Currently browsing the "Great DVDs" category.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is one of those films that came and went without much fanfare, and then when all the awards nominations began to come out, it was on just about everyone’s list as best film of the year. (It received 9 Oscar nominations.) Fortunately, it is now out on DVD.

Chéri

I heard about Chéri when it was around, but being in small town USA, it was only here for an instant and I missed it. Fortunately, it is now on DVD and it is a great chick flick, especially for women over 35. 50+ and still ravishing, Michelle Pfeiffer is lovely playing Léa, a courtesan of a certain age in Belle Époque Paris. Rupert Friend (Albert in The Young Victoria) plays Chéri, the 19-year-old son of one of Léa’s old courtesan rivals (Kathy Bates). He has known and loved Léa since childhood, and when his mother needs someone to talk to him about his directionless life, she calls Léa.

Pirate Radio aka The Boat that Rocked

Pirate Radio aka The Boat that Rocked is a very, very funny movie with a kick ass soundtrack. I don’t think I have ever enjoyed the music in a film as much. And the cast — this is ensemble acting at its best, including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, (Emma Thompson and January Jones in cameos) and lots of other people who should be a lot better known than they are.

The Brothers Bloom

What is it about Adrien Brody that is so attractive? He is not classically handsome. It’s the eyes. Those sad puppy eyes. In The Brothers Bloom he plays the younger brother named Bloom with Mark Ruffalo as older brother Stephen. (Strangely, they never explain why they are the Brothers Bloom and it is his first name.) The brothers are con men and have been at it since childhood. Now grown, Bloom has tired of always living “a scripted life” since Stephen comes up with all the cons and he just plays his part. Bloom has decided to leave this con man life behind, but Stephen wants him to come along for just one last job.

After the Wedding (Efter bryllupet)

I heard about this film when it came out and was somewhat intrigued, but the reviews I read were cryptic about the story and I took that to mean it was deep or convoluted, so I put it off. In reality, it is hard to talk about it without giving away plot points that might take away the enjoyment of this wonderful drama. The basic set up is Jacob is running an orphanage in India. He is summoned to his home country of Denmark to meet with a very, very rich businessman, Jørgen, who is offering enough money to take care of more kids than Jacob could imagine. But there are strings attached and a lot of secrets come out on his trip that pull Jacob every which way.

Death in El Valle

Every family has its secrets, its stories that only they can tell but frequently try to ignore. For filmmaker C.M. Hardt that story was about her grandfather. He lived in the small town of El Valle, Spain and following the Spanish Civil War, during the period of an unnamed secret war, he was arrested one night, then taken out and shot. The family home was burned to the ground and his wife thrown in jail. For C.M., the family story was never investigated or explained to her satisfaction and so she decided to go to Spain and find the answers for herself.

When Ruo Ma was Seventeen

This sweet coming of age story is almost worth seeing just for the scenery alone. Shot in southern China’s Yunnan province, When Ruo Ma was Seventeen uses the beautiful landscape of terraced paddy fields as a reminder that we are not in any place we know. It is far removed from our world. But Ruo Ma has lived here all her life with her old grandma, working these terraced fields with her fellow Hani (aka Xiani.) Now 17, she goes to town to make some money selling roasted corn on the street.

Priceless

The French make breezy little romantic comedies as easily as they do a good cup of coffee. Perhaps it is because it is a more romantic sensibility. Maybe it is just that the language sounds more romantic and the locations are so quaint. But I can enjoy absurd situations in a French film that I could never accept in an American movie. Case in point is Priceless, starring Audrey Tautou (Amelie, The Da Vinci Code) and Gad Elmaleh as Irène and Jean. Irène is a gold digger staying at a fancy hotel on the Riviera with her rich older boyfriend when she mistakes Jean, a bartender, for a young wealthy mark. He lets her believe he is rich but when her boyfriend catches on and leaves her, the jig is up. She goes looking for her next meal ticket only to be followed by the lovesick Jean. Irène returns his ardor with a vengeance, spending Jean’s every last Euro then walking out, leaving him with an enormous hotel bill that he cannot possibly pay.

Lost in Austen

To really appreciate Lost in Austen, you must be a Jane Austen fan. Pride and Prejudice to be specific. And I am. I loved the BBC version and the latest with Keira Knightly is fun, as well. I rented this thinking it was a film, but at nearly 3 hours in, it finally dawned on me that it had been shot as a series. British ITV aired it in 2008 in four parts. That explains all those fades to black.

Perhaps Love 如果·愛

If you’re looking for a good musical romance in Chinese, “Perhaps Love” is your movie. It stars Asian heart throb Takeshi Kaneshiro and Superstar singer Jacky Cheung in a love triangle with Zhou Xun. The movie opens with Lin Jiandong (Takeshi Kaneshiro) arriving in Shanghai to co-star in a musical film with his old flame Sun Na (Zhou Xun) who is in a relationship with the famous director Nie Wen (Jacky Cheung). The musical they are all making together is about a young woman who loses her memory and is taken under the wing of a circus owner who falls in love with her, but her old love comes back for her and she is torn between the two men. Meanwhile in the real world outside the film, the actor flashes back to his romance 10 years earlier with his co-star and yearns to rekindle their flame. She is initially reluctant to the point of indifference to him, but his persistence pays off and their romances both on and off screen mirror one another.