DVD Report
New Releases | Tom Russo
Portrait of post-college malaise still stings
More than a decade after Noah Baumbach's debut film, ``Kicking and Screaming" (1995), it seems that the indie writer-director hasn't gained all the perspective he might on exactly what makes his portrait of post-college malaise worthwhile.
In the ample bonus materials on this Criterion Collection release, both Baumbach and ensemble lead Josh Hamilton (``Third Watch") remember the script standing apart because it captured the way real grads talk when they're just hanging out. But aren't-we-clever random notes such as characters mulling over which of the Peanuts gang they'd want to sleep with had already been done by that point -- and done more entertainingly -- by ``Clerks," among others. (Still, scholar-for-life Eric Stoltz's participation in a book club of two is amusing.)
No, what intermittently puts the film on a level with Baumbach's more recent ``The Squid and the Whale" are scenes in which Hamilton's Grover, without saying a word, projects an aching awareness of how he's spinning his wheels. Whether Grover is prowling the dorms he'd supposedly left behind or realizing he's never going to follow the girl he really cares for (Olivia d'Abo) to Prague, these are the moments when Baumbach has something authentic to say.
Extras: Baumbach, Hamilton, and cast members Chris Eigeman and Carlos Jacott supply chatty new interviews apparently recorded in a bar. You'll realize you know Eigeman from Whit Stillman's troupe; you'll wonder why Hamilton, who's a mix of Tony Perkins and Christian Bale, hasn't been seen more. Baumbach supplies feature commentary. His short film casting Jacott as half of a comedy duo doesn't add much. (Criterion, $29.95)
``DOUBLE INDEMNITY" (1944)
When one of the film historians interviewed in the retrospective featurette on this two-disc set says this is the movie he shows people to define the term ``film noir," he's got it exactly right. Billy Wilder nails the genre with a flair as sharp as the daggers that shoot from the eyes of Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck when each finally realizes just how low the other will go. Part of what continues to impress about the movie, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler from the novel by James M. Cain, is the way MacMurray casts off his career baggage to play his amoral insurance man, first as smarmy, then stone cold. His previous contract-player comedies as well as his later work in ``My Three Sons" are completely out of mind here.
Extras: Apparently this reissue marks the first time the film has gotten anything more than a no-frills release (and that almost a decade ago, from another distributor). The package offers a pair of sturdy historian commentaries, including one by Time critic Richard Schickel. The second disc features the 1973 Richard Crenna TV remake. (Universal, $26.98)
``A BIT OF FRY & LAURIE" (1987-90)
You can see why ``House" would strike Hugh Laurie as a great showcase, but does that character ever leave us cold. If only he could find a vehicle more like his BBC sketch-comedy series with familiar Brit face Stephen Fry (most recently seen in ``V for Vendetta"). The pair put their own spin on Monty Python tweediness, but also turn up the volume at times -- witness their routine as blustery, Scotch-drinking execs -- and manage to succeed where many sketch shows fall flat.
Extras: The show's season two disc features early performance footage from the Cambridge Footlights troupe with pal Emma Thompson. (BBC, $24.98 each)
``POSEIDON" (2006)
Josh Lucas and Kurt Russell head up the ensemble in this strangely joyless disaster remake from director Wolfgang Petersen (``The Perfect Storm"). Not that we needed an answer to Shelley Winters's aquatics, but the proceedings are so grim and rote, it's tough to care much. We still say ``The Day After Tomorrow," with its mix of thrills, crackpot hypothesizing, and trusty melodrama, is underrated as a contemporary riff on the genre.
Extras: Production featurettes; History Channel ``rogue waves" documentary. (Warner, $34.98; single-disc version also available, $28.98)
Comedy DVD | Wesley Morris
Big is beautiful in `Phat Girlz'
Written and directed by Nnegest Likke , ``Phat Girlz" is the sort of unvarnished personal journey picture that used to crop up back in the early 1990s when black women were telling positive stories about themselves. There's some dubious shot-making here (it's Likke's debut, and her roots in public-access TV betray her), but the movie cuts through its technical shortcomings and frivolity to allow Mo'Nique to cry out from her soul.
She plays Jazmin , an exuberant plus-size force of nature living in a taunting size-zero world. While her dreams of fashion-design success languish, she works at a department store with her best friend, Stacey (an outstanding Kendra C. Johnson ). Stacey is dowdier and more reserved than her pal, and she gives in to the misery of being fat in Los Angeles, a feeling Jazmin fights to ignore. It's not easy. But when she wins a trip to a chic Palm Springs resort, things start looking up.
Jazmin, Stacey, and, Mia , Jazmin's athletic, well-endowed floozy of a cousin (played by Joyful Drake , a bright comedic actress), check in and within minutes find themselves approached by a trio of Nigerian doctors who are at the hotel for a conference. These Africans worship full-figured women -- to them, they're sexy. But the attention is too hard to believe for Jazmin. She flees, dragging the girls home to L A , and locks herself in her bedroom, where she proceeds to hit bottom.
Her private collapse feels like brutally real psychodrama. She attacks her svelte dressing mannequin. She tosses the TV set out the window. She shouts, sweats, and wails in agony over her struggle to love herself. Susan Lucci has never done it better. Suddenly, the movie turns from romantic fantasy to one of those inspirational mass-market confessionals.
Mo'Nique's raw self-exorcism in that sequence is not becoming of a movie star, but it's perfect for a spokeswoman. And ``Phat Girlz" becomes a touching demand for the empowerment of a disenfranchised social class of women: the big-boned, or thick, as Jazmin puts it. Fine, the movie turns preachy, but if we're going to get a lecture it might as well be an entertaining one about a prejudice that hides in plain sight and shows no signs of going away. In the eyes of her tormenters, Jazmin might be fat as hell, but she's not going to take it anymore.
Extras: Director commentary; deleted and alternate scenes; blooper reel. (Fox, $27.98)
Documentary DVD | Ty Burr
'Gehry' gets up close and personal
Sydney Pollack and Frank Gehry are old buddies, so when the director of films such as ``Tootsie" and ``Out of Africa" decided to make a documentary about the envelope-pushing architect, journalistic objectivity wasn't on the punch-list. ``Sketches of Frank Gehry" is an overly fond love letter to one of the most controversial architects of our times, and what it gains in intimacy it loses in contextual distance.
Pollack's approach is to simply hang out with Gehry as he works, occasionally veering off to capture talking-head commentary from famous clients (like ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner), architecture critics, and peers. The director also takes visual tours of such Gehry landmarks as Berlin's DG Bank and the Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA. The footage with Gehry yields indulgent bull sessions and insights, as we watch the subject build out from his initial pen-and-ink squiggles through models, computer walkthroughs, physical construction, all the way to a final structure that startlingly resembles the initial doodle. Love or hate Gehry's vertiginous buildings, he has the ability to turn abstract concepts to literal concrete.
Now in his mid-70s, Gehry is paunchy and mellow, but Pollack provides anecdotes and old photos that hint at the kind of ruthlessness one needs to erect such brilliant chaos. At the same time, ``Sketches" lacks the rigor of Nathaniel Kahn's 2003 film ``My Architect," an even more personal story of ego and design. Is Frank Gehry leading his field into the 21st century or is he an anomaly? What's it like to live or work in one of his buildings? Where does art begin to pull away from function, and when does that matter? Even if Pollack isn't interested in answers, ``Sketches of Frank Gehry" can't help but raise the questions.
Extras: Director Q&A (
ALSO THIS WEEK
``SILENT HILL" (2006)
This video game-turned-horror flick might catch your attention for having likewise caught the attention of stars Radha Mitchell (``Melinda and Melinda") and Sean Bean (``The Lord of the Rings"). Unfortunately, whatever held their interest about this ghost-town story likely won't hold yours.
Extras: Production featurettes. (
``JUST MY LUCK" (2006)
Lindsay Lohan kinda-sorta segues to more mature fare as a girl who gets all the breaks in life -- until she meets cute with a guy whose luck is always the opposite, and they inexplicably swap. You might want to hold out for ``A Prairie Home Companion" on disc to see Lohan stretch.
Extras: Deleted scenes; production featurette. (Fox, $29.98)
``WHEN DO WE EAT?" (2006)
This enjoyably acted ensemble comedy may be another sitcom disguised as a movie, but it does manage to find a new holiday -- Passover -- for the ancient holiday-dinner fiasco. To ensure that there's never a dull moment amid the dysfunction, Dad (Michael Lerner) learns why he's suddenly having a panic attack. ``I slipped a tab of ecstasy in his antacid," say his son. Great, now pass the brisket!
Extras: Deleted scenes; director commentary; behind-the-scenes footage. (Hart Sharp, $24.98)
WESLEY MORRIS
REISSUES
``THE CHARLES DICKENS COLLECTION 2" (2006)
This four-disc set of well-appointed adaptations is anchored by ``David Copperfield" (1999), featuring Maggie Smith, Bob Hoskins, Ian McKellen, and Daniel Radcliffe of ``Harry Potter" in an early role. ``The Pickwick Papers" (1985), ``Dombey and Son" (1983), and ``The Old Curiosity Shop" (1979) complete the box.
Extras: ``Copperfield" production featurette. (BBC, $39.98; available now)
``THE WICKER MAN" (1973)
This cult British thriller gets a re-release (albeit in truncated form) timed to the upcoming Neil LaBute-Nicolas Cage remake. Edward Woodward stars as a cop whose investigation of a child's disappearance leads him into pagan country. With Christopher Lee.
Extras: Cast and crew interviews. (Anchor Bay, $14.98)
FOREIGN
``THE APARTMENT" (1996)
Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci star in a French-language portrait of obsession later remade stateside in 2004 as ``Wicker Park." Stick with the original (and catch some of the chemistry that made Cassel and Bellucci an off-screen couple as well). (Lionsgate, $19.98)
TELEVISION
``THE BILL COSBY SHOW": SEASON ONE
(1969-70)
Cosby followed up his ``I Spy" run with this short-lived but pleasantly characteristic series in which he plays a good guy high school gym teacher with, naturally, some very practical lessons for the kids.
Extras: Cosby interview. (Shout! Factory, $39.98)
Capsules are written by Globe correspondent Tom Russo and titles are in stores Tuesday unless otherwise specified.
