With Oscar Sunday having whisked by, everyone’s got movies on the brain. You’ve probably got thoughts rattling around in your head about buying or renting some DVDs to see what you missed out on last year. Fortunately, there were some fantastic releases last month worth your attention and money. Two all time greats slipped out in February as well as three of last year’s finest films (only one of which actually competed for Oscars, which says more about the Academy than their quality) and a stoner comedy for a less demanding viewing session. Grabbing any of these titles will make a lazy Sunday slip by painlessly, so go ahead and pick em up already…well, after you read the article of course.
1) Anatomy Of A Murder (Criterion)
Anatomy Of A Murder is probably the greatest American courtroom drama. I know it’s hard to believe that honor could be bestowed to a film without Matthew McConaughey, but don’t worry Jimmy Stewart is a more than acceptable substitute. Stewart faces off against George C. Scott in a murder trial for an army veteran (Ben Gazzara) claiming temporary insanity for seeking revenge against a man who raped his wife (Lee Remick). In 1959 discussions of rape, torn panties, and a promiscuous wife were considered far too lurid for polite moviegoing audiences. These days, it’s all fairly tame, but the courtroom verbal sparring match between expert actors remains thrilling, a 2.5 hour courtroom drama that never lets up on entertainment or intrigue (even if the script’s reliance on zingers can occasionally stretch a bit beyond welcome comedic relief). Every courtroom drama that followed Otto Preminger’s masterpiece owes the film an immense debt and few have come close to matching his achievement. Criterion’s new release provides the finest transfer of the vintage b&w photography the film has ever received, though the dialogue-driven film is probably presented just as well on DVD as Bluray. Both discs feature an impressive array of extras delving into everything from Preminger’s struggle with production code censorship to Saul Bass’ iconic opening credits sequence.
2) Take Shelter (Sony)
If there was a single idiotic decision this year that made it clear the Oscars are far from an accurate yard stick for measuring the finest cinematic achievements, it was ignoring easily the finest lead performance of 2011 from the perpetually underrated character actor Michael Shannon (who looks kind of like Steve Buscemi’s older, taller, crazier brother), Reuniting with his Shotgun Stories director Jeff Nichols, Shannon plays a father enduring vivid dreams about the apocalypse that seem real except for nagging doubts in his mind as a result of the fact that his mother was a schizophrenic and might have passed the condition on to him. He starts building an expensive underground shelter in his backyard to the dismay of his family and even if the apocalyptic visions are true, he clearly becomes mentally unhinged. The film is both a tense thriller and devastating drama, filled with remarkable performances that deserved truckloads of awards statues. Though it seemed to slip into theaters almost unnoticed, Take Shelter should not be missed by anyone who claims to love movies, especially now that it’s arrived on shiny spinning discs for home consumption. Indie film DVDs are never stacked with expensive special features, but thankfully the producers included a short n’ informative documentary, an insightful SAG interview with Shannon and Shea Whigham, and an interesting (if sparse) commentary track from Shannon and Nichols. Go out and buy this thing already, you won’t regret it.
3) Hugo (Paramount)
Martin Scorsese earned plenty of deserved accolades for his latest feature, which ditches his usual blood-drenched subject matter in favor of childhood whimsy set in 1930s Paris. The tale of an orphan boy who discovers the secret identity of silent film pioneer George Melies is less a feel-good family film and more of a loveletter to the magical escapist powers of cinema. In many ways it feels like one of Scorsese’s most autobiographical efforts, a nostalgic return to the countless hours of joy the asthmatic child spent at the movies. Whenever Scorsese is recreating Melies’ most stunning filmmaking achievements or crafting passages about the importance of cinema, the film is a pleasure to behold. He uses 3D in a way that enhances the immersive nature of his filmmaking and the digitally manipulated color schemes recreating Technicolor film stock can be hypnotically gorgeous. Sure, whenever his movie-geek lovefest pauses for the sake of the ‘inspiring’ children’s narrative, Scorsese seems somewhat bored and everything wraps up just a little too sweetly, but the film was never destined to be the director’s best. This is more of moviemaking fantasy from the ultimate cinephile than anything resembling family entertainment and in this case, that’s more than enough. Paramount’s Blu-ray (and 3D Blu-ray for those of you who have a ridiculously expensive television) offers a gorgeous transfer for the company’s top prestige picture of 2011, supplemented by a handful of documentaries that unsurprisingly speak more about the film’s technical achievements and exploration of film history than the lightweight narrative.
4) Project Nim (Mongrel Media)
No year at the movies is complete without at least one great story about a monkey and 2011’s prime cut of primate pleasure is James Marsh’s beautiful documentary Project Nim. It’s an odd tale of a chimp named Nim who was raised like a child by a family of hippies as an experiment to see if the animal could learn sign language. Nim picked up the signs, but like all chimpanzees started to become territorial and violent when he came of age and sadly spent many years late in his life in under-funded animal shelters and cruel testing facilities. Much like he did in Man On Wire, Marsh combines interviews and archival footage with stylish recreation sequences as immersive as any fiction film and is admirably willing to portray his interview subjects as flawed and complex human beings. The director is slowly developing a style of filmmaking that combines documentary and fiction techniques to create a new hybrid form that can be incredibly powerful and entertaining. Project Nim may be a small movie on the surface, but offers one of the most engaging and emotionally satisfying narratives of the year. If you’ve ever secretly desired to fall in love with a monkey, this is the movie that will make your dream a reality. Mongrel Media’s DVD sadly comes without any special features, which is a shame because Marsh went to great lengths (even building animatronic Nims) to create fictionalized archival footage that could be seamlessly intercut with the real thing. Fortunately, the film is strong enough to stand on its own, but I can’t help but feel there was a major missed opportunity here for some fascinating and insightful special features.
5) A Very Harold And Kumar Christmas (Warner Brothers)
A Christmas movie released in February? Warner Brothers probably assumed the franchise’s fanbase would be far too stoned to notice. Fortunately, the movie is absolutely hysterical, with more than enough laughs to make it a worthwhile rental outside of the season of misplaced cheer. The Harold And Kumar series has quickly become one of the most dependable laugh factory franchises in Hollywood, serving up a hazy-brained twist on the classic “night of misadventures” comedy formula. This time Harold And Kumar are a little older and the film is about two guys in their 30s struggling to reconnect as friends. Of course there’s a whole lot of dick jokes, pot smoke, racial satire, and of course a wacko drug addict/misogynist turn from Neil Patrick Harris before we get there. Warner Brothers lucked out with this series in not only landing to Kal Penn and John Cho (who are far more charismatic and talented as the leads than a stoner comedy deserves), but also discovering the writing team of Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who have no problem finding new twists in their formula even three films later. A Harold And Kumar Christmas movie really shouldn’t be this good and hopefully the fans who missed it in theaters will embrace it at home. Warner Brothers’ Bluray offers only a handful of boring deleted scenes and featurettes along with a pointless extended cut. So there are no special features to make the set worth picking up, but thankfully the film itself is worth the investment (it’s also one of the few movies that actually makes good use of 3D, so definitely buy it in that format if you’ve got the equipment).
Also worth checking out:
Unforgiven (Warner Brothers) An amazing Blu-ray facelift for Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning masterpiece that you can read about here (link) as this week’s entry in Essential Cinema.
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Phil Brown writes Toronto Standard’s Essential Cinema column.
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