New Releases | Tom Russo
Twisted politics, a dogged press: thrilling premise
The timing of putting the BBC political thriller "State of Play" (2003) on disc apparently has to do with drawing early attention to next year's Americanized feature version with Russell Crowe and Helen Mirren, and maybe also capitalizing on co-star James McAvoy's recent career ascent. But there's plenty to recommend this absorbing six-episode miniseries even without the hooks. David Yates ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") directs the twisty story of a rising politician (David Morrissey, "Basic Instinct 2") whose aide/mistress dies in a subway accident - one that perhaps wasn't so accidental at all, as a couple of dogged newspaper reporters (John Simm and Kelly Macdonald) begin to discover. For all the backroom Parliamentary goings-on, it's mostly the journos' show, as the scruffily honorable Simm fights all sorts of pressure to betray his personal friendship with Morrissey, and Bill Nighy, as a terrifically acerbic Ben Bradlee figure, regularly upstages the entire newsroom. (McAvoy, as a grinning, hard-living cub reporter with a lot to prove, blends with the ensemble more than breaking out.) Morrissey, meanwhile, previews his "Basic" trick of turning from confidently unassuming to downright nasty in a flash. Grilling an oil lobbyist at a government energy commission hearing, he coolly warns, "Please don't do that American thing of thinking just because we're 11 hours' flying time from Texas, we don't know a 10-gallon hat from a $10 dollar hooker." Where was that kind of repartee during Rocket Roger's congressional hearing?
Extras: Commentary by Yates and series writer Paul Abbott on episode one, and by Yates on the finale. (BBC Video, $34.98)
"BEOWULF" (2007)
If you're just now catching Robert Zemeckis's latest technical leap of faith - minus, significantly, the 3-D experience offered in theaters - you might feel as though you missed the Viking longship at times. Without that added visual punch, there is a tendency to focus more on moments where the animation clunks, despite the impressively buff avatar-ization of character actor Ray Winstone ("The Departed") as monster-slaying Beowulf. Better still are the spot-on renderings of Anthony Hopkins as a world-weary king and Angelina Jolie as a demonic seductress. But the movie's visually uneven stretches are where it benefits most from the surprisingly edgy script by fantasy writer Neil Gaiman and collaborator Roger Avary ("Pulp Fiction").
Extras: Efficient production featurettes give the requisite curious glimpse of Sir Anthony in motion-capture spandex. Winstone gets a laugh admitting that he'd always wanted to be in a movie like 1958's "The Vikings" - but as Kirk Douglas, not Ernest Borgnine. (Paramount, $29.99)
"THE LAST EMPEROR" (1987)
There's all of the expected sprawl in this four-disc reissue of Bernardo Bertolucci's sumptuous portrait of Chinese monarch Pu Yi, from his cloistered youth in the Forbidden City to his brusque ejection into the real world of the 20th century. The set includes both the original, 165-minute theatrical version and Bertolucci's 218-minute cut for television. There are no "featurettes" here, only documentaries, including a pair of hourlong production retrospectives, and another program tracing the filmmaker's geographic influences. (Criterion, $59.95)
"SLIPSTREAM" (2007)
Anthony Hopkins is director, writer, and star of this wildly free-form , dream-tapping experiment in which he plays a Hollywood screenwriter whose real experiences never do come into full focus. First we see him playing witness to a freeway shooting; then the action segues to Christian Slater doing a Nicholson-channeling noir riff; then Hopkins is road-tripping with "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" star Kevin McCarthy, playing himself. It doesn't work dramatically, but for an actor playing a filmmaker, Hopkins serves up a surprising visual feast.
Extras: Commentary by Hopkins; production featurette. (
Jazz DVD | Mark Feeney
A life of remarkable counterpoints
Was Benny Carter too talented for his own good? He did so many things so well - composing, arranging; playing alto saxophone, trumpet, clarinet; leading bands; teaching (at Princeton, no less). Such multiple talents meant he didn't get credit for doing one thing superlatively to the exclusion of everything else (though considering that Charlie Parker and Johnny Hodges were his sole superiors on alto, "exclusion" is a relative term). As a result, few outside of the jazz community recognize his name - this despite Carter's having been a Kennedy Center honoree, as well as the recipient of a Grammy lifetime achievement award and the National Medal of Arts.
Among the pleasures afforded by Harrison Engle's 1989 documentary, "Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs," is the attention it brings to a very important and still-underappreciated figure in jazz history. Paying tribute on-camera are Ella Fitzgerald, Andre Previn, and Quincy Jones, who hails Carter's trailblazing as the first African-American to work steadily as a composer and arranger for movies and TV. But none of them is as compelling as Carter, who died in 2003. With his moon face, neat white mustache, and bald head, he looks like a sweeter, smarter version of the top-hat-wearing man in Monopoly.
We see Carter, still vigorous and extremely charming at 82, in a surprisingly large number of settings for a 58-minute film. He tours Japan and plays a jazz cruise. He pays a visit to the Apollo Theatre. At a recording session, he shows off his astonishing purity of tone. He performs at a Greenwich Village club, where it's a welcome surprise to find his pianist is the late James Williams, who was such a vital presence on the Boston jazz scene during the '70s.
Engle skillfully intercuts archival material with all this contemporary footage, and much of the old black-and-white film - of Harlem in the '20s, Paris and London in the '30s (emigrating for several years, Carter helped popularize jazz in Europe), Los Angeles in the '40s and '50s - is gorgeous. The narration gets a bit hokey, even adulatory, something not helped by Burt Lancaster's overemphatic line readings. Still, this is that rarest of documentaries: one a viewer wishes were much longer.
Extras: Photo gallery and career appreciation (Rhapsody, $19.95, already available)
Documentary | Omar Sacirbey
Born into royalty, sold as a slave
At its core, "Prince Among Slaves" is about falling from a high place to a low place, and enduring it with dignity and fortitude.
Narrated by hip-hop artist Mos Def, "Prince" tells the true story of Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori, a West African prince who in 1788, at age 26, was taken into slavery and sold to a farmer in Natchez, Mississippi. Rahman accepts his fate as a test from God, but following twists involving a one-eyed surgeon, a conflicted journalist, and President John Quincy Adams, Rahman wins freedom after 40 years, on condition, however, that he return to Africa. It is bittersweet redemption for the prince, who delays his African return to try to release his family.
Based on the book by historian Terry Alford, the hour-long film relies on primary sources such as Rahman's original purchase papers and entries from Adams's diary, plus deft reenactments directed by Emmy Award winner Bill Duke, to convey a powerful story. Producer Alex Kronemer makes several important historical assertions. For example, the film's portrait of 18th-century West Africa emphasizes that captured slaves came not from primitive hunter-gatherer societies, but from sophisticated cultures with libraries and universities that rivaled those of Europe or America. And at a time when Americans talk about their nation's Judeo-Christian roots, Kronemer reminds viewers that up to 30 percent of all slaves brought to America, like Rahman, were Muslims.
Scheduled for release on Wednesday, "Prince," winner of Best Documentary at the 2007 American Black Film Festival, is a must-see for those interested in slavery and the abolitionist movement, in which Boston figured so prominently.
Extras: Interview with Mos Def, featurettes about slavery and Muslims in early America. (Unity Productions Foundation, $24.99)
ALSO THIS WEEK
"30 DAYS OF NIGHT" (2007)
A pack of vampires goes a-huntin' for sheriff Josh Hartnett and his easy-target neighbors in an isolated Alaskan town. Despite adapting a terrifically cinematic cult comic book, director David Slade ("Hard Candy") is essentially dealing in the derivative - vampires recast as today's speedy zombies - but he does it with eerie style.
Extras: Featurettes hold interest in part for showing how the production re-created Alaska way down in Peter Jackson country in New Zealand. (
"GOYA'S GHOSTS" (2007)
Milos Forman lends the visual richness of his "Amadeus" and "Valmont" to this tale of the subversive 18th century Spanish artist. Disappointingly, though, the director stumbles in casting Stellan Skarsgard as Goya, and isn't saved by Javier Bardem as a front-and-center Inquisitor, or Natalie Portman as a persecuted period hottie.
Extras: Production featurette. (Sony, $24.96)
"DEATH AT A FUNERAL" (2007)
Director Frank Oz ("Bowfinger") wrings a modest number of laughs out of his English-set family gathering farce, which benefits from game turns by familiar British faces such as Matthew MacFadyen ("Pride & Prejudice") and Ewen Bremner ("Trainspotting").
Extras: Cast and crew commentary; gag reel. (MGM, $29.98)
"SILK" (2007) Michael Pitt (the upcoming "Funny Games") is a 19th-century French silk dealer torn between his love for wife Keira Knightley and his passion for the concubine he encounters on a Far East excursion. A mix of visual gloss and dramatic inertia. (New Line, $27.95)
REISSUES
"WARNER BROS. HOME ENTERTAINMENT ACADEMY AWARDS ANIMATION COLLECTION" (2008) Looking for an alternative to Joan Rivers and the network puppetheads doing their usual shtick at tonight's Oscars ceremony? Try warming up with this set of classic animated honorees, featuring the Looney Tunes cast, Popeye, Tom & Jerry, and the Fleischer brothers' Superman. Extras: Documentary detailing the back stories of various shorts and their creators; resourcefully selected commentaries by contemporary animators and film historians. (Warner, $19.98; available now)
TELEVISION
"THE FUGITIVE": SEASON ONE, VOLUME TWO (1964)
Take another early look at the series that continues to serve as the model for shows like "The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Highlights of the 15-episode set include David Janssen's Richard Kimble tangling with a Korean War buddy who took a grenade for him, unhappily. (Paramount, $42.99)
"THE SMURFS": SEASON ONE, VOLUME ONE (1981)
A silly little stroll down 1980s memory lane, or an insidious attempt to revive a moribund marketing juggernaut? You make the call, Doubty Smurf. (Warner, $26.98) Capsules are written by Globe correspondent Tom Russo and titles are in stores Tuesday unless otherwise specified. 
