DVD Digest for May 6, 2008

Paul Clark — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:00:00 GMT

This week: One of the most acclaimed films of 2007 arrives to do battle with some of the most reviled releases so far in 2008. Who will prevail? Read on…

DVD of the Week: No one does musical biography like Todd Haynes. This should have been clear from his previous films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story and Velvet Goldmine, and his latest film, I’m Not There, lays any remaining doubts to rest. But then, when one is making a movie about Bob Dylan, how could it possibly fit into a neat little package? The Weinstein Company’s two-disc DVD of the film contains a wide variety of features, including a commentary track with Haynes, two deleted scenes, some audition tapes, a handful of documentaries, and a tribute to Heath Ledger. But most of all, there’s the film itself- I’m Not There is sometimes wondrous, sometimes frustrating, but always worthy of its subject, and this DVD should find a place in the collections of cinephiles and Dylan fans alike.

Alas, the other new arrivals on DVD aren’t nearly that noteworthy, sometimes aggressively counteracting the awesomeness of I’m Not There with their wholesale suckitude. More typical of this week’s crop is the universally detested The Hottie and the Nottie (Genius Products- how’s that for irony?), the latest attempt by its star- who I refuse to name here- to achieve total media domination. Also this week: Ice Cube and Tracy Jordan Morgan in First Sunday (Sony, also Blu-Ray); Hilary Swank in P.S. I Love You (Warner, also Blu-Ray); the long-awaited Eva Longoria Parker vehicle Over Her Dead Body (New Line); and 2006 TIFF Audience Award Winner Bella (Lions Gate). Also, this week brings the release of the heartwarming family-themed vagina dentata comedy Teeth, as well as Sony’s first step into the Bollywood market, Saawariya (also Blu-Ray). But while a few of these are worth seeing, I’d have to say this was probably the easiest week to pick a DVD of the Week in quite a while.

A few new editions of some already-on-DVD titles will be hitting stores this week as well, including: The Bridges of Madison County Deluxe Edition (Warner); Serial Mom Collector’s Edition (Focus); and a two-disc special edition of Twister (Warner, also Blu-Ray). Finally, this week’s sole Blu-Ray only release is the 2004 remake of Shall We Dance?

Sorry folks, that’s all I’ve got. Next week promises to bring more DVD goodness. Not a moment too soon, I say.

Oscar Shorts, Part 1: Best Live-Action Short Film

Paul Clark — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:00:00 GMT

For years, the Academy Awards for Best Live-Action and Best Animated Short Film have been lost in the Oscar-night shuffle. Short films have fallen on hard times of late, and consequently most Oscar-viewers take the short film awards as an excuse to make a trip to the kitchen or the bathroom. Thank goodness for Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International, who in recent years have started distributing the Oscar-nominated short films as part of traveling programs in the weeks leading up to the ceremony. By making the films available to theatrical audiences, they're restoring some of the luster to these oft-overlooked categories. At the very least, they've allowed us to care about a race that's at least as interesting as some of the bigger-ticket categories.

This year's five nominees for Best Live-Action Short Film encompass a variety of genres and styles. The most expansive of the shorts, The Tonto Woman is set in the old West, and is based on a short story by Elmore Leonard. It tells the story of a cattle rustler who falls in love with a woman who's been kept in isolation after over a decade spent as the prisoner of the Mojave tribe. Working with a limited budget, directors Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown create a reasonably convincing version of the West, but some of the performances are lacking, and the pacing seems off. Still, Leonard's story is effective, and the film's final line is ideal, although it might've been even more affecting had the story not taken place in flashback.

The biggest crowd-pleaser of the bunch is Tanghi Argentini, a Belgian short about a middle-aged man who needs to learn the tango in two weeks to impress a girl he's met on the Internet. The film falls squarely into the ever-growing subgenre of dancing-salaryman movies (e.g. Shall We Dance?, both versions), and directors Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans do little to distinguish this from its predecessors. That said, the film has a certain amount of charm, especially when the protagonist's goals become clear.

Easily the least of the five shorts, Le Mozart des Pickpockets is a French entry about two down-on-their-luck Parisian criminals who adopt a homeless, deaf boy only to discover that he has a natural talent for picking pockets. The plot might lead one to believe that the film is a cutesy-poo version of a Dardenne brothers film, but the story goes down relatively well. Where the film falls short is by miscalculating what makes the story interesting — by focusing too much on the sadsack adults and not enough on the enigma of the boy, much of the fascination is lost. As a result, the film's punchline feels misguided, and the consequences don't make much impact.

With their abbreviated running times, short films can work in unique ways that aren't shared by feature-length movies. While some filmmakers tell smaller-scale stories, others provide a glimpse into people's lives, unencumbered by the demands of conventional feature-film storytelling. So it is with the Danish film At Night, the story of three women in a hospital's cancer ward. Each woman is a terminal case, and rather than sending them off on inspiring globetrotting adventures (Bucket List-style), At Night simply immerses us in their routines — the long days, the visits from doctors and nurses, the families who come to see many of them, and the long nights during which they form a bond. Produced by Lars Von Trier's Zentropa Entertainment, Christian E. Christensen's and Louise Vesth's film is the most downbeat of the bunch, but it's also truer to the realities of terminal disease than almost all Hollywood portrayals of the subject.

But the best of the nominees is Andrea Jublin's Il Supplente (The Substitute), which tells the story of a substitute teacher who shows up in class one day and promptly begins to raise hell. The opening half of the film goes on a bit too long, but it's bracing in its anarchy, as the substitute cuts the teacher's pet down to size, taunts a fat kid by stealing his prized autographed soccer ball, and more. But where the film really takes off is the second half, when the truth comes out about the substitute teacher. I wouldn't dream of giving it away, except to say that the film's finale is flat-out perfect, not least because it's been set up so well. Most of the other nominated films in the category might have worked as literature or theatre, but Il Supplente is unimaginable in any other form, and Jublin never steps wrong in making it completely cinematic. It's not perfect, but it's the winner in the bunch.

The Screengrab : shall we dance

DVD Digest for May 6, 2008

Oscar Shorts, Part 1: Best Live-Action Short Film