DVD Releases
For Kaufman, all the movie's a stage
Good luck getting inside the head of filmmaker Charlie Kaufman. With distinctively self-aware movies like "Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation," and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," Kaufman has treated story structure less like the clay of his craft than its Silly Putty - something to be distorted in a way that makes rule-bending flourishes in other movies feel embarrassingly rote. But Kaufman's melancholy directorial debut, "Synecdoche, New York" (2008), is abstruse even by his own standards. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Caden Cotard (as in the morbid-delusion syndrome), a foundering Schenectady, N.Y., theater director tormented as much by creative malaise as mysterious health problems. After receiving the most generous artistic grant in history, Caden rents a cavernous Manhattan warehouse and spends decades developing a deeply personal production featuring a full-scale replica of the city and a cast of thousands. It's all so infinitely self-reflecting, even the performer/longtime stalker playing Caden has a stand-in. Extras: In a 20-minute production featurette, Kaufman offers snippets of explanation. Notably: the film is an exercise in applying dream logic to the external world. So that's why Caden's lifelong extramarital flame (Samantha Morton) lives in a house that's permanently on fire. (We think.) Film critic Glenn Kenny leads a bloggers roundtable that offers insight, if you'll indulge some intellectual elitism. Kaufman sits down for a fidgety, engrossing Q&A about his career. (
BIOPIC
MILK (2008)
Sean Penn disappears so completely into the role of late San Francisco politician and gay rights activist Harvey Milk, we're tempted to throw together a chart tracking how multiple Oscar winners' finest roles stack up. See whether "Mystic River" ultimately stays with you as vividly. Extras: Penn and director Gus Van Sant let others do the talking in a modest featurette collection that evenly splits cast and crew interviews with remembrances from key figures in Milk's life. The quick documentary treatment can't compare with New Yorker Video's "The Times of Harvey Milk." (Universal, $29.98; Blu-ray, $39.98)
DRAMA
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (2008)
It's hard to argue with Anne Hathaway's Oscar nod for playing the title character's sister, a rehabbing drug addict whose self-absorption makes the big wedding weekend a minefield of emotions. Still, director Jonathan Demme's much-touted comeback film gratingly calls attention to itself with its constant striving for naturalism, from the abundant improv to beyond-eclectic festivities. Debra Winger, as Hathaway's emotionally distant mother, is a welcome presence as the one character able to stifle herself - until she explodes, memorably. Extras: Cast and crew commentaries and Q&A. (
CRIME DRAMA
PRIMAL FEAR (1996)
Baby-faced Edward Norton's breakout role (and long-shot casting) as a split personality altar boy accused of murder is the hook for reissuing this Richard Gere legal thriller. Check out the similarities to Heath Ledger in the creepy, anarchic mock-applause Norton breaks into while sitting in his jail cell. Of course, we always felt the movie was just as much about discovering Laura Linney. You have to love her DA doing that acerbic bit of role-playing to argue that of course Norton felt a murderous impulse toward his victim: "I would stab him 78 times with a butcher knife. But that's me." (Paramount, $14.99; Blu-ray, $29.99)
CADILLAC RECORDS (2008)
Writer-director Darnell Martin's flashback to the R&B revolution features Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Beyoncé Knowles as Etta James, and Mos Def (above) as Chuck Berry. Extras: Commentary by Martin; production featurettes. (
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (2008)
Schoolteacher Sally Hawkins brightens viewers' day - and earned Academy recognition - as a chatterbox optimist. Extras: Commentary by director Mike Leigh; production featurettes. (Miramax, $29.99)
PINOCCHIO (1940)
The animated classic celebrates its 70th anniversary with a Blu-ray debut. Extras: Commentary by "Aladdin" animator Eric Goldberg, film historians; deleted scenes, alternate ending. (Disney, $35.99)
ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN (1975)
Kids as infiltrating alien psychics - and family entertainment fodder! This re-release is timed to the Dwayne Johnson update (free ticket coupon included). Extras: Commentary; retrospectives; pop-up trivia. (Disney, $19.99)
THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS (2008)
In this runner-up to "The Reader" for Holocaust-movie-with-oddly-conceived-sentiment, the young son of a concentration camp commandant makes an unlikely friend. Extras: Filmmaker commentary. (Miramax, $29.99)
SKINS: VOLUME 1 (2007)
Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire") makes his debut in this British teen-drama import. Extras: Video diaries, ancillary story lines. (BBC Video, $39.98; available now)
L'INNOCENTE (1976)
Luchino Visconti lushly adapts the erotic saga of a 19th-century Italian aristocrat whose double standard regarding infidelity drives him to madness. Extras: Screenwriter interview. (Koch Lorber, $24.98)
Titles are in stores Tuesday unless otherwise specified. 