Before we get to the movies, the big news in rentals this week came Sunday night, when Warner Bros. announced an expansion to film rentals through its Facebook pages. So along with The Dark Knight, now you’re able to rent another five films directly through each film’s official Facebook page using Facebook credits: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Inception, Life as We Know It, and Yogi Bear. To rent a film, simply click on the “watch now” icon to apply Facebook credits, and the film starts instantly. This is currently available only to Facebook users in the United States.
But there’s more than just that this week. Here, take a look at the most recent releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. Last week offered such big busts as The Tourist, Skyline, the aforementioned Yogi Bear, and How Do You Know, which I didn’t think was as bad as most of the the reviews, but then again, I don’t think the rest of James L. Brooks’ oeuvre is that great, so this difference of opinion might be an issue of diminished expectations.
Similarly, this week’s big release is Black Swan, which y’all know I did not think deserved all the accolades and awards. My issues with the film are myriad, but to keep it simple, I’d quote the Thermals and say it’s “hardly art, hardly garbage,” in that the film is too trashy to be high art and too artsy to be a campy ballet romp. Meanwhile, there’s Tangled, a Disney return to form so good that a friend of mine–a grown man–rented and watched the Rapunzel update twice in a day. In little-seen mainstream films, there’s the Valerie Plame adaptation with Naomi Watts in Fair Game and the real-life ’80s murder mystery of All Good Things, with dreamboat Ryan Gosling and fanged wonder Kirsten Dunst.
In new documentaries this week, there’s the latest from Ondi Timoner (DIG!, We Live in Public), the portrait of radical (for his lack of radicalism) environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg in Cool It. There’s also the first foray from Adrian Grenier (yes, from Entourage), a look at the life of a thirteen-year-old kid turned Hollywood celeb photog in Teenage Paparazzo. Heart spent a night at the EMP Sky Church, or you can check out a Teddy Pendergrass concert from 1982. In the foreign film bin, there’s Made in Dagenham, the latest charming English based-on-a-true-story working class uprising flick. Dogtooth is a weird Greek coming-of-age dramedy that somehow landed an Oscar nomination. Evangelion 2.22: You Can [Not] Advance is the anime sequel to Evangelion 1.11: You are (Not) Alone, both of which recently ran at the Grand Illusion, while Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 is the companion piece to Mesrine: Killer Instinct, out a few months ago.
One of the biggest releases this week is a tv show, but it’s not mere television when it’s Mad Men: Season 4. Take your time and savor those episodes, as it looks like it’s going to be a while before we get some new ones. This week also brings the first season of David Simon’s ode to post-Katrina New Orleans, Treme, to DVD and In Plain Sight, season 3 (already). Also new to DVD are season 4, volume 2 of Venture Brothers, Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: the Complete 5th Season, and season 1 of Dennis the Menace. There’s also 40th anniversary edition of Upstairs, Downstairs, the most popular and successful British drama series ever, so expect extras galore.
In other special edition news, last week brought the 25th anniversary edition of Stand By Me. There’s also been a whole bunch of new Criterion editions released lately, including The Times of Harvey Milk, The Mikado, and Topsy-Turvy, because who don’t love Mike Leigh. Criterion’s Eclipse series also released Silent Naruse, five silent films by Mikio Naruse: Flunky, Work Hard (1931), No Blood Relation (1932), Apart From You (1933), Every-Night Dreams (1933), and Street Without End (1934). Here’s a couple notable new Blu-Rays: Teen Wolf, Dario Argento’s Inferno, Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection, and The Ten Commandments Two-Disc Special Edition. Speaking of Charlton Heston, Solyent Green is now available on Blu-ray, undoubtedly made out of people, while all of the Scream films are available in Blu-ray in anticipation for the new film out this summer. Yawwwwwwwnnnn.
And then in the grab bag are some assuredly terrible direct-to-dvd releases. Fatal Secrets has Ernie Hudson, Lea Thompson, and Ed Begley Jr as friends who have been pushed to the limit, while in Hillary Swank is The Resident, who finds a great condo, only to be stalked by Christopher Lee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. There’s Dead Awake, some sort of psychological thriller with Nick Stahl, Amy Smart, and Rose McGowan. And don’t miss the Lifetime version of The Capture of the Green River Killer. Oh hello, Dave Reichert!