Armchair Commentary

"The Inauguration of Barack Obama: A Moment in History": Best DVDs of March 2009

What it is: Ah, it's the inauguration of Barack Obama. Okay, here are more details. This DVD captures the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of The United States.  ABC News presents highlights of the entire day's coverage anchored by Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos.  While this commemorative DVD includes many highlights of the day's events, it also includes the following exclusive special features:

Barbara Walters' exclusive 11/08 interview with The Obamas
President Elect Obama's Election Night Victory Speech
Bob Woodruff exclusive January 19th interview with Michelle Obama
The Oaths of Office of the past 9 Presidents, from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush

Why it is significant: This DVD captures a defining moment in the history of the United States of America.  And, if you weren't one of the lucky millions of spectators to witness this moment first hand, you can experience again and again the events of this momentous day with this historic DVD.  It would be near impossible to avoid speaking of politics when speaking of, ah, politics but this inauguration for many was the actualization of the hopes for a majority of American voters.  For many, Obama's inauguration was the reality that the change that many had hoped for was really happening.  Watch as Barack Obama is sworn in as the first African American President of the United States.

--Craig

Best DVDs of February 2009: "Let The Right One In"

 

What it is: Let The Right One In is not just a vampire movie.  This mood-setting movie is about friendship, youth and relationships.  And, yes, friendship, youth and relationships do get a little complicated when you are a 300 year old vampire in a 12 year old's body.  Based on the best-selling Swedish book, Låt Den Rätte Komma In (Let Me In) by John Ajvide Lindqvist, this movie slowly infects you with a mood and tone that makes it nearly impossible to simply catalog the movie as a vampire movie.  The film has been knocking audiences dead after winning many awards on the film fest circuit including Best Narrative Feature (Tribeca Film Festival).  Overall, the film masterfully balances the dynamics of the darker side of vampires within a modern and realistic setting. 

Why It is Significant:  The movie is significant for its ability to hold you in a mood for the entire length of the movie.  Let The Right One In exemplifies how a movie doesn’t have to be loud with rusty and bloody lawn mower blades to haunt your thoughts days after you leave the dark theater.   In addition, there are minor plots within the story, each adding their own unbearable tension to the overall draw of the movie. Think you are beyond liking vampire movies?  Me too.  But, this movie had me wishing I could move to Sweden in order to befriend a strong vampire as my own personal wingman.  And, hey, watch the movie now so when the American remake (directed by Matt Reeves) comes out in 2010 you can brag that you already saw the original Swedish version.

-Craig

           

Amazon.com Review
The enduring popularity of the vampire myth rests, in part, on sexual magnetism. In Let the Right One In, Tomas Alfredson's carefully controlled, yet sympathetic take on John Ajvide Lindqvist's Swedish bestseller-turned-screenplay, the protagonists are pre-teens, unlike the fully-formed night crawlers of HBO’s True Blood or Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight (both also based on popular novels). Instead, 12-year-old Oskar (future heartbreaker Kåre Hedebrant) and Eli (Lina Leandersson) enter into a deadly form of puppy love. The product of divorce, Oskar lives with his harried mother, while his new neighbor resides with a mystery man named Håkan (Per Ragnar), who takes care of her unique dietary needs. From the wintery moment in 1982 that the lonely, towheaded boy spots the strange, dark-haired girl skulking around their outer-Stockholm tenement, he senses a kindred spirit. They bond, innocently enough, over a Rubik's Cube, but little does Oskar realize that Eli has been 12 for a very long time. Meanwhile, at school, bullies torment the pale and morbid student mercilessly. Through his friendship with Eli, Oskar doesn't just learn how to defend himself, but to become a sort of predator himself, begging the question as to whether Eli really exists or whether she represents a manifestation of his pent-up anger and resentment. Naturally, the international success of Lindqvist's fifth feature, like Norway's chilling Insomnia before it, has inspired an American remake, which is sure to boast superior special effects, but can't possibly capture the delicate balance he strikes here between the tender and the terrible. --Kathleen C. Fennessy   

Best DVDs of 2008: Art House and International

I was tempted to call this my best snooty list of 2008 but decided copy edit would put me under content restraining order for the rest of this quarter.  So, here it is.  This is my list of best art house and international DVDs of 2008.  I am sure I have missed some real gems...so forgive me.  I'd love to hear what would be on your list for 2008.  Here, I'll start this conversation with my list:

The Fall

Roger Ebert proclaimed it "one of the most extraordinary films I've ever seen."

The Band's Visit

Can movies change the world? In a word, no. But Israeli writer and director Eran Kolirin's utterly charming and engaging The Band's Visit suggests that if we could somehow put aside the politics and the religion, stifle the governments and the rhetoric, and mix in a little Gershwin, maybe even people with a history of cross-cultural suspicion and hostility really can get along.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

There was a loud outcry when Romania's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days failed to garner a 2008 Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film, and it could certainly be argued that this extraordinary movie was unfairly overlooked.  So, in response, I added it to the more prestigious Amazon best art house and international list of 2008. There.

The Counterfeiters

A deft blend of suspense and docudrama, Stefan Ruzowitzky's sixth feature focuses on history's largest counterfeiting operation.

Shotgun Stories

Shotgun Stories tracks a blood feud between two sets of half brothers in the cotton fielded back roads of Southeast Arkansas. This auspicious directorial debut by Jeff Nichols features a strong lead performance by Michael Shannon (Bug) and has been collecting a litany of awards and nominations since debuting at the Berlin Film Festival -including one for Best Picture at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards

Persepolis

A fascinating and wholly unexpected take on Iran’s Islamic revolution beginning in the 1970s, Persepolis is an enthralling, animated feature about a spirited young woman who spends her life trying to deal with the consequences of her nation’s history.

Chop Shop

In a bustling wasteland of stolen cars, mechanics and street hustlers, Alejandro (Alejandro Polanco), a tough and ambitious street orphan, and his older sister, Isamar (Isamar Gonzales), must rely on each other to survive.  This is a raw and beautiful film.

The Guatemalan Handshake

Surreal, wholly inventive and more than a little eccentric, this debut feature from Todd Rohal doesn't have a traditional narrative structure, though it tells a story of family, loss, loneliness, and friendship with humor and sweetness. A massive power outage in a small Pennsylvania town leads to a series of strange events, starting with the vanishing of resident Donald Turnupseed (Will Oldham, Old Joy). 

The Darjeeling Limited

Family tension again provides dramatic comedy in Wes Anderson's new film, The Darjeeling Limited, about three American brothers traveling by train to find their reclusive mother in rural India. Like Royal Tenenbaums, this film succeeds because of its smart, funny script in addition to the visual beauty of India and its luxurious locomotive transportation.

Ping Pong Playa

I'm sorry but I have a weakness for ping pong movies.  This movie is better than Balls of Fury but it isn't quite as good as Mongolian Ping Pong.

Best DVDs of November 2008: "Man on Wire"

What it is: Man on Wire is a thorough documentary about Philippe Petit, a French Prankster who, with a small group of friends, illegally high-wire walked between the Twin Towers of New York City in 1974.

Why It's Significant: It's a fine line to walk with any movie that involves New York's Twin Towers.  Especially a movie that documents the heist like qualities of a group of street performers who organized the task of walking between the Twin Towers.  Now, watching this movie where a man high-wire walks between the towers, is surreal and beautiful.  Based on the detailed memoir, To Reach the Clouds, the movie investigates the planning, the passion and fear that went into this daring final act.  The movie delves into the obsessive passion that Phillippe Petit had.  He is quoted as saying, "When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk."  Watching a group of circus performers risk their lives and their friendship for such a pure act will touch a chord with any person who has ever been distracted by a dream or a passion.

--Craig

Man on Wire is only the sixth film ever in the history of Sundance to pick up both top awards (Jury Prize and Audience Award in the World Cinema).
Special Jury Award and Audience Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
The International Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
The Standard Life Audience Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

   

Best DVDs of October 2008: "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson"

What it is: Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson on DVD.This in-depth tribute to Hunter S. Thompson covers his rambunctious and scandalous life as a freewheeling free lance writer.  Fearless, Hunter S. Thompson jumped head-first into subjects that many were too afraid to even talk about.  From his relationship with the Hell's Angels to his coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign, Hunter S. Thompson held nothing back as he wrote about the raunchy, drug-fueled, and naughty underbelly of America.  This DVD contains clips of never-before-seen home movies, audiotapes, and passages from his unpublished manuscripts. 

Why it's significant: This is a documentary about a journalist who wasn't afraid to write exactly what he saw no matter how unprintable it might be.  Hunter became so close to the subjects that he wrote about that many of the times he became part of the story.  This writing style was so new that many credit him with creating this 'Gonzo' style of journalism.  Hunter S. Thompson was a maverick and an iconoclast.  It's hard to pick which was more scandalous, the subject of his stories or the lifestyle that he led. I mean, this is the guy who, for his funeral, had ashes fired from a cannon atop a 153-foot tower to the tune of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man".  How could you not want to learn more about this man?   

Top Movies for Your Nemesis

Sometimes even a nemesis needs to take some time off from backstabbing, target acquiring and sabotaging. I figured, during my nemesis’ time off, they might appreciate it if I recommended some punishing movies. So, I decided to compile a list with the help of my regular co-workers. During a two-week period, I put up a sign-up sheet in the bathroom stalls here in Amazon asking for movie recommendations for a nemesis.  Here are just some of the results:

Let's recap.  First off,  I thought Titanic was hilarious.  Second, I had no idea that there was an Iron Eagle IV but it looks like the first three were a solid success.  Someone listed, "Battlefield Earth (on a date)".  I always find Scientology movies about Rastafarian aliens very romantic myself.   Let's not stop there.  Who was the clever genius that put up "Amazon Sexual Harassment Training"?  Just for the record, Amazon does not have a video showing how to sexually harass coworkers. Though, in fact, we do have a very appropriate sexual harassment awareness and prevention training video.  Either way, I doubt this video will be released to the public regardless of how many people request a First To Know for this title.  Moving on.  "My wedding Video."  Ouch!  Good luck with that.   In conclusion, someone listed, "Any Veggie Tales".  I am sorry...but I can't think of any better movie to watch while up too late and loopy from lack of sleep.  At that moment, "Any Veggie Tales" movie would academically and logically be the most entertaining movie since Iron Eagle II. I don't know. These are just our statistically sound results.  What would you make your nemesis watch?

The Best Poorly Received Movie

Have you ever felt like writing a nasty letter to a critic because they fleeced a movie that you really liked? Well, after watching Tarsem Singh’s, The Fall, I almost felt like starting a petition to force certain movie critics to apologize for saying anything even remotely negative about this movie. I mean, my friends couldn’t stop making fun of me after we finished watching the movie in the theater. There were comments like, “I think there were three times when Craig wasn’t crying.” Or, “Was I the only one who felt smothered by Craig’s goose bumps during the movie?” Unfortunately, I can’t deny these facts. But, I can say that I am still disappointed that this rich movie received such mixed reviews from film critics. For example, The New York Times described the movie as, ‘A genuine labor of love -- and a real bore.’ Ouch! My rebuttal is that maybe only a bore wouldn’t like this movie.  This movie has arresting characters, mesmerizing visuals and a feverishly gripping story. The story is a fairy tale—but for adults. It’s a classic fairy tale with bold heroes, a formidable nemesis and an immaculate princess. Fortunately, there are some critics out there with real taste in films.  For example, Roger Ebert said, ‘A movie that you might want to see for no other reason than because it exists. There will never be another like it.’  Well put! Look, this blog is just all words. So, watch the movie and see for yourself if you still have the imagination to enjoy this stunning movie.   

What movies do you really like that you think were unfairly reviewed? -- Craig