ExistenZ/Malevolent/B Monkey
(Miramax)
A trio of forgettable thrillers
comes to Blu-ray: David Cronenberg’s mad eXistenZ
(1999) stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law in a convoluted ride through a
lethal video game; Malevolent (2002)
is a mild cop flick with Lou Diamond Phillips and the always welcome Kari
Wuhrer (whatever happened to??) as a detective and an exotic dancer caught up
in a murder spree; Michael Radford’s B
Monkey (1999) is a vehicle for Asia Argento as a sexy thief—but her irritating,
smug presence is a fatal drawback. The movies have been decently transferred to
hi-def.
(Dark Sky)
Ti West’s shaky psychological
thriller is definitely not The Shining
reborn: two employees of an historic inn about to close its doors for good are
beset by terrors of the mental kind, but when it’s been painstakingly
established that the young woman has been gravely damaged, West pulls out the
rug from under his own movie by ending it with a crude shock effect a la Paranormal Activity. It’s too bad, for Sara
Paxton and Pat Healy give solid performances, and there’s a palpable sense of
dread—for awhile, at least. A good Blu-ray transfer helps; extras include a making-of
featurette and two commentaries.
(First Run)
Carl Colby’s very personal
documentary about his dad William—CIA head during a volatile era—is an
impactful account of a man variously considered hero or warmonger. Interviews
with Carl’s mother and William’s colleagues Seymour Hersh, Donald Rumsfeld, Bob
Woodward and more make the case for this complicated character. That he died
under mysterious circumstances only adds to the legend of a man whose career is
a microcosm of our nation’s foreign policy for the past half-century. Since the
movie comprises talking-head interviews, it’s a surprise First Run released it
on Blu-ray, but it does look excellent; extras include additional interviews
and scenes.
(PBS)
Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel
was once turned into a marathon Broadway musical; this new PBS “Masterpiece”
adaptation runs a mere two hours, but a committed cast brings across much of
the flavor of this final work. Matthew Rhys (Jasper), Freddie Fox (Edwin), Tamzin
Merchant (Rosa) and Rory Kinnear (the Reverend) all jump off the page onto the
screen, how persuasively they nestle in director Diarmuid Lawrence’s sumptuous
Victorian-era setting, splendidly recreated on Blu-ray, while the multi-layered
story (adapted by Gwyneth Jones) has been equally well-realized.
(Warners)
Garry Marshall hit it big with
his crude ensemble romantic comedy, 2010’s Valentine’s
Day, so he’s at it again with an even larger ensemble in another crude romantic
comedy set in Times Square on December 31. Despite its cast—led by a bevy of actresses
from Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry to Jessica Biel and Lea Michele—the
movie has little humor and even less romance, as stars and director go through
the motions. Pfeiffer’s role is particularly embarrassing; this resourceful
actress can do little with it. Manhattan glistens, however, on Blu-ray; extras
include a gag reel, deleted scenes and interviews.
(Criterion)
Mario Monicelli’s 1963 account of
late 19th century Italian laborers striking for better working conditions
is a rediscovered classic. A finely wrought, subtle Marcello Mastroianni as a
socialist professor who eggs on the workers in their fight against their bosses—which
devolves into tragedy when one of their own is killed—is the center of this intelligent
piece of agit-prop. The Criterion Collection edition, while skimpy on extras
(Monicelli’s 2006 introduction predates his death in 2010 at age 95), gives the
black and white film its due with a superlative, grainy hi-def transfer.
(Anchor Bay)
Nearly 40 years after The Wicker Man, director Robin Hardy
returns to the story that made his reputation, but his belated and misbegotten
sequel has nothing on the original—and still-shocking—film. Despite a few
scenes of frisky sexuality and black humor, Tree
has none of the unsettling horror of Man,
and the brief appearance of Christopher Lee is a sad reminder of what’s missing
from the new film. The picturesque Scottish locations are enticing on Blu-ray;
extras include a making-of featurette and deleted scenes.
Cirkus Columbia
(Strand)
Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, who returned to
his homeland to explore the days before post-Communist Yugoslavia was torn
apart by a devastating civil war, deals unflinchingly with how petty personal
vendettas metastasized into lethal nationalism. Working from his and novelist Ivica
Djikic’s script, Tanovic has created a pungent metaphor for how quickly tiny
frictions blow up into outright killing and the worst atrocities since Hitler.
The title refers to a local “circus”—more a cheap amusement park with beat-up
children’s rides—whose temporary youthful idyll is replaced by the sight and
sound of shells exploding as the war finally arrives.
(New Video)
Giuseppe Capotondi’s sexy thriller
is set in photogenic but not overused Turin: widower Guido meets mysterious Sonia
at a singles club and falls for her, unaware of her secret past and present.
With true chemistry between leads Filippo Timi and Ksenia Rappoport, the movie moves
through many twists and turns, and if Capotondi loses his way (devolving into a
semi-twist ending), his movie retains its adultness and interest. Extras
include a making-of featurette and deleted scenes.
(Icarus)
Belgian director Chantal Ackerman
uses are interest in other cultures to make these chronicles of lives beset by inherent
difficulties. 2002’s From the Other Side
is an account of desperate existences in a Mexican border town and dreams of
life in America; 1999’s South presents
the meager lives of inhabitants of small-town America. Akerman’s directorial eye
is better than her ear, as there are precious few piercing truths about her
subjects that we haven’t heard before.
(Eagle Eye)
In 2004, Phil Collins performed
at Switzerland’s fabled Montreux Jazz Festival for two hours of hits and
progressive rock-cum-jazzy forays. The show begins with a smashing drum
duet-turned-trio, then moves through radio smashes “Against All Odds,” “Don’t
Lose My Number,” “In the Air Tonight” and “Take Me Home.” A second disc houses
Collins’ 1996 Montreux concert, a big band affair in which his crack band plays
revamped versions of his songs and even “The Los Endos Suite” by Genesis; he
welcomes special guest stars Tony Bennett, saxophonist David Sanborn and
conductor Quincy Jones.
(Acorn)
This NBC reality series, based on
a British program of the same name and similar to PBS’ Faces of America, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., chronicles several
celebrities’ ancestries to uncover surprising—and even shocking—episodes from
their families’ past. Included in this two-disc set’s eight episodes are
Vanessa Williams, Kim Cattrall, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lionel Richie, Tim McGraw,
Rosie O’Donnell, Ashley Judd and Steve Buscemi, all reduced to silence and even
tears at the revelations they discover.
Renee Fleming: Poemes
(Decca)
Although primarily associated with
Mozart and Richard Strauss operatic roles, reigning American soprano Renée
Fleming also sings contemporary music, as the works by 96-year-old master Henri
Dutilleux on this all-French disc show. Dutilleux’s modern but accessible idiom
is on display in his early Deux Sonnets
de Jean Cassou (1954) and more recent Le
Temps L’Horloge (2007), both of which sound exhilarating sung by Fleming. Two
other cycles—Ravel’s Sheherazade
(1904) and Messaien’s Poemes pour mi
(1936)—are also excitingly performed by Fleming and the Orchestre
Philharmonique de Radio France, led by Alan Gilbert, and Orchestre National de
France, led by Seiji Ozawa.
(Cedille)
The 15 string quartets of Russian
composer Dmitri Shostakovich are the 20th century’s most important chamber
music cycle and the Pacifica Quartet continues its traversal of them with exacting
performances of the four earliest. The quartets’ juxtaposition of real emotion
and bitter sarcasm needs to balance the bombast and subtlety, and the Pacifica’s
members come through in spades. Rounding out this excellent set is fellow
Soviet master Sergei Prokofiev’s second quartet, sounding as personal and
painful as Shostakovich.
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