Last week was a bit crazy. Like seemingly most of Netflix’s subscribers, my shipments were interrupted for several days. Unlike most subscriber’s my movies were delayed for an entire week, which lead me to a slight problem, in that I had no way of watching The Devil’s Rain. Thus putting me in a bit of a bind with what to write this week. Luckily here in Minneapolis there is an outstanding video store that would come to my aid, a video store by the name of Cinema Revolution.

Now Cinema Revolution is not your average ordinary video rental store. You won’t find any video games, or used DVD’s for sale, or even candy and soda carefully distributed near the counter to spur impulse buys. No, Cinema Revolution simply has movies to rent, and what great movies they are. Dedicated to carrying only foreign and independent films, Cinema Revolution is a cinephile’s dream store. Organized by country with subcategories for directors, Cinema Revolution is designed for those who both know and love film and I was confident I would find a suitable replacement to watch and review for Monday’s column.

Then I went and joined Andrew and Kurt from Row Three on their podcast Monday night.

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Due to a system wide Netflix issue our regularly scheduled program, The Devil’s Rain, will be delayed until next week. In its place I will review an obscure 1995 Austrian documentary entitled Animal Love. A trailer has never been made for the film, so instead I will just post a still from the film to give you and idea of what I was forced to experience for your entertainment. Please be advised that no animals were hurt during the making of this movie, although I’m pretty sure I was during the watching of this movie. Also the still is NSFW.

I would also like to state that I apologize  in advance for this.

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Welcome to our Olympic coverage of Rummaging through the Old Maids! Sure this doesn’t involve anything more then me posting via tape delay (Note to the audience: I have no idea what that means) but it is the thought that counts. Right?

While the amount of DVD releases this week are relatively thin, their are two pretty damn good ones especially worth noting. First is the Criterion release of Brand Upon the Brain, Guy Maddin’s oustanding pseudo-documentary science fiction/horror film on his growing up on a remote island with a mother who eats children to maintain her youth. It is a fantastic film and being released by Criterion inevitably means the transfer will be outstanding.

The other big release is CJ7, which took its sweet time coming to DVD even though it had a theatrical release last summer. Coupling Stephen Chow’s Looney Tunes styled direction with the most adorable alien ever created, CJ7 is a ridiculously cute and fun children’s film that appeals to adults as well.

Coming to theaters this week is the new film by Mumblecore vets Jay and Mark Duplass, Baghead, about a group of filmmakers that head up to a cabin to try and write their next movie. Only to discover that the movie they envision might be coming true. I don’t know too much about the movie outside of the trailer, but I enjoyed The Puffy Chair and I think the movie looks pretty interesting.

But the movie I am most excited for is Man on Wire, a documentary on tightrope walker Philippe Petit’s daring and incredibly stupid attempt to walk on a tightrope that spans between the newly built Twin Towers in New York City. It is a stunning documentary that should be a must see for everyone. Word of warning, even though it is almost all still photography, if you experience vertigo, or have a fear of heights,  be prepared to have the crap scared out of you.

As always trailers are after the break!

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Quick and easy entry this week as my choices are pretty close to universally awful. The obvious film to see this weekend is American Teen. This is an outstanding documentary on a group of Indiana High School seniors living out their last year of High School. It is a great little film that truly deserves a huge following. But being an Indie documentary it is probably bound to live in obscurity.

The other interesting film to watch is Midnight Meat Train, if you can find it. Suffering through multiple release delays and a change in directors (controversial Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura is now in charge) the film was slated for a direct-to-dvd release but is now getting some rather odd treatment by Lionsgate. They have now chosen to have a very small release for the film, 100 screens nationwide, and all of them will be on the secondary market. Meaning you will have to find your local dollar theater and hope they have it, because the odds of the film lasting more then a week are incredibly slim. Is the movie any good? Who knows? But the studio seems terrified of it so that has to account for something, right?

As for DVD releases, The Counterfeiters, the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language film finally gets a release. While not the best foreign film of last year, it is still a very good movie that is easily worth a rental. Which is more then I can say for Nim’s Island.

As always trailers are after the break! (more…)

So here we are again and I have nothing to recommend for theaters this weekend. Hancock blows, I could care less about Kitt Kittredge and … wait a moment! Gonzo:The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S Thompson comes on this weekend. Go see that post haste. Whether you want to ingest three or four rogue narcotics and a bottle of ether before you watch it is entirely up to you.

DVD releases aren’t much better. The abominable The Ruins is the major release, and I can’t emphasize enough how much I hate hate hated that movie. Please don’t rent it or borrow it or, grrrr, buy it. It’s Little Shop of Horrors, but totally taking itself seriously.  Hopefully that blatant and unmarked spoiler totally ruined the film for you.

But their are several Independent releases coming out on DVD this week that might be interesting. The Tracy Fragments is a tiny Canadian (I think, don’t hold me to it) film that stars uber-annoy Ellen Page as some sort of smary, sassy, super intelligent girl who is always three or four steps ahead of every adult in the world. Well, it might not be, but since she’s played that role in every other film she’s been in I feel pretty comfortable on pigeonholing the film straight away.

Also out is the film Chop Shop, about a small boy living in the slums of New York. Don’t know much else but it has garnered some huge praise in spite of its very limited release.

And last, but certainly not least, is the documentary Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. It covers Strummer’s life before, during and after The Clash as told by a gaggle of people much cooler then you plus Bono.

As always trailer are after the break!

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