Blu-rays of the Week
(Disney/Dreamworks)
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s delightful children’s book might
be too determined to conjure up the magical and the sentimental simultaneously,
but at its best, it shows that Spielberg still has no equal making movie enchantment
that pleases both children and adults. Mark Rylance is a perfect Big Friendly
Giant; even motion-capture photography can’t obscure his expressiveness and
emotional hugeness. The little girl Sophie is wonderfully played by Ruby
Barnhill, and Janusz Kaminski’s dazzling cinematography, John Williams’ lively
score and Joe Letteri’s phenomenal special effects add to the fun, even if ultimately
pales in comparison to a classic like E.T.
The hi-def transfer is first-rate; extras include featurettes, interviews and an
appreciation of scriptwriter Melissa Mathison, who died after the film was
finished.
(Criterion)
When performance artist Laurie Anderson’s beloved dog Lolabelle died, she
dealt with her grief by making this lovely little valentine of a film that’s
part catharsis, part shaggy-dog story and 100% pure emotion. At its core,
Anderson deals with loss—not only Lolabelle, but also (though unmentioned) husband
Lou Reed—even providing insightful personal observations about New York
post-Sept. 11 and our current security state. The film’s visuals are more than
adequate on Blu-ray; extras include a discussion with Anderson, deleted scenes
and her Concert for Dogs, which she performed
in Times Square.
Howard’s End
(Cohen Film
Collection)
The peak of the uneven James Ivory-Ismail Merchant-Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
team’s career was this absorbing 1992 adaptation of E.M. Forster’ classic novel
about the shifting relations and attitudes among the different classes in
Edwardian England: it’s old-fashioned filmmaking done so well that it’s transfixing
to watch. Ivory’s directing and Jhabvala’s writing were never equaled by them
before or after, while the cast—Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham
Carter and Vanessa Redgrave for starters—is flawless. The restored film has a spectacular
film-like sheen on Blu-ray; extras include a new Ivory interview, vintage Ivory
and Merchant interviews, on-set interviews and featurettes.
(Film Movement
Classics)
In New Zealand director Geoffrey Murphy’s 1985 sci-fi drama, scientist Zac believes
he’s the last person on earth after “The Effect” caused a mass disappearance: soon
he meets a young woman, Joanne, and later, Api, a Maori man. This weird ménage
a trois (of sorts) is interesting for awhile, but Murphy loses control with a
dissatisfying open-ended final sequence that’s visually breathtaking but hollow.
Bruno Lawrence is riveting, especially when he’s onscreen alone for the first
part of the film. The new hi-def transfer is sharply detailed; the lone extra
is an entertaining commentary by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse with film writer Odie
Henderson.
DVDs of the Week
Ants on a Shrimp
(Sundance Selects)
Maurice Dekkers’ documentary, which follows chef Rene Redzepi (of
Copenhagen’s famed Noma restaurant) traveling to Japan to open a Noma in Tokyo in
a tightly compressed five weeks, is captivating in its numerous fly-on-the-wall
glimpses of Redzepi dealing with colleagues, balancing the very real cultural
differences between East and West and fixing any number of bugaboos targeting
such an ambitious endeavor. Best of all are priceless moments such as the looks
on several faces when something called “sperm emulsion” is unveiled for eating.
(MPI)
The punning title—referring to a makeshift IT department of a small company—is
the best joke of this painfully uneven four-season-long British sitcom that largely
wastes a talented cast: Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade and Katherine Parkinson
manage to elevate some of the humor, despite its essential crudeness. (The
awful laugh track doesn’t help matters.) The series’ fans will love that this
is finally available on DVD, since all 25 episodes—and a true bonus, the
never-before-seen finale episode, The
Internet Is Coming—are included on the five-disc set.
Neither Heaven nor Earth
(Film Movement)
Director Clement Cogitore turns the vast wastelands and battlefields of
Afghanistan—where a battalion of French soldiers fights a never-ending battle
with mostly vaporous enemy forces—into a metaphysical hellhole where men
mysteriously disappear, to the growing dread of the squad and its increasingly
bemused leader (played by a terrific Jeremie Renier). Although Cogitore doesn’t
quite grasp his demanding concept in full, enough of war’s confusion and
futility are intensely conveyed to make this a welcome addition to the genre.
Extras are Cogitore’s commentary (in English) and his 30-minute short, Among Us.
American Moments—Neave Trio
(Chandos)
The estimable young ensemble, the Neave Trio, doesn’t take the easy way out
on this recording; instead of Beethoven, Mozart or Haydn, they tackle a trio of
trios that aren’t as well-known: one (from 1909) by a teenaged prodigy named Erich
Wolfgang Korngold, another composed around the same time as Korngold’s by the
American Arthur Foote, and another written a generation later by a young man
named Leonard Bernstein. These attractive works are performed by the Neave musicians
with well-proportioned brio, elegance and muscularity; Korngold’s youthful but
effortlessly mature work especially sounds bracing and graceful in their hands.
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