A weekly guide to what’s new on DVD and Blu-ray
Pick of the Week: Moonrise Kingdom
Two worlds live side-by-side without understanding each other in Moonrise Kingdom (Criterion): The world of children and the world of grown-ups. Set on the idyllic New England island of New Penzance as the summer of 1965 turns to fall, Wes Anderson’s 2012 film tells parallel stories. In one, a pair of alienated 12-year-olds named Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) fall in love and run away together, accompanied by a stack of books, a record player, a kitten, and other essentials. In the other, Suzy’s parents Walt and Laura (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) continue the process of letting their marriage fall apart while Laura has an affair with island’s police captain, and only police officer (Bruce Willis). Also on hand, members of the Anderson stock company both new to the fold (Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Tilda Swinton, Bob Balaban) and old (Jason Schwartzman).
The film’s two sets of characters live on opposite sides of the divide between innocence and experience, and Moonrise Kingdom portrays both states as having their perils and disappointments. An orphan, Sam has bounced from one unstable situation to another and seems only a step away from running out of options. Suzy lives with parents who give her attention without warmth. They’re in a hurry to grow up, but the film portrays adulthood as an endless series of compromises where youthful passion gets traded for safety and sadness. Few directors are as skilled at balancing the bitter with the sweet as Anderson, and few of his films strike that balance as well as Moonrise Kingdom. It’s a coming-of-age tale with a deep understanding of what’s gained and what’s lost with growing up.
The Criterion Collection tends to go all out for their Wes Anderson releases, and Moonrise Kingdom is no exception. Highlights include home movies shot by Norton, some animated versions of Suzy’s books, and a lot of behind-the-scenes footage, some of it featuring a mostly sober Murray. The highlight, however, is an audio commentary “hosted” by child actor Jake Ryan, who plays one of Suzy’s brothers. Joined by Anderson, Ryan places a series of phone calls to Norton, Murray, Schwartzman and co-writer Roman Coppola while peppering Anderson with questions from fans. (Learned: Bill Murray loves the Kurosawa movie Red Beard, but has never seen Bottle Rocket.)
Sleeper of the Week: Results
Texas director Andrew Bujalski went to the edge of reason with his 2013 film Computer Chess, which was set in the early ‘80s, filmed entirely on video equipment form the jurassic era, and kept getting stranger as it went along. Results (Magnolia) is grounded in a much more mundane world, but it has oddness hardwired into it anyway. Cobie Smulders and Guy Pearce play Trevor and Kat, a pair of personal trainers with a complicated relationship that only gets more complicated by the arrival of Danny (Kevin Corrigan), a man whose new wealth hasn’t made him any less of a lost soul. The film moves to its own strange pace, but the lack of rushing ends up serving it in the end, allowing for more time with a bunch of charming characters (including Giovanni Ribisi as a pot-loving lawyer). Smulders and Pearce give rich performances, but Corrigan’s the stand-out, if only because it’s exciting to see one of the best character actors now working get such a plum role.
Also new:
Breaker Morant (Criterion)
Mister Johnson (Criterion)
Prior to his time in Hollywood, which saw him helming such films as Tender Mercies and Driving Miss Daisy, Bruce Beresford was part of a wave of Australian filmmakers that emerged in the 1970s. Breaker Morant, the story of an ugly incident in the Boer War, brought him international attention, and deservedly so. The film—which alternates between courtroom scenes and depictions of ugly battlefront confrontations in which both sides resorted to guerrilla tactic—uses the prosecution of three Australian soldiers serving in the British army as an example of everything wrong with 19th century imperialism and a preview of awful conflicts in the war to come. It also features a murderers row of acting talent from Edward Woodward as the title character (something of an Australian folk hero whose legend gets fleshed out on the disc’s supplements) to a Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, and John Waters (the other John Waters). Beresford returned to the subject of colonialism for the also-newly-released 1990 film Mister Johnson, starring Maynard Eziashi and Pierce Brosnan.
The American Dreamer (Etiquette Pictures)
After his success directing Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper had the clout to do whatever he wanted. Whatever he wanted turned out to be The Last Movie, which took him to the jungles of Peru to film a story about a film shoot in the jungles of Peru. Any meta touches were purely intentional. The Last Movie remains hard to see. It’s rarely screened and remains unreleased on DVD. Its companion piece, the equally rare The American Dreamer, is making its home-video debut. Co-directed by photojournalist Lawrence Schiller and writer L.M. Kit Carson, it’s reputed to mix fact and fiction almost as freely as The Last Movie itself, following a self-aware Hopper as he struggles to compete the film amidst numerous distractions.
The Flash: Season One (Warner Bros.)
Arrow: Season Three (Warner Bros.)
The only problem with the third season of Arrow, the hit series based on DC Comics’ Green Arrow, was that it had to stand next to its spin-off The Flash, which had a chance to learn from its predecessor’s past missteps. It’s less grim, for starters, and most of its characters seemed to have been designed with the intention of being even more charming than those found on Arrow. If this pattern continues with Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow, a Krypto and Streaky series can’t be far off.
Pitch Perfect 2 (Universal)
In 2012, a comedy set in the world of college a cappella seemed like an odd choice. Now it’s a franchise, as evidenced by the success of this sequel, directed by Elizabeth Banks.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (20th Century Fox)
Rocky turns 40 this year. If you bought the 35th anniversary Blu-ray, there’s no reason to pick this one up. But if you didn’t, hey, why not?
Eaten Alive (Arrow Video)
In 1977, director Tobe Hooper, having achieved notoriety via the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, followed it with Eaten Alive, starring Massacre’s Marilyn Burns and future Freddy Krueger Robert Englund as the proprietor of a deadly bayou hotel (complete with its own crocodile). That sounds like all the elements for one of the great horror films of the 1970s. Curiously, it’s not: Nothing here works nearly as well as in Massacre. But it’s still a creepy movie worth a look for horror fans, and this new Blu-ray edition doesn’t skimp on the extras, which include everything from an audio commentary to a doc about the man who inspired the film.
Mannequin (Olive Films)
Mannequin Two: On The Move (Olive Films)
For years, these ‘80s film about mannequins who come to life and fall in love seemed to exist only on battered VHS tapes and late-night airings on the far reaches of cable. No more! Thanks to these Blu-ray releases, 1987 James Spader, Andrew McCarthy, and Kim Cattrall live on in HD eternity. And so does does Mannequin’s awful, and Oscar-nominated, Starship theme song: “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.”
