Movies You May Have Missed: 6/25/08
Danny Glover in John Sayles’ Honeydripper - A movie you may have missed
Ok, I know I said this item would be run on Tuesdays (if it ran at all) and here it is Wednesday again. I’ll tell you what. If you send in a self-addressed stamped envelope, I will happily refund your full LiC subscription price. You can even keep the free Ronco Pocket Fisherman as our special thanks for trying LiC.
Anyway, in case you’ve forgotten, this is the brand new DVD column that pretty much completely ignores the really big popular releases and singles out the little guys that may have slipped through the cracks.
And now in the spirit of less talk and more rock, here are a few movies you may have missed that are now available on magical spinny silver discs:
Honeydripper (2007) ***
This one might not be a classic, but even second tier John Sayles is worth a look. Set in the rural American South of the early 1950s — a cultural crossroads between black and white, rich and poor, the faithful and the fallen, not to mention acoustic and electric Blues music (with Rock and Roll and civil rights just on the horizon) — Honeydripper is rooted in fertile narrative territory. It’s also got an impressive ensemble cast including Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Mary Steenburgen, Stacy Keach and Lisa Gay Hamilton.
Glover plays piano player/bar owner Pinetop Purvis whose live blues music has lost favor to a juke joint across the way. Purvis hopes to hold off his creditors and keep his bar going by bringing in a renowned guitar player sure to fill his club like the old days. It’s not an especially original story, there are several stock characters, and the whole thing never quite lies up to its promise, but it’s all well intentioned, the music is good and so are many of the performances. All in all, a solid DVD rental.
In Bruges (2008) *** 1/2
If you ask me (and even if you don’t), the trailer for this film misrepresented it as some kind of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels knock-off which isn’t really fair. For better or for worse, it’s less snotty and has much more soul.
Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play a pair of British hit men who are sent to the sleepy Belgian tourist mecca Bruges to cool off after a job gone bad. They’re a kind of Laurel and Hardy duo with Farrell as the antsy troublemaker and Gleeson working damage control. Upon the introduction of a beautiful girl, a dwarf and a pile of drugs however, control soon ceases to be an option.
Filled with funny banter, a couple of teaspoons of existentialist dilemma and a fun late-inning performance by Ralph Fiennes, In Bruges is a good low-maintenance kick that doesn’t ask too much of its audience in exchange for some solid entertainment.
Persepolis (2007) *** 1/2
Truth be told, I wanted to like this one a lot more than I ultimately did. Still, there’s enough good about it to make it worth seeing, especially on DVD.
Animated in glorious black and white, Persepolis is not to be mistaken for a kid’s movie, though it’s probably perfect for mature girls young girls. Based upon her graphic novels, it’s essentially Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical coming of age story as she grows up from being a little Iranian girl living under the Shah to a young woman in the West wondering how she fits in the world. The bits with Marjane as a little girl are pretty terrific, but the story starts to run out of gas as she grows up. The story ultimately isn’t all that interesting.
The main selling point here for me is the animation. The film unabashedly takes advantage of it’s simple, hand-drawn source material, rendering characters and backgrounds with a pleasingly stripped down, beautifully black and white, 2D style that manages to be all the more evocative for its lack of complexity. Emotions and gestures and expressions are reduced to their simplest, most powerful components and they serve the story well.
Filed under: Miscellaneous
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- Review: In Bruges (2008) *** 1/2
- Review: Be Kind Rewind (2008) ***
- AFI Fest 2007: Day 4
- Trailer: Fear(s) of the Dark
In Bruges is finally coming out here tomorrow…in theatres. I wrote my (fairly positive) review yesterday. I actually like it more in retrospect than I did immediately after, and while I still think it doesn’t quite manage to pull of the balance between the humor and the more soulful moments, some scenes (like the one with the crudest Belgian joke I’ve ever heard, one I still repeat on occasion) are just about perfect, and Colin Farrell has rarely been better (Gleeson, of course, is almost always great, and he gets a better-rounded character than usual here).
I’m finding myself liking it a lot more later on down the road as well. I may just have to follow my own advice and rent it…
I will try see In Bruges one way or another this weekend. It opens in cinemas here on the 19th of Sep, so, yeah.
“Persepolis” should be arriving at my door today. I can’t wait!
wasn’t in bruges/uh that guy/ebert had it has his one number film pre summer season ????
“Upon the introduction of a beautiful girl, a dwarf and a pile of drugs however, control soon ceases to be an option.”
I’ve seen that Twin Peaks episode.
Never got to Honeydripper so thanks to Craig that’s going to the top of my Netflix queue.
I absolutely agree that the trailer for In Bruges was a huge mistake and that Persepolis was somewhat over-hyped. I enjoyed both, but my expectations of each were a little off the mark.
hedwig/craig..uh somebody…did i go (further) insane or was there really a segment in ‘in bruges’ when the farrell chracter when he’s at the female model/actor apartment ahd things get uh interrupted and he’s say something similiar to… ‘i haven’t had sex in months…’
did i just make that up/mis heard or was that actually said…. ????
i am thinking i guess being a hitman is hard is hard. but it’s still colin looking like colin/so laughed louder than uh anyone.
uh i wasn’t supposed to laugh/was i ???
*ha ha*
persepolis really didn’t work for me. and i the reason i caught ‘in bruges’ was uh because it free.
please anybody send me free email pass things please….
joel re the ‘in bruges’ trailer. based on that i would have avoided the film.
what was focus or was it think film thinking…. ???
and i read in couple spots how many uses of the f word are in the film. it’s wounded being something like 1.? per minute. sort of impressive… ;)
‘Upon the introduction of a beautiful girl, a dwarf and a pile of drugs however, control soon ceases to be an option.’
craig you forgot ‘the pros’
yep craig that’s why i’m here to remind you… ;)
‘ In Bruges is a good low-maintenance kick that doesn’t ask too much of its audience in exchange for some solid entertainment.’
ih guess it depends on the audience i’m sure your mainstream on;y/mostly mainstream crowd will feel the film ’starts too slow’/are use to things grabbing then from the 3 minute mark.
for them the film is asking alot for there time/entertainmnet. i think if the hang in there 9and other cliches) they’ll enjoy.
and kill me further it almost seems certain ‘in bruges’ will make my yop 10 for the year…
because ‘pros’ talking about moving to bruges to get a better price on their p***y.
was comedy gold.even if no one aside from me refs this bit. :)
viva la geek (sorry kids..)
Yes indeed, the releases this week of IN BRUGES and PERSEPOLIS are good news for movie lovers and film collectors, although again, as with all purchases, we further tax our bank accounts with items that after an initial view will sit for years on shelves collecting dust. But such is the nature of ‘collecting.’ I managed to pick up both of these films on Thursday night of last week at a St. Mark’s Place art-house DVD store in Manhattan that always offers titles up to two weeks before street date, a practice that affords the option of buying ahead of time if you happen to be in the city seeing a film or for any other reason. (I am certain that Alison knows this place well) Going over JUST for that reason of course is prohibitive, as there is an $8 toll from Northern New Jersey into Manhattan, the gas which now is a real issue, and the fact that the DVD is about $6 or so more than you’d pay on-line plus NYC sales tax. Is it worth it? Well, let’s just say that a regular regimem of this practice would demonstrate that the buyer has a serious case of OCD. LOL!!!
Deep Discount DVD, DVD Planet and Amazon are usually the way I go, and I’m sure many here do the same.
Anyhow, the PERSEPOLIS release does include an English language version as well, featuring the voices of Chiara Mastroinni, Sean Penn, Catherine Denueve, Gena Rowlands and Iggy Pop, a behind-the-scenes look at the film, and two scene-specific commentaries. It is worth noting that the Sony Pictures Classics transfer is excellent, even if their eventual Blu-Ray will supercede this. But I will save the inevitable Blu-Ray debate for Craig to navigate at a future date, even if he has traveled this terrain before on LIC. Blue-Ray has been known to ‘manipulate’ the image to yield a more pristine picture than was even seen in the theatres, and this is not what many of us film fans really want to invest money in.
I do not agree with Joel that PERSEPOLIS was over-hyped—(it is an excellent animated film) but as I have pointed out in the past Joel and I agree way more than we disagree. Similarly, IN BRUGES would definitely be on a mid-year 10-best list (which I have actually composed at this point). But no biggie, the year’s greatest films always (for the most part) are to be seen from September to December, as we all know. I value Joel’s opinion as much as anyone else’s on this site.
I also have the excellent DVD of MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS, which streets on Tuesday of next week, and the engineers did navigate the cloudy textures quite well, especially for this standard release.
Finally for Criterion collectors, this week we have the two remaining June releases. Anthony Mann’s fine western feature, THE FURIES (1950) is given a lavish treatment that probably isn’t deserved. A 265-page paperbound edition of the original novel by Niven Busch is included, as well as a running audio commentary of film historian Jim Kitses (I just haven’t had the time to hear it yet though–so my acquiring this package a week early was foolhardy–someone must help me before its too late!) But the restored, high-definition transfer in academy ration is typically outstanding. This is not a top-rank western film, but I would put it on the next descending level.
The other Criterion that is on the shelves is the 1994 Macedonian title BEFORE THE RAIN by Milcho Manchevski. A great feature of this heartrending story of loss and brutalization is that the well-celebrated film scholar Annette Insdorf has recorded a commentary.
I would venture to say that while these two titles are NOT as essential by a long shot as upcoming releases like the Ophuls trio, VAMPYR, HIGH AND LOW, SALO, AN AUUMN AFTERNOON, MON ONCLE ANTOINE, TRAFIC and MISHIMA, they nonetheless should be obtained for a host of reasons.
For the most part, art house patrons are quite enamoured with IN BRUGES and rightfully so………it is a not a staggering masterwork, and neither does it try and be more than what it is, but the end-result regardless, in its fusion of entertainment and artistic elements is one of the best films released in 2008 so far.
Yes, Glimmer, there is a line of dialogue where Farrell’s character claims to not have had sex in months and yes, it struck me as ironic and funny too.
hey joel… i was thinking i hallucinated that line of dialogue since no reveiw mentioned it.
and that line even made no sense within the film. since he get’s date/number from chloë from just talking to her for less than five minutes.
and there’s nothing in the film that suggest he was on an abstinence plan nor was too heart broken from a previous relationship…
and it seem at the start of the movie that he’s thinking females maybe the olny saving point for bruges. well he wants to go out you know..ha ha…
but really that line was pretty insane. a colin f type would just have males/females hinting that they were interested.if he wanted sex it would have been months…ha ha…
thanks for the confirmation joel…
and it’s sad day in film criticism that i did see one reveiw mentioning this scene. but about 5,000 mentioned the hamburger phone.
*rolls eyes*
get it wrong all the time. or most of time. yeah critics….
well i thought that scene was pretty funny. even if no one mentioned it.at all…and it should have been mentioned…..
take that friendo.snicker snicker…
sam i have an R 3 of ‘blueberry’ and i ordered the R 1. maybe i’ll throw up some dvdbeaver style comparsion pics.
ha, but i bet dvdbeaver does it first. ;)
hamburger phone…yeah, I think you’re right on that one.
Glimmer, I have I believe that same Region 3 (mine has Chinese subs) but it has now been roundly userped by the Region 1. I’d love to see those caps……….and yes, Beaver is very thorough with all the comparsions………..Thanks.
Likewise, Craig, I was a fan of In Bruges and felt slightly disappointed by Persepolis as well. It was entertaining but left me wanting.
Goldangit, I knew I should have seen Honeydripper. It was just sitting at the theater week after week.
Persepolis hasn’t really stayed with me since I saw it. I’ll wait for Waltz with Bashir.
sam there’s currently at least two R 3’s out there this is one i have…
http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/code-w/section-index/pid-1010046194/
i was looking on ebay and saw this..
http://cgi.ebay.com/My-Blueberry-Nights-DVD-9-Kar-Wai-Wong-2007-New_W0QQitemZ250261265874QQihZ015QQcategoryZ617QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
different cover. maybe the same transfer ???
hell the R 1 could be same tranfer too.
i’m guessing i’ll get the R 1 from amazon july 3 rd or so. so i could have the comparsion pics up not much after that date.maybe for a future watercoller even.
thanks for your interest !!!!!! :)
joel…were in sync again. *awesome* !!!!!!!!!! :)
Yeah, Honeydripper was one that was sitting at the Rafael cinema for a good while but I either didn’t find the time or the will to see it.
Thanks for this head’s up, Craig.
I also was a big fan of In Bruges and found Persepolis downright disappointing, though it was nonetheless worth seeing.
I am more than shocked by the comments of several people, whose opinion I respect here on PERSEPOLIS.
And here’s why: The 90% cumulative rating that the film has received on Metacritic coupled with the staggering 95% rating (108 favorable to only 6 negative with a superlative and rare 8.1 average critic rating) make PERSEPOLIS the most critically praised film of the past year in the USA and in the UK. Dozens of our finest and most respected critics have issued unqualified raves for the film. In fact it seems to be one of the few films released in the past 12 months that almost NOBODY in the entire critical establishment does not LOVE.
So hence, I am extremely surprised. I continued to applaud the staying power of this film for a number of artsitic concerns, not the least of which is its creativity, insights and style. I dare say its gone further than most animated fature films.
Lastly, as we’ve discussed on these threads, professional reviews mean little as to influencing our own reactions. But when those reactions are practically UNANIMOUS in their maximum enthusiasm, one must at least be amazed that we are all looking at the same film.
But I am NOT criticizing anyone, I have been on the other side of the fence too.
Glimmer: Thanks so much! I do own that first one, the yesasia. I acquired it shortly after I saw the film a second time and confessed to Craig that I had a rare reassessment.
I did not see that second DVD until you just posted it.
Glimmer, the screen caps for the Region 1 MY BLUBERRY NIGHTS are up on the home page of DVD Beaver, and Gary is quite pleased with the 2:35 to 1 transfer. It does eclipse that Region 3 we have, so one should either buy the Region 1 or go via the netflix-burn onto DVDR route………….
Sam, speaking for myself, I think it was the stellar ratings for Persepolis that led to my modest disappointment. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t live up to my unfair expectations of it.
Fair enough Craig, and this site has a number of others (above) who have voiced the same sentiments. Yet, it is an oddity, nonetheless.
See, we’re not just a bunch of sycopants after all! :)
Ha!!!! You got that right! We need these disagreements to prove this!!!! LOL!!!!
sam i’d love to be in sync with you and dp. but some where on lic when the film was fresher in my mind. guess i mentioned abit why it didn’t wow me or maybe my total bewildermant that it didn’t wow considreing all the critical raving….
and trust me i wanted to like it. and sure i give points for alot of things/but not for winning my heart…
ok off to dvdbeaver i go thanks for the clue in sam… :)
Glimmer: Apparently I am the only LIC poster who completely agrees with the unqualified acclaim that PERSEPOLIS received. I believe this film to be a masterpiece. But glimmer, I well understand where you are coming from, and if this film did not stay with you, there is no way you could rightfully tout it now. You are right methinks, when you cite the affairs of the ‘heart’ as being the deciding factor.
those caps on beaver do look quite good, I must say.
sam the caps/review on dvdbeaver are all of the R1.
I’m not seeing the R 1 VS R 3 thing. am i missing it ????
sam i think dorothy porker may have a simliar feeling.maybe she’ll clarify… :)
ok edit/edit. got it you feel via the pics the R 1 is a better choice.
don’t think i’m that good yet to make call outs of that sort.with a side by side think going.
very impressive sir.
i already ordered the R 1.
and even if the R1 is better/considering the how much earlier the R 3 hit/guess it was still worth it.
and hell if was dts ready(somebody cry for me) the R 3 still maybe a better bargain.
i think the dts track is at 768…
for whatever tried to edit the above statement with less than minute left.and it wou;dn’t accept the edit/got a i don’t have permission thing…
anyway i doubt the R 1 has a dts track.
now why is it on the R 3 ???
since a dts track is there and there’s likley room for on the disc why can’t the R 1 have it too ???
even movie that’s mostly dialogue can get a dts track in the import.uh that’s not gonna happen in the states i guess…pretty much never..
even if the R 1 is better by a nice margin.
the R 3 was out there months earlier…and if you pre ordered you only paid like a buck more than the current amazon price. i didn’t pre prder and i still got a cheaper price from yes asia than the current price it’s lsted for (raise the price when the film hits the states.that’s hmm…)
anyway since i already pre ordered the R 1 guess i’ll have both for awhile at least. hmm… :)
but it could go either way as reading the beaver(opps 1) has taught us. nothing is natural/surprising.
it the quality is about the same or if one is much better….the various regions battle is here to stay. ;)
IN BRUGES has been playing here since February.
I imagine its days are numbered now that it’s been released on DVD. Absolutely loved it. Great mix of comedy and tragedy. MARTIN McDONAGH’s quite the splendid writer and director - and COLIN FARRELL, BRENDAN GLEESON and RALPH FIENNES are all fabulous. It just flows intensely right up to the jaw dropping conclusion.
Still one of the best films of 2008 (it’s been a fairly decent year so far) and one of only three that I have awarded four stars to.
Can’t say enough about this one. But people who can put together a crackling good screenplay with that kind of originality and bite are exceptionally rare in the business these days.
I hope you dig this, Nicky. It’s GRAND.
As far as refunding my LiC subscription price: Not gonna happen, my precious little crabcake.
As God is my witness (and y’all know where THAT line is from), I am NEVER leaving LiC.
It’s a blessed oasis in the shimmering desert.