DVD Releases for March 18th, 2008

[DSNT]

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[Watashi]

That's a neat Atonement cover. I'll probably buy that.

I have some dreading interest in Southland Tales and Revolver as well.

[Sycophant]

I want to see Southland Tales. I should also buy some copy of The Ice Storm at some point.

[dreamdead]

Will rent:

Enchanted (to fulfill the Amy Adams crush)
Antonio Gaudi
Southland Tales (for the controversy element of it)

[Rowland]

I Am Legend
Southland Tales

Fans of gonzo cinema should give Revolver a look.

[Mysterious Dude]

I'm very interested in The Dragon Painter. It could really improve my top ten of 1919.

[Qrazy]

I am consistently blown away by Criterion covers. Whoever does their graphic design is a god.

[Ivan Drago]

The cover for The Ice Storm is amazing. But that's no surprise considering it's Criterion. Anyway, I'll probably be buying Atonement and renting Southland Tales.

[ledfloyd]

Renting:
Southland

Buying:
Ice Storm

I'm avoiding Cholera and Atonement cause I like the books so much.

[eternity]

BUY:
I Am Legend (my brother is buying it, same difference. I didn't like it all that much)

RENT:
Southland Tales
Revolver
Atonement
Enchanted

WTF of the Week:
The Seeker for it's stupid tagline.

[Lucky]

I'm looking forward to the thoughts on Southland Tales. I've been waiting to talk about that since I saw it a couple months ago.

[Sxottlan]

Huh. I saw The Ice Storm on shelves already at Best Buy two days ago.

Is Life After People the same as that Aftermath: Population Zero that aired on the National Geographic Channel last week? I taped that, but haven't gotten around to watching it yet.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Definitely renting Southland Tales. Aside from that, nothing jumps out at me in that group.

[Dukefrukem]

http://www.amazon.com/Am-Legend-Blu-ray-Will-Smith/dp/B0013FBS20/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1205756954&sr=8-2

$18 on Amazon!

[BirdsAteMyFace]

Rent:
Atonement
Southland Tales (maaaybe)

[Wryan]

That's a neat Atonement cover. I'll probably buy that.

Really? I immediately thought it looked blah.

[MacGuffin]

Really? I immediately thought it looked blah.

It probably would have looked better sans the blue border.

[baby doll]

Atonement will still be lame on DVD. I'd to take another looksy at my old, bare-bones edition of The Ice Storm before I move (and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and rent Lust, Caution). Can't wait to see Southland Tales.

By the way, what's up with all these super low ratings for Margot at the Wedding in peoples' signatures? One out of ten? Half of one star? Doesn't that tell you something right there that it provokes such strong reactions reactions (unlike Atonement, which is pretty good for an hour, meandering for another hour, ends well but lame overall)? Also, it's the first Noah Baumbach film that doesn't suck.

P.S., on the Battlestar Galactica cover, the dude who looks like Mathieu Amalric is totally checking out that chick's rack.

[Henry Gale]

The way the Atonement cover looks there isn't exactly it. I think it was updated to have more in the background, plus the title and some text changed, much like the HD-DVD cover has it:

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[number8]

By the way, what's up with all these super low ratings for Margot at the Wedding in peoples' signatures? One out of ten? Half of one star? Doesn't that tell you something right there that it provokes such strong reactions reactions (unlike Atonement, which is pretty good for an hour, meandering for another hour, ends well but lame overall)?

Of course. It tells you right there that it's an incredibly bad movie. :P

[baby doll]

Of course. It tells you right there that it's an incredibly bad movie. :PIf you want to be Pauline Kael, and leave it at that, that's your opinion that it's an incredibly bad film--but, as the saying goes, opinions are like ass-holes. I would argue, however, that on the level of visual storytelling (even conceding that this is very much a dialogue-driven piece), it far surpasses anything Baumbach has done in the past (for the first time, even when the characters are talking, one feels that something is happening--every line is an action, rather than exposition or a clever one liner). It's also one of the best photographed American films of recent memory, with Harris Savides' cinematography underlit to the point of near abstraction which really suits the mood of the film, which is far darker than Baumbach's previous films. And I don't think darker is necessarily better than lighter fare, but I do think content counts for something, and it seems to me that what he's dealing with here is a lot more resonant than overgrown, hyper-articulate adolescents (Kicking and Screaming) or his parents' divorce in the 80s (seriously, dude, get over it). Obviously this is fairly general and rife with unsupported opinions that would need to be backed up with concrete examples (I only saw the film once when it was in theaters like four months ago, but I've been meaning to make time for it now that it's on DVD), but I think the mature approach is to say: there was a reaction from some fairly sophisticated people, so it must have been a response to something onscreen. I don't want to analyze the detractors to make my point (as Kael would), but the kind of hysterical over-reactions I'm seeing here and elsewhere to what is obviously a serious and well crafted film make me wonder if the nerve it touches on hits a little too close to home for comfort.

[Boner M]

the kind of hysterical over-reactions I'm seeing here and elsewhere to what is obviously a serious and well crafted film make me wonder if the nerve it touches on hits a little too close to home for comfort.
You means Wats and CSC still poop their pants?

[Rowland]

You means Wats and CSC still poop their pants?Nice work spelling it out, Boner. :rolleyes:

[Boner M]

Nice work spelling it out, Boner. :rolleyes:
Heh.

Since baby doll's post invites discussion, I think "it hits too close to home" and "it gets reactions, so it must have value" are dead-end defenses, but Wats and Captain's ratings do make me wonder if films that strain for realism or naturalism like Margot are met with extra scorn if they fail as opposed to merely 'bad' films, and that the negativity that people display toward certain films of that ilk (this also goes for Cassavetes, Pialat, etc) is an over-exaggeration; to call bullshit on one's truth as a way of asserting your own superior, clear-eyed perception. I mean, it's kinda telling that Armond hated Baumbach's film more than virtually any other critic.

Dunno if I'm making much sense, and I'm not directly applying this to the Margot-haters here, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

[MacGuffin]

Heh.

Since baby doll's post invites discussion, I think "it hits too close to home" and "it gets reactions, so it must have value" are dead-end defenses, but Wats and Captain's ratings do make me wonder if films that strain for realism or naturalism like Margot are met with extra scorn if they fail as opposed to merely 'bad' films, and that the negativity that people display toward certain films of that ilk (this also goes for Cassavetes, Pialat, etc) is an over-exaggeration; to call bullshit on one's truth as a way of asserting your own superior, clear-eyed perception. I mean, it's kinda telling that Armond hated Baumbach's film more than virtually any other critic.

Dunno if I'm making much sense, and I'm not directly applying this to the Margot-haters here, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

I didn't really look at it from that perspective.

[Weeping_Guitar]

So much of Margot seemed like Baumbach went out of his way to make his characters so crass (for lack of a better word) that it become offensive to the viewer. As if Baumbach thinks that making his characters actions that especially hurtful somehow makes a film more "real". The film has a wonderful sense of design and place, but I hated to see something that had smart characters in place to say something intelligent become almost vulgar by the end. And I really like Squid and Whale and Kicking and Screaming is one of my favorite movies of the '90s so I am went in figuring to enjoy the film because of two great past experiences with Baumbach.

[trotchky]

I think I'm going to do some drugs before I watch Southland Tales.

Also I know tons of people like the characters in Baumbach's film (my mom is one of them) so I don't get the criticism that they're "too" "nasty."

[baby doll]

Since baby doll's post invites discussion, I think "it hits too close to home" and "it gets reactions, so it must have value" are dead-end defensesYeah, I was thinking about that, because there are plenty of movies that lots of people love that I can't stand. I guess I'm interested in disagreements only insofar as they clarify certain differences in the way people look at movies. I don't get this criticism of the film that it's too negative, since all interesting characters have flaws (imagine Casablanca with Victor Laszlo/Paul Henreid as the hero), and it seems to me--in contrast with The Squid and the Whale, where the story is so specifically autobiographical that it touch any referrence points outside itself (Jeff Daniels' character is an ass-hole too, but apart from maybe Baumbach's father, who can see themselves in this character?)--that here, he's touching on some more widely shared character flaws, which is what I meant by it possibly hitting too close home, in contrast with Baumbach's earlier features that I've seen.

[Sycophant]

Um... BTW, Funky Forest: The First Contact, like, came out last Tuesday. You should see it.