**** new release list no. 96
Happy New Year.
Well, we hope this isn't a sign of the year to come.
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This week counts a grand total of two new releases: One is the exploitative thriller THE COVENANT, about a bunch of teen warlocks. Critics have called it "utterly stupid," "profoundly mediocre" and "dopey." The other is SNAKES ON A PLANE.
This selection is the same the nation over; don't blame us.
Thankfully, we can add two late entries to the mix (British feel-gooder MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT and CEASEFIRE, the new romantic comedy from Iran's leading female director).
Plus, we've extended last week's year-end review to include this short list of some of the best "little movies" released on DVD last year.
13 of the Best "Little Movies" on DVD in 2006.
JUNEBUG.
Released way back last January, JUNEBUG became one of the most consistent renters of the year, thanks in part to our ongoing campaign to remind customers about this film. It is a deflty wrought and delicate little drama, a happy-sad family reunion that Jamie has called "MEET THE PARENTS for grown-ups." Earned Amy Adams an Oscar nomination, and check for the cameo from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy!
THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU. A critical favorite ("a heartbreakingly powerful masterpiece," said the Christian Science Monitor), this film got mixed reviews from customers.
Some were alienated by its bleak sense of humor and bizarre setting. The Romanian film follows a 60-ish widow who takes ill, calls an ambulance and must attempt to gain the help of a disinterested medical system. "Both sad and darkly funny," wrote the Chicago Reader.
DUCK SEASON. An overlooked charmer about Mexican adolescents. Boston Globe: "It's one of the small, pitch-perfect treasures of the movie year.
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TOUCH THE SOUND. From the director of ANDY GOLDSWORTHY: RIVERS AND TIDES comes a portrait of percussionist Evelyn Gwynne, who happens to be profoundly deaf. Documentarian Thomas Riedelsheimer is carving a unique path for himself — working alongside the subject to create not a typical biography, but a poetic extention of the art.
BREAKFAST ON PLUTO. An androgynous glam rock boy looks for love amidst the unrest of 1970s Northern Ireland. This film feels like a big, sloppy kiss.
As he has with past films like THE CRYING GAME, director Neil Jordan mixes sex with politics in a way that's not so much sensual and epic as gritty and urbane.
THREE TIMES. Taiwanese director Hsiao-hsien Hou uses the same two actors to tell love stories set in three different periods: A 1966 pool hall, a 1911 brothel and present day Taipei.
Chicago Tribune: "THREE TIMES is great cinema — pop romance that carries a special charge."
THE PROPOSITION. An intense western in the tradition of Sergio Leone, set in the 1880s Australian outback.
Roger Ebert: "A movie you cannot turn away from; it is so pitiless and uncompromising, so filled with pathos and disregarded innocence, that it is a record of those things we pray to be delivered from." Starring Guy Pearce, and written by musician Nick Cave. So, you know, intense.
FRIENDS WITH MONEY. Director Nicole Holofcener allows her characters to be bitter, stubborn, contradictory, lonely, dependent, funny and unique. She makes the best female-centric indie films around.
L'ENFANT. Belgian directorial team Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are masters of realism, making the camera seem to all but disappear as we are plunged into the grim street life of the poor and disenfranchised. Here, the plotline is cruel: A young father sells his newborn infant on the black market, then tries desperately to rectify his deed.
Nearly silent, and stunning.
THE INTRUDER. (pictured) An extraordinarily difficult film: Slow, violent and cryptic, sweeping across snow-blanketed fields that feel like landscapes of anxiety and despair.
Somewhere inside the gorgeous and brutal visuals, there is a story of a black market medical procedure and the search for a long lost son. Los Angeles Times: "Never has Denis demanded so much from audiences as with this shimmering enigma, at once intimate and epic, but it's worth the effort and then some."
THAT MAN: PETER BERLIN.
If San Franscisco feels short on gay icons these days, be reminded that the magnificent Peter Berlin still lives here. In the '70s, he was a model, club persona and porn actor. He wasn't a dilettante: Berlin's series of elaborate self-portraits is prolific.
This trip through his influence on gay aesthetics is a lot of fun, and in present-day interviews, Berlin remains heartbreaking and charming.
BIG ANIMAL. In what may be the most unlikeliest entry, this Polish black-and-white comedy about a camel has become a small-scale hit in our shops.
THE NEW YORK POST: "Working from an unfinished script by the late, great Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jerzy Stuhr directs in a laid-back, deadpan style that, at times, recalls Fellini."
LADY VENGEANCE. The third in Chan-woo Park's trilogy, following OLDBOY and SYMPATHY FOR MR.
VENGEANCE. Customers absolutely love these movies! Well, those customers who tend to like their crime films incredibly brutal.
Wonder whether an American remake is in the works...
Ok, now we'll get over 2006. We can't wait for some of the new year's new releases! We'll keep you posted.
love,
four star
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//NEW RELEASES//...
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CEASEFIRE.
Romantic Comedy. Iran.
Mohammed Reza Golzar, Mahnaz Afshar.
Directed by Tahmineh Milani.
THE COVENANT.
Horror.
Steven Strait, Sebastian Stan, Toby Hemingway, Chace Crawford, Taylor Kitsch.
Directed by Renny Harlin.
MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT.
Comedy.
England.
Joan Plowright, Rupert Friend, Anna Massey, Zoe Tapper.
Directed by Dan Ireland.
SNAKES ON A PLANE.
Action.
Samuel L.
Jackson.
Directed by David R. Ellis.
****
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