Category Archives: For Your Queue

Find the best new releases and pair those with something from the stacks that you might have missed.

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For Your Queue: Dare we leave Rudy on the St. Pat’s movie bench?

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Nothing so great releases to DVD this week (yes, Life of Pi does, but really, it was the glorious big screen 3D that made it worth seeing) so we thought, why not make some recommendations for the holiday? You can do more on St. Patrick’s Day than drink yourself into oblivion, like watch some fascinating Irish movies. Although, to be honest, there’s a fair amount of drinking going on here, too.

Let’s start with 2006’s Once, because, it addition to being a great film, it proves there’s more to Irish music then tales of death, dismemberment, and death by dismemberment. Glen Hansard and Marketta Irglova (known on real-life concert stages as “The Swell Season”) star as unnamed musicians who, during one eventful week in Dublin, document their feelings toward each other via song. Once is a graceful, life-affirming story that succeeds where so many other have failed. It explores the mysteries of love and the wonder of music, while never sacrificing an ounce of realism.

Knuckle (2011) is the fascinating if uneven documentary about “fairfights” held among Ireland’s Traveler community. (Don’t call them gypsies.) The closed community opens up to filmmaker Ian Palmer about these wager-dependent, bare knuckle bouts meant to resolve blood feuds among clans. They seem lumbering, unchoreographed, and brutish to viewers accustomed to Hollywood bouts, but fascinating nonetheless. Filming for more than a decade, Palmer uncovers something insightful about the Traveler culture, and perhaps about masculinity or warmongering at its most basic.

In The Guard (2011)–  a very Irish take on the buddy cop movie – a dream cast anchored by the ever-reliable Brendan Gleeson wryly articulates a tale of underestimation and police corruption. Gleeson is a joy to behold. His dry wit and take-me-as-I-am approach produce a world class curmudgeon, to which the also excellent (as always) Don Cheadle plays a perfect foil. Truth be told, the story is a bit of an afterthought. The Guard is a celebration of tart Irish humor and character; the actual plot merely provides the playground for the fun.

Leprechaun (1993) Almost forgot about death by Leprechaun! As trivia buffs know, this is Jennifer Aniston’s film debut.

Rudy (1993) Okay, fine, here’s Rudy. This is the film debut of Vince Vaughn, who co-starred with Aniston in..what movie?

The Break-Up, correct! Now do a shot of Jameson, smartypants!

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For Your Queue: It’s like when you had Pac Man Fever, but without the rash

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An animated feature with incredibly broad appeal releases to DVD this week, and if you missed Wreck-It Ralph in theaters, now’s a chance to make amends. This video game fantasy has its roots in a tale of misfit friendship that promises to keep every audience member engaged. Vocal talent John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch and Jack McBrayer are perfect in this vivid adventure. Meanwhile, director Rich Moore throws enough color and action at the screen to fascinate the very young, and more than enough video game odes to appeal to the newest generation of parents (and any thirtysomething not yet in that category). This is sly, engaging storytelling at its best.

For a more serious take on video games, don’t miss The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters , director Seth Gordon’s 2007 documentary on the quest to hold the world record high score in Donkey Kong. Gordon (Identity Thief, Horrible Bosses) lets the characters and events speak for themselves and, as the best docs often do, the film unveils a world you may not have known existed. In many ways, The King of Kong is a perfect microcosm of American culture. The fact it’s also funny and truly fascinating makes it nearly impossible to resist.

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For Your Queue: Best Living American Filmmaker – there, we said it

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Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson has made six near-perfect films in his brief time on this planet, the latest of which, The Master, may be his most confident and ambitious. If box office numbers are accurate, you probably missed it. That is a genuine shame, and one you can rectify immediately, as the three-time Oscar nominee hits DVD shelves today.

A seriously damaged WWII vet-turned-vagabond (Joaquin Phoenix, in an astonishing performance) stows away on a yacht. Its enigmatic commander (Philip Seymour Hoffman, incandescent as always) takes the boy under his wing, determined to use this vessel to prove his theories about the human mind – to himself, to the veteran, and to an increasingly hostile public.

Phoenix is a tightly coiled spring of rage and emotion, so honest and raw as to make your jaw drop. He’s flanked on all sides by impressive turns, not the least of which is Hoffman’s perfectly nuanced megalomaniac. His presence provides the counterbalance to Phoenix that allows Anderson to explore core American ideas of freedom versus security, submission versus power, self determination versus subservience. It’s a challenging but awe-inspiring film that proves Anderson the true master.

All of Anderson’s films demand to be seen, including his 1996 debut feature Hard Eight (aka Sydney) a sly piece of film noir that foreshadows some of the themes he would revisit in The Master. Set on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Hard Eight follows an accomplished gambler (Phillip Baker Hall)who takes a down and outer (John C. Reilly) under his wing. Also featuring Gwyneth Paltrow and a mesmerizing performance from Samuel L. Jackson in a pivotal role, Hard Eight is a raw but impressive beginning for a true visionary.

Really, Paul’s genius should be no surprise. After all, he’s the son of Ernie Anderson, aka “Ghoulardi” from Cleveland TV in the mid-1960s, so his rise to America’s finest filmmaker was just a matter of time.

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For Your Queue: Affleck Proves his Mettle as Director

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After racking up several big wins this awards season, Argo has emerged as the favorite to win Best Picture this Sunday at the Academy Awards. If you didn’t catch it in theaters, you can bring it home this week on DVD, and you’ll be glad you did. The true story of how a CIA operative got six hostages out of Iran in 1979 by posing as a film producer, Argo is simply fantastic moviemaking.

Working with a smart, taut script by Chris Terrio, director Ben Affleck expertly layers political intrigue with Hollywood deal-making. He also crafts an effective period piece, with a sharp eye for details that not only recreate an important slice of history, but also foreshadow more recent international events.

Though you already know how it ends, Affleck infuses Argo with tension and urgency. Regardless of his perplexing snub in Oscar’s Best Director category this year, Affleck, after just three directing efforts, has emerged as one of the best in the business.

Honestly, he showed the skill right from his directing debut in Gone Baby Gone…

Four-year-old Amanda McCready has gone missing in one of Boston’s rougher neighborhoods. Not the neighborhood of Will Hunting and his buddies, because this is not Ben Affleck’s Oscar winning turn as screenwriter. This film is Gone Baby Gone, Affleck’s first, hauntingly successful attempt at directing a feature film.

The director’s kid brother Casey, in fine form, plays a baby-faced PI working his neighborhood connections to find the girl as the mystery plays out among Boston’s nickel-and-dime drug dealers, mules, perverts and ex-cons.

Gone Baby Gone is a complex work examining place as an existential determiner, using setting as character, and plumbing the validity of conscience, all the while developing a disturbingly absorbing mystery. And though the mystery itself tailspins into something less than the story deserves, the final moments of the film remind the audience again of the craftsmanship that went into creating a film you may have missed back in 2007, but you need to see now.

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For Your Queue: Hawke and roll all night, and party ev-er-y day

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Skyfall comes out this week, and if you haven’t seen that, please do. But since you probably have seen that, and since our goal is to draw your attention to the jewels you may have missed, we’ll spin a John Hawkes two-fer this Tuesday morn.

Robbed of a richly deserved Best Actor Oscar nomination for his brilliant work in The Session, Hawkes plays Mark O’Brien, a poet sentenced by polio to live out his days in an iron lung. The consummate character actor can transform from dead-eyed and dangerous (Winter’s Bone) to aw-shucks sweet (HBO’s Eastbound & Down) without ever losing sight of the human soul inside the character. For The Sessions, he proves equally adept at physical transformation.

As Mark approaches middle age, he struggles with the hope to check sex off his bucket list. In walks a fearless, wonderful (and Oscar nominated) Helen Hunt, completing an ensemble that doesn’t blush at or sugarcoat this story about sex and its power in a human life.

A different type of power is on display in Martha Marcy May Marlene, with Hawkes delivering a mesmerizing performance as Patrick, a mysterious cult leader. As Patrick charms the cult’s new member (a terrific Elizabeth Olsen) Hawkes skillfully foreshadows the menacing intentions beneath Patrick’s inviting charade.

A fascinating film with a dreamlike quality, MMMM is another gem in Hawkes’s catalog.

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For Your Queue: True Tales of Fascinating Women

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By Hope and George

 

We’ve got a couple wild documentaries For Your Queue this week..

If you don’t know much about Diana Vreeland, picture the possible female inspiration for famous beer pitchman The Most Interesting Man in the World. Vreeland’s answer to most every question would begin with “Good God!” before regaling all with stories of rhino hunting or the time she saw Hitler, and then letting loose with some unexpected exclamation.

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel documents her globe-trotting childhood (“hideous..and maaahvelous!) and eventual career as the longtime fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar, editor-in-chief at Vogue, and all-around influence on fashion and popular culture.

Co-directed by granddaughter-in-law Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Diana’s story is told through interviews, archival footage, and transcripts from a meeting she held with writer George Plimpton to discuss her memoirs. Together, they paint a completely entertaining picture of a strong woman who embraced independent thinking and lived a determined life of unapologetic originality.

Appreciation for the film may actually increase the less you know about Vreeland, as you giddily discover a true visionary. The Eye Has to Travel is a wonderful reminder of the vibrancy of her work, and her exuberant zest for life.

For an even wilder true life account, look into 2007’s Crazy Love, a tale of obsession, maiming, prison rot, and finally, marriage. Burt Pugach served 14 years in prison after hiring thugs to throw lye in the face of Linda Riss, the young woman who’d spurned his love after finding out he was married. They later married.

Wait, what?

This is not even the end of the story – more nuttiness follows. And it is so plainly stated that it feels inevitable, acceptable, and disturbing all at once. Burt Pugach (who passed away a few weeks ago) set out to ensure that no one else would ever possess his Linda, and he succeeded. Yet somehow these horrifying turns of event are made almost charming by her cantankerous

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For Your Queue: Rockwellpalooza!

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By Hope and George

 

Without giving up too much of the film Seven Psychopaths, available on DVD this week, let’s tick off the first few of those psychos: Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits.

Yes, please.

The genius combination of title and cast aside, writer/director Martin McDonagh crafts a wild, unpredictable and brutally hilarious adventure. Colin Farrell’s Marty struggles to complete his new script. His weird but earnest buddy Billy (an absolutely glorious Sam Rockwell) wants to help. Whether or not this turns out to be a good idea is a bit of a toss-up, but Billy sure brings his shootin’ boots.

McDonagh’s greatest gift is the way he allows a spectacular Rockwell and the rest of these peculiar actors room to work. His film offers dark humor, fascinating unpredictability, and twisted fun. Plus Walken gets to say, “I would have made a great Pope.”

Of course, Rockwell has been great in underseen films for many years, including Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Snow Angels, and Choke. If you’re digging into the stacks for a Seven Psychopaths double bill, though, of particular interest may be 2009’s Moon, and it is almost a one-man Rockwell show.

The debut feature from director Duncan Jones (David Bowie’s son), Moon is the story of Sam Bell, the sole employee on a lunar energy base. There is no shortage of energy on future Earth, thanks to the harvesting of an abundant fuel source found on the moon. Sam, totally alone except for supercomputer GERTY, is nearing the end of his three-year contract overseeing the harvest, and is eager to get back to his wife and family. With two weeks to go, Sam is rendered unconscious in an accident, and things begin to unravel.

Even if you already know the story’s twist, Moon is worth checking out not only for Rockwell’s fantastic turn, but also for the skillful way Jones gives a nod to his influences (2001, etc.) yet is still able to carve out a unique sci-fi voice.

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For Your Queue: 5 star 3D Docs

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By Hope and George

 

As Werner Herzog reminded us with last year’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams, 3D has the power to redefine cinema in the hands of a truly inspired director. This time around Wim Wenders finds inspiration in iconic modern dancer/choreographer Pina Bausch. His transcendent documentary is Pina, available this week for your queue. Whether or not you have the wherewithal to see either filmmaker’s jump to the small screen in its 3D version, both are must see documentaries.

A spectacle from the word go, Pina surrounds you with the modern dance masterpieces of the deceased choreographer, cutting periodically to briefer pieces composed by Pina’s devoted dancers in honor of their departed maestro. Wenders’s camera takes you inside the dance, surrounding you in movements manifesting everything from whimsy to absurdity to joy to savage grace. His film is as adoring a tribute as you’ll find, but it also serves as a welcome initiation for many to the work of perhaps the greatest modern dance choreographer in history.

And what the heck, just make it a double feature with Herzog’s absolutely stunning look inside the Chauvet caves in France. Preserved with great care by the French government, the caves are home to the oldest pictorial art in the history of humankind.

Herzog and his film crew were granted a small window of unprecedented access to showcase the caves and their portal to a time roughly 30,000 years ago. The result almost defies description, as you not only witness art of an incredibly sophisticated nature, but hear intimate echoes of this ancient civilization.

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For Your Queue: a Hot Mess and a Friendly Killer

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By Hope and George

 

Available for rental, on demand and streaming this week is co-writer/director Lee Daniels’s hot, pulpy mess, The Paperboy.

It’s a swampy South Floriday summer in 1969 when Miami newsman Ward Janson (Matthew McConaughey) returns home to investigate the imprisonment of Mr. Hillary Van Wetter (a wildly miscast John Cusack). He’s been led to the story by Hillary’s penpal/fiancé Charlotte Bless (a fascinating Nicole Kidman), so he enlists the help of his younger brother Jack (Zac Effron), and digs in over the long, hot summer.

The Paperboy is a lurid celebration of tabloid trash. This crew of sleuths teems with sexual tensions of every sort – racially charged, homoerotic, sadomasochistic, Oedipal – you name it. There’s also some story or other, however loosely articulated, but the point is that these people are freaks and Daniels is ready to get freaky.

The film is fairly tasteless and sometimes needlessly shocking, but it is never less than fascinating, and sometimes that’s victory enough.

For a remarkably different, even charming, small town crime tale co-starring 2012’s hardest working actor McConaughey, slip Bernie into your queue.

Though McConaughey impresses with his supporting role as a small town Texas sheriff, Bernie is Jack Black’s show. From the opening scene, Black is mesmerizing in director Richard Linklater’s surprisingly sunny adaptation of a true crime story involving a local mortician (Black) charged with the murder of a wealthy widow (Shirley McLaine). Criminally underseen, Bernie is more than worth a look.

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For Your Queue: Horrific vs. Horror

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By Hope and George

 

The great underseen flick Compliance is released to DVD today. One of the most impeccably made and provocative films of 2012, Compliance is a cautionary tale that’s so unnerving it’s easier just to disbelieve. But don’t. This true crime account offers a Milgram’s experiment come to life. The film spirals into nightmare as a fast food worker/alleged thief’s colleagues agree to commit increasingly horrific deeds in the name of complying with authority.

The work of a spot-on ensemble keeps the tensions ratcheted tight. Ann Dowd, in particular, could not be better as the manager who just wants to do what she’s told. Director Craig Zobel’s film is guaranteed to evoke heated debate.

Zobel’s film is horrific, but not horror. If you are looking for horror, though, we may have something. For a decidedly different but certainly no less provocative exploration of the nightmare of being trapped, dig back in the stacks to have a look at director Lucky McKee’s The Woman.

McKee’s film, penned by notorious horror writer Jack Ketchum, rethinks the family dynamic. Ketchum may say things you don’t want to hear, but he says them well. And McKee has no qualms about showing you things you don’t want to see. Indeed, the advanced screener I received came in a vomit bag.

Nothing happens in this film by accident – not even the seemingly innocent baking of cookies – nor does it ever happen solely to titillate. That’s what makes this tale superior to traditional horror porn, but it certainly doesn’t ensure that it’s your bag – vomit or otherwise.