This Week's DVD Releases

Another Halloween here and gone, and now November is upon us. If you missed The SunBreak's roundtable of our picks for favorite scary movies, check out the discussion here. And now let's take a look at the most recent new releases on DVD, care of our good friends at Scarecrow.

There's a Halloween tie-in, as the biggest release last week was one of the scariest films of all time: Sex and City 2. Welcome to your post-post-post feminist hellscape. The other big release is neither scary, nor a new film, but the 25th anniversary edition of Back to the Future, the release of which led to the news that Eric Stoltz was set to play Marty McFly, before being replaced by Michael J. Fox five weeks into the film's production. Imagine how different the world would be now, had that less-traveled Stoltz road been taken. Truly, it would have made all the difference. I'm sure we'd all be time travelling by now with our hoverboards. 

Until we turn a car with winged doors into a time machine so that we can correct the mistakes of the past (and then post them on a blog), bide your time checking out the indie picks. There's Wild Grass, a romantic thriller from director Alain Resnais.  Going starker, it's Winter's Bone about a poor Ozarks teen trying to track down her deadbeat dad so that her family doesn't get evicted off their land. The situation is rough, and it's to director Debra Granik's credit, as well as the natural performance by lead Jennifer Lawrence, that the drama is so real, and won the film the Grand Jury Award at Sundance this year, as well as couple SIFF Space Needle awards.

The Girl in the Millenium Trilogy doesn't have it so well either. The Girl Who Played with Fire picks up where the previous book/movie left off, with Lisbeth Salander still on the heels of a serial killer and sex traffickers and finding that it could hit close to home. She might be in the need of Jack Kevorkian, so it's a good thing he's on hand, as played by Al Pacino in HBO's production of You Don't Know Jack.  Kevorkian could also lend his services to the protagonist of Against the Current, who wishes to swim the English Channel before killing himself.

On the other hand, the characters in Don't Let Me Drown want to live and love, even in the face of tragedy. And Nice Guy Johnny is the latest from Ed Burns, best known for perfectly tepid romances, like The Brothers McMullen and She's the One.

Several of last week's releases feature music. This Movie is Broken is your standard boy-meets-girl fare, to the soundtrack of Broken Social Scene. Wah Do Dem is a Brooklynite's search for love in Jamaica, so expect hipster steel drum. Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? explores the world and influence of the reclusive '70s singer, while Rocksteady traces the movement down through the roots of reggae.

In other documentaries, Oliver Stone tackles the dysfunctional drug relationship between South America and the U.S. in South of the Border. But the most interesting doc this week looks to be The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, which covers the trials and tribulations of this very real Appalachian clan. Meth is a helluva drug.

For the kiddos and not-so-kiddos: Season 2 of Star Wars The Clone Wars is now out on DVD, and The Venture Brothers' season 4, volume 1. Elf: The Ultimate Collector's edition is out, as is the dark and depraved 30th anniversary edition of Maniac. Last week also marked the release of the Alien Anthology on Blu-ray, and the Criterion editions of wackadoodle fun Japanese horror flick House and Stanley Kubrick's WWII drama Paths of Glory.

And in the grab bag, there's Lake Placid 3, which promises "never-before-seen footage including even more bloody croc attacks and nudity!" Where do I sign? American Cowslip stars Diane Ladd, Rip Torn, Cloris Leachman, Bruce Dern, Val Kilmer, and Peter Falk, as they attempt to grow a prized flower for a gardening contest. Passenger Side promises a waaaaacky road trip with Adam Scott (he's always good) and his brother looking for a reason to live in L.A., and in general. And then there's Wheelmen with pre-Office Rainn Wilson as a misfit limo driver who unwittingly finds himself in a plot to assassinate the Vice President of the United States. Or you can start celebrating the holidays early, with Freaknik: The Musical or Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black.