Video and DVD
Silver Case
Two wannabe crime bosses working in the film industry are having a silent war. Very silent. It’s not even clear if one of them is aware of it, but fortunately it’s not incredibly relevant to the film. On one side there’s the Senator (Eric Roberts), and on the other there’s the Master (Brad Light) and [...]
Come Undone
First love is a well-worn topic in the movies. Your average gay film is filled with stilted dialogue, gorgeous but otherwise talentless actors, and an all-too tidy conclusion where either one of the lovers dies or the two live happily ever after. It was with some reservations that I approached Come Undone. The box art [...]
Tomorrow You’re Gone
In the days leading up to Charlie’s (Stephen Dorff) release from prison, he receives an encouraging letter from an old friend known as Buddha (Willem Dafoe). The letter contains a hidden message to kill a man named Ornay (Robert LaSardo) and so when Charlie gets out, he works to fulfill the Buddha’s request. Along the [...]
The Oranges
Hugh Laurie stars in this indie dramedy about suburban malaise in which David Walling (Laurie) falls for the college-age daughter (Leighton Meester) of his best friend Terry Ostroff (Oliver Platt), throwing the Walling and Ostroff families, who have been the closest of friends for ages, into irreversible upheaval. Unhappy in his marriage, David’s affair with [...]
The Great Escape on Blu-ray
As a widely acknowledged classic with a virtually unrivaled ensemble cast, John Sturges’ The Great Escape (1963) honestly hardly needs my endorsement. Still, The Great Escape brings together Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Donald Pleasance, James Garner, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn in an action film that is every bit as harrowing as it is exciting. [...]
Missed Connections
The internet has made it a lot easier to generate relationships. On top of dating sites, there are social networking sites, apps, and one of the easiest technologies to utilize: local “missed connections” sites. These sites, which allow people living in a certain area to find the charming strangers-in-passing that they were infatuated with for [...]
Mighty Fine
Joe Fine (Chazz Palminteri; The Usual Suspects) is willing to do whatever it takes to keep his business afloat. In that spirit, he moves his wife (Andie MacDowell), and two daughters (Jodelle Ferland and Rainey Qualley) to Louisiana so his business can take advantage of new southern tax credit legislation being proposed to the Senate. [...]
French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1928
The five films collected in this set from Flicker Alley were produced at the Films Albatros studios in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil, where the studio’s core group of artists was composed primarily of Russian émigrés, as the title suggests. Although the focus of the set is extremely specific (presenting only the work of Russian [...]
Clandestine Childhood
Clandestine Childhood is a story of strength in a world that is teetering on the edge of chaos. The beautiful, simplistic cinematography captures the world through the eyes of a child. Set in Argentina in 1975, Clandestine Childhood is the story of a young boy named Juan whose parents are activists during the Dirty War. [...]
Strictly Ballroom on Blu-ray
Strictly Ballroom (1992), the first entry in Baz Luhrmann’s “Red Curtain Trilogy” (followed by Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001)), is by far the most charming of the series but also, tragically, the most overlooked. As an Australian import about organized, competitive ballroom dancing (preceding by a decade the trend in television that [...]
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