Armchair Commentary

Director Q & A | Louie Schwartzberg on "Wings of Life"

Director, producer, and cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg has spent a large portion of his life capturing the beauty of the natural world. Wings of Life showcases his innovative high-speed, time-lapse, and macro filmmaking techniques, and more importantly his subjects: butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, bats, and flowers—the unsung heroes of our planet. Unfortunately, these heroes are increasingly under threat, lending a sense of urgency to Schwartzberg’s desire to portray what he considers "one of nature’s most beautiful and fundamental dances." Louie introduces a trailer with some of this breathtaking photography below, and was kind enough to answer a few questions about Wings of Life for us as well.

 

 

What do you want viewers to take away from Wings of Life—beyond enjoying the simple beauty of these plants, creatures, and images?

I hope that viewers will protect the pollinators by falling in love with the beautiful story of how they interact with flowering plants. Without their help we would lose a third of the food we eat, as well as ecosystems that sustain life for billions of animals and plants. When you begin to see the big picture of how pollination, a keystone event that is the foundation of life on our planet, could unravel due to mankind's negative impact, you begin to appreciate these diminutive animals that we often take for granted.

What sparked the idea of using the flowers/plants themselves as the narrator? What did Meryl Streep bring to the table?

Many nature documentaries tell the story from the human point of view. I wanted viewers to feel and see what it would be like to be a flower or pollinator, to tell the story from their point of view.

I believe that beauty and seduction is nature's tool for survival, because you protect what you fall in love with. I also wanted to tell the story from a more feminine, nurturing point of view. Too often nature is portrayed as predator and prey, survival of the fittest, kill or be killed. The truth is that nature's story is more about how we are all connected, cooperative, building symbiotic relationships. I felt that Meryl Streep's voice would be perfect because it is intelligent, compassionate, timeless and her integrity and passion for gardening would inherently come through her narration.

You’re a director and cinematographer (e.g., artist) as much as you’re a technologist. Do you see the two as mutually exclusive? What do you love about the high-speed digital cameras, pinhole lenses, and all the other gear you’ve employed over the years?

As a director you want to weave all the elements to tell the most entertaining story. As a cinematographer you master the tools that enable you to capture magic moments in order to tell a compelling story. My toolkit enables me to take the viewer on a journey through portals of time and space. To see things which are too slow, too fast, too small for the naked eye. We filmed events that our scientific experts had never seen before in that scale or time. I enjoy heading out on a voyage of discovery, seeking to identify and connect with the intelligence and wisdom of nature, unveiling the mysteries of the Universe, without traveling to deep space or across the planet, just being aware and grateful of what is under my feet in my own backyard.

So much of the film is this wonderful time-lapse photography, and your bio states you’re “the only cinematographer in the world who has literally been shooting time-lapse 24 hours a day, 7 days a week continuously for more than 30 years.” Dare we ask how much time lapsed to get all the shooting done for this particular film? What draws you so consistently to time-lapse photography?

Three decades of filming time lapse flowers, one frame every 20 minutes, which is 2 seconds of screen time in a 24 hour day, has netted me almost 12 hours of time lapse flowers. So I have squeezed 30 years into 12 hours, now that is compressed energy. For “Wings of Life,” I was able to select the ultimate shots which fit the narrative of the film, so viewers are seeing the creme de la creme of that effort. After all these years I still never get tired of seeing the results of these flowers moving and dancing to the light. Each flower is unique, and each movement is a masterpiece of choreography.

The bats in the desert moonlight were a particularly striking image (in a film full of them)—they barely seemed real. Incredible stuff. Can you tell us a bit about the challenges of shooting that particular footage?

We waited, and waited doing a week of all nighters and eventually we were able to get the shots we wanted.

Aside from the technical aspects, what was it like to simply be among those millions of butterflies while getting the Michoacán footage? Does the gear or the task at hand (shooting) ever get in the way of simply taking in the beauty of such a place?

Yes the gear makes it more of a challenge, but that is what I live for. I am not happy to just enjoy the scene for myself. I want to share it, that is my joy and passion in life. If I was looking up at millions of butterflies my mind immediately starts mapping approaches to capturing the event in the most startling way. Cameras on zip lines to fly with the butterflies, cranes sweeping near the branches to capture the moment they cascade on the trees, slow motion shots of them landing and taking off from their watering hole, I can't stop visualizing the way to get the ultimate shot. Without my cameras I would feel frustrated. It's not a very Zen statement, but I would rather be in the zone capturing the fantastic, than soaking it in just for my own enjoyment.

You’ve contrasted the subject matter here with that of the more predator/prey-centric nature documentaries. This one presents an idea of life as a great collaboration between species. What can humans learn from these relationships? What is the danger in not learning?

Great question, the film seems to have delivered on my intention of having viewers think differently about nature and our role in it. We are a part of nature, not apart from it. Since we and other large mammals sit on the top of the food chain, we need to be conscious of the little critters that make the world go round. Our path to sustaining life on this planet is cooperation. Maintaining nature's cooperative relationships and building new cooperative relationships to realize we are all in this together, and whatever we do to the web of life, we do to ourselves. We have the technical and scientific know how to avert a massive extinction event on this planet. What we lack is the change in behavior, we need a shift of consciousness, and that is what I hope this film can provide.

Reviews will inevitably get a laugh with “the birds and the bees,” that great euphemism and convenient stand-in for our own biological processes. What can younger viewers learn from the film?

Pollination happens to be this mystical, magical, keystone event, where the animal and plant kingdoms intersect, billions of times each day, that sustains life on our planet for us and millions of other creatures. Certainly younger viewers will be enamored with the beauty, understand the connections, and protect and nurture flower and pollinator habitat.

Finally, Disneynature contributed to the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund (DWCF) to celebrate this film’s debut. What would you say to viewers about getting involved in conservation or learning more about the issues specifically affecting bees and other pollinators?

I am grateful for Disneynature’s contribution. DWCF will be working with pollinator non profits and build awareness about protecting pollinators and flower habitat. The end credits of the film is very solution oriented.

The good news about this environmental issue is that we can all do something about it and at the same time improve our health and receive the benefits and joy that comes with gardening and eating tasty organic food that comes out of your garden. Anyone can plant a tomato bush in their yard or porch. We can grow flowers in our windows and bring joy and color into our lives. We can support your local organic farmer by buying at farmer’s markets. This is all about making the right choices, and living with those results. It is up to all of us to create a sustainable environment for future generations.

DVDs from the Vault, Short and Sweet Edition: Gable, Stewart, Ford, Bakshi, Hanna-Barbera and More

There's a great deal of ground to cover this week, so let's dive right in, shall we? Sony Pictures Choice Collection's new edition of Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959) is, to date, the fifth presentation of this Oscar-nominated legal drama on DVD and Blu-ray, but it's also reportedly the first to be offered in its correct aspect ration (1.85 widescreen standard). That may or may not affect your appreciation for this stellar picture,with James Stewart and George C. Scott as lawyers facing off over an Army officer (Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering a bartender who assaulted his seductive wife (Lee Remick) and its groundbreaking jazz score by Duke Ellington.

Meanwhile, Warner Archives offers three titles starring Clark Gable that span his tenure as a leading man at MGM. Gable co-stars with Marion Davies in the light 1932 comedy-drama Polly of the Circus as a small town reverend who falls in love with Davies' circus aerialist, much to the consternation of his flock. He's then reteamed with his Call of the Wild (1935) co-star Loretta Young for the fizzy romantic comedy Key to the City (1950), which pits rough-and-tumble Gable against Young's well-heeled Maine mayor, with the expected fireworks. The Gable three-fer concludes with Never Let Me Go (1953), a sudsy Delmar Daves effort with Gene Tierney as the Russian ballerina and Gable as the American news reporter determined to get her out of the hands of the Soviets. No real classics here, but all three pics underscore Gable's magnetic screen presence and enduring popularity.

Also on the vintage Hollywood front: John Ford's Rising of the Moon (1957; Warner Archives), an anthology of Irish stories introduced by Tyrone Power and featuring a stellar cast of Emerald Isle players, including Cyril Cusack, Jack MacGowran, Donal Donnelly and Dennis O'Day. The trio of stories, culled fromg the fiction of Frank O'Connor and a controversial one-act play from 1907, hew towards the precious at times (and apparently earned the enmity of the Northern Irish, who banned the film over alleged revolutionary overtones), but Ford aficionados will appreciate this opportunity to see one of the director's more obscure and personal projects. The Hireling (Sony) has also been out of circulation for many years, despite having shared the Grand Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival with Scarecrow. The class drama stars Sarah Miles as a bereaved aristocrat who forms a relationship with her chauffeur (Robert Shaw); the stars are better than the material, which takes a curious and heavy-handed offramp into anarchy for its conclusion.

For those seeking lighter fare, Warner has a trio of offbeat comedies, some more successful than others, but all with something to recommend a viewing. The political comedy First Family (1980) carries an exceptional pedigree, with script and direction by Buck Henry and a cast featuring (among others) Bob Newhart as the President of the United States, Madeleine Kahn as his wife, Gilda Radner as their hapless daughter, and a staff populated by Rip Torn, Fred Willard, Bob Dishy, Harvey Korman and Austin Pendleton. Despite this lineup, the movie is almost universally loathed, most likely for its broad slapstick tone, which wastes its cast, and a subplot involving slavery (!). Also on the nice-try front: Whiffs (1975), with Elliott Gould as a former guinea pig for Army chemical engineers who uses his first-hand knowledge of harmful gases to launch a series of bank robberies. Gould's presence was a clear indication that the filmmakers were aiming for a M*A*S*H-styled military farce, but what's delivered is a truly oddball mix of slapstick and counterculture gags. Again, it's the supporting cast that encourages a commitment to sit through the whole picture: aiding and abetting Gould is Harry Guardino, Eddie Albert, Godfrey Cambridge (as Gould's co-conspirator), Howard Hesseman, Richard Masur and Jennifer O'Neill. Eagle-eyed movie trainspotters will also note the presence of B-Western stars Don "Red" Barry and James Brown (not the Godfather of Soul). Nice one-sheet art by the prolific illustrator Robert Grossman, too.

There are a lot of interesting ideas floating around in Ralph Bakshi's Hey Good Lookin' (1982; Warner Archives), which looks at the Brooklyn of his youth and a pair of neighborhood ne'er-do-wells (voiced by Richard Romanus and David Proval) based on his childhood friends. Begun in 1975 as a mix of live action and animation that also featured the New York Dolls and Yaphet Kotto, it was held from release in the wake of the uproar following Bakshi's Coonskin and revised in 1982 as an all-animated feature at the insistence of Warner Bros. president Frank Wells. The end result is a mishmash of Bakshi's pointed satire and adult themes, as well as some striking visual elements, but probably best appreciated by the animator's diehard fans. 

One wonders what Ralph Bakshi might have made of Help!... it's the Hair Bear Bunch (Warner), a short-lived Saturday morning animated series from Hanna-Barbera circa 1971 about a trio of ursine semi-hippies and their constant attempts to escape the Wonderland Zoo and its uptight director Mr. Peevly (voiced by John Stephenson). As it stands, the series, which features voice work by cartoon vets Daws Butler, Paul Winchell, Don Messick and Joe E. Ross, doing his ooh-ooh bit as Peevly's assistant, has the not-unpleasant patina of weird that clings to most Nixon-era H-B efforts (see also The Funky Phantom, the recently released Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids and CB Bears) that also manages to be curiously comforting, especially for those who remember wolfing down their Quake and Quisp in front of such shows. Can Where's Huddles? be far behind? 

MODs of the Week: Mysteries for Valentine's Day with William Powell, Steve Martin, Harry-O and more

Mysteries for Valentine's Day? Well, the ways of the human heart have always been a bit of a puzzle, whether in regards to romance or malice, and both Warner Archives and Columbia Choice Collection have a slew of crime cases for you and your beloved (or intended) to deduce over a Whitman's sampler or two. The best of the lot is David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner (1997), a swell Chinese box of a thriller with Campbell Scott (The Amazing Spider-Man) as a naive developer whose priceless but unpatented industrial process makes him the target for an array of nefarious upscale types, including his own boss (Ben Gazzara), a tart-tongued secretary (Mamet's wife, actress Rebecca Pidgeon) and a wealthy stranger (Steve Martin, playing well against type). Though Mamet's dialogue strikes an odd balance between a sort of meta-hardboiled grit and the distinctive language of his stage work, the picture's key appeal is the intricate curves and hard corners of the plot, which enfold and entrap Scott, placing both his invention and life at risk. The cast is also top-notch (though Pidgeon remains an acquired taste), with the great magician/author/actor Ricky Jay, Ed O'Neil and Felicity Huffman all offering quality support.

MODs of the Week: Pirates, Cowboys, Illustrated Men and Dead End Kids

Warner Archives offers a remastered presentation of actor Robert Taylor's near-to-last screen outings in Return of the Gunfighter (1967), a made-for-TV feature originally broadcast on ABC before receiving a theatrical release overseas. Taylor's weathered visage, worn down from its former matinee idol glory by age and illness (he would die from lung cancer two years after the film's release), does much to sell his portrayal of an aging gunslinger whose attempt to retire in peace is cut short by a search to find a friend's killer (Lyle Bettger as yet another charismatic heel). A young Chad Everett joins Taylor on the trail, while the supporting cast is filled out by familiar players like Michael Pate, Mort Mills and John Crawford and John Davis Chandler as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Warner also has Taylor in the pungently titled Tip on a Dead Jockey (1957), a modest thriller adapted from a short story by Irwin Shaw, with the star as a guilt-ridden former pilot who accepts a job from Martin Gabel (first mistake) to transport smuggled currency (second mistake). Jack Lord is Taylor's down-on-his-luck pal, while Dorothy Malone and Marcel Dalio are his wife and gabby houseguest, respectively.

"Pop" Artist: Lou Adler on the 45th Anniversary of the Monterey International Pop Music Festival

The career of Lou Adler seems comprised entirely of historical superlatives - manager of The Mamas and the Papas; songwriter for Sam Cooke, among others; founder, Dunhill Records; producer, Carole King's Grammy-winning Tapestry album, as well as records by The Grass Roots, Spirit, Johnny Rivers and many others; owner, the Roxy Theater on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip; producer, The Rocky Horror Picture Show; director, Up in Smoke and Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. With such a staggering c.v., it's hard to imagine that Adler had time to for anything else, especially a festival on the scope of the Monterey International Pop Festival, which he and Mamas and Papas leader John Phillips helped to organize on June 16-18, 1967.

A groundbreaking effort in rock festivals, the Monterey festival introduced American audiences to such legendary performers as Jimi Hendrix, who famously lit his guitar on fire at the conclusion of his set, as well as the Who, Janis Joplin and soul singer Otis Redding; such '60s icons as the Animals, Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield and Ravi Shankar filled out the remainder of the bill. The festival's highlights, which represented the cultural zeitgeist of the Aquarian Age in compelling sights and sounds, were captured on film in D.A Pennebaker's documentary, Monterey Pop.

June 16-18, 2012 will mark the 45th anniversary of the Monterey Pop Festival, and Adler has seen fit to mark the occasion in a variety of media. He's penned the introduction for A Perfect Haze: The Illustrated History of The Monterery International Pop Festival by Harvey Kubernik and Kenneth Kubernik, and will appear with Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and Papas at a screening of Monterey Pop in Los Angeles on June 17. He also took time to talk with Armchair Commentary about the challenges faced in mounting a festival on the scale of Monterey, as well as its lasting impact on music and pop culture.

QUESTION: You've achieved so much over the course of your career. If you had to grade them, where would the Monterey Pop Festival fall?

LOU ADLER: The way I look at it is that they're all Number One - they're all in different categories. And I haven't done a lot of festivals, so it's definitely Number One [in that category].

Pistol Camera - "X The Unheard Music" and Other Great Punk Documentaries

On March 13, MVD will release a new edition of the 1986 documentary The Unheard Music, which profiled the seminal Los Angeles punk band X. The new "Silver Anniversary Edition" disc, which commemorates the quarter-century since the film's original release, offers a new transfer and 5.1 surround sound mix, as well as new interviews with founding members Exene Cervenka and John Doe along with outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage. 

More than just a snapshot of the L.A. underground music scene in the 1980s, The Unheard Music is just one of a handful of documentary features that attempted to chronicle the development of punk - both music and lifestyle - during its seminal years in the 1970s and 1980s outside of the frequently uninformed coverage of the mainstream media. Following are 10 great punk docs that preserve the sound and passion of the period. 

Sadly, such exceptional efforts as Lech Kowalski's D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage (1980) and Penelope Spheeris' The Decline of Western Civilization (1981) and The Decline of Western Civilization III (1998) are excluded from this list, as all are, as of this post, unavailable in legal DVD releases.

Urgh! A Music War (1982) The music does the talking in this who's who of punk and New Wave in concert. Performances by major players like the Police, Dead Kennedys, X, DEVO, Go-Gos, Cramps, XTC, Pere Ubu and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are paired with footnote figures like Magazine, Surf Punks and Skafish, which (intentionally or not) underscores the democratic intent of the scene. The film's showstopper/curio piece is performance artist Klaus Nomi, whose soaring falsetto and alien presence were later detailed in the 2004 doc The Nomi Song.

Another State of Mind (1984) This harrowing account of Social Distortion and Youth Brigade's tour through Canada and the U.S. in 1982, should be required viewing for all aspiring punk musicians. Not only does it detail the highs and lows of live performances, from dedicated fans to dilapidated vans and unscrupulous club owners (Youth Brigade drummer Mark Stern displays a fistful of penny rolls offered in payment for a San Francisco show), but also the hazards inherent to playing music outside the mainstream, from disdain to threats of arrest and outright violence. While aspects of punk has gained some respect in 21st century society, the hardships faced by the bands here, which are joined by Ian MacKaye and Minor Threat near the end of the film, are still a reality in corners of the world, making this cautionary tale still relevant after nearly three decades. 

The Clash - Westway to the World (2000) / Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten (2007) The UK's mighty Clash and its singer and chief lyricist, Joe Strummer, are paid proper respect in these two retrospective features. Director Don (The Punk Rock Movie, Punk: Attitude) Letts' Grammy-winning Westway to the World is a capable introduction to the band's history via footage from their heyday (1977-1982) and interviews with its members post-breakup, while Julien Temple's The Future is Unwritten digs deeper to present a warts-and-all bio on Strummer, with detailed focus on his life pre- and post-Clash.

The Filth and the Fury: A Sex Pistols Film (2000) Julien Temple attempts to place the Sex Pistols into a context far removed from the hysteria and shock that erupted during their emergence in late '70s Britain. The result, which combines period footage with new interviews with the surviving members and a dizzying array of visual non sequiters, is neither a canonization nor a dismissal of the Pistols, but rather an effort to preserve the righteous indignation of their music in the face of a country and culture in mid-collapse, which draws uncomfortable parallels to the present-day global economic situation.

Instrument: Ten Years with the Band Fugazi (2001) An exhaustive overview of Ian Mackaye's highly influential, post-Minor Threat outfit Fugazi, this two-hour-plus effort by Jem Cohen is a collection of live performances from the band's lengthy history along with interviews that detail the development of their fan-oriented ethics (low ticket prices, all-ages shows, label allegiance). Those looking for a historical document may be thwarted by the film's loose construction, but fans will be rapturous over the wealth of live material spanning Fugazi's 16-year history.

End of the Century - The Story of the Ramones (2003) The history of the Ramones, from their status as rock and roll's saviors in the early '70s to their fractious, messy end in 1996, has been detailed in countless books, magazine articles and films, but this long-gestating project, launched in 1994 and completed nearly a decade later, details both the joyful and ugly aspects of their myth in the words of the band members themselves. What results is a honest depiction of the Ramones as history makers who ignited the conflagration of punk rock for the generations that followed, but ultimately were themselves unable to keep warm by it.

New York Doll (2005) A bittersweet story of downfall and redemption, this award-winning feature details the life of Arthur "Killer" Kane, bassist for the glam-punk pioneers the New York Dolls, who endured decades of substance abuse and emotional turmoil before finding solace in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. When a opportunity to play with his former bandmates arises in 2004, the fragile Kane must weigh his own self-preservation against a chance to reclaim his legacy. Alternately enthraling and heartbreaking, New York Doll is a moving testimony to the perils of rock and roll, as well as its power to reinvent and revive.

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen (2006) San Pedro's beloved and fiercely independent Minutemen, who railed against political injustice in their tightly wound blend of punk, jazz and roots rock, receive a loving tribute in this recollection about their under-the-radar but potent influence on alternative music. The fraternal relationship between singer D. Boon and bassist Mike Watt - now an elder statesman of the indie scene - and their attempt to make intelligent, passionate music in the grisly pop/rock scene of the early '80s are detailed in interviews with Watt, drummer George Hurley, and an all-star list of punk admirers, from Henry Rollins and Flea to critic Richard Meltzer and future Watt cohorts Joe Baiza, Nels Cline and Ed Crawford (fIREHOSE).

American Hardcore - The History of Punk Rock 1980-1986 (2006) Summing up punk rock in a single film is a daunting prospect that invariably leaves one or more factions of fans feeling slighted, and both this documentary, inspired by Steven Blush's book of the same name, and the following pictures, have earned brickbats for their omissions (here, it's the Dead Kennedys and Husker Du, undoubtedly for legal reasons). But for its wealth of interviews and vintage clips, American Hardcore is a worthwhile addition to any punk aficionado's collection. 

Punk's Not Dead (2008) and Punk: Attitude (2005) Both features have their merits, with Don Letts' Punk: Attitude offering a historical perspective via interviews with veteran performers, and Punk's Not Dead taking the genre's pulse in the 21st century. Again, neither presents the Compleat Punk Picture, but serve as competent and often invigorating elements of a vast, unruly and still-vibrant punk portrait.

Also worth seeing: Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies (1994), Todd Phillips' profile of the doomed, nihilist rocker, who took punk's transgressive qualities to self-destructive lengths; Afro-Punk (2005), which examines issues of race within the punk community, with performances by and interviews with black and interracial acts like Fishbone, TV on the Radio and 24-7 Spyz; The Gits (2008), a moving look at the life of the Seattle band and their frontwoman, Mia Zapata, whose 1993 murder cut short a promising career; and Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam (2009), which examines the rise of punk culture among Islamic youth in both the U.S. and abroad. -- Paul Gaita

Talking "Prohibition" with Ken Burns

Last month, I had the opportunity to sit down with beloved documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. I will admit I was pretty nervous. For the past 25 years Ken has made over 20 films, one of which (The Civil War) was honored with more than 40 major film and television awards. Younger generations are learning American and World History through his films while older generations are forced to re-learn, seeing the past through his unique cinematography. In fact, Ken's way of bringing life to photographs by zooming in on specific objects and then panning slowly from one object to the other has been coined "The Ken Burns Effect" in Apple's iPhoto and iMovie applications. So what was I going to ask such a well-respected, adored historian? I polled our Facebook fans and except for questioning his Bieber-esque hair do, asked Ken all about his new film Prohibition and much more. --Amanda

 

The Best Movies & TV of 2011 So Far

In picking our Best of 2011 So Far list, we took everything that released between January 1 and August 15 of this year, put the names in a jar, shook it, and wrote down whatever pieces came out at random.

Just kidding. But we DID get in a room and debate the merits of a great movie in a mediocre Blu-ray release vs. a mediocre movie with a spectacular Blu-ray release; how to compare a great movie that released this year vs. the re-release of a classic movie; and the comedic chops of one Russell Brand (be assured, this did not derail our conversation too much). Without further ado, here's a look at our editors' picks on DVD, Blu-ray, and Instant Video.

Top 10 on DVD
1. The Social Network
2. The King's Speech
3. Mad Men: Season Four
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I
5. True Grit
6. Black Swan
7. The Fighter
8. Tangled
9. The Walking Dead: Season One
10. True Blood: The Complete Third Season
>See the rest of the top 50 on DVD

Top 10 on Blu-ray
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part I
3. The Social Network
4. Black Swan
5. True Blood: The Complete Third Season
6. Tangled
7. The Fighter
8. Raging Bull (Two-Disc 30th Anniversary Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
9. The Incredibles (Four-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)
10. The Walking Dead: Season One
>See the rest of the top 50 on Blu-ray

Top 10 on Instant Video
1. Black Swan
2. Biutiful
3. Dexter: Season Five
4. Waiting for Superman
5. Justified: Season Two
6. The King's Speech
7. Tangled
8. The Fighter
9. The Killing
10. The Walking Dead: Season One

What are your picks for the Best of the Year So Far? --Ellen

Great Films Come in Small Packages

It’s easy to overlook a DVD or Blu-ray disc with an unfamiliar name. Is it even from this year? And why don’t I recognize any of the stars? But tomorrow’s nobody may just be the next big thing.

Consider Fish Tank’s Michael Fassbender, who currently stars as Rochester in the latest version of Jane Eyre and was recently featured in Entertainment Weekly. Ladies, in Fish Tank you can see him with his shirt off. Enough about Fassbender’s abs; Katie Jarvis is the real star of Fish Tank. She plays a street-smart young Brit, who pushes everyone away, but secretly dreams of being a dancer--and liberating a neighbor’s chained up horse. When her mom brings home her new boyfriend (Fassbender), it almost seems like Katie’s life could change for the better. But perhaps not everything is quite as it seems.

Speaking of movies that aren’t what they seem, Catfish is one of the year’s most interesting documentaries. It shares Exit Through the Gift Shop’s “is it real or is it invented” quality (though count me as one of the believers), and makes a good companion piece to The Social Network. All I can tell you is: A man meets a young girl on Facebook. The film is suspenseful, though not in the typical “scary” way. Watch it yourself and decide: Is it real?

Another movie that might leave you shaking your head (hopefully in a good way) is the Oscar-nominated Dogtooth. This film from Denmark about a man who’s determined to shelter his family from the outside world is disturbing in all the best ways. Its inventiveness—the parents make new meanings for worlds they don’t want the “kids” to know—combine with some shocking sex and violence (and who doesn’t love that) to create a world that you wouldn’t want to live in but is worth a two-hour visit.

Visually, Enter the Void is one of the trippier big-screen visions you’ll stumble across. Paz de la Huerta (Boardwalk Empire), an actress who’s never met a piece of clothing she didn’t want to remove in front of a camera, and newcomer Nathaniel Brown star as a brother and sister who are torn apart as kids but reunite years later as adults in the playground of Tokyo nightlife. Director Gasper Noe’s view of Tokyo looks nothing like the sterile city of Lost in Translation; he transforms it into a drug-fueled fairyland.

Melbourne’s no fairytale city in Animal Kingdom. It’s more like “boy meets family of Departed-style criminals,” when J (James Frecheville) is sent to live with his maternal grandmother (Oscar-nominated Jackie Weaver). If you thought that Black Swan’s Barbara Hershey and The Fighter’s Melissa Leo were the scariest moms of 2010, just wait till you meet Weaver’s “Smurf.” Without employing any of the histrionics of the others, she delivers a chilling performance.

Have you seen a small film you want to recommend to other Amazon customers? Share it with us. But please, no spoilers. --Paige Newman

The Best Movies & TV of 2011... So Far

We took votes, we debated those votes, we butted heads. But in the end, all that's left standing is the Amazon.com Movies & TV editors' picks for the Best of 2011... So Far on DVD, Blu-ray, and Instant Video. (Applies to titles released between Jan. 1 and Apr. 30, 2011). Here's a peek at some of our picks:

Tangled (No. 9 for DVD, No. 6 for Blu-ray): Not everyone expected to be delighted by this hilarious take on Rapunzel, but thanks to great comic timing (courtesy of a horse and an oft-used cast-iron pan) and perfectly cast Mandy Moore as the voice of the captured princess who yearns to know what's outside her sheltered world/tower, Tangled became an indelible part of the Disney lore.

Mad Men: Season Four (No. 3 for DVD, No. 5 for Blu-ray): If there's a year this show deserves the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, it's this season. Jumping off from the previous season's game-changer, the AMC series has reinvigorated itself, and Jon Hamm does his finest acting yet as a man who sinks to his lowest of lows (yet) and makes baby steps toward respecting himself again. (Don't miss the standout episode of the season, "The Suitcase")

Inside Job (No. 8 for DVD): For anyone who knows nothing about economics or real estate, this a documentary that aims to spell out exactly how the financial crisis happened and who's to blame. For anyone who understands economics or real estate, it's like a horror film you can't believe is real.

Piranha 3D (No. 18 in Blu-ray): We're not all highbrow on this list (clearly). Alejandre Aja's remake of the Roger Corman B-movie made the list not just for its Blu-ray 3D effects (much to the chagrin of James Cameron, who decried that films like these are "not what we should be doing" with 3D) but because what it does--deliver cheesetastic gore to the max without pretending to be anything else--it does well.

and finally, our No. 1 pick on DVD and Blu-ray:

The Social Network: We over here think this film deserved Best Picture (Fincher, you wuz robbed!), but no one can argue is that its DVD and Blu-ray features are a Best in Class on how to use your medium. (Not that we considered The King's Speech small beans either; it also made the top 5 in DVD). But between the strength of the film itself; its commentaries by the cast, writer Aaron Sorkin, and director David Fincher; and its feature-length documentary (not to be missed, it's a must for all film buffs); this is the Best DVD or Blu-ray to come out in 2011... So far.

See the rest of our Top 25 on DVD and our Top 25 on Blu-ray, as well as the Top 10 on Instant Video. What are your picks? --Ellen