| April "New" DVD Roundup |
|
|
| Written by Kevin Filipski | |
|
Page 3 of 4  The Good Night (Sony)Jake Paltrow’s fractured romantic fable about a man in an unhappy relationship (Martin Freeman) who finds solace in the woman of his dreams (Penelope Cruz) is far too clever for its own good. The characters’ conversations bear little resemblance to real talk, and the actors -- with the exception of Freeman and Simon Pegg -- are not up to the thankless task their writer-director has set. Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow (Jake’s sister) are such one-note actresses that it’s difficult to take them seriously in their roles. Even Danny DeVito’s usual brand of lunacy can’t spark this unmemorable exploration of dreams and relationships -- an intriguing subject, inadequately handled). EXTRAS: Director’s commentary.  Inside (Genius/Dimension)This skillfully made shocker relentlessly explores (and exploits) how various fluids can spurt out of bodies when they are bludgeoned by sharp instruments. A literal monster (cult fave Beatrice Dalle) attacks a heavily pregnant widow on Christmas Eve, leaving several innocent corpses and much blood in her wake. The film is intentionally disgusting, so be warned. EXTRAS: Making-of featurette.  Khovanshchina (Opus Arte)Mussorgsky’s epic chronicle of Russian history -- specifically, the Moscow Uprising of 1862 and the warring between reactionary and progressive forces -- is presented in a new production that premiered last year in Barcelona. Stein Winge’s modernized staging is faithful to the composer’s original vision, and he ably dovetails the many expansive scenes of conflict and battle with more intimate sequences. Russians Vladimir Ognovenko, Vladimir Galouzine, and Nikolai Putilin are in their element in the lead roles, and conductor Michael Boder leads the orchestra and chorus in a flavorful reading of Shostakovich’s completion of the original score. (Mussorgsky died before competing the opera.) EXTRAS: Interview with the director.  Manda Bala (City Lights)The current trend in Brazil of criminal gangs kidnaping ordinary citizens and holding them for exorbitant ransoms is just one of the facets of a corrupt society examined in this tough, eye-opening documentary by Jason Kohn. Interviews with law-enforcement officials, victims, their families, and the criminals themselves paint a hard-hitting portrait of a society in which human life has become another commodity as the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. EXTRAS: Filmmakers’ commentary; additional scenes; behind-the-scenes featurettes.  The Mist (Genius/Weinstein)I must admit that I stopped reading Stephen King after high school; age 18 seemed the right time to abandon his eternally adolescent imaginings. But the short story that insipired this incredibly simpleminded thriller directed by Frank Darabont must be more palatable, if only because the preposterous monsters that emerge from the mist here can be imagined by the reader far less literally than Darabont shows them. Moreover, the movie is populated with one-dimensional stereotypes, such as the bible-quoting, reactionary nut who gets her comeuppance for her insolence. EXTRAS: Director commentary; deleted scenes; interviews; making-of featurettes; B&W version of the film. |