Movies You May Have Missed: 8/10/08
It’s kind of a weird week for DVD releases anyway so I’m experimenting with bumping the column up to Sunday. This way those of you who return movies to Netflix in time for Monday shipments of new releases can adjust your queues accordingly and get your new releases by Tuesday.
Here then making their Sunday debut are the Movies You May Have Missed now available on DVD:
Brand Upon the Brain! I have yet to warm up to the charms of Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin (The Heart of the World, The Saddest Music in the World, My Winnepeg), but I admit I haven’t tried very hard. Maddin is hard to describe as a filmmaker, but dreamlike and experimental scratches the surface. He’s often been compared to David Lynch, though really he’s a filmmaker all by himself. This is his 2006 silent film that played festival engagements (including Toronto) with live symphony accompaniment and narration. A version with pre-recorded score and narration by Isabella Rossellini received a limited release in June 2007 and that’s the version on this Criterion DVD. Described as a semi-autobiographical tale, the surreal Brand tells the story of a brother and a sister investigating the mysterious wounds on the heads of adopted children. Buy: DVD
CJ7. A sci-fi comedy family film from Stephen Chow, Chinese director of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. Chow plays a poor construction worker desperate to keep his son enrolled in private school who finds a strange green orb. Never able to afford the latest coolest toys for his son, he brings it home as a toy that turns out to be an alien life form with strange powers. I try not to read too much into trailers, but the one for CJ7 looked unbearable. Chow fans might want to have a look anyway. Buy: DVD,
How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer. With all the talk about pictures aimed at a female demographic this summer swimming in cash, I’m trying to figure out how this comedy slipped through the cracks. It’s got likeable stars in America Ferrara and Elizabeth Peña and it received decent reviews (71% fresh from top critics at Rotten Tomatoes) when it played the festival circuit, but it was only in a few theaters for about 5 minutes in May and it made less than $100,000. Peña, Ferrera and Lucy Gallardo are three generations of Garcia girls and this is the story about their romantic ups and downs. OK, it’s not my cup of tea, but surely there’s an audience out there for it…isn’t there? Buy: DVD
Irina Palm. I had hopes for this UK comedy drama starring ’60’s icon Marianne Faithfull as a working class grandmother who turns to prostitution to pay for an operation for her sick grandson, but it got luke warm reviews from critics and I ended up skipping it. Buy: DVD
Smart People. Dumb movie. Ellen Page trades in her tomboyish Chuck Taylors and hoodie for skirts and sweaters as she plays an over-achiever desperate for approval from her professor father played by Dennis Quaid. Ever since his wife died, he’s been a cranky and bitter misanthrope. Enter estranged brother/slacker Thomas Hayden Church and kooky nurse Sarah Jessica Parker to mix things up. Page learns to be less over-achievy, Quaid learns to be less misanthropy, Church learns to be less slackery and Parker learns whatever she learns and everyone lives happily ever after. It’s the kind of quirky indie comedy that makes people hate quirky indie comedies. Buy: DVD,
Filed under: DVD
Tags: America Ferrera, Brand Upon the Brain, CJ7, Dennis Quaid, Elizabeth Pena, Ellen Page, Guy Maddin, How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer, Irina Palm, Marianne Faithfull, Sarah Jessica Parker, Smart People, Stephen Chow, Thomas Hayden Church
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The documentary Bra Boys, about naughty surf punks in Australia, hits Tuesday too. I don’t know much about it but the trailer was interesting enough to get it into my Netflix queue.
Good idea on moving up the MYMHM column Craig, at least for those of us using Netflix.
I saw this at the Egyptian with live music and a celeb narrator whom i’ve forgotten, which was cool, and there was much to admire but i found it all to familar and over-indulgent.
I know I always wanted to see “Irina Palm” and “Smart People,” and “Brand Upon the Brain!” sounds interesting…
IRINA PALM made it to DVD all ready?
BAH…
I dig MARIANNE FAITHFULL. She and I have something in common.
Or so I hear…
Reviews of it weren’t awful, except for one Village Voice Idiot, but they weren’t strong either. The subject seems pretty iffy, but Marianne Faithfull…come on!
I am not a fan of Guy Madden (as Craig is not as well) so this is that rare Criterion I will not purchase. There are only 6 or 7 in the collection I haven’t picked up. Other than that it’s been a very uneventful week with DVD releases. Next week and the week after that will showcasae some essentials, though.
I see your favorite ‘Salo’ is coming back to Criterion this month, Sam…. :)
The only thing I know for sure about AICN is that everyone makes fun of Harry…
I love Guy Maddin…his COWARDS BEND THE KNEE was brilliant and I’ve been looking forward to MY WINNIPEG, which I should be seeing soon. I never got around to BRAND UPON THE BRAIN…I’ll have to check it out soon.
I love silent films, and I love the fact that someone still has the balls to make them and to do it well.
I didn’t even know there was a film called “How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer.” When I read your blurb, I googled it to see if it was related to Julia Alvarez’s novel “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent,” but there’s (apparently) no relation. Weird.
Weirder still is to see my real life (first) name in this post and comments! And no, it’s not CJ7.
I adore silent cinema up until 1936, when Chaplin’s MODERN TIMES effectively ushered out the greatest era in the history of film–I love the silent works of Ozu, Shimizu, Gance, Dreyer, Griffiths, Bunuel, Sjostrom, King Vidor, Von Stroheim, Murnau, Lang, Weine, Pabst, Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Doszhenko, Keaton, Lloyd, Feyder, Lubitsch, Ford and others more than I like anything else in film. I savor them and watch them repeatedly. They remain the jewels of moviemaking and the most powerful mode of expression we have yet seen (and will ever see) in the form.
However, Mr. Madden is not in that category for me. For me to pass up the purchase of a Criterion, is quite the event in my little world. I admit I have not seen MY WINNEPEG, and am aware that it has received praise by many, so all I can do there is to see it.
I honestly wished I liked him more.
Sam, is your Criterion collection your unofficial 8th child? (Sorry if I’m getting the number wrong).
hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!! good one Jeff! That is the problem with collecting though. It is an obsession, that invariable leads with hundreds, even thousands of films consigned to wall shelves to gather dust. Five lifetimes wouldn’t do them justice. I admit it’s a sickness!
Dorothy…is it Irina? or Marianne? or Guy?
Craig: I like that “favorite SALO” LOL.
Actually I respect this film in anumber of ways, but the famed excrement scene is revolting as is the tongue removal. It’s hard to sit through, but it is politically a work of brilliant satire.
But the remastered two-disc DVD set, long awaited, is coming in two weeks, and I will comment further on that week’s Movie You May Have Missed thread.
Sam: the first paragraph of your post (#11) is a thing of beauty and inclusiveness.
Trippy, very trippy, Craig. It’s the Russian one, by the way :-)
why I thank you for that Dorothy!
Damn, I wish I could unveil a cool secret name…but alas, I’m really just Craig Kennedy.
Funny you should say that, Craig.
For all the people that know me well ON the net and OFF, I’m sure you know EXACTLY what I mean…
Dorothy, IRINA is a gorgeous name.
The only IRINA in film/literature that I’m aware of is the lead female character that SIMONE SIMON and NASTASSJA KINSKI played in both versions of CAT PEOPLE.
But her name was spelled IRENA, so it’s actually a slight variation.
Certainly makes sense that one of the coolest women on the planet would have an equally awesome name.
Some things in the universe do make sense…
Aw shucks, Ms. M. You do know how to make a person feel good!
And I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks “Craig Kennedy” is an amazing name. It evokes not only sunny weekends in Hyannis Port but also the faintest hint of a covert CIA identity. In short, the name is plenty cool :)
Test
Not a problem, my darling Ms. Porker.
I used to tease poor Craig about his name endlessly, Dorothy.
“Are you one of the Massachusetts Kennedys? You got some serious dough stashed away that we don’t know about? Born with a silver spoon in your mouth in ol’ Seattle, were ya?”
He’s always insisted that he has no connection to that prestigious Eastern family.
But I do think that Craig understands (BY NOW) that he is a cherished friend whom I adore and I would reasonably suppose that that will continue through eternity.
I don’t give a good god damn how much money he has.
When I meet him (because I will ONE OF THESE DAYS - we’re going to be neighbours eventually) as long as he can afford to buy me ice cream, I’m set.
Yay! Daniel is not getting spammed.
Deep Throat mentioned that Craig Kennedy Jr. is the uber-black sheep of the clan — he walked away from all that wealth and power years ago just to blog about film.
And keep away from the curse…
I don’t even have a Boston accent.