DVD Report
New Releases | Tom Russo
Laughs aside, `Art School' fails to deliver insights
It's impressive how much career mileage filmmaker Terry Zwigoff (``Crumb") has gotten out of his comics affinity, without kayaking along on the superhero wave in any way whatsoever.
On ``Art School Confidential" (2006), he again teams up with comics creator Daniel Clowes , his ``Ghost World" collaborator, this time to sketch a portrait of the artist as an unappreciated, bitter-before-his-time young man. Jerome (pouty-lipped Max Minghella of ``Bee Season") is a sweet if quietly egocentric kid who dreams of conquering the art world, as well as model-of-his-dreams Sophia Myles (``Tristan & Isolde"). Quickly, though, he comes to grasp just how much stupid luck has to do with it all.
Jerome's swift descent into scowling, cig-smoking, Holden Caulfield-esque cynicism is dotted with sharp observations and amusing asides -- Jerome's awkward return to the fam at Thanksgiving is particularly funny -- but Zwigoff and Clowes aren't saying anything nearly as insightful as they did in ``Ghost World." Jim Broadbent crackles as a dark, gonzo glimpse of Jerome's potential future, but other supporting turns by the likes of John Malkovich, as a dubious-wisdom-spouting professor, ultimately go nowhere. And recurring goofs on Kevin Smith by Ethan Suplee (``My Name Is Earl") are odd, given how the film's occasional disjointedness makes Smith's oeuvre seem tight .
Extras: Quickie behind-the-scenes and Sundance featurettes make you wish there was also commentary supplied, particularly when Michael Stipe look-alike Clowes offers this prize interview doodle: ``I would say that art school was to me what Vietnam was to Oliver Stone." Those curious to hear more from Zwigoff might do well to check out this week's director's-cut reissue of his ``Bad Santa," which includes new commentary. (
``A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION" (2006)
Robert Altman puts pictures to Garrison Keillor's folksy public-radio variety show in a gently swirling, ``Nashville"-lite offering that has its charms, even if it won't make the uninitiated start tuning in regularly. Altman's stamp is obtrusive at points: Lily Tomlin does some distracting improv with Meryl Streep meant to convey their history as a sister act. But like the real ``Companion," the film is a hodge podge of elements that, sooner or later, offers something for everyone: Meryl Streep twanging a bittersweet duet with Keillor; Kevin Kline doing noir shtick; and Lindsay Lohan, as Streep's daughter, twittering a baked beans jingle. Down home, indeed.
Extras: Kline sounds like he's gearing up to write an Altman biography in his chatty commentary with the director, discussing, among other things, Altman's improv-minded aversion to reading scripts closely. (New Line, $27.98)
``CLICK" (2006)
Adam Sandler remade a Capra classic by name, go figure, with 2002's ``Mr. Deeds." He returns to the well, unofficially, with an ``It's a Wonderful Life" riff that doesn't imagine the world if he hadn't been born, just if he went through it on fast-forward. (Crackpot inventor Christopher Walken supplies the magical remote that makes it possible.) Sandler, bless the guy, will again catch you off guard with his knack for the comfy, plain-spoken sentimental stuff -- despite some lowbrow humor . Who better than a goofball grown to adulthood to epitomize the eternal conflict between work . . . and making time to goof around with the kids?
Extras: ``Make Me Old and Fat" and other featurettes focusing on the movie's effects work; deleted scenes. (
``LAND OF PLENTY" (2005)
Director Wim Wenders again casts his German eye toward America, this time for a summation of what we've come to recognize about ourselves -- and what we haven't -- post- Sept. 11. John Diehl (``The Shield") is a paranoid Vietnam vet on a self-assigned anti-terror patrol of Los Angeles. Michelle Williams is his humanitarian niece, who's been living in Palestine and has just returned to work at a homeless shelter. The murder of a Middle Eastern man from the shelter helps them reconnect, but the film's messages will only intermittently connect with viewers.
Extras: Commentary by Wenders; production featurette. (
Indie DVD | Wesley Morris
Like its characters, '12' grows on audience
The preteens in director Michael Cuesta's fierce dramedy ``12 and Holding" start lusting and rebelling earlier than the bratty adolescents in John Hughes's comedies (as you might assume, they're 12). One even embarks on a morally murky revenge fantasy that plays like Charles Bronson for middle schoolers. While Hughes's suburban kids acted out for want of something else to do, the three New Jersey kids in ``12 and Holding" psychologically expand before our eyes.
The film details the fallout after a boy dies in a treehouse fire. He leaves behind his meek twin, Jacob (Conor Donovan), and two friends, the extroverted Malee (Zoe Weizenbaum) and tubby Leonard (Jesse Camacho). Leonard survived the fire, but, in a development worthy of a fable, his ability to taste food did not. Losing one sense, though, only enhances another. Finally he can see his family for the overweight food addicts they are. To his mother's dismay, he takes up exercise and eating healthy (the apple being his loaded fruit of revolt).
Jacob and Malee set off on riskier journeys. Jacob shows up at juvie hall with photos of his dead brother as often as he can to torture the two bullies who set the fire. ``I'm gonna take a kitchen knife and cut off your fingers," he threatens. Malee, meanwhile, becomes infatuated with Gus (Jeremy Renner), a patient of her therapist mother. First she scales a file cabinet to listen through a vent to his sessions. Then she starts visiting the construction site where he works and eventually sneaks into his apartment while he's gone.
As Malee, Weizenbaum is jarringly expressive. She plays a character who could have been an ambiguous Lolita, even on the pages of Anthony S. Cipriano's deftly constructed screenplay, but through the actor's sheer feeling the character becomes fierce and vulnerable. Malee is a girl who only thinks she knows what she's doing.
In a way, this is what makes ``12 and Holding" special. Cuesta prizes curiosity and perception over conflict resolution. He likes the way kids take their cues from adults and the ways they revolt against them. Even as the kids do the ugliest things, the film stays cool without ever being cold.
Which brings us to Cuesta's ironic achievement: He's made a movie about 12-year-olds that most 12-year-olds probably won't be allowed to see.
Extras: Director commentary; deleted scenes. (IFC, $24.95)
DVD Reissue | Tom Russo
East-West culture clash drives 'Rain'
It's hardly a surprise when director Ridley Scott admits in the commentary on his cop drama ``Black Rain" (1989) that he has a thing about contemporary Japanese culture. This same fascination is what inspired him to make the backdrop of 1982's ``Blade Runner" such an arresting glimpse into our potential Amerasianized future. So when Michael Douglas's camp came calling with a script that involved location shooting in Osaka and Yokohama, Scott was there, despite a preference at the time for developing his own projects.
Douglas (above, with Kate Capshaw) stars as a morally slippery NYPD detective who travels overseas with partner Andy Garcia to deliver recently apprehended nasty Yusaku Matsuda to Japanese authorities. Losing their prisoner almost as soon as they hit the ground, Douglas and Garcia are put together with a stoic local cop (Japanese screen vet Ken Takakura) to sort out the mess. The story's running culture clash is handled intelligently, if not exactly subtly, helped along by Scott's usual stylish direction. Try not to wince like the American you are when the terrifically edgy Matsuda (who died of cancer shortly after the movie's release) cuts off his finger as a show of contrition to a senior crime boss. (Scott claims he recognized a number of bit players as genuine Yakuza by their missing digits.)
Still, the movie's gaijin's-eye view does feel dated, given all the Asian-influenced film fare that's come since. Commenting on a scene involving a marauding biker gang, Scott notes that shooting was occasionally disrupted by local youths drag racing on a nearby highway. Today, the same sort of ``disruption" is franchise fodder for ``The Fast and the Furious." (Paramount, $14.99)
ALSO THIS WEEK
``WAIST DEEP" (2006)
Ex-con Tyrese Gibson gets pulled back in, with good reason, when his son is kidnapped and it's up to pops to step to the rescue. Standard fare, with the odd bit of incisive social commentary.
Extras: Production featurettes; deleted scenes. (Universal, $27.98)
``THE KING" (2006)
Gael Garcia Bernal plays an honorably discharged Navy vet who heads to Corpus Christi, Texas, to meet his minister father (William Hurt) for the first time. The part calls for a shadowy type with a shaky state of mind, yet despite those amazing inky eyebrows, Bernal isn't a man of darkness. It's not all his fault though; director James Marsh plunges the movie into inexplicable grisliness.
Extras: Filmmaker commentary; rehearsal footage. (ThinkFilm, $29.98)
WESLEY MORRIS
REISSUES
``MOTION PICTURE CLASSICS COLLECTION" (2006)
With Sofia Coppola's ``Marie Antoinette" about to debut, vault-combers dig out the 1938 Norma Shearer-Tyrone Power version to anchor a literary-minded box set. George Cukor's ``David Copperfield," Olivier's ``Pride and Prejudice," and golden age adaptations of ``A Tale of Two Cities" and ``Treasure Island" round out the collection. (Warner, $49.98)
``THE FOX AND THE HOUND" (1981)
This animal tale from the forgotten years of Disney feature animation gets a re release to plug an upcoming made-for-DVD sequel. Pleasant, if slightly vanilla. With the voices of Mickey Rooney and Kurt Russell.
Extras: Kids' activities; bonus shorts. (Disney, $29.99)
FOREIGN
``HAIL MARY" (1985)
Jean-Luc Godard's Pope-riling, modern day retelling of the virgin birth infamously recasts Mary (Myriem Roussel) as a teenage, ballplaying gas station attendant. An interesting exercise, but not as outrageous as all that, as some will undoubtedly recall.
Extras: ``Notes About `Hail Mary' " featurette. (New Yorker Video, $29.95)
``JU-ON 2" (2003)
With the second installment of ``The Grudge," Sarah Michelle Gellar's Americanized version of ``Ju-On," due this week, the original Japanese sequel (got that?) hits DVD. Good for a few jolts, but it's been four years since ``The Ring" (and longer since ``Ringu"); this genre's creep-out factor isn't what it used to be. (Lionsgate, $26.98)
TELEVISION
``BRIDESHEAD REVISITED" (1981)
The standout adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's portrait of love, loss, and British aristocracy on the wane gets a showy reissue.
Extras: Commentary track by Jeremy Irons (above left), and another by castmate Anthony Andrews (right); new 50-minute retrospective documentary; 20-page companion guide. (Acorn Media, $59.99)
Capsules are written by Globe correspondent Tom Russo and titles are in stores Tuesday unless otherwise specified. 
