The Screengrab : definitely maybe

DVD Digest for June 24, 2008

Paul Clark — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

This week brings the release of several new Criterions, the latest DVD from a blogosphere favorite, and a box-set tribute to a late, great British director.

For many DVD fans, this is the week that Criterion releases Anthony Mann’s The Furies and Milcho Manchevski’s Before the Rain in stories. But while both of these titles are certainly worthy, the new DVD that most interests me this week is actually Zeitgeist’s Derek Jarman Glitterbox, containing four of the maverick filmmaker’s works. The best-known title in the box is his 1986 film Caravaggio, which features early performances from Sean Bean and Jarman friend/frequent collaborator Tilda Swinton. But also justifying the price are 1993’s Wittgenstein and 1985’s The Angelic Conversation, the latter of which is only available in the box set. Finally, there’s the strange case of Blue, Jarman’s final film, also included here. While watching a film that consists entirely of a blue background accompanied by various voiceovers and sound effects, it’s nonetheless a must for Jarman fans, or even those who are curious about his life. Made as he was losing his eyesight due to AIDS-related illness, Blue is almost certainly the closest Jarman came to making a cinematic confession. You may not watch it again and again, but it demands to be seen at least once, and thanks to DVD, now everyone has that opportunity. Of course, if you’re looking for a more upbeat gay-friendly DVD, there’s always Xanadu: Magical Music Edition (Universal).

This week’s most noteworthy new release comes to us from our friends at Benten Films, Matthias Gleisner’s The Free Will. A prizewinner at the 2007 Berlinale, The Free Will tells the story of a convicted sex offender who finds himself struggling with life following his release from prison. The first foreign-language release from Benten, the DVD also includes a commentary by Gleisner and star/co-writer Jürgen Vogel, along with the film’s original theatrical trailer and a new essay on the film by critic David Fear. As always, it’s good to see what the Benten boys (Andrew Grant and Aaron Hillis) have in store for us, and The Free Will should be no exception.

Other notable recent releases coming to DVD this week include Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (Sony, also Blu-Ray), which features both French- and English-dubbed versions; Martin McDonagh’s agreeably salty In Bruges (Universal); Ryan Reynolds romancing a trio of hotties in Definitely, Maybe (Universal); Roland Emmerich’s latest assault on storytelling coherence and subtlety 10,000 B.C. (Warner, also Blu-Ray); The Spiderwick Chronicles (Paramount, also Blu-Ray), Hollywood’s latest failed attempt to create a new Potter-like franchise; John Sayles’ barely-released Honeydripper (Universal); and the strident Ferris Bueller wannabe Charlie Bartlett (MGM).

Finally… like surfing? Own a Blu-Ray player? Then we’ve got good news for you, as Step Into Liquid (Lionsgate) receives a Blu-Ray only release this week. Otherwise, if you’re looking for non-recent releases on Blu-Ray this week, I’m afraid you’re rather stuck.

The Tree Of Libertas Is Watered By The Blood Of Idiots

Leonard Pierce — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:30:00 GMT

As longtime readers will know, I am a dirty stinking liberal. I complain about the depiction of Arab terrorists in movies about Arab terrorists. I make fun of right-wing cultural pest/William F. Buckley son-in-law Brent Bozell on a regular basis for his alleged resemblance to Ghostbusters bureaucrat/asshole Walter Peck. I infiltrate conservative polticial conferences in order to take pills and mock bogus documentaries featuring Ben Stein. I think one of the most irritating things about the modern-day Democratic Party is that they pretend to care about stuff like violence in video games and smut in movies. I would rather watch Ben-Hur ten times in a row than spend five minutes hearing Charlton Heston gas on about gun control, and I'm a gun owner who hates Ben-Hur.

But let it never be said that I don't play fair. I believe in a level playing field, and I've decided that it's about time, given all the posts I've made here linking to bastions of communism like the Guardian and the New York Times, that I give some props to my favorite right-wing movie blog: LIBERTAS!

Founded as the internet component of Jason Apuzzo's Libertas Film Festival, a tiny annual symposium of conservative cinema, the Libertas blog has grown from a mere forum for right-wingers to complain that their values aren't honored by those crooked pornographers in Hollywood to a wonderful full-service site featuring movie news, reviews and writing from the perspective of angry cranks! (As an aside, Libertas and their ideological counterparts love to point to the poor commercial performance of anti-war documentaries as evidence that America isn't interested in such subversive flapdoodle. So where does that leave their claim that no one ever makes movies from a right-wing perspective?)

If you visit Libertas this very day, you'll see an exciting array of crazy cooterness: a review of Definitely, Maybe that condemns its "distasteful display of Hollywood values"; a review of Diary of the Dead that laments George Romero's "increasingly strident politics"; an article which condemns the mainstream media for failing to report Bob Geldof's recent praise of President Bush (although a quick Google News search reveals that it was covered by such non-radical papers as the International Herald-Tribune, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and Investor's Business Daily); a review which calls the new Harold and Kumar sequel "unfunny and mean-spirited" even though the reviewer has not seen the film; and a pre-emptive condemnation of Iron Man for possibly containing anti-war sentiments. Now that's good film blogging! Enjoy, folks!

Trailer Roundup: Cloverfield, Definitely Maybe, The Other Boleyn Girl

Peter Smith — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:00:00 GMT

Cloverfield

While the 1.18.08 teaser that played before Transformers this past summer appeared to simply be a brilliant piece of viral marketing, it now appears that the project, now titled Cloverfield, will actually be shot largely by characters wielding personal camcorders and camera phones, instead of in a conventional style. Frankly, I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I think it's a good idea in theory to make a kind of Godzilla for the YouTube generation. But a movie like this is tricky to pull off. The Blair Witch Project worked because you always got a sense that there were really three people lost in the forest and beset by forces they couldn't explain, but it'll be much harder to get that same vibe with a project this large-scale and effects-intensive. I'm not sure the director of the 1996 David Schwimmer vehicle The Pallbearer is the man for the job. Regardless, I'm curious to find out.

Definitely, Maybe

About the best thing I can say about this trailer is that Ryan Reynolds doesn't look to be as insufferable as he usually is. Plus his three romantic partners — Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, and Isla Fisher — are all pretty smokin'. But otherwise, gag me. Much of the blame can be placed on little Abigail Breslin, who has taken over the mantle of Hollywood's go-to moppet from Dakota Fanning. Or maybe it's just that the character feels less like a precocious kid than a screenwriter's conception of same, a little girl who gives voice to all the clever, self-aware ideas on the scribe's oh-so-clever mind. How else to explain lines like "what's the male word for slut?" This is the kind of crappy Valentine's Day release that makes me glad to be single. And who signed off on that title?

The Other Boleyn Girl

Okay, who cast this thing? When your least problematic lead is Aussie Eric Bana (Henry the Eighth he ain't, he ain't), you know there's trouble. I'm not sure who's more ill-fitting in this story, emo pixie Natalie Portman as the defiant Anne Boleyn, or princess of pout Scarlett Johansson as her sister Mary. Based on her ignominious work in previous period films, I'm inclined to lean toward Johansson here, but it's a tough call. Either way, couldn't they find two English actresses who (a) suited their roles, and (b) were more convincing as sisters? With Elizabeth: The Golden Age and now this, Hollywood might want to consider laying off the British history for a while, lest our friends across the pond think we've got it in for them.

— Paul Clark