DVD Review: Dedication
Dedication (2007)–*** DVD Review I’ve often described movies as bipolar, but never in such a positive manner as I would describe Dedication. Seriously unhinged and better for it, this debut film by director Justin Theroux stirs together the best parts of Woody Allen circa Annie Hall to create a modern love-story for a generation of people who are trying too hard to be jaded. Dedication opens in an adult film theater where two children’s book authors, Rudy (Tom Wilkinson) and Henry (Billy Crudup), are searching for inspiration. It doesn’t take long for Rudy to come up with the idea of a beaver, and the long-time collaborators are off to the races. The book is a huge success – a monster hit, in fact – but that doesn’t improve Henry’s bleak outlook on life. Rudy does all that he can...
Read MoreDVD Review: Slings & Arrows: The Complete Series
A seemingly ill-conceived festival re-branding campaign in season two of the three-season behind-the-scenes theater series Slings & Arrows uses lines from bad reviews to connect with a new audience. One such review reads “…theater has never made television looks so good.” Well, in the case of this Canadian TV import, I can honestly say television has never made theater look so good. I first discovered Slings & Arrows during the non-stop coverage of The Sopranos finale. TV critics on NPR were debating, prematurely, whether the HBO mob saga was the best show in the history of television… ever. One critic chimed in on his love of the show Slings & Arrows, calling it the best show he had ever watched. As a viewer who has taken in the series Slings & Arrows twice in its entirety, I’d have to...
Read MoreDVD Review: Quiet City/Dance Party, USA
I used to do monthly interviews with indie filmmakers. Dance Party, USA is the type of indie I would seek out — small, rough around the edges, poignant, and lacking pretense. That’s how I like my indies. But this review isn’t going to focus on Dance Party, USA, which is part of a two-disc DVD set featuring work by director Aaron Katz. Dance Party, USA is a great indie, but the second feature in the set, Quiet City, is a great film, one that proves that truly revolutionary American movies can still be made outside the system, even outside of Sundance. Where as Dance Party, USA is a coming-of-age tale about high schoolers who learn the difference between sex and relationships, Quiet City is the story we might hear eight years in the future when knowing what a relationship...
Read MoreDVD Review: The Ten
The Ten (2007)–*** DVD Review So, you’re on Netflix or going to a video store, and you’re thinking, “Hey, why can’t I ever find a comedy about a woman having sex with a ventriloquist dummy?” Well, my friend, David Wain has come to your rescue. The Ten, comedy director/writer Wain’s most recent film, arrives on DVD Jan. 15, and we’re lucky enough to experience a comedy that violates most of the Old Testament sex laws, not just the Ten Commandments. Paul Rudd is Jeff, our guide to 10 stories representing the Ten Commandments. He’s the adulterer, which is way down on the list, so it’s less important. First up, though, is the story of Stephen Montgomery (Adam Brody), who is worshiped as a false god when he plummets to the earth while skydiving embedding himself in the ground and...
Read MoreDVD Review: Hatchet
Hatchet (2007)–* DVD Review Hatchet is a film for serious, hardcore horror fans, but a film for no one else. Released by Anchor Bay for a very limited theatrical run in September, Hatchet, I thought at the time, was a film that demanded a wide release. It got into the Tribeca Film Festival, after all. But watching the film play out, with it’s hyped-up gore and little sense of suspense, it’s easy to see just how wrong a film that claims to be Old School American Horror got it. The film follows a group of New Orleans tourists who go on a haunted swamp tour. A urine swilling fisherman lets us know that the boat shouldn’t go into the swamp because it is closed and because of Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder). The tourists don’t hear this though, and none...
Read MoreDVD Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I would hate to be the person charged with putting together a special edition DVD for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The film is magnificent, the best Harry Potter yet, but there’s only so much you can do with DVDs for this series, now five films long. In previous Harry Potter DVD releases, we’ve experienced interviews with J.K. Rowling, Hogwart’s classroom tours, interviews with the principal actors, and featurette after featurette about the making of the individual films. It all comes down to “What hasn’t been covered?” for the fifth disc in the series. The obvious answer would have been a director commentary, which has never been featured on a Harry Potter disc. Instead of hearing what David Yates, a director of political dramas for the BBC and HBO, has to say about the underlying politics...
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