****new release no.306

Welkom op onze Nederlandse vrienden! Bedankt voor het lezen!

Although there are a plootitude of titles this week, there aren’t any huge ones, where the name jumps out at you, begging you to rent it furnishing you with an opinion other than David Denby’s about the film that everyone is facebooking about on their iphones right this moment. No. This week, there are a surprisingly lot of movies that are smaller, chancier and edgier. These tend to be my favorite kind…you miss more than you hit, but when you get a hit? Well, the hits are sublime, and it is awesome to stumble into some brilliant unknown art and feel like you got to the party early. Think ME YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, JUNEBUG and CRAZY.

The movies I chose to take home this weekend were IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY, starring the radical Galifianakishness of Zach Galifianakis. In it, a shy and stressed teenager checks himself into the mental health ward of a local hospital where he ends up stuck in the adult ward for the weekend with Galifianak, who both takes the kid under his wing, and tries to climb under the kid’s wing too. But not like that. Anyway, we missed this one, but it looked sweet. We also took home ENTER THE VOID, a mammoth psychedelic adventure involving a super tight bond between brother and sister, a lot of drugs, some crazy crazy visual effects, a few teaspoons of the afterlife, and an extreme sized dose of weirdness. I really wanted to check this out, but Amy was fully uninterested, so we moved on. UNMADE BEDS is the second film by Alexis Dos Santos. Although I hadn’t seen his first film, 2006’s GLUE, I remember the DVD had interesting looking cover art which mentioned soundtrack music from the Violent Femmes. The kid on the cover was cute and the movie looked quirky and smart. The new film, starring Deborah Francois and Fernando Tielve, is about life for a couple of 20 year-olds living in London. The constant pumping soundtrack of live and recorded music provides an excellent foundation with which to understand the youngsters who are trying on adult life like an unwanted jacket given to them by a beloved aunt. They’ll wear it, they have to! But it smells and doesn’t fit just right. So they drink and they try new things while drunk and they yearn for balance, while just barely consciously keeping themselves off kilter. Like REPRISE, the great Norwegian film from 2006, UNMADE BEDS captures well that moment when, like what’s his name in that FORREST GUMP movie, we shake off the leg braces of our youth and run run!

Other movies I thought about bringing home were A PRIVATE FUNCTION, starring Michael Palin and Richard Griffiths, MIDDLE MEN, with Luke Wilson and Giovanni Ribisi and AMARCORD, the Federico Fellini film, being released by Criterion on Blu-ray.

To read about all of this week’s DVD releases, and to find out more about how you pertain to me, go to 4starsf.blogspot.com. And remember; support your local independent video store, cause you will be sad when they’re gone.

Do you enjoy the Oscars? Do you like to dress up and walk on red carpet with photographers taking pictures of you non-stop while people scream and reach for you with desperate star-struck fever? Do you like a good party with your neighbors? On Friday, February 27th, we’ll be hosting an Oscar party benefitting the Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema’s 8th Season! Complete a ballot, ($5 to enter) win prizes; enjoy food, beverages and the live broadcast — outdoors and inside the store! Details and ballot available here and also down here at the store.

Do you like art? Have you been to Secession Art down on Mission Street across the street from Safeway? It is a splendid place with multiple in-house designers making jewelry and multi-media paintings and even more designers selling their incredible clothing (men’s, women’s and some stuff for the kiddos) as well as lots of other stuff. For the next two months SUCCULENCE will be filling the windows of the latest show with Living Frames, airplant globes and more. Also featured in the show are the sublime reversible skirts made by local neighborhood artisan Liisa Dalbak. There will be an art opening there this Friday night, Feb 11th. I’ll see you there!

Succulence is hosting a 3 day Planting Bar for Valentine’s Day. We’ll have on hand a variety of containers, as well as tons of succulents, and an array of sands and pebbles and mosses. You pick all the elements and we will help you plant it! Ask us about it.

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the stores.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

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............//NEW RELEASES//............

AMERICA AMERICA.
Drama.
Directed by Elia Kazan.
* This Oscar-winning film from 1963 was actually the story of the director’s Greek uncle who fled Turkey in the latter portion of the 19th century and headed against his family’s wishes to America.

BEAUTY AND THE BRIEFCASE.
Comedy.
Hilary Duff/Jamie Pressly.
Directed by Gil Junger.
* She is a freelance writer, and she is going undercovers while looking for love. Typo?

ENTER THE VOID.
Psychedelic/Drama/Experimental.
Directed by Gaspar Noe.
* This freak fest tells the story of a brother and sister who share a very tight bond which is not completely broken upon his shooting death. There are crazy effects and techniques applied in this psychedelic adventure. Not sure if the movie is that good, but if it isn‘t, turn the volume down and put on Pink Floyd‘s “The Dark Side of the Moon“, it goes with it perfectly.

FIVE CORNERS.
Drama.
Jodie Foster/Tim Robbins/Todd Graff/John Turturro.
Directed by Tony Bill.
* In this drama, from 1987, Turturro plays a psycho who gets out of jail and looks up the girl (Foster) that he attempted to rape in the crime that sent him up the river.

FOR COLORED GIRLS.
Drama.
Anika Noni Rose/Thandi Newton/Kerry Washington/Janet Jackson.
Directed by Tyler Perry.
* Adapted from a play by Ntozake Shange, this film tells multiple stories of women‘s issues, and in particular women of color.

HIDEAWAY.
Drama/Foreign (French).
Isabelle Carre.
Directed by Francois Ozon.
* A recently pregnant woman, left alone after she survived an OD with her boyfriend who did not, moves to the sticks where she is joined by her exes gay brother, who himself is struggling to find his place in life.

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (2010).****BD****
Horror.
Directed by Steven Monroe.
* Did you see the original? In this updated remake, there’s a bit of SAW and HOSTEL added to the standard brutal rape revenge fantasy. Brutal. Murderous. Torturous. Uh, huh, her.

IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY.
Comedy/Drama.
Keir Gilchrist/Zach Galifianakis/Emma Roberts/Viola Davis/Zoe Kravitz.
Directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden.
* This teenage kid, worried about some suicidal impulses, checks himself into a mental hospital, and ends up with a mandatory 5-day stay in the adult ward. There he meets a variety of unstable people, including Mr. Galifianakis, who becomes a special friend of a sort.

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT.****BD****
Comedy
Josh Duhamel/Katherine Heigl.
Directed by Greg Berlanti.
* Do you have an estate plan? Have any kids? Any sort of directives saying what happens if you pass unexpectedly? Well…Just saying, cuz in this “comedy“ two unprepared single adults become parents of a sort when their great friends die suddenly, leaving behind an orphaned baby girl.

MIDDLE MEN.****BD****
Comedy/Drama.
Luke Wilson/Giovanni Ribisi/James Caan.
Directed by George Gallo.
* This is the story of one of the pioneers of the internet, one of the first people to make solid money online in the 90’s. What did he sell? Sex, of course - what pushes all technology? Sex! This movie actually looks pretty fun.

MY SOUL TO TAKE. ****BD****
Suspense.
Directed by Wes Craven.
* So take it, Wes, hell you’ve got much of our cash, as well. Psych! I’m keeping my soul, and I suggest you do to! But if you are super into the killah killah movies, then this one, might be fun for you - it is the story of a supposedly dead serial killer coming to stalk some youngsters who were born the day he died, that is, if he really did die.

ONG BAK 3: THE FINAL BATTLE.
Action/Foreign (Thai).
Tony Jaa/Dan Chupong.
Directed by Tony Jaa and Panna Rittikrai.
* The third in this tale of karmatic, meditative violent battle.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2. ****BD****
Horror/Mystery/Thriller.
Directed by Tod Williams.
* The events in this store are not normal. They are outside the range of normal experience or scientific explanation. They’re crazy super freaky! Turn on the lights, look under the bed, get a gun, and then you can start to really freak out, cuz you can’t kill what you can’t touch.

A PRIVATE FUNCTION.****BD****
Comedy.
Michael Palin/Maggie Smith/Richard Griffiths.
Directed by Malcolm Mowbray.
* This laugh riot movie from 1984 has a plot centered around an illegally raised pig, set to be slaughtered and presented to the soon-to-be Queen. Sadly, the pig is stolen.

THE ROMANTICS.
Drama/Romance.
Katie Holmes/Anna Paquin/Josh Duhamel/Malin Akerman/Elijah Wood.
Directed by Galt Niederhoffer.
* Katie Holmes and Anna Paquin are ex-college roommates who battled over the same guy, but ha ha Katie, Anna won! And now she is marrying the lucky fellow (Duhamel) and all the old gang are gathering for the wedding. A drama kind of in the style of RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, this ensemble piece is full of young talent who evidently pull out some fine performances.

SANTA SANGRE.
Horror.
Directed by Alejandro Jodorosky.
* From the maker of EL TOPO and HOLY MOUNTAIN came this 1989 derangathon about a young man dealing with some mental struggles, the kind that come from watching yer Daddy cut off your mama’s arms! Even if she was a religious nut, it was still very extreme! Now, said young man is back with mommy, and has sort of become her hatchet man, so to speak, as together they embark on a murderous vengeful path.

SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER.
Comedy/Romance.
Justin Kirk/Estella Warren.
Directed by Tamara Tunie.
* New York love story about a woman who feel abandoned by her therapist and starts a network for other walking wounded who are angry at their therapists, too.

STILL WALKING.****BD****
Criterion/Drama/Foreign (Japanese).
Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda.
* Emotive family drama from 2008 about adult kids coming to visit their parents with their families on a lovely summer day. They are there to commemorate the loss of the oldest sibling, from an accident years ago. The film gently shows the way families change and still remain the same.

TAMARA DREWE.
Comedy.
Gemma Arterton/Dominc Cooper/Luke Evans.
Directed by Stephen Frears.
* Developed from the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, Tamara is a young newpaper writer who returns to her rural roots to help prepare her childhood home for sale.

UNMADE BEDS.
Drama/Indie/Comedy.
Deborah Francois/Fernando Tielve.
Directed by Alexis Dos Santos.
* Ah, the roaring 20‘s; not the decade, the period of life! The transition to adulthood can be rocked by many pitfalls, all-night dancing, black-out drinking, fear of abandonment, sexual options. In this coming of age tale, two separate stories of wistful self-protectiveness criss-cross just slightly in the squat where many artists are living. Axl is somewhat looking for his father who left his family when he was a small child and Vera is so deeply in avoidance of love that her latest boyfriend doesn’t even know her name. Dos Santos follows up his debut film GLUE with another wonderful capture of the joy, fear and exhilaration of early adulthood. Includes an awesome soundtrack.

WILD TARGET.
Action/Comedy.
Bill Nighy/Emily Blunt/Rupert Grint.
Directed by Jonathan Lynn.
* This remake of Cible Emovante (1993) is a classic British-style comedy with a buttoned-up solo assassin falling in love with one of his targets and then trying to avoid his angry client while traipsing around with his new friend.

YEAR OF THE FISH.
Animation/Fantasy/Romance.
Directed by David Kaplan.
* This lush rotoscope-animation sensual feast places the Cinderella story in the depths of New York‘s Chinatown. Rotoscoping is the animation style that was used to make A SCANNER DARKLY, but in this it is a bit lighter and prettier.

YOU AGAIN .****
Comedy.
Kristen Bell/Sigourney Weaver/Jamie Lee Curtis.
Directed by Andy Fickman.
* As if High School wasn‘t a nightmare enough for Marnie (Bell), now her brother is marrying her least favorite friend from that time period.

............//TELEVISION/............

MI 5: VOLUME 8.
Television/Spy.
* The British spy series where they are much more civilized and intelligent in their investigations than their American counterparts. This usually involves lots of tea breaks.

PROJECT RUNWAY: THE COMPLETE 8th SEASON.
Television/Model/Realityish.
* They are still making dresses out of spam to compete for the grand prize of a career in the industry, but…which industry?

............//NEW ON BLU/……….
AMARCORD.
Criterion/Drama/Foreign (Italian).
Directed by Federico Fellini.
* This 1973 Oscar-winning film tells the story of a small Italian coastal town and the people who live there and was based on the town that Fellini grew up in.

............//FAMILY............

CHUGGINGTON: LET’S RIDE THE RAILS.

COOL DOG.

CURIOUS GEORGE: BIKE RIDE ADVENTURE.

MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE: MINNIE’S MASQUERADE.

TOM & JERRY: FUR FLYING ADVENTURES.

............//THE REPLACEMENTS//............

AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER - BOOK 1 WATER: VOL ONE.

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