get yr release on

Ah, spring! The birds are flying, the bees are buzzing, the flowers are blooming, and the Sally Hawkinses are on their bicycles!


Don't you- forget about the DVD releases for the week of 3/10/09-
don't! don't! don't!:

US DVD releases
- Battle in Seattle
- Ben X
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
- Cadillac Records
- Crowley (co-written by Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden; features music by Iron Maiden)
- Devotee
- Escape to Witch Mountain (special edition)
- Happy-Go-Lucky (dir. Mike Leigh)
- Howard the Duck (special edition)
- Japan Japan
- Let the Right One In
- L’Innocente (dir. Luchino Visconti)
- Marie and Bruce (written by Wallace Shawn)
- Milk (dir. Gus Van Sant)
- The Miracle Worker (1979)
- Pinocchio (70th Anniversary edition)
- Rachel Getting Married
- Return From Witch Mountain (special edition)
- Role Models
- A Secret
- Shinobi no Mono 3: Ressurection
- Synecdoche New York

US Blu-Ray releases:
- Batman: Motion Picture Anthology (box set)
- Brokeback Mountain
- Cadillac Records
- Let the Right One In
- Milk
- Pinocchio (70th Anniversary edition)
- Rachel Getting Married
- Role Models
- Synecdoche New York
- Transporter 3

Multi Region DVD releases:
- Tombstone of Fireflies (dir. Taro Hyugaji) R2 Japan
- The Good, The Bad, The Weird (dir. Kim Ji-Woon) R3 Korea



Hidey-hi, Boothers: Pike and Dex go at it over whether Let the Right One In is just good or really great here, and Pat's much more recent take is over here.




Dex gets Happy-Go-Lucky:
Mike Leigh's latest is best viewed as a companion piece to his landmark 1993 film Naked: but whereas Naked's Johnny (David Thewlis) was a kind of later day Celine by way of John Lydon, Happy-Go-Lucky's Poppy (a marvelous Sally Hawkins) chooses a brighter, if equally uncompromising path; the drop-out Johnny's just too smart for all of this and just won't have it, and when he does he's just as soon to mock it for all it's worth, while the hyperactive grammar school teacher Poppy is sure that if she just listens to the stories people have long and hard enough, she and you and everyone we know can and will get over. But Leigh shows that Hawkins' Poppy and her saintly style can make her just as out-of-place as Thewlis' Johnny - two crucial sequences (which Leigh lets play out in different levels of intensity), one which finally explodes between her and her lonely, wound-up driving instructor Scott (an absolutely fantastic Eddie Marsan) and a possibly-abused student make it clear to Poppy that the forumla for love and happiness doesn't only mean an open heart, but love plus compassion plus wisdom times toughness.

A lot of people I've heard from call this Leigh-lite, and while it's probably among his most accessible movies, there's also a lot more going on it than people gave it credit for initially. I saw it too late to make my best of '08 list, but it's one of my favorite movies of recent months, and I think it's safe to say that Happy-Go-Lucky should be up there with some of the director's best. En Ra Ha!

Patrick on Milk:

I'm a little conflicted about this film. One the one hand, I think it's a pretty important film in terms of public portrayal of gay rights issues. As a message, as social film, I can't really fault it except by way of laying it on a little thick in a couple points. As filmmaking, I find it somewhat problematic, though not bad by any means. It continues Van Sant's explorations of gay issues in films and especially the subtext that's underlaid his last several - the damaging, often violent, results of repressed homosexuality as compared with a healthy and open portrayal of gay life. It's that conflict that's powered several of his films and certainly this one. It's not as well done in my estimation as Elephant, bogs down too much in making sure you get its message - take that kid in the wheelchair, for example; no character development, no reason for him to be there except to highlight and underscore the rightness of what Harvey Milk was doing - but in another way it's also better as a simply well-made, professional film. Sean Penn is completely submerged in the role - I wasn't thinking for a second about the high profile Hollywood actor involved, just about the character of Milk. And if it has to be a little more obvious to get its message across to a broader audience who might not bother seeing some of Van Sant's more experimental work, I guess that's a compromise I can live with. I still don't think it's got the reach to change minds rather than preaching to the choir, but I found a lot of strong moments here and the message it's putting over is something that can certainly stand to be said yet again in a relatively mainstream film.

Ten recent reviews

Grand Hotel (dir. Edmund Goulding, 1932) -

Excellent ensemble drama, with Garbo fine enough, but even her role as a diva ballerina is upstaged here by both John Barrymore and Joan Crawford in less flashy roles given sharper dialogue. But this one's more about ensemble acting than any individual's role, fine as many of those individuals may be. A ritzy hotel in Berlin is the epicenter of several stories that intertwine and tangle together, including the two most compelling: that of a refined thief after a wealthy (and moody) ballerina's jewels, and a secretary who can't stand the businessman she works for but is too professional to let him realize it. Drama and comedy build out of there, both pretty damn brilliantly, I might add, with neither one taking the dominant role in the proceedings, each always making room for the other. It's just another great one from Golden Age Hollywood, and this is the sort of film that helps you understand why it's called that.

Phantom (dir. F.W. Murnau, 1922) -

Like Val Lewton's Ghost Ship, I could not hide my initial disappointment over the fact that I was watching a film by an acknowledged master of suspense, horror, and the otherworldly and the current viewing had nothing to do with dead spirits. But just as with Lewton's film, this one won me over with its drama of a deluded would-be poet lead on by a mentor to believe that he's a surefire success and can proceed directly from dire poverty to the high life. Needless to say, things don't work out as planned, and Murnau's expressionistic approach to showing the poor guy's mental collapse (OK, it's not quite as extreme as that) is fine filmmaking. Don't go in looking for a sinister follow-up to Nosferatu and you'll do just fine.

Let the Right One In (dir. Tomas Anderson, 2008) -

As with any film combining vampire mythology and coming-of-age stories - oh wait, there aren't any beside this one! That alone of course is not reason to praise this and for a good half hour of the film I wasn't sure I liked it, but as it adds on layers, gets to know both central character and vampire better, as it reveals its sly sense of humor, I really got there with it. The visual sense of the film is probably my least favorite aspect - it's somewhat cold and flat, though that's also something of the tone of the drama for the first portion, so I guess it's fitting. Let me rephrase - a vampire film/coming-of-age story shot like a police procedural film imbued with a subtle humor that masks the cold reality of the central relationship is what the film promises. And accomplishes nicely I'd say. A good one.

Il Bidone (dir. Federico Fellini, 1955) -

Broderick Crawford is the best part of the film - the sorta leader of a group of hustlers who mostly prey on hicks in the rural regions who fall for their shenanigans. I wish Fellini had taken the time to develop his relationship with his daughter more - it provides such a turning point for his character that it feels a little underbaked to me. Crawford makes the best of what little screen time he has across from her though, saying almost enough just with his pained look that maybe if Fellini had even just lingered on him with one more heartbroken shot it might have made the whole third act development totally believable for me. Even so, I can accept it in the context of the film and move on - it's very nearly an excellent film even in spite of this. Maybe this is why he stopped relying on plot to move his characters around, realized that they were interesting enough in his hands that we're fine just spending the time being around them and that their problems got through to us by osmosis without having to be spelled out.

The Cars That Ate Paris (dir. Peter Weir, 1974) -

Part of Weir's weird (not-exactly)-trilogy, preceding both Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave and far stranger than either. Far less successful, too, though certainly not for lack of ambition. Here's a film about a small town in a remote area of Australia where the entire GNP of the town seems to stem from running strangers off the road and salvaging their belongings, lobotomizing those who happen to survive the "accidents." That's quite enough for a weird little film, but Weir wants more - there's some sort of odd, 18th century quality to the way things are run in the town with its paternal mayor; there's an undeveloped story in which said mayor wants to "adopt" one of the survivors as his own, possibly grooming him for future leadership of the town's enterprise; and there's also a brewing conflict between the town's elders and the rambunctious youth of the town who participate in the running of things, but seem to be brewing their own Mad Max styled gang of costumed thugs and souped-up vehicles loaded with weapons (though this precedes George Miller's film by about 5 years). I mean, it's not that it's not an interesting mix of ideas, it's just that they never jell into a cohesive whole - it'd be nice if Weir picked one of these ideas and ran with it, saving the others for future films or just paring it down to the strongest stuff and letting it lie. Fun, sure, and really strange, but not great - Weir got better quickly.

Shadows (dir. John Cassavetes, 1959) -

Same year as Breathless, much of the same hand-held immediacy, ground-level realism, and somewhat amateur charm, though Cassavetes still wants you to remain within his drama - no Brechtian address to the audience to remind you you're watching a film. Also no Raoul Coutard to aestheticize the experience, making it - for me - impact that much more. I've seen Breathless maybe twenty times and I still think it's a revolutionary piece of work, seen this only once and I'm absolutely blown away that in a completely separate country, with a different set of principles - though one that very well could have been informed by the writings of the Cahiers du Cinema crowd - Cassavetes and his group have made a work equally revolutionary, every bit as important, and, to be frank, considerably humbler about being such a breakthrough and also refreshingly devoid of Godard's hang-ups about women. I've loved the later Cassavetes films I've seen, but this one's the one that set his shit all in motion. I don't come to this to bury Godard, but I expect to be re-watching this one a lot more for some time.

Orphans of the Storm (dir. D.W. Griffith, 1921) -

Two sisters torn apart in Revolutionary France - makes for a great Griffith film that allows a large canvas for huge scenes (the Revolutionary aspects) and small, personalized touches (meaning the persons of the characters, not so much Griffith's own emotional investment). It's a compelling story, smartly rendered and beautifully shot. Plus, Lillian and Dorothy Gish are superb in the title roles - hard to say one is better than the other because they're both fantastic. It's loaded with beautiful moments too, the kinds of images that stick with you in a way only film can. Historical accuracy may go out the window in favor of the story he wanted to tell, but I for one am in favor of never letting the truth get in the way of a good story. Or a great one.

Slumdog Millionaire (dir. Danny Boyle, 2008) -

Let me keep this short, because I could easily go on about it. I've seen a lot of good and even great films about poor kids living in the streets. This would not rank in or probably even near my top ten of such films, despite reasonably good performances and cinematography. The primary reason it will not is because the story sinks into tediousness for about an hour in the middle - forgetting even about the "destiny" conceit that I knew immediately I was going to just have to swallow as soon as it surfaced. Did it earn the big ending that made the audience break out into applause? No, it absolutely did not earn it, betraying the audience by offering up some decent scenes early on and then winding through a whole lot of nothing until the big ending that apparently caused spontaneous applause amongst many audience members. I don't like reacting to or against hype, I like to just watch a film for its own merits. But the excess of hype around this on invites some reaction - about the film all I can say is "Blah."

The Innocents (dir. Jack Clayton, 1961) -

Now here's the ghost story I wanted both Phantom and Ghost Ship to be! It's good like a filmed ghost story should be, all Gothic design and creepy atmosphere and canted angles and two terrifically cast little kids who must have set the tone for all those dumb "creepy ghost kid voice" films that have come pouring out of Hollywood these days. And this one goes even a notch better than most ghost stories by making it ambiguous - if you can tell me with any certainty that there are ghosts in this film and that it's not all in Deborah Kerr's character's head, you win a special prize. I know that Turn of the Screw makes it clear, but I think the ambiguity here is a strength of the film that is perhaps lacking in the Gothic love story of the novel. It's not perfect, but it's exactly what I wanted.

Edvard Munch (dir. Peter Watkins, 1974) -

Better, I think than the angrily lefty Punishment Park in that it couches its politics - largely concerning women's equality - in a story ostensibly about something else entirely. I also love the structure - a 3+ hour biography about the Norwegian painter Munch intersperses real biographical information alongside speculative dramatic recreations of his life in a mixed up chronology that's shot in documentary style, as though these cameras were present at all the formative moments of his life. But again, I reiterate - while it tells you a lot about Munch, it also tells you as much about the women in his life, their lot in the world and how both the reactionary forces of conservative society and the surprisingly conservative art world Munch travelled in spoke out against strong and independent-minded women, a topic that Munch seems ever on the fence about. And though I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to see something like this coming from Watkins, I guess I was - the life of Edvard Munch did not seem a likely vehicle for an examination of feminism. That'll teach me to try to pigeonhole Watkins as just one type of radical artist.

the true spirit of thanksgiving means jason statham, godard, and vince vaughn: denver premieres for 11/28

They are los- uh, wizards.

Our man Pike Bishop is on the scene for films opening this week in the Mile High:


Milk- A biopic about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to city office in the state of California. Elected first as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and then later as City Supervisor, Milk fought for civil rights for the GLBT community and in so doing became and inspiration and a motivator of a movement that is still, 30 years latter, fighting for its basic civil rights. The film is directed by Gus Van Sant and stars Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna and James Franco. If this film looks a little too much like Oscar-bait to you, go check out the fantastic 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk that covers the same material without the guaranteed holiday ham. As a side note: Harris Savides, the cinematographer of Milk, is taking a second swing at recreating the look and feel of San Francisco in the 1970s albeit in a less stylized manner than in his previous film, Zodiac.

Australia- Baz Luhrmann capped off a pseudo-trilogy in 2001 with Moulin Rouge that also included the films Strictly Ballroom and Romeo+Juliet. Apparently Luhrmann, like Lars von Trier, likes to develop movies in threes because his new film Australia is supposedly the first part of a trilogy of epics. It sounds like the structure of the film is framed like Titanic in that the first half is a falling-in-love story while the second half is a disaster movie. The movie includes the following: a cattle drive, a surprise Japanese attack, a grand finale child rescue/exodus, and some tut-tuting of Australia’s treatment of the indigenous Australians. It stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

Vivre Sa Vie- Godard turns Anna Karina into a whore in 12 scenes. If you like Godard before he started pontificating, then give this film a try. A splash of Brecht, a shot of verite, Karina in a bob and a little Dryer to wash it all down, makes this movie a pleasant enough aperitif before his latter, more bloated affairs. It is showing in a new 35mm print at the Starz FilmCenter.

Ballast- This won the directing and cinematography awards at the Sundance Festival this year. It looks to be shot with hand held camera, but some of the shots in the trailer are amazing looking. This film is getting a lot of buzz from the critics and the first time director, Lance Hammer is getting his fair share of acclaim. The synopsis from the official site reads:


In the cold, winter light of a rural Mississippi Delta township, a man’s suicide radically transforms three characters? lives and throws off-balance what has long been a static arrangement among them. Marlee is a single mother struggling to scratch a living for herself and James, her 12-year-old son, who has begun to stumble under drug and violence pressures. So when the opportunity to seek safe harbor at a new home arises, she grabs it, though the property is shared by Lawrence, a man with whom Marlee has feuded bitterly since James’s birth. With circumstances thrusting them into proximity, a subtle interdependence and common purpose emerge for Marlee and Lawrence as they navigate grief, test new waters, and tentatively move forward.

Ballast is playing at the Starz FilmCenter.

Four Christmases- Man-child Vince Vaughn finds himself in a strained relationship again, and yes it’s for laughs again. This time he has to go visit four sets of parents having four different Christmas get-togethers to get enough high-lair-e-us material to last 90 minutes. This stuff almost writes itself. Directed by Seth Gordon whose last film was the documentary King of Kong.

Let the Right One In- A Vampire and her boy. Dex and I have different takes on this movie. Go see what you think of it. It begins its run at the Starz FilmCenter tonight. If nothing else, I can guarantee it’ll be better than Twilight.

Transporter 3- More transporting.

We Are Wizards- I’m speechless. Watch the trailer and die a little inside.

i'd say you were in your rights to bite

She is human - well, she was, anyway - and needs to be loved, just like everybody else does.

A confession: an hour into Let The Right One In (Lat den ratte komme in), Swede director Tomas Alfredson's gorgeous, meticulously-crafted adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist's screenplay of his book about vampirism and disillusionment, I grew a little restless. And then a little bored.

This is not to say that Let The Right One In - the title's adapted from the Morrissey tune, "Let the Right One Slip In" - is a bad film. It's very good, in fact - I'd go so far as to say it's the most perfectly realized vampire flick I've seen since Kathryn Bigelow gathered up Aliens alumns Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein for 1987's Near Dark, and the cast - particularly Oscar (Kare Hedebrant), whose fumbling discovery of manhood the story orbits around, and the hypnotic Eli (Lia Leandersson), the girl who's "been twelve for a long time" - is simply wonderful. So, yes, good film, very good. But what had me shifting in my seat was the realization that this movie was not for me, or at least, someone in his early thirties.

Ten, fifteen years ago, I would've been mad for this flick (instead of merely entertained), though I'm sure I wouldn't have understood why: the underlying theme of LTROI is that love - in particular, the romance of love, falling in love - is, to coin a phrase, wasted on the old. While it's a bold point to make, it's also completely immature, and it left me feeling a little cold to the events and the characters on-screen - a bit like tweenies Oscar and Eli, the movie's rather closed off to the rest of us, somewhat self-absorbed, and dispassionate, which is weird considering it's a movie about a boy who falls in love for a little (little-ish) girl who sucks blood. The overall result is something just (only just) this side of a horror movie for people who don't generally like horror movies and otherwise, it's tailor-made for lovelorn nerds (like I was ten or fifteen years ago).