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"To know me is to fly with me. This is where I live." Ryan
Bingham (George Clooney) is a 21st century traveling man who has trimmed his
existence down to what can be packed into carry-on luggage, and makes his living
putting a friendly face to the traumatic experience of being downsized. Clooney
is smoothly charming yet utterly impersonal behind his easy smile and unreadable
eyes, a man living in transition until connection with a sexy and smart fellow
traveler (Vera Farmiga) starts him thinking that, "Everyone needs a co-pilot."
Beneath his existential odyssey, the film simmers with the anxieties of working
folks suddenly downsized out of their jobs and their identities, a cultural
snapshot that is funny, bittersweet and ultimately painfully, tenderly human. It
was one of MSN's top 10 picks of the year and nominated for six Oscars. Anna
Kendrick and Jason Bateman co-star.
Jason Reitman knows how to deliver a
commentary track: He's proud of his work, eager to share stories behind the
scenes, and generous in celebrating the contributions of his collaborators. He
invites director of photography Eric Steelberg and first assistant director
Jason Blumenfeld to share the track and makes a point of drawing them in to
explain their participation. Most importantly, he fills the track with
observations and inspirations and explanations that interest me because they get
to the heart of both the creative process and the production process. Also
includes a featurette on the credits sequence and five deleted scenes (with
optional commentary by Reitman). The Blu-ray edition presents the deleted scenes
in HD and includes eight more deleted scenes, a brief piece that juxtaposes
video storyboards to the finished film and a little outtake titled "American
Airlines Prank."
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| Precious: Based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire |
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Precious is the nickname of Clareece (Gabourey Sidibe), an
overweight, illiterate, pregnant teenager in 1987 Harlem whose spirit is slowly
being crushed by the contempt and abuse (emotional and physical) heaped on her
by her spiteful, selfish mother (Mo'Nique). Director Lee Daniels finds a
visceral style to make us feel her hurt, but this is a story of triumph, not
hopelessness. It's also the most polarizing film of the year. Embraced by
critics and audiences alike and nominated for six Academy Awards, it has also
been criticized as a gross caricature of slum life and a shamelessly
manipulative melodrama. They have a point, but Sidibe's performance is no
caricature, and this film has gotten under the skin of a lot of viewers. The
generous supplements on both DVD and Blu-ray include commentary by Daniels,
featurettes on the journey from page to screen, the casting and the involvement
of Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, plus additional interviews, a deleted scene
and a clip of Sidibe's audition video.
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| Capitalism: A Love Story |
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Michael Moore, America's rabble-rouser everyman of an activist
filmmaker, takes on nothing less than the entire foundation of our economy. He's
cheeky, he's outrageous and he can get awfully full of himself ("For 20 years I
tried to tell GM this day was coming. Maybe now they'll listen to me."), but he
does have a way of getting your blood up with his mix of real stories, sly
commentary, exasperating revelations and street theater. His final point is
simple: If the business culture of profit at any price and government complicity
with corporate interests is capitalism at work, then something has gone terribly
wrong. The DVD features 80 minutes of bonus material, not simply deleted scenes
and interviews but entire topics shaped into 10 featurettes by Moore, and the
Blu-ray includes an 11th bonus piece plus a digital copy of the film for
portable media players.
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| The Stoning of Soraya M. |
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The real-life story of an Iranian woman stoned to death in 1986
over a charge of adultery is dramatized in this adaptation of Freidoune
Sahebjam's non-fiction book. It puts the audience through the paces of outrage
at the patriarchy, hypocrisy, injustice and repression of women's rights in
post-revolution Iran. Unfortunately, Cyrus Nowrasteh's film has the dimensions
of an old movie thriller, offering corrupt, cruel, weak and falsely pious
villains rather than human beings who actually believe in this brand of justice.
The real outrage is lost in the melodramatic contrivances. Features two
commentary tracks (one by director Nowrasteh and co-writer Giffen Nowrasteh, the
other by the production crew) and a making-of featurette.
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| Gigante |
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A lovely little character piece from Uruguay, "Gigante" follows
a beefy loner of a security guard for a supermarket who falls for one of the
cleaners on the night shift but is too shy to actually meet her. It could be a
creepy tale of obsession and stalking but writer/director Adrian Biniez fills
his debut feature with quirky details, sweet characters and a palpable affection
for his lonely hero and the enigmatic country girl he watches from afar. In
Spanish with English subtitles. Also features the bonus short film "Dennis" from
Denmark (directed by Mads Matthiesen), a first date film about another shy
guy.
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Sean Axmaker is a film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a DVD
columnist for MSN Entertainment and a contributing writer for GreenCine.com,
Turner Classic Movies Online, Parallax View and Asian Cult Cinema, among other
publications. Find links to all of this and more on his shamelessly
self-promoting blog.
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