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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Noteworthy DVDs released 12/8/09
PICK OF THE WEEK
“AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa” (Criterion): For all you moneybags cinephiles, this mega-box offers a number of Kurosawa films that have never been on DVD in the States. Caveat emptor: Most of these titles are already out individually, with copious bonus features that aren’t included here.
OTHER TOP PICKS
“The Cove” (Lions Gate): One of the year’s most lauded docs is a stomach-turning look at the dolphin trade operating out of a remote Japanese cove.
“Public Enemies” (Universal): Filmmaker Michael Mann rebounds from “Miami Vice” with the help of Johnny Depp’s deadly-cool John Dillinger.
“Julie & Julia” (Sony): A surprisingly enjoyable tweak of the biopic genre, in which Meryl Streep (as Julia Child) appears to be having so much fun the League of Serious Thespians might ask her to surrender her membership card.
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Warner Bros.): Perhaps you’ve heard of him.
“Brigitte Bardot: Classic Collection” (Image): A threesome starring the French bombshell, including Roger Vadim’s “The Night Heaven Fell” and the gender-switched “Don Juan.”
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX
“World’s Greatest Dad” (Magnolia)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN
“Dog Eat Dog” (MPI); “Ghosted” (First Run Pictures); “Lion’s Den” (“Leonera”) (Strand); “Somers Town” (Film Movement); “Tom and Thomas” (Phase 4)
DOCUMENTARIES
“Beautiful Losers” (Oscilloscope); “Brick City,” “A Finished Life,” “Prima Ballerina” (First Run Pictures); “Johnny Mercer: The Dream’s On Me” (Warner Bros.); “Knut and Friends” (Image); “Michael Jackson - Life & Times Of The King Of Pop 1958-2009,” “Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides” (MVD)
BEST OF TV
Catherine Zeta-Jones in “The Cinder Path” (E1 Entertainment); “Friday” Complete Series (Image); “The Fugitive” Season 3, Vol. 2, “Perry Mason” Season 4, Vol. 2 (Paramount); “The Judy Garland Show Collection” (Infinity); “Lost” Season 5 (Walt Disney); “Rescue Me” Season 5, Vol. 2 (Sony); “SpongeBob SquarePants” Season 6, Vol. 1 (Nickelodeon); “Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks” (E1 Entertainment)
REISSUE/REPACKAGE
“Get Smart” Season 5 (HBO); “Gozu” (Cinema Epoch)
CULT CORNER
Adam And and Debbie Harry in “Drop Dead Rock” (MVD); “Shaolin Vs.” (First Look); Blu-ray editions of “Alphabet Killer,” “Behind The Mask,” “Cyclops,” “Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer,” “Lower Learning,” “Red Mist,” “Sands Of Oblivion,” “Walled In,” “While She Was Out”
STRAIGHT(ISH) TO VIDEO
“Carriers,” Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman in “The Marc Pease Experience,” directed by Todd Louiso of “High Fidelity” (Paramount); Corey Feldman and Bronson Pinchot in “Hooking Up” (MTI); Amy Adams in “Moonlight Serenade” (Magnolia); “This Beautiful City” (Cinema Epoch)
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Local doc wins award
Austin filmmaker Nancy Schiesari’s documentary “Tattooed Under Fire” has nabbed an award from the Women Film Critics Circle, a 48-member-strong organization of women critics and scholars from around the world.
The group hands out several year-end awards, and we’re not sure which one Schiesari’s film received. We’ll tell you when we find out.
Update: Schiesari’s film won the Courage in Filmmaking award in the documentary section of the prizes.
Schiesari is a film professor at UT and a faculty member at the Austin Museum of Art. “Tattooed Under Fire,” a co-production of KLRU, aired on PBS last month. The doc is set at Fort Hood. Here’s what Austin360 TV critic Dale Roe wrote:
Schiesari’s documentary centers on the military ritual of getting inked, interweaving the personal stories of six central characters — and their relationships to the war in Iraq — with the visual expressions of their tattoos (River City Tattoo Parlor, a place where many of the Fort’s war-bound and returning soldiers go under the needle, is located across the street from the base).
More about the film, including a trailer, HERE.
More about the Women Film Critics Circle HERE.
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Zellners’ ‘Goliath’ hits DVD
Speaking of Austin’s Zellner brothers (see entry below), their feature-length debut “Goliath,” which premiered at Sundance in 2008, will be out on DVD on Jan. 12.
Made in Austin, the deadpan-bizarre comedy follows a recently divorced guy’s life as it crumbles apart when he loses his cat Goliath, the only thing he still cares about.
Watch the trailer HERE.
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