hurt themselves, which pits their greed against their well-being. MSN film critic Kate Erbland writes that "Bolstered by charming chemistry between its leads, "The Brass Teapot" is a fun enough watch, but for a film that attempts to speak on such big topics as morality, greed, and fidelity, it has little lasting value." Blu-ray and DVD, with director commentary, featurettes, interviews, and deleted scenes.
Click on "More" below to continue reading
| Tags: | Reviews |
Videodrone's take on the biggest, best, coolest and culty-ist releases of the week
New Releases:
"Stoker" (Fox), the American debut of South Korean director Park Chan-wook ("Oldboy"), plays like a vampire movie without a vampire, at least not one in the mythic sense of the term. Mia Wasikowska is dreamy and uneasy as a teenage girl in a family who discovers her dark family legacy and Park directs with elegance and eerie suggestion, layering the film in atmosphere and texture you can almost reach out and touch. Matthew Goode and Nicole Kidman co-star. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand. Videodrone's review is here.
Bryan Singer directs "Jack the Giant Slayer" (New Line), a fairy tale transformed into a big-budget adventure spectacle moviemaking with Nicholas Hoult as the titular Jack and Ewan McGregor as a dashing knight. Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and On Demand. Reviewed on Videodrone here.
More grown-up is "Quartet" (Anchor Bay), the directorial debut of Dustin Hoffman with a cast of British veterans (Maggie Smith, Tom Courtney, Pauline Collins, and Billy Connelly) as retired musicians. Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox
"The Brass Teapot" (Magnolia, Blu-ray and DVD) is a black comedy about a young couple (Juno Temple and Michael Angarano) with a modern magic lamp, "21 & Over" (Fox, Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand), gets humor out of binge-drinking antics, and "Movie 43" (Fox, Blu-ray and DVD) features big stars behaving badly in a skit feature.
Horrors this week include "The Last Exorcism Part II" (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox) and "American Mary" (Xlrator, Blu-ray and DVD). And from France comes the comedy "Let My People Go!" (Zeitgeist, DVD), which stirs gay and Jewish clichés into a cultural satire.
Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.
TV on Disc:
The Sundance original series "Rectify" (Anchor Bay) follows a week in the life of a man released into the world after spending 19 years -- over half of his life -- on death row. Created by actor and award-winning filmmaker Ray McKinnon, this isn't a murder mystery -- the suspicion of his guilt hangs over him like a cloud any we don't get any easy answers -- it's a character drama and it's one of the best shows of 2013. Six episodes on DVD with supplements.
"The Wild West" (BBC), a British co-production with Discover Channel from 2006, looks at the true stories behind General George Custer, Wyatt Earp, and Billy the Kid. "Call the Midwife: Season Two" (BBC, Blu-ray and DVD) continues the hit BBC series with 8 episodes, all with footage unseen in the American run.
"Body of Proof: The Complete Third Season" (ABC, DVD) presents the final season of the crime procedural with Dana Delaney as a forensic pathologist. Also arriving are the most recent runs of the comedies "Wilfred: The Complete Season Two" (Fox, Blu-ray and DVD) from FX and "Drop Dead Diva: The Complete Fourth Season" (Sony, DVD) from Lifetime, among others.
"Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli" (Shout Factory, DVD) collects the entire 1989 animated series from Japan on six disc.
Cool and Classic:
"Marketa Lazarova" (Criterion) is the (re)discovery of the year so far, a 1967 immersion into a medieval culture of warring feudal lords, a film of primal imagery, poetic filmmaking, and ephemeral storytelling that looks hewn out of the stone and wood and the very earth from where it was shot. It is amazing, and the Criterion edition comes from a superb restoration and features a rich collection of supplemental interviews to give American viewers background and context. Blu-ray and DVD.
Joe Dante directs "The Howling" (Shout Factory), a werewolf horror with dark humor, a pack mentality, and an earthy, feral sensibility (not mention Dante's love of old Hollywood thrillers and stars), and it gets the special edition treatment for Blu-ray and DVD.
"Safety Last" (Criterion) is the most famous of Harold Lloyd's silent comedies (it's the one with Harold hanging from the clock above the streets of Los Angeles) and "Things to Come" (Criterion) is the visually impressive (if dramatically stodgy) 1936 film version of the H.G. Wells novel. Both on Blu-ray and DVD from new digital film transfers, with supplements.
"Hard Times" (Twilight Time, Blu-ray), the directorial debut of Walter Hill, sends Charles Bronson bare-knuckle-brawling his way through Depression-era New Orleans. It hold up quite well, but I can't say the same for "Lifeforce" (Shout Factory, Blu-ray+DVD Combo), an undernourished science-fiction horror from Tobe Hooper about energy vampires from space.
Two early thirties films starring Bette Davis -- "Of Human Bondage" (Kino Classics) and "Hell's House" (Kino Classics) -- are newly remastered from archival prints preserved by the Library of Congress and released on Blu-ray and DVD.
Streams and Channels:
The newest arrivals on Netflix are usually the most popular but not always the best, as "Branded" (2012), a sci-fi thriller about corporate mind control starring Ed Stoppard, Leelee Sobieski, and Jeffrey Tambor, and "Super" (2011), a grimy superhero satire with Rainn Wilson as a costumed nutcase, attest.
But for great badness, check out "Miami Connection" (1987), a gonzo B-movie from the eighties about a synth-rock band of Taekwondo black belts versus a gang of drug-dealing motorcycle Ninjas in Orlando.
"American Wedding" (2003), the third official film in the "American Pie" series, finds the sex-obsessed boys turned into sex-obsessed adults. More serious is "Lost and Delirious" (2001), a teen melodrama of first love which may find new audiences thanks to Jessica Pare, now finding fame in "Mad Men."
Also newly arrived: "Rolling Thunder" (1977), starring William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones, and the classic Bette Davis dramas "Hell's House" (1932) and "Of Human Bondage" (1934), which arrive same week as the new disc editions from Kino.
For instant TV, there is "Hit & Miss: Season 1" is a crime drama offbeat even for British TV -- it stars Chloë Sevigny as a transgender assassin -- and the Disney Channel sitcom "My Babysitter's a Vampire: Seasons 1 and 2."
New On Demand:
"Jack the Giant Slayer," the Bryan Singer production that sends Nicholas Hoult and Ewan McGregor up the beanstalk to fight giants, and "Stoker," a darkly dreamy thriller with Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, and Nicole Kidman, arrive On Demand same day as disc.
Also new is "Quartet" with Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay, the comedy "21 and Over" and the horror film "The Last Exorcism Part II" (the unrated version).
Available same day as theatrical debut is the horror film "Maniac" with Elijah Wood (Friday, June 21) and the comedy "Breakup at a Wedding" (Tuesday, June 18), and coming advance of disc is "The Girl," a drama with Abbie Cornish and Will Patton.
Available from Redbox this week:
"Quartet" (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray and DVD), for the grown-ups, and "The Last Exorcism Part II" (Sony, Blu-ray and DVD), for the horror-hungry youngsters, arrive same day as video stores and retail.
Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week is "Side Effects" (Universal, Blu-ray and DVD), Steven Soderbergh's medical drama-turned-psychological thriller with Jude Law and Rooney Mara (reviewed here), and "Beautiful Creatures" (Warner, Blu-ray and DVD), the first film in a new supernatural teen romance franchise (reviewed here).
Complete calendar of releases after the jump. Click on "More" below
| Tags: | Week in review |
An eerie American thriller from the Korean director of 'Oldboy'
"Stoker" (Fox) - Hollywood is always drafting new talent from abroad, especially from thriving cinema cultures. From Mexico, we received an injection of new blood thanks to Guillermo Del Toro, Alfonso Cauron, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Back in the nineties, it was the Hong Kong action stars on both sides of the camera, from Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat to John Woo and Corey Yuen.
For the past few years, South Korea has been leading the Asian wave of hit action movies, horror films, and thrillers and Hollywood has once again taken notice. 2013 marks the respective American debuts of three top South Korean directors: Kim Jee-woon ("The Good, the Bad, the Weird," "I Saw the Devil"), who made the Arnold Schwarzenegger come-back film "The Last Stand" (released earlier this year on disc and reviewed here); Bong Joon-ho ("The Host"), whose end-of-the-world thriller "Snowpiercer" is due for release later this year; and Park Chan-wook ("Oldboy," "Thirst"), director of "Stoker," a film that doesn't fit within the usual genre parameters.
I like to think of "Stoker" as a vampire movie without a vampire. At least not in the mythic sense of the term. Mia Wasikowska is dreamy and uneasy as India Stoker, a teenage girl who is preternaturally attuned to the world and disconnected from the kids around her. Matthew Goode is creepily calm and seductive as the uncle she never even knew existed until he arrives for a funeral and stays on in the family manor (he is her Uncle Charlie, in fact, an offhanded reference to Hitchcock's take on another dark uncle-niece relationship). Nicole Kidman is dizzy and disconnected as her weak and ineffectual mother. She seems to want to be there for her daughter, but she hardly seems present in the world at all.
Park sculpts the film, directed from an original script by Wentworth Miller, beautifully. We see the world through the heightened senses of India as she works through the loss of her father while attempting to measure this smiling, hypnotic uncle who has drifted into her life. He presents himself as her dark guardian angel, attempting to seduce India with his confidence, his power, and his violence (he seduction of the mother is more literal), but she has a more savvy understanding of the depths of his darkness.
There is blood and brutality and the icy threats under silent intimidation, but done with such elegance and eerie suggestion it feels like a dream. Park layers the film in atmosphere and texture, shuffling flashbacks and dreams into the present, all part of India's journey to the heart of the family legacy her father always knew she would inherit. As you can guess, I was captivated by this world and by Park's mesmerizing mix of the visceral and ethereal.
"Mia Wasikowska does remarkably disciplined work as India, and Park shoots her in a way that makes the bones of her statuesque body give as much of a performance as the actress herself does," agrees MSN film critic Glenn Kenny, but he's less enthralled by the eerie tale and atmosphere: "the material itself, while aspiring to some level of misterioso, is about as blunt and obvious as the hammer that figures so prominently in Park's prior "Old Boy."… There's also the slight matter of the movie's central fallacy, which is a belief that all a work of art needs in order to commune with The Irrational is merely to make no damn sense."
Blu-ray and DVD, the supplements on the Blu-ray release only: the featurette "An Exclusive Look: A Filmmakers Journey," three short theatrical behind-the-scenes featurettes, a musical performance from the "Red Carpet Premiere," and deleted scenes. The Blu-ray also includes a Digital HD UltraViolet digital copy for download and instant streaming.
Also VOD, digital download, and On Demand
Veteran movie producer Lynda Obst explains it all in an excerpt from her book 'Sleepless in Hollywood'
We all know that DVD sales have dropped drastically since the heyday of the mid-2000s, and Blu-ray hasn't come close to making up the difference. Streaming media and VOD has cut into disc rentals and thousands of rental stores have shuttered in the last eight years, resulting in huge drop in disc sales for rental libraries. Digital copies are challenging individual sales. It's changed the way we collect and watch movies at home.
It also changed the way Hollywood makes movies, and the kinds of movies that get made, says Lynda Obst, a veteran Hollywood producer with such credits as "The Fisher King," "Sleepless in Seattle," and "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" (okay, so they weren't all classics).
Bing: "Sleepless in Hollywood" by Lynda Obst
In an excerpt from her new book "Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business" featured at Salon, she lays out the economics of Hollywood and the business model shaken by the loss of disc sale revenues, in a conversation with producer Peter Chermin:
This was, literally, a Great Contraction. Something drastic had happened to our industry, and this was it. Surely there were other factors: Young males were disappearing into video games; there were hundreds of home entertainment choices available for nesting families; the Net. But slicing a huge chunk of reliable profits right out of the bottom line forever?
This was mind-boggling to me, and I’ve been in the business for thirty years. Peter continued as I absorbed the depths and roots of what I was starting to think of as the Great Contraction. “Which means if nothing else changed, they would all be losing money. That’s how serious the DVD downturn is. At best, it could cut their profit in half for new movies.”
Which brings up a question: what was the business model before disc? Or even before glory days of VHS home video rentals?
I guess you'll have to buy the book for that. In the meantime, I can now justify my disc purchases as my contribution to saving Hollywood.
You can read the complete excerpt here.
"Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business" by Lynda Obst is published by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
about the blogger
Sean Axmaker is MSN's DVD columnist and the editor of Parallax View. He writes for Turner Classic Movies Online and his work has appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Seattle Weekly, The Stranger, Senses of Cinema, Asian Cult Cinema, Psychotronic Video and "The Scarecrow Video Guide."
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