Movies You May Have Missed: 8/17/08
Evan Rachel Wood in The Life Before Her Eyes
Another week of DVD releases is upon us so it’s time to take a look at some of the Movies You May Have Missed. As always, this is not a comprehensive list of DVD releases, just a few titles that may have slipped under your radar but are nevertheless worth a look.
Unfortunately, this is another middling week even if you dig deeply into the title list. On the other hand, DVD may be the perfect place to catch a few of these that may not have quite been worth a trip to the multiplex.
The Life Before Her Eyes (2008) ***
Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen) and Uma Thurman (Dangerous Liaisons) play the same woman at different points in life, but dividing the two is a Columbine-like high school tragedy. Wood is the rebellious teen anxiously waiting for life to start while Thurman is the woman haunted the horrible day 15 years before. Beautiful but oddly lifeless like a butterfly pinned to a card in a collection, Life is a flawed film. Nevertheless, it’s interesting and worth a look for fans of Wood and Thurman. Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog) directs.
Here’s the LiC review. Buy it: DVD, 
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008) ***
This romantic comedy is another film that might best be enjoyed on DVD. Frances McDormand (Fargo) plays a dowdy governess who takes a job as the personal assistant to free spirited starlet Amy Adams (Junebug). Can Miss Pettigrew keep Ms. Lafosse’s love life in order while finding a love of her own? That’s a rhetorical question. Unable to settle on romance, comedy or social commentary, Pettigrew never really finds its groove and it doesn’t make very good use of it’s jazz age milieu, but the performances are winning and it goes down easy. I just wish it had delivered more in the screwball comedy vein. Lee Pace and Ciarán Hinds also star.
Read the LiC review or buy it: DVD
Quid Pro Quo (2008) *** 1/2
This one slipped onto LiC radar during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and Daniel Getahun gave it a positive review over at Getafilm. Nick Stahl (In the Bedroom) plays a wheelchair bound NPR host investigating the underground phenomenon of people who are obsessed with being disabled, some of them going so far as to have limbs surgically removed. Vera Farmiga (The Departed) plays his tour guide and potential love interest. Interesting film with a distinct Cronenberg Light vibe, though not as cold or dark. Mainly it’s worth seeing for a creepy performance by the lovely Farmiga.
No LiC review. Buy it: DVD
Filed under: DVD
Tags: Amy Adams, Ciaran Hinds, Evan Rachel Wood, Frances McDormand, Lee Pace, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Nick Stahl, Quid Pro Quo, The Life Before Her Eyes, Uma Thurman, Vadim Perelman, Vera Farmiga
Related Posts: - Review: The Life Before Her Eyes (2008) ***
- New Trailer For ‘Life Before Her Eyes’
- Review: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008) ***
- In the Pipeline: The Life Before Her Eyes
- Movies You May Have Missed: 9/6/08
Ah yes, the fabulous LEE PACE. Thanks for mentioning him, Craig.
Lee, let me count the ways. He’s so…TALL.
Buying MISS PETTIGREW Thursday/Fridayish. Can’t wait till I have it in my hot little hand.
My anticipation is getting harder to control….
I loved MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY, and definitely recommend it. It’s a breezy, pleasant little film, and Amy Adams and Frances McDormand are great fun.
I just saw and reviewed QUID PRO QUO this week and really liked it, much more than I expected to. Vera Farmiga delivers a stunning performance that should really be generating more buzz than it did…but this one slipped under a lot of radars I’m afraid.
As for THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES, well…they can’t all be winners, can they?
I don’t know whwn I am going to see “The Life Before Her Eyes” or “Quid Pro Quo” but I hope it’s soon.
These three films, incidentally, are all three films I want to see but not necessarily in a theatre, so I’m glad they’re out on DVD now… in the US, at least. Don’t know if and when they’ll make it here (Mrs. Pettigrew doesn’t even have a theatrical release date here and might never get one, Quid Pro Quo doesn’t seem to have been released anywhere except the US, and The Life Before Her Eyes comes out in theatres in a few weeks here), but lucky for me, I have a 100 mbit connection.
Incidentally, Miranda, the boyfriend? 1.90m, which I believe is 6′4” or 6′5”.
Hedwig my dear…
This is the problem when you make disgustingly smart remarks and people (even some people that you have a huge affection for) don’t know you OFF the net.
Nothing against your boy. If he’s with you he’s got to be cool. I’m sure he’s awesomeness personified - and that is VERY tall.
I am tremendously picky about a handful of things. But I don’t give a damn about how tall my men are.
But this is one of those things that I’ve never been able to figure out.
I’m 5′9″ barefoot. Around 6 feet in heels.
WELL OVER three quarters of the men I’ve dated have been 5′6″ to 5′10″. Fortunately, I’m good with that because someone’s height has never had the slightest bit of importance to me. I actually find a lot of short men really appealing (RICHARD DREYFUSS, AL PACINO).
I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s due to the fact that there AREN’T tons of men walking around that are over 6 feet. But I haven’t had a lot of tall men pursue me or approach me.
Is it true that most tall men often go for these little petite things? Maybe that’s why.
Does anyone know? Craig, you’re 6′2″. Help me out here.
But there’s an added bonus, Hedwig. Some silly chicks (EVEN SMALL WOMEN) don’t want to date short guys. So these boys are used to trying harder.
IN EVERY RESPECT. Plus when you’re lying down…
Every cloud has a silver lining. That’s what I hear, anyway…
I was not a fan of QUID PRO QUO at all, and found it turgid and contrived. A poor attempt at emulating the bizarre intoxications of Matsumura’s BLIND BEAST and Cronenberg’s CRASH. I agree with matthew on Farmiga, but it’s in the service of a problematic screenplay. PETTIGREW was passable, but nothing original there, still I can’t fault anyone for enjoying it.
The two big releases this week of course though are Criterions.
Keisuke Kinoshita’s TWENTY-FOUR EYES is a bonafide Japanese masterpiece and one of the most emotional of all films. It’s about a schoolteacher and her children, but I’ll leave it out. See it and be haunted to the recesses of your soul.
Powell and Pressburger’s THE SMALL BACK ROOM is a rarely seen and discussed film in their glorious output, but it’s a minor gem. Seek it out.
Both discs, which I picked up over the weekend are (typically) beautifully-transfered and contain some interesting extras.
Thanks, Craig. I knew Quid Pro Quo was a contentious one, but still found it a pretty intriguing effort, worthy of a “B” at best. I need to read your review, Matthew. Catching up from being gone for a bit…
The release for it was really bizarre, Hedwig, even here in the U.S. I think it saw a week or two in NYC and LA - and that’s it. I saw it at a special screening because the producer is from here. It was also available On Demand at some hotels for $19.99. Pretty ridiculous.
The DVD is apparently supposed to include a documentary about the subject at hand, which was also made by a local. I’m not sure if it’s actually on there, but could be worth checking out.
QPQ had enough about it to make it worth seeing for sure.
Miranda, I like the women folk in all of their delightful shapes and sizes. As a callow youth I was drawn to petite girls, but I’ve grown up.
Ah hah. So there is something to that, Craig.
Women are such idiots sometimes. Like you’d be in the bathroom visiting friends in college or even at a mall (when the kids are out for spring break or something) and hear some little peanuthead (who’s maybe 5′2″ in her stocking feet) say she would NEVER DREAM of dating anyone who’s UNDER 6 feet.
I always have great difficulty maintaining control in circumstances like that. I’ve come dangerously close to saying to some of these little twits, “When you find him, I hope he kicks your ass too.”
Holy mother of God…
You boys have to put up with A LOT.
Let me tell you. Every day I wake up and thank Christ that I’m NOT attracted to women.
I’d be in jail by now…
Just wanted to throw in here - I remembered that somebody with Body Integrity Identity Disorder left some really interesting comments on my review, in case anyone was interested to read another perspective.
End shameless plug.