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In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Diving Bell, King Corn and mucho más.
- What We're Watching: Mirikitani, Red Balloon and Blast of Silence redux.
- Explore: Best sequels; Jellyfish.
- Contest winners.
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Julian Schnabel's (and Ronald Harwood's) beautiful adaptation of a seemingly-impossible- to-adapt book based on the remarkable true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, is "so imaginatively made," wrote Salon's Stephanie Zacharek, "so attuned to sensual pleasure, so keyed in to the indescribable something that makes life life, that it speaks of something far more elemental than mere filmmaking skill: This is what movies, at their best, can be." Adds David Denby: "A gloriously unlocked experience, with some of the freest and most creative uses of the camera and some of the most daring, cruel, and heartbreaking emotional explorations that have appeared in recent movies." |
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Two college chums plant and grow an acre of America's most powerful crop, and attempt to follow its fate as food. What they find is alternately hilarious and horrifying: genetically modified seeds and home- brewed corn syrup, a bumper crop of obesity and diabetes, and a government paying farmers to grow what's making us sick. "The film always teaches and entertains in equal, ample measure. It's a treat -- and it's good for you," wrote Shawn Levy in Portland Oregonian. "A lively introduction to the corn industrial complex," adds EW. |
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Until she made this extraordinary documentary debut in 2006 (at the Tribeca Film Fest), Linda Hattendorf had labored mostly as a film editor; her best-known work was probably on Josh Pais’ 7th Street and Danny Schechter’s In Debt We Trust. Then The Cats of Mirikitani [ official site] - about artist Jimmy Mirikitani - was released to enormous critical acclaim, winning every one of the fifteen awards for which it was nominated at festivals worldwide. Still, it was not much seen by the general public. Its DVD release this month should slowly remedy that, especially with good word of mouth.... Read review here >>. |
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Alongside the release of two more obscure but equally wonderful children's classics, White Mane and Paddle to the Sea (look for a review of all three on Guru soon), Criterion graces us with this beautifully restored disc for Albert Lamorisse's renowned film about a boy and his balloon. "Remains one of the most beloved of all short films," extols DVDTalk. "The key to its lasting endurance is in its simplicity - it's a fantastical story told in the most minimal of terms, with very few lines of dialogue, from a child's perspective. The lack of embellishment leaves it as something timeless. And yet behind its simplicity lies a mountain of metaphor that has kept critics, film majors, and fans talking for five decades." Bonus features would've been nice but the film itself is beautifully restored here. |
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The lost noir classic Blast of Silence starts off a bit dubiously, with enough voice over narration to give Robert McKee an aneurysm after ten minutes, and even with some tedious moments early on, but wait, that scalding and scolding, pulp-ish voice over is in the second person, and the increasingly sleazy, realistic atmosphere begins to take hold of you, until you're fairly well rapt. You dig that nightclub scene, the same kind of scene you remember from older noir, but here the beatnik singer's playing bongos, and as the editing gets quicker in pace, and the tension mounts, you... read review >> |
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Congratulations to the winners of our 11th Hour contest: Minouchette, smovy and mockdonkey, each of whom will receive a copy of The 11th Hour on DVD. Keep checking our contests -- more coming soon! |
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