Recent Stories with tag documentary

Yes, awards season is finally over--blah blah blah boringest Oscars ever, blah blah blah.  But all in all, the films nominated this year weren't so bad (even if the wrong film won Best Picture), so now's your chance to catch up with some of the recent Oscar losers. Let's take a look at recent DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. In terms of the big releases of late, 127 Hours is out this week, and if ninety minutes in a cramped space with James Franco isn't enough for you, Danny Boyle's film is also bundled with the Oscar winner for Best Live Action Short (and probably the best Oscar speech of the night), Luke Matheny's God of Love. 

Also out now is Love and Other Drugs, which didn't get Anne Hathaway a Best Actress Oscar nomination, even though she was naked and dying (which usually does the trick). Same goes for Get Low, starring Bill Murray as Bill Murray and Robert Duvall as a crotchety old hermit who wants to throw his funeral party before he's dead. Sorry Duvall, any other year you'd get an Oscar nom, but this year his slot (Old Dude) went to Jeff Bridges instead, not that anyone had a shot at beating Colin Firth. From the creators of The Triplets of Belleville, very French full-length cartoon The Illusionist lost Best Animated Feature to Toy Story 3. You'd think that the Christina Aguilera/Cher musical Burlesque would've at least gotten a Best Song nomination, since that category was so weak this year.

Last Friday marked the release of the one- and two-disc version of Megamind, a computer-animated hero/villain story with the voices of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, and Tina Fey. The other big release from last week was Due Date, aka Planes, Trains, and Automobiles 2. The odd couple buddy road trip is uneven and overly long, but it has its moments, and if you like Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, then you'll like the movie well enough too. No comment on The Rock and Billy Bob Thorton in Faster.... (more)

Back from Sundance, back to reality. Which means movies of fair to middling quality out on DVD. Let's take a look at the newest releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

Some of the biggest recent releases include AARP action flick Red, glorified Lifetime movie Conviction, and what is hopefully truly The Final Chapter of Saw. There's also the original Swedish version of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the adequate American take on Swedish vampire moodpiece Let the Right One In, Let Me In, and a lifeless Never Let Me Go. In happier news, you can now see Gareth Morris' DIY post-alien apocalyptic romantic road trip Monsters.

Get ready for the Academy Awards with Greece's offbeat Best Foreign Film entry Dogtooth. Do yourself a favor and skip the nearly three hours of Gasper Noe's Enter the Void. But see a young Aaron Johnson play a young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy or Andy Serkis (that's right, Gollum) as Ian Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Gerard Depardieu bloats it up for Claude Chabrol's final film, Inspector Bellamy. And two from last year's Sundance: Kristen Stewart as a bored lip-bitey stripper with James Gandolfini in Welcome to the Rileys and Philly black power in Night Catches Us.

In documentaries, resign yourself in disgrace to watch Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer. Almost as harrowing is the plight of children migrating from Mexico in the Oscar-nominated Which Way Home, or a look at Portland roller derby in Brutal Beauty: Tale of the Rose City Rollers. Meanwhile, Eric Bana (yes, the Hulk) really likes his car in Love the Beast, Thomas Frank once again tries to figure out What's the Matter with Kansas?, and Bill Withers writes great songs (including "Lean on Me") in Still Bill. And be sure to catch one of the finest films of 2010, the portrait of mixed emotions of football player/Afghan war soldier Pat Tillman in The Tillman Story.... (more)

Just a few final thoughts about Sundance, now that the fest is over as of today. Like I said earlier, there ended up being no one stand-out film, which the award winners reflect (full list after the jump). I was happy to see that one of the big awards (Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic) went to Like Crazy, one of my favorite films at this year's fest. And bringing it back to the Northwest, the other big jury award (Grand Jury Prize, Documentary) went to How to Die in Oregon, an assisted suicide doc, which I didn't see, but as you might expect, I heard it was heeeeaaaavvvy. All in all, it was a strong slate of films, many of which sold, so you can expect a goodly chunk of these movies to make it to independent art house cinemas, as well as SIFF come May.

I'm still left feeling that Sundance is such a special time and place. Even though there's a lot of attendees from NYC and LA, everyone has their guard down just a bit. Yes, there's still self-interested assholes and industry douchebags, but they're in the minority; there's a lot more people who are aware that we're all in this tiny ski town watching movies together, and they act accordingly. It's a shared experience, and maybe that's why folks are so much more polite than usual, saying "hello" and "good morning" to everyone from a festival volunteer to a film producer. And I just love being around other people who also love talking film.

If you want a little taste of Sundance, check out the video above by my film fest companion of six years running. He and I don't see all the same films, so this is your chance to catch his glimpse of Rutger Hauer after the screening of midnight movie extraordinaire, Hobo With a Shotgun.... (more)

Little Birds is the coming-of-age story of two girls who live near the Salton Sea (which is beautifully filmed, btw). Lily (Juno Temple) and Allison (Kay Panabaker) have been best friends since they were little kids, but now that they're fifteen, Lily is starting to act out, while Allison is still content being more child than woman. When Lily meets a skater boy from LA, she wants to run away to see him there, and Allison, being a dutiful friend, is bound to accompany her. Of course, excitement and trouble ensues. Writer-director Elgin James definitely knows the film's territory well (having been a street kid and a member of a gang himself) and he obviously has a great appreciation for strong women, but I know Thirteen and you, Little Birds, are not Thirteen.

Still from "Little Birds" (Photo: Justin Colt)... (more)

This year's Sundance is a peculiar beast. While it's a solid slate of films at this year's fest (the best in a while, which bodes well for 2011), there's no one outstanding OHMIGOD flick. No Winter's Bone, no Precious, no Little Miss Sunshine. Instead the audience raves and critical accolades are spread over several films: a year with the New York Times in Page One, sci-fi drama Another Earth, Formula One doc Senna. Of course, we're only halfway through the fest, so it's always possible, albeit unlikely, that a front-runner could still emerge.

As to what I've been up to over the last day, I caught the end of a performance by the Low Anthem, the Rhode Island band of multi-instrumentalists I fell in love with after seeing them at the Croc last year. They played several songs from their upcoming release Smart Flesh (out next month), and yes, they even broke out the bow and saw.

Photo by micro-scope, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Meanwhile in movies, Canada's newly Oscar-nominated Incendies is a visually stunning meditation on the legacy of anger and hatred over generations. When twentysomething Montreal twins Simon and Jeanne open their mother's will, they find that they must fulfill her dying wish: to deliver two letters, one to the father they thought was dead, and the other to the brother they never knew existed. The twins set off to Lebanon, and in their journey they discover their mother's life story and the shocking family secrets contained therein. With strong performances from the cast and dynamic sound design, writer-director Denis Villeneuve has adapted Wajdi Mouawad's play Scorched into something all his own. Incendies is a slow-burner that lingers long after the film ends.... (more)

We are really in the thick of it. I just mentioned last week that there were a bunch of bad DVDs to come, and that is borne out with the new batch of releases. The biggest relatively high profile release is Ryan Reynolds' confined space thriller Buried, which I never saw, because I'm not into claustrophobia. Besides that, the terrible Photoshopped poster of Takers tells you everything you need to know about that one. And in Stone, Edward Norton continues to demean himself (this time with cornrows!) just to log some quality time with Robert DeNiro.

In the indie realm are several films I barely remember: YouTube high school raunch com The Virginity Hit; Freakonomics, which used the pop economists' book as the starting point for a disjointed multi-storyline ensemble piece; Paper Man, with Ryan Reynolds as Jeff Daniels' imaginary action hero friend; and Jack Goes Boating, Phillip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut. (Did you realize any of those films even existed? I did that from memory!) One film you should actually see: Animal Kingdom, the Australian crime thriller that just might get Jacki Warner a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nom. And if you didn't get enough Death Race, check out Death Race 2.

In TV on DVD, if you miss Comedy Central's airing of Denis Leary and friends in Douchebags & Donuts, it's out this week, with a portion of the proceeds going to Leary's firefighter charity. There's Justified's first season, Merlin's second season, and Anthony Bourdain has another disc of No Reservations out. And at long last you can own Hey Vern, It's Ernest!: The Complete Series.... (more)

Of course the biggest release this Tuesday is The Social Network, blah blah blah Best Film of the Year. Also surely to be picking up awards at the Oscars, Piranha 3D is out on DVD this week, and Machete was out last week. Speaking of Robert Rodriguez, El Mariachi and Desperado are on Blu-ray for the first time, as is his Once Upon a Time in Mexico. (Robert Rodriguez fun fact: his children are named Rocket, Racer, Rebel, Rogue, and Rhiannon.)

There's really no reason to watch Dinner for Schmucks. If you're on a plane it might be halfway tolerable. I can't even say that much for supernatural thrillers The Last Exorcism and Case 39. Meanwhille, I will watch multi-talent pretty boy James Franco in anything. That includes him kissing himself in a mirror, or new release Howl starring Franco as a young Allen Ginsberg. You probably don't remember wolf cartoon feature Alpha and Omega--that's because it's terrible. I don't remember Colin Firth in a 1984 made-for-tv version of Dumas romance Camille, but it's now out on DVD.

Mayan father-and-son fishing journey Alamar and Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis looking pretty in Heartbreaker (L'Arnacoeur). Legendary Jean Pierre Melville morals-in-war film Army of Shadows is out in a Criterion edition this week.  In other special editions, there's the 20th anniversary edition of Dances with Wolves and Backdraft, and Raging Bull celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new edition. You'd think that a Rocky and Bullwinkle complete series would be awesome, but it got mixed reviews on Amazon.

Only a few new documentaries in recent release, the biggest being "controversial" doc Catfish, "controversial" because there is some question of its truthiness. But even if it's hoaxy, that doesn't necessarily make a film less affecting (see Exit Through the Gift Shop).  Also out now is Beyond Belief, in which two 9/11 widows travel to Afghanistan to help empower women there. Only slightly less heavy is Louis CK: Hilarious, because at some point, yes, everybody accidentally tells their child that one day the sun will engulf the earth and all will be darkness and death.... (more)

The last week of new releases of last year went out not with a bang, but a whimper. Here's to hoping that 2011 brings better movies, because 2010 was downright weak. And lucky for us, all those weak 2010 releases will be released on DVD over the next few months, for you to enjoy their poor quality in the comfort of your home. With that in mind, let's take a look at the latest releases on DVD, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

The biggest release last week was The American, starring George Clooney as George Clooney, an assassin working one last job, until the tables are turned and he becomes the target. In other words, George Clooney has a bad day. Speaking of bad days, Milla Jovovich has yet another one in the latest (fourth!) edition of the post-apocalyptic Resident Evil enterprise, Resident Evil: Afterlife. Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford has a bad day with drugs in Joel Schumacher's Twelve, and Idris Elba (that's Stringer Bell to you) has a bad day in a yet another bad movie choice, Legacy.

With the big releases out of the way, we can take a look at a few of the smaller ones. Legendary is Patricia Clarkson's stab at The Blind Side, with WWE star John Cena hoping to coach his little brother to a high school wrestling championship, and just maybe bring his family back together. In And Soon the Darkness, a vacation becomes trouble when a girl goes missing in Argentina, leaving her friend to find her. Handsome Harry is Jamey Sheridan as a Vietnam vet forced to face his past when his dying brother in arms Steve Buscemi seeks forgiveness. And documentary Sickert vs. Sargent covers the art world rivalry between late 1800s/early 1900s painters Walter Sickert and John Singer Sargent.... (more)

Now that Christmas is in the rear-view, there's time to catch up on the latest DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. The past few weeks have brought a bunch of the big summer (and early fall) releases, from the good-enough Salt to the don't-bother A-Team to the the why-now Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. I didn't care for Ben Affleck's directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, but that doesn't mean The Town isn't worth a rental. Same goes for The Other Guys; I'm down for Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell as mismatched buddy cops.

There's several new flicks for the children. Despicable Me got decent reviews, as did the Emma Thompson-written and -starring Nanny McPhee Returns. Not so for the dark Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. And when it comes to Step Up 3D...oh, why the hell not? The Scarlet Letter-lite Easy A is ostensibly for teens, but with a cast including Patricia Clarkson, Malcolm McDowell, and Stanley Tucci, it works for adults as well. And no one of any age should see Devil, the trapped-in-an-elevator thriller "from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan."

There's three foreign films new to DVD that played SIFF earlier this year: Fatih Akin's multi-culti restaurant crowd-pleaser Soul Kitchen, the latest spot whimsy from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Micmacs, and Peruvian plague drama Altiplano. And catch up with a glam bombshell via the five-disc Rita Hayworth collection.... (more)

Sundance 2011 is still over a month away, but a couple days ago, the fest announced that Seattle was added to the list of cities taking part in Sundance Film Festival USA, in which festival films screen across the country during the fest itself. So if you're not in Park City on Thursday, January 27th, you can catch Cedar Rapids at the Egyptian Theatre. Here's the synopsis:

Director: Miguel Arteta; Screenwriter: Phil Johnston — A wholesome and naive small-town Wisconsin man travels to big city Cedar Rapids, Iowa to represent his company at a regional insurance conference. Cast: Ed Helms, John C Reilly, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Alia Shawkat, Sigourney Weaver.

But there's plenty of time in between now and then, so let's fill it by watching some new releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. The biggest film out on DVD this week was Inception, which will assuredly end up as one of the ten Best Picture nominees come next year. It includes extras with Christopher Nolan talking about the film, but as to the ending, he's still not telling. The other big release was the fourth (and hopefully final) Shrek film, Shrek Forever After, which also means you can purchase the Shrek: The Whole Story box set (just in time for the holidays!). Speaking of special editions, there's also a big ol' Alice in Wonderland four-disc set too.... (more)

Finally, it is the best time of the movie year, in which all the Oscar bait hits the cinemas at the same time.  In just a few weeks, Black Swan, The Fighter, and True Grit will all be out in Seattle theaters, with Blue Valentine and Somewhere soon to follow. But that's to come; in the interim you'll have to make do with with the latest DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

And what a lousy week for new releases. Not sure which is worse: Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz's action-romance Knight and Day, yet another Nicholas Cage in a wig adventure The Sorcerer's Apprentice, or the latest low-brow Movie Movie "satire" Vampires Suck. Probably the least offensive film in major release is Going the Distance, the Justin Long-Drew Barrymore long-distance rom-com. At least it's got Charlie Day.

And then there was Twilight. Because the Mormon Vampire-Werewolf saga is special, Eclipse didn't deign to come out on Tuesday, like most DVDs. Instead it waited for a Saturday night release. Not to be outdone, Destination Forks: The Real World of Twilight also came out on Saturday, to give all the superfans a look at Bella's hometown.... (more)

The snow and Thanksgiving are over, but chances are your relatives are still in town. Take a few hours off from awkward conversation/family time with a new DVD release, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

Your mom probably wants to watch Eat Pray Love, starring Julia Roberts as Julia Roberts, undergoing a soul-shaking reawakening via food, spirituality, and yoga, while your douchebag brother-in-law wants to see old men (Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger) beating each other up in The Expendables. Your weirdo cousin is interested in Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck's performance art bullshit piece I'm Still Here, and your grandma wants to watch Rob Reiner's kiddie 60s romance Flipped. Of course, the kiddos get to watch the special diamond edition of Beauty and the Beast.

But there's more to choose from than just the big releases. Twisty kidnapping thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed stars Bond girl Gemma Arterton, and Tyler Perry is back in Madea's Big Happy Family: The Play. Meanwhile, Sam Rockwell is affable as always as a girls' high school basketball coach in The Winning Season.... (more)

Over the next few cold and wintry days, it is definitely time to stay in and watch some of the latest new releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. But first, some sad movie news from this week: Queen Anne's Uptown Theater will soon be no more. After eighty-four years of showing films, the three-screen is set to close a week from today, November 28. Frowny face. Apparently, the theater "no longer competes effectively in the marketplace." In other words, MOAR 3D PLS.

Exhibit A of why more 3D is not always the answer is one of last week's new releases, the three-disc Blu-ray edition of Clash of the Titans, whose rejiggered post-production 3D ain't worth the money. Truly, the only good thing to come from that flick is the oft-used phrase "Release the Kraken."  That's more than Bow Wow's Lottery Ticket can claim. Instead, your best bet this week is Lisa Cholodenko's mature family dramedy The Kids are All Right, which will assuredly garner an Oscar nom or two.

Plenty of new films for the kids that came out last week, including creepy animated Jim Carrey in Disney's A Christmas Carol. There's also the very punny Cats and Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore and the film that did just well enough to keep M. Night Shyamalan making movies, The Last Airbender.... (more)

Regina Spektor's Live in London concert movie gets screened in just 15 U.S. cities this weekend, and the Northwest Film Forum is the Seattle venue, with just one showing on Sunday at 8 p.m. It's just $5, so if you missed her Paramount show--All night, between songs, it had been "Regina, I love you!", "Regina, I love you more than that first girl!", and a baritone howl of "Regina, I want to have your babies!" Spektor, in contrast, traveled imperturbably from song to song, though the "babies" brought her up short. "All tour," she said, "it's been babies. I guess...thanks?"--you can make up for lost time. The live album hits on November 22. Consequence of Sound has the track lists.

This weekend you've got one more chance to check out Destroy All Movies!!!, an encyclopedic guide to the punk movement in film. Editors Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly will be on hand at the Fantagraphics store in Georgetown to sign copies of the book, and they'll also show clips from the thousand-plus films included in the guide. With that in mind, let's take a look at the latest films on DVD, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

The biggest release for the last week was Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, which was a totally satisfying love story-comic book-videogame Michael Cera nerdfest. (I dare not mention the other big release this week, Grown Ups--what little I saw of it on an airplane last month was more than enough.)

From manchildren to kids, there's Ramona and Beezus, the feature film version of the beloved Beverly Cleary book. Also based on a book is Charlie St. Cloud, in which Kurt Cobain-to be Zac Efron spends a lot of time hanging out with his dead ghost brother.

There's a new HBO film out on DVD this week: I Knew It Was You, a tribute to gone-too-soon '70s legend, John Cazale. There's also the PBS series Circus, which takes a behind-the-scenes-look at the world under the big top. In more TV on DVD, check out The Boondocks: Season 3, as well as season 3 of Metalocalypse. For the nerds, there's season 5 of the latest incarnation of Doctor Who, and for your dad, season 1 of TNT's middle-aged dude dramedy Men of a Certain Age. And the BBC's first season of Sherlock, which just wrapped up last weekend, is now out on DVD. ... (more)

Happy end of Daylight Savings Time! Today the sun rose in Seattle at a blessed 7:03 a.m. Who cares that it'll be down before 5 p.m.? I'm just glad it's not dark till after 8 in the morning, at least for another month. Now the nights are longer, that only serves to allow more time for movie-watching. Let's take a look at the latest set of releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

Last week's biggest release by far was Toy Story 3, which will probably be nominated for Best Picture at this year's Oscars, and has already won the award for Most Likely to Make Grown Men Cry. That's two things it doesn't have in common with Centurion, in which the Romans clash with the English in a bloody fashion.

In TV on DVD, HBO's latest WWII docuseries The Pacific is now available, as is the full series of the genre-redefining Larry Sanders Show. Also from Shout Factory is their latest Roger Corman releases Not of This Earth, and the double feature Terror Within/Dead Space. Special editions out last week include the Blu-ray debuts of The Goonies 25th anniversary edition, The Bridge on the River Kwai, White Christmas, and The Sound of Music 45th anniversary edition.

There's a few new docs: Winnebago Man, about a ranting RV salesman whose found notoriety thanks to the power of YouTube, and Please Remove Your Shoes, about that great national joke, airport security. Fresh off their work with Vincent Moon, R.E.M.'s latest concert documentary is an epic Austin City Limits performance, Live from Austin, TX.  And get ready for Warren Miller's Wintervention later this month with the release of his ski film from last year, Warren Miller's Dynasty.... (more)

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.... (more)

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been loving the weather lately. Sunny and clear, crisp and cool--it just feels like fall.  Time to break out the warm jackets and bright colors in this brief interlude before the late October rains begin with a vengeance. On these autumnal nights, when the temps are starting to dip into the 30s, you might be tempted to turn on the heat for the season, or at least light a fire. Well, throw another log on the pile, and check out the latest DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

Out on Friday (like a real movie) was the DVD release of computer-animated How to Train Your Dragon. Along with standard and Blu-ray formats, How to Train Your Dragon is also one of the first films available on newfangled Blu-ray 3D DVD. Yes, this requires a special TV, Blu-Ray player, and glasses, and none of it is cheap. But it is another option for how one can watch a movie in the privacy of their home, with all their glasses.

Or you could just watch Jonah Hex. I don't think 3D would've helped things much in this case. With Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, and John Malkovich in a comic book movie, it was bound to be bad.

On the indie tip, there's Edward Nelson and Edward Nelson starring as two brothers (one straight-laced, one stoner) in Leaves of Grass. And there's the Italian tour de force I Am Love, starring Tilda Swinton as an Italian matriarch who loves her children, her fine clothing, and the sumptuous feasts prepared by her son's friend. The film's pacing is nearly as divine as the food, the costuming, and the countryside vistas.... (more)

It's finally the beginning of the fall movie season, which means that there's actually decent stuff in the theaters. This weekend marks the cinematic arrival of two films well worth your while: The Social Network, in which the methodical, artistic eye of David Fincher, a whipsmart script by Aaron Sorkin, and a universally strong cast team up to tell the story of how an Aspergery sociopath who doesn't know how to be anyone's friend created a new method of friendship for the modern era, and Waiting for 'Superman', in which An Inconvenient Truth director David Guggenheim gives a pointed, devastating blow-by-blow on the failures of the American public school system.

But there's also new releases on DVD this week, so let's get to the rundown, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. The biggest release this week was Iron Man 2, but you wouldn’t know it from all the promotion for rowdy rock comedy Get Him to the Greek. And you know Banksy doesn't follow conventions--out Friday was his doc lampooning the art world, Exit Through the Gift Shop.

I didn't see Michael Winterbottom's The Killer Inside Me at Sundance last year. While I love the director's varied work, I just don't wish to watch Casey Affleck spend two hours raping, beating, and killing women, even if the women in question are Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba. Also at Sundance was Frozen, a thriller in which three snowboarders get stranded on a chairlift and now must face the cold night and everything it brings. Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is a lush period piece that tells the tumultuous romance between the two artistic luminaries, while Good stars Viggo Mortensen as a doctor whose beliefs are twisted for nefarious Nazi purposes.

In TV on DVD, there's the new Kids in the Hall series, Death Comes to Town. There's also the second season of beloved (read: gone too soon) ensemble catering comedy Party Down. Epic '70s miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man is now available in Complete Collection form.... (more)

Asel Asleh and fellow "Seeds of Peace"

"It explores what it means to be a Palestinian inside Israel, which is in many ways different from being a Palestinian in the West Bank or Gaza." Her play is similar to a documentary, Marlowe said, in that she didn't create any of the dialogue between the young man and his sister--it's all based on her own interviews with the family, emails he left behind, and transcripts from the Israeli inquiry into the incident.

There Is A Field opens this week for a short run in Seattle, September 30 to October 3, at Capitol Hill's Shoebox Theatre (1404 18th Avenue). The timing marks the tenth anniversary of what Palestinians living in Israel refer to as "Black October." Marlowe explains the tragic history:

As the second Intifada erupted in the West Bank and Gaza, demonstrations also began in Arab villages inside Israel. In October 2000, twelve Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed in these demonstrations by Israeli security forces. One of those killed was a seventeen-year-old boy named Asel Asleh. He was shot point blank in the neck by Israeli police at a demonstration outside his village.

Asel, a participant in a peace program called Seeds of Peace, was wearing a Seeds of Peace T-shirt at the time of his killing and was buried in it. Marlowe has chosen to tell the story of Asel’s life and his death from the perspective of his older sister, Nardin. The play opens with Asel's death, and then explores Asel's idealism in light of the bitterness and grief Nardin feels, as she weighs her own commitment to seeking peace.

The play's title is taken from a line by Rumi. Asel referenced it once as he was struggling to make sense of his obligations, his duties: "Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there."

In Seattle, six actors will perform a semi-staged version, reading from scripts to highlight that fact that, as Marlowe says, "every word in the play was said or written by someone." Meanwhile, this is just one part of a "theatrical call to action" that Marlowe is spearheading. As of last week, 30 performances and readings of the play were planned in 15 countries (and in eight languages).

One is taking place in Derry, Ireland, because some Bloody Sunday families feel a kinship between their stories and that of Asel's family. This is the larger context of the play, what it means to be a marginal population at "home," the suspicion and police brutality, the competing cultural claims and loyalties. After each performance, there will be a discussion hosted by a Palestinian who grew up in Israel.

The weekend's over, but that doesn't mean you can't still catch up on the latest DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. The biggest release last week was Robin Hood, the latest Russell Crowe-Ridley Scott joint. For something a little more Oscar-worthy, check out The Secret in Their Eyes, the Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film last year. Repo Man director Alex Cox has another culture-skewering film in Searchers 2.0. And then there was Ondine, the Colin Farrell mermaid movie that played at SIFF earlier this year.

In terms of documentaries, there's Directors: Life Behind the Camera, which gathered together such cinematic luminaries as Altman, Lynch, Gilliam, and Scorsese to talk about their craft. In Todd P Goes to Austin, DIY indie rock promoter Todd Patrick takes some of the bands he reps (Matt & Kim, Dan Deacon) from Brooklyn all the way to Texas, and When We Were Boys follows childhood friendships over two years at Royal St. George's, an elite Toronto boys' school.

In the arthouse grab bag is the Criterion edition of Audrey Hepburn-Cary Grant classic comedy-thriller Charade, because who doesn't like two beautiful people being beautiful together in a beautiful locale, all in HD? There's also My Dog Tulip, the touching animated story of a man (voiced by Christopher Plummer) and his dog, and The Pool, a realistic drama (directed by American Movie's Chris Smith) about a poor Indian boy who becomes obsessed with a wealthy family's swimming pool. If you wanna get real indie, check out (Untitled), an art world romance with Adam Goldberg, or Trash Humpers, the latest from garbage auteur Harmony Korine.... (more)

You know it's a week full of quality movies on DVD when the biggest release is a television show. Yes, the biggest DVD for the week was the sixth and final season of Lost, which includes (zomg) another eleven minutes of never-before-seen bonus scenes of Ben and Hurley on The Island. There's also a new crazy-ass box set of the whole series.

Besides that, the next biggest release is The Back-up Plan, Jennifer Lopez's getting knocked up and then meeting the man of your dreams rom-com. There's also City Island, a family-with-secrets comedy that's actually one of the top box office earners amongst indie films this year. There's a mediocre movie version of Dorian Gray and the latest zombie installment from George A. Romero, Survival of the Dead.

Ajami is well-reviewed, but to me the intersecting storylines just sound like Crash in the Middle East. Shirin is an experimental film with Juliette Binoche, in which a theater audience watches a film based on a poem, while The Square is a noir thriller from Australia. Nightfur is a sci-fi romance with a soundtrack by Band of Horses, and Abandoned looks to be the final (direct-to-DVD) release with Brittany Murphy.

In terms of special editions, there's the 30th anniversary release of Shogun Assassin, the Bluray of cult British comedy Withnail and I, and 1969 gangster flick Machine Gun McCain, starring John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, Britt Ekland, and Gena Rowlands. This week also marks the release of three silent films by Josef Von Sternberg from Criterion: Docks of New York, The Last Command, and Underworld.... (more)

Here we are in the thick of August's silly season, which last year was focused on talk of death panels and this year is dominated by the threat posed by a ZOMG Ground Zero terror mosque.  It's almost as if the media has nothing else to do with their time, besides quash intellectual debate and foment fear.  Might we suggest they take a break from the crushing twenty-four-hour news cycle, in favor of a movie or two?  With that in mind, here's a look at recent DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video.

The silly season of August also means fewer new DVDs of note, but there have been a few out recently that are worth your while: last week brought Date Night and this week marked the release of The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, a Korean take on the spaghetti western. There's also Cemetery Junction, which I honestly don't know much about, but when the words "written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant" are used, I say, "yes please."... (more)

Oh, hello there. Now that we've got a weekend of summer rain and Blue Angels under our belt, it's time to take a look at the latest releases on DVD, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. The big DVD out this week is Kick-Ass, which was a lot of fun. (And yes, while the film is ostensibly about Kick-Ass, it's really all about Hit Girl and Nic Cage's sly take on Batman.) But don't let the kids see that one--it's actually pretty violent. Instead, steer them towards Diary of a Wimpy Kid, based on the book series of the same name.

The Ghost Writer is the smart thriller that Shutter Island should've been, assuming you can get past the fact that it was directed by Roman Polanski. Oscar-nominated stylized French prison drama A Prophet (Un prophète), in which a new inmate learns how to work the system, also hearkens back to Scorsese's glory days. And there are two crummy releases with the word "life" in the title: To Save a Life, a glorified after-school special, and After.Life, a bad horror flick with Christina Ricci as a dead girl who doesn't accept she's dead just yet.

On the documentary tip, there's a look at the life of Jim Henson in Henson's Place: The Man Behind the Muppets, and a look at D&D nerds in Dungeon Masters. Meanwhile, Sweetgrass is a poetic paean to real-life current-day cowboys driving their sheep flocks through the West, while All God's Children examines the offspring of missionaries who faced abuse at the hands of their parents' colleagues. And if you didn't get enough hardcore harp action with Joanna Newsom in town, check out Harp Dreams: Inside the International Harp Competition, following the thirty-one young contestants who are amongst the best harpists in the world.... (more)

It's time for another set of new DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. First, because I have to: Release the Kraken! Yes, this week brings Clash of the Titans, the widely panned epic mythology battle starring Bad 3-D. There's also Repo Men, which foretells our dystopian organ transplantation future.  It's not entirely stupid, but I just can't buy Jude Law as the ripped action hero.  There's also a couple crappy horror flicks: The Uninvited and Don't Look Up.

Looking at the foreign releases, check out Vincere, a biopic on Mussolini and the tumultuous relationship with his much-maligned longtime lover. There's also Ip Man, a biopic on the man who taught Bruce Lee martial arts. And Criterion has their edition of French-Turisian family drama, The Secret of the Grain, which is all about couscous.

Just a couple documentaries this week. I Need That Record! is a loving look at the independent music store. And The Art of the Steal is a documentary on a cache of modern and post-impressionist art and the many museums jostling for control of the $25B collection.... (more)