US DVD Update, 16 January

In taking time off from film writing for the past few weeks, I've been surprised how much I don't particularly miss doing it. At least, not yet. So, I apologize for the only updates on here being DVD announcements, but I'll be returning to actual writing soon. So for now, here's probably the most exciting release update so far this year, with dates announced for Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, Serge Bozon's La France (one of my favorite films of the past decade), Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata, Jennifer M. Kroot's It Came from Kuchar and Ondi Timoner's We Live in Public. Also, Blu-rays for Death Race 2000 and William Friedkin's hilariously awful Jade (in its unavailable-on-DVD director's cut, as far as I've heard), as well as Michael Mann's Collateral. And Sony has also announced a Hammer box-set, including Joseph Losey's These Are the Damned (also known as The Damned) with Oliver Reed, which is posted below the Blu-rays.

DVDs

- Bitch Slap, 2009, d. Rick Jacobson, 20th Century Fox, 2 March
- We Live in Public, 2009, d. Ondi Timoner, Indiepix, 2 March
- Gentlemen Broncos, 2009, d. Jared Hess, also on Blu-ray, 20th Century Fox, 2 March
- Dread, 2009, d. Anthony DiBlasi, Lionsgate, 23 March
- Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2009, d. Wes Anderson, also on Blu-ray, 20th Century Fox, 23 March
- Hidden [Skjult], 2009, d. Pål Øie, Lionsgate, 23 March
- An Education, 2009, d. Lone Scherfig, also on Blu-ray, Sony Pictures, 30 March
- Focus/Refocus: When Porn Kills, 2009, d. Tony DiMarco, Breaking Glass Pictures, 30 April [A "softcore" edit of the most expensive gay porn film of 2009]
- AIR: The Musical, 2009, d. Jeremy Osbern, Cinema Epoch, 6 April
- Five Minutes of Heaven, 2009, d. Oliver Hirschbiegel, also on Blu-ray, IFC Films, 6 April
- La France, 2008, d. Serge Bozon, Lorber Films/Kino, 6 April
- All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, 2010, d. Tim Rutili, Indiepix, 13 April
- Evening Primrose, 1966, d. Paul Bogart, Koch Vision, 20 April, w. Anthony Perkins
- The Horse Boy, 2009, d. Michel O. Scott, Zeitgeist, 20 April
- Mammoth, 2009, d. Lukas Moodysson, IFC Films, 20 April
- Uncertainty, 2008, d. Scott McGehee, David Siegel, IFC Films, 20 April
- Dark Nature, 2009, d. Marc de Launay, also on Blu-ray, Troma, 27 April
- Raging Sun, Raging Sky [Rabioso sol, rabioso cielo], 2009, d. Julián Hernández, TLA Releasing, 27 April
- Matinee, 1993, d. Joe Dante, Universal, 4 May
- No Time for Sergeants, 1958, d. Mervyn LeRoy, Warner, 4 May, w. Andy Griffith
- Tokyo Sonata, 2008, d. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, here! Films, 4 May
- The World Unseen, 2007, d. Shamim Sarif, here! Films, 4 May
- Misconceptions, 2008, d. Ron Satlof, here! Films, 18 May
- Murder in Fashion [aka Fashion Victim], 2008, d. Ben Waller, here! Films, 18 May
- It Came from Kuchar, 2009, d. Jennifer M. Kroot, Indiepix, 15 June


Blu-ray

- Collateral, 2004, d. Michael Mann, DreamWorks/Paramount, 30 March
- Jade, 1995, d. William Friedkin, Lionsgate, 6 April
- Lords of Dogtown, 2005, d. Catherine Hardwicke, Sony Pictures, 6 April
- The Natural, 1984, d. Barry Levinson, Sony Pictures, 6 April
- The Relic, 1997, d. Peter Hyams, Lionsgate, 6 April
- Rock 'n' Roll High School, 1979, d. Allan Arkush, Joe Dante, Jerry Zucker, Shout! Factory, 4 May
- Death Race 2000, 1975, d. Paul Bartel, Shout! Factory, 22 June


Icons of Suspense: Hammer Films, Sony Pictures, 6 April

- Stop Me Before I Kill! [aka The Full Treatment], 1960, d. Val Guest
- Cash on Demand, 1961, d. Quentin Lawrence, w. Peter Cushing
- Never Take Candy from a Stranger [aka Never Take Sweets from a Stranger], 1960, d. Cyril Frankel
- Maniac, 1963, d. Michael Carreras
- The Snorkel, 1958, d. Guy Green
- These Are the Damned [The Damned], 1963, d. Joseph Losey, w. Oliver Reed

More to Play at Berlin

I don't quite understand The Berlin International Film Festival's method of announcing films that will screen this year in minor waves. I posted about the first bunch a while ago, after they announced that Tom Tykwer's The International will be the opener. Now with their second wave (or is it third? Did I miss one?), it's certain that new films by two of my favorite young directors will be making their debut at the fest. The first was Lukas Moodysson (Lilja 4-ever, A Hole in My Heart) with Mammoth, and now Andrew Bujalski (Mutual Appreciation, Funny Ha Ha) is bringing his latest, Beeswax. You can find the rest of the titles announced this time round at IndieWire; the rest should be revealed soon. Anyone wanna fly me to Germany?

New Films from Moodysson, Potter, Angelopoulos, Miller, Kaige at Berlin

10 films, in addition to Tom Tykwer's The International, have been announced to play at next year's Berlin International Film Festival. The titles include Lukas Moodysson's Mammoth, with Michelle Williams, Gael García Bernal and Thomas McCarthy (the director of The Visitor, who was also in the last season of The Wire); Sally Potter's Rage Great, with Judi Dench, Jude Law, Steve Buscemi, John Leguizamo, Eddie Izzard and Dianne Wiest; Theo Angelopoulos' The Dust of Time with Irène Jacob, Bruno Ganz, Michel Piccoli and Willem Dafoe; Chen Kaige's Forever Entralled; and Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, with Robin Wright Penn, Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Blake Lively, Monica Bellucci, Maria Bello, and Alan Arkin, which is adapted from her novel of the same name. More information here.

Coming soon...

My computer should be on its way to the shop any day now, so the updates will not be as frequent as they once were (this also explains the near drought of posts in the month of June). What you can expect, however, is a review of Dušan Makavejev’s amazing Sweet Movie, with comparisons to Lukas Moodysson’s A Hole in My Heart and other gluttonous classics. Also, his WR: Mysteries of the Organism with a nod to Bruce LaBruce’s The Raspberry Reich. I have already written a review of Zoe Cassavetes’ Broken English, with the amazing Parker Posey who, with Fay Grim and this, is my pick of actress of the year. A review of Joshua, the first narrative feature from the director of Hell House, starring Vera Farmiga and Sam Rockwell, will be available soon as well. Hopefully, all will be patient with my computer ailments, or perhaps I may trek over to my parents’ house more often to write. We’ll see.

Male "Bonding"... West Side Story style

Cool! - 2004 - dir. Theo Van Gogh
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Le clan [ Three Dancing Slaves ] - 2004 - dir. Gaël Morel

On the surface level, these two films look like tough, gritty motion pictures. Cool!, directed by Theo Van Gogh, a distant relative of Vincent who was murdered shortly after the release of this film, depicts the streets of the Netherlands as a crime-infested wasteland for racially diverse young men. Gaël Morel's Le clan (or Three Dancing Slaves as its known stateside) tells the story of three tough-love brothers in a small French town. While having little in common otherwise (except for the depiction of second-generation North African immigrants in Europe), both films take a decidedly peculiar approach to their tales of male youth.


To any ol' viewer, Cool! might come off noticably less "cooler" (sorry, it was too easy) than its title may suggest. It's not terribly gritty, and the rap interludes look like some local Detroit hip-hoppers making a music video lamer than the song itself (though I did find out the word 'fuck' has made its away into Dutch slang). A group of mixed racial Dutch teenagers get sent to an experimental juvenile detention after a blundered bank robbery. The masterminds behind the robbery remain on the outside, lead by a pure-bred Dutch thug who eats fruits and vegetables like a reformed Ben Horne (Twin Peaks... if you didn't get it) while spatting out masturbatory stories about his accomplishes while watching lesbian porn; the older gang appears victorious, untouched by the cops and holding the prize, a sassy bartender who holds the hearts of both gang-leaders. But another bank robbery is bubbling beneath the surface... and with the young gang's impending time off for good behavior, you can bet some trouble's in store.

With all this, we get the occasional rap music video interruption of plot. What made me ill at first soon took shape in my mind as Van Gogh's reimagining of the musical. Instead of lavish choreography and production design, we get a bunch of Dutch rappers in oversize clothing shrugging their shoulders and shouting into the camera. In the past few years, cinema has brought us a new understanding (or maybe just appreciation) for the once-dead genre of the musical. There's the absurdist, tongue-in-cheek musicals (the South Park movie, 8 Femmes, The Happiness of the Katikuris), our traditional Broadway adaptations (Chicago, Phantom of the Opera, Rent), a rock 'n' roll entry (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), and of course Dancer in the Dark. Cool! is really none of the above, yet all in the same. It uses hip-hop music, which one wouldn't normally associate with the genre, yet it follows a perfect pattern for the genre. The songs don't push the plot forward, instead they offer a look inside the feelings and sentiments of the characters. The film leads us to the inevitable final bank robbery where the winner will be decided... and the girl will be nabbed. It's final sequence is laughably melodramatic, filled with slow-motion facial close-ups, characters jumping in front of bullets, the police arriving seconds to late.... and Van Gogh closes the film as if it were American Graffiti, letting us know (thankfully without awful text) what's become of the characters who never really emerged past their onscreen two-dimensions. Its closure really drives home that Cool! is not the gritty, tough film it disguises itself as.

Le clan has all the makings of a tough-guy film as well (unfortunately not a tough guy musical). Co-written by the loathesome Christophe Honoré (a man partially responsible for three of the worst French films in recent history, Les filles ne savent pas nager [ Girls Can't Swim ], Novo, and Ma mère) and director Morel (star of Les Rouseaux sauvages [ Wild Reeds ]), is--guess what--not so. Instead, we have a shallow tale of ripped, shirtless men bonding. Unlike the similarly homoerotic, female-less world of Claire Denis' Beau travail, Morel is more concerned with the development of our three brothers. He fails miserably, since I can only recall minute details about the three and surely not their names. One's a hothead who fucks trannies and loves his dog; another wants to change his life for the better post-prison; the youngest is shy and has the hots for one of their male friends. Le clan, while trying to show the hardships of small-town life, only amounts to creating a fantasy world where women don't exist (the only woman in the film--even in the background of the film--appears within the last ten minutes) and male depth can be determined by the definition of their abs. The three brothers take their small town existence in separate directions (as the film is clearly divided into three chapters and seasons), but the film can never escape its own physical shallowness. Morel treaded on similar ground, though with a tad better success, in his prior À toute vitesse [ Full Speed ], a homoerotic fantasy of gritty French street life that at least features an earnest performance (from a woman, surprisingly... Élodie Bouchez).

You (as in the one person who I know reads this) can expect a re-listing of my best of 2005 sometime within a few months, as well as, in the more immediate future, a worst of '05...and, maybe, since I think the voting's officially closed on these topics, a 'best of' for a few years back.

Pick of the day: A film I shamefully forgot on my 2005 list (further proof of a need for a repost): Lukas Moodysson's A Hole in My Heart [ Ett Hål i mitt hjärta ], from Sweden, one of the more gruelling and claustrophobic films I've ever seen, not to mention a painful critique on the media, vulgarity, privacy, and (worst of all) ourselves. It's available in a Region 2 UK version here, but can also be found exclusively on Netflix Region 1.