August 10, 2006

Dispatch #145

Just the right cure for the dog days of summer: the cool breeze that is the GreenCine Dispatch. Read on for the latest GC news, reviews, new releases and tips.

#145 | August 8, 2006


"I was just fixing some ice tea; would you like a glass?"
"Yeah, unless you got a bottle of beer that's not working."
-- Double Indemnity

You can go in and edit any of your movie reviews on GreenCine - whether they're still pending our approval or live on the site, at any time by going into your account and clicking on "edit your reviews." (Warning: Note that editing a live review will erase any member votes attached to that review.) Go here for more.

With the first stellar season of this Baltimore-set HBO series showing the intricacies of the drug wars on all fronts, and the second season focusing on the way the contraband first arrives in the U.S., and corruption around port labor, the fantastic The Wire: Season 3 may be the best yet. The writing remains at the highest level in what continues to be a demanding show that unfolds like a multi-layered novel and serves as a showcase for terrific ensemble acting. This season also ended in rather shocking fashion. As with the other seasons, The Wire: Season 3 is unmissable.

Five discs: $75.60.

Speaking of addictive programs about our criminal justice system, the riveting eight hour documentary The Staircase about the murder trial of the novelist Michael Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife, in a case that would be implausible if it weren't real. The filmmakers reveal one shocking turn after another in a documentary that The New York Times called "astonishing... brilliantly conceived, reported, filmed and paced."

Two discs: $30.95, or for rent.

Martial arts epic Samurai Reincarnation features Sonny Chiba, although it takes awhile for him to appear - but as Cold Fusion Video says, "that's okay; everything else about his movie is pretty impressive, too. In fact, it's probably the best 'reanimated Christian turns evil and assembles a posse to take down the Shogun' movie out there." In fact, the movie features "some of the best samurai action ever committed to film." See Samurai Reincarnation now or anytime you want via GreenCine's on-demand on GreenCine, for $2.99.

More like this: The Wire: First Season | The Wire: Second Season More like this: Thin Blue Line | Murder on a Sunday Morning More like this: Dragon Princess | The Street Fighter

Finally - a summer week just full of inriguing new DVD releases, particularly for the more indie-minded among you:

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Brick (2006; $20.56). The slangy, teen-noir is Raymond Chandler reimagined for modern day Orange County, and, adds GreenCine's Craig Phillips, while the film "takes a bit of time to get accustomed to - as if we, the audience, were collectively given a new eyeglass prescription and have to adjust to seeing a certain way - stick with it. Brick is a breakout debut, and one of the best films of 2006."

CSA: Confederate States of America (2005; $19.93). "I made it as a comedy because I want to reach the audience who would never go to see a serious film about slavery," said filmmaker Kevin Willmott in our interview with him, about his alternative history film which posits the question - what if the South had won the Civil War? "A brilliant and irresistible counterfactual overview of American history," raved the San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle, "Ultimately not just amusing but moving because it reminds us that the Civil War was not some sectional disagreement or an argument between two equally worthy points of view, but rather a struggle for the country's moral decency and the future of democracy."

Inside Man (2006; $21.70) has Spike Lee working, with a fine cast, in full-on commercial (or Sidney Lumet) mode and the end result is pretty entertaining. "The suspense crackles, the acting sizzles and the script, by promising first-timer Russell Gewirtz, keeps tossing surprises like grenades," wrote Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. And "Denzel Washington energizes the movie."

Manderlay (2005; $19.93). Love him or hate him, there's no one else like Lars Von Trier. His latest, part of his ostentatious "America" trilogy (following up on Dogville) polarized critics as much as any of his works, poking at "uncomfortable truths," wrote Sam Adams (Philadelphia City Paper), who found it problematic but, "in throwing caution to the wind, [Von Trier] hits on ideas most American directors would be too sensitive to address."

Cavite (2005; $20.43) was filmed for a song but had such a perfect concept for a low-budget film - one main character, shot on location in Manila, it was a "paragon of guerrilla resourcefulness and a model citizen of the global village," wrote Dennis Lim in the Village Voice, "a more anxious and vivid experience than most movies with budgets literally a thousand times bigger... [an] impressively tense micro-thriller."

Also out this week: Don't Come Knocking $21.60 (see more on this Wenders-Shepard collaboration below); The Lost City (2005; $23.95; great cast + practically non-existent theatrical release = ?); Voices of Iraq (2004; $16.45); The Hidden Blade (2004; $19.95).

New anime: Papuwa vol. 1: Wild Things ($21.45). "I’ll cut to the chase: Papuwa is the most hilarious anime I’ve ever seen," raved Anime-Planet.com. "Cromartie was the big winner up until now...but Papuwa is absolutely ridiculous as far as spastic random comedies go." Also new: Basilisk vol. 1: Scrolls of Blood ($21.45).

GreenCine's review blog: Guru | A complete list of this week's new releases and all titles coming soon is available here | Ye Olde New Releases Archive | Your Queue

Writing in the New York Times, Stephen Holden described Don't Come Knocking as "a meditation on cultural ectoplasm, on phantom cowboys and outlaws and the potent myths surrounding them." With this latest film by Wim Wenders now out on DVD, GreenCine spoke with the legendary German director about writing on the road, meeting Patricia Highsmith and the benefits of working under pressure. Full article >>

GreenCine Daily scans MovieMaker, The Believer and Offscreen magazines, and offers up more provocative questions and answers with fellow film bloggers, plus another fine round up of new DVD releases from DK Holm.

Congratulations to the winners of The Prisoner box set contest: CSouther and maxgill (the answer was "Be seeing you!") We'll have more contests, soon. In the meantime... be seeing you!

The GreenCine member list(s) of the week is Lastcrackerjack's "Shot in Texas," the best of the many films shot in the Lone Star state. Don't mess with (the) Texas (Film Commission)!

Thanks to all who attended our presentation of the San Francisco premiere of Interkosmos at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. We'll be taking a bit of a break from screenings before returning with a vengeance for our next one in September. More details on that forthcoming in this very space.

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Posted by cphillips at August 10, 2006 12:26 PM