The week’s DVD start off with the sublime THE DESCENDANTS
March 13, 2012 by Boo Allen · Leave a Comment
DVDs for March 13 by Boo Allen This week, we begin in Hawaii: The Descendants (****) Near the end of The Descendants, a middle-aged man wakes up his 17 year-old daughter’s boyfriend sleeping on the couch and asks why he can’t connect with his daughter. Why is she so rebellious and does nothing [...]
The week’s DVDs start with a retro look:
March 6, 2012 by Boo Allen · Leave a Comment
DVDs for March 7 by Boo Allen This week, we begin with some serious intrigue The Red Danube (***), British Agent (***) On Demand Warner Archives releases a pair of vintage unrated dramas filled with espionage and sinister villains. The Red Danube (1949, 119 minutes) begins immediately after World War II in Rome but [...]
The week’s DVDs begin with an Israeli thriller:
February 28, 2012 by Boo Allen · Leave a Comment
DVDs for Feb. 28 by Boo Allen This week, we begin in Israel: The Debt (***1/2) This 2007 Israeli film served as the basis for the 2011 English language film of the same name and starring Helen Mirren. The two easily compare in quality, plot, and thematically. But since this one originated in Israel, its [...]
J. Edgar and Hitchocock classics highlight this week’s DVDs:
February 21, 2012 by Boo Allen · Leave a Comment
DVDs for Feb. 21 by Boo Allen This week, we begin with the FBI: J.Edgar (***) Forget the image of J. Edgar Hoover as a cross-dressing, man-loving sourpuss. Instead, in the new bio-pic J. Edgar, director Clint Eastwood explains Hoover as a strangely tortured mama’s boy by rendering a Best Hits version of his [...]
The week’s DVDs begin 16th century Flanders:
February 14, 2012 by Boo Allen · Leave a Comment
DVDs for Feb. 14 by Boo Allen This week, we begin in 16th century Flanders: The Mill and the Cross (****) As strange as it sounds, this visually stunning film, a personal favorite from last year, from Polish writer-director Lech Majewski, actually “enters” a still painting—that of Pieter Bruegel’s masterpiece “The Procession to [...]
Classic French horror arrives on DVD:
February 7, 2012 by Boo Allen · Leave a Comment
DVDs for Feb. 7 by Boo Allen This week, we begin in France: The Cinema of Jean Rollin: Fascination, The Nude Vampire, Lips of Blood, Shiver of the Vampire, The Iron Rose. In the 1970s, French film-makers Jean Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and Claude Chabrol were expanding on their established [...]
The week’s DVDs begin in South Texas:
January 31, 2012 by Boo Allen · Leave a Comment
DVDs for Jan. 31 by Boo Allen This week we begin in South Texas: Texas Killing Fields (***) This dark authentic drama shows how catching murderers is probably much nastier than the way it is usually portrayed on television. Don Ferrarone wrote the script, allegedly based on true events, and Ami Canaan [...]
Monogram Cowboys return in this week’s DVDs:
January 24, 2012 by Boo Allen · Leave a Comment
DVDs for Jan. 24 by Boo Allen This week we begin in the old west: Monogram Cowboy Collection: Volume Two Fort Osage, Wagons West, Canyon Raiders, The Gunman, Stage to Blue River, Night Raiders, Montana Incident, Wyoming Roundup. On Demand Warner Archive returns with their second batch of these entertaining cowboy [...]
A lost Italian comedy heads the week’s DVDs:
January 17, 2012 by Boo Allen · Leave a Comment
DVDs for Jan. 17 by Boo Allen This week, we begin in Italy: Il Cappotto (The Overcoat) (***1/2) A few years after his Italian film-making compatriots forged new cinematic ground with their Neo Realist movement, director Alberto Lattuada turned out this whimsical satire based on Nikolai Gogol’s short story“The Overcoat.” But even by 1952, things [...]