The week’s DVDs begin in Tokyo:
DVDs for Jan. 27 by Boo Allen
This week, we begin in Tokyo:
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (***1/2)
This excellent Japanese documentary examines the people of and the inner-workings at Tokyo’s Studio Ghibli. Documentarian Mami Sunada gained total access to roam the grounds and halls that spawned the animated classics Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and countless others. She begins at an opportune time as the studio prepares for the releases of current Oscar nominee Kaguya and 2014 nominee The Wind Rises. Friends, competitors and visionary animators Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata founded the studio in 1985 along with their in-house producer Toshio Suzuki. Sunada follows the two top animators and their teams as they sketch, storyboard and write the screenplays for their creations, all in conjunction with much younger crews. Almost by default, the 74 year-old Miyazaki receives the majority of attention. The revered master recently won an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar, and it’s obvious his concerns and worries, and, particularly, his personality dominate the studio as well as Sunada’s probing film.
Rated PG, 118 minutes.
Extras: the 33 minute “making of” featurette “Ushiko Investigates” and a brief short film.
My Old Lady (***1/2)
This mostly over-looked dramatic-comedy from last year sports a superb if limited cast and a caustic script filled with a thoughtful if sly commentary on old age. Kevin Kline excels in the main role of an obnoxious, broke, high strung American, landing in Paris to claim an apartment left him by his recently deceased father. But in the apartment, he discovers a 92 year-old woman (Maggie Smith) living there. He cannot evict her because of arcane French laws. Moreover, to compound his problems, he must pay her a monthly stipend, which he doesn’t have, to retain his rights. Kristin Scott-Thomas plays the daughter who lives with her mother and who has her own problems to contend with. Playwright Israel Horovitz directs, somewhat clumsily, from his own play, never completely opening up the farce. But he does deliver his own pungent wit and for that alone, the movie delivers some laughs and even some insight.
Rated PG-13, 107 minutes.
Fury (***)
Brad Pitt stars as an army Top Sergeant, called Top naturally, in this World War II action-thriller set not entirely inside a tank. Top heads a tight-knit crew (Jon Bernthal, Michael Pena, Shia LaBeouf) in Europe, as they head towards Berlin while meeting stiff Nazi resistance. A rookie (Logan Lerman) joins the crew, so, in good war-movie protocol, he must prove himself in battle before earning acceptance from his crew-mates. Writer-director David Ayer definitely has a dark, grim vision, even if the results reflect what is essentially a fairly standard war movie. The special effects accentuate the realistic battle scenes.
Rated R, 135 minutes,
Mama’s Family: Mama’s Favorites, season four
Vicki Lawrence returns as Thelma Mae Crowley Harper, better known as “Mama,” the 65 year-old smarty-pants who spun off from the Carol Burnett Show and then went on to entertain TV audiences in her own show for six seasons, from 1983 to 1990. The series featured broad laughs from Lawrence’s vamping, often with Alan Kayser as Bubba, or with some other thick-headed family member who wanted to argue with Mama. Ken Berry played Vinton Harper, and Dorothy Lymon appeared as Naomi Harper. Lawrence herself picked out the single disc collection’s six episodes, including the two part “Mama Goes Hawaiian,” in which Mama goes to Hawaii after winning a trip on “Jeopardy!,” complete with an Alex Trebek cameo appearance.
Not rated, 165 minutes.
Also on DVD and streaming: Abstraction, Born of War, The Color of Time, The Judge, Lakay, The Remaining.