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The songs, lives (real and imagined) and mysteries of Bob Dylan
provide the raw material for Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There." It's less a biography
than an impressionistic survey of the artist, his art, his cultural impact and
the mystery that still surrounds him. This is a freewheeling Bob Dylan portrait
in which his name is never spoken and his life and career are represented by six
actors representing various personas: Jack Rollins (Christian Bale), the early
folk-singer icon who burst from the coffee-house scene into the national
spotlight; Jude Quinn (Cate Blanchett), the electric, weird,
wired-on-amphetamines Dylan who riffs and fidgets through interviews; an actor
(Heath Ledger) who once played Jack Rollins in a biopic; an 11-year-old hobo
(Marcus Carl Franklin) who spins tales of his past; an aging cowboy (Richard
Gere) in a town populated by characters from Dylan songs; and a poet (Ben
Wishaw) who calls himself Arthur Rimbaud. Faced with an artist defined more by
his lyrics than his life story, Haynes delivers a song-cycle of a movie: vivid,
exaggerated, contradictory impressions of a man who confounds a culture looking
to peg him with a definition.
There is much history and myth and lyrical
references to sift through in Haynes' narrative. The two-disc DVD set offers
plenty of help. Haynes' dense commentary track dives into every scene with
insight to its origins and inspirations and fills in around the edges with
comments on the production (shot in Montreal) and a few notes on technical
details. The 42-minute "A Conversation With Todd Haynes," drawn from numerous
Haynes interviews and Q&A sessions, offers even more food for thought, while
"Making the Soundtrack" explores the creation of the musical soundscape, which
features a different voice for every incarnation. Other highlights include two
brief deleted scenes (one with Blanchett, the other with Gere) and four
alternate scenes, audition tapes for Marcus Carl Franklin and Ben Wishaw, a
gallery of trailers that includes eight takes on Dylan's classic "Subterranean
Homesick Blues" protest-music video, numerous on-screen essays about Dylan and
the film, a reprint of Haynes' original one-page proposal to Dylan, pages of
Haynes' storyboards and scene sketches, and a Dylan chronology, discography,
filmography and bibliography. All this, and optional song-lyric subtitles
too!
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| P.S.: I Love You |
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Beautiful young widow Hilary Swank is roused from mourning her
husband (Gerard Butler) by his final gift to her -- an entire itinerary of
activities, from buying a new outfit to traveling to Ireland -- that he
organized before he died. Richard LaGravenese's romantic drama, adapted from the
best-selling novel by Cecilia Ahern, co-stars Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon as
Swank's best friends, Kathy Bates as her worried mother, and Harry Connick Jr.
and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as possible love interests in her new life. Yes, her
dead husband is trying to set her up. Variety critic John Anderson writes: "As
an exercise in chick-flickery, "P.S. I Love You" wants to possess the
soulfulness of harsh reality and the lilt of romantic fantasy at the same time.
In this case, at least, it simply can't be done." The DVD includes a video
interview with Cecilia Ahern (author of the novel "P.S. I Love You"), deleted
scenes, a tutorial on how to play Snaps and a James Blunt music video.
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| Delirious |
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Steve Buscemi is perfectly cast as an acerbic freelance
paparazzo ("I'm not a paparazzi; I'm a licensed professional!") who makes his
living as a termite in the celebrity industry. He burrows through walls of
privacy for unflattering snaps of stars and scams free buffets and event gift
bags with a whiny sense of entitlement. When his unpaid assistant, a sweet and
unassuming homeless kid (Michael Pitt), gets swept into the inner circle of a
fragile pop starlet (Alison Lohman), he becomes obsessed with envy and
resentment. The showbiz satire of Tom Dicillo's comedy is a familiar collection
of absurd parodies of pop-culture entertainment and celebrity entitlement, but
the prickly story of friendship and jealousy is nicely brought to life by
Buscemi and Pitt. The DVD features commentary by director Tom DiCillo, the
featurette "Stalking Delirious" and promotional shorts among its
supplements.
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| Steel City |
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Brian Jun's quietly effective American indie flick is a
production that draws its strength from the community in which it is set and
shot -- in this case, a depressed Illinois steel town whose atmosphere
pervades the drama. John Heard delivers his loveliest and most affecting
performance in a long time as an absent father who steps up to pay penance for
his failings, whereas his apathetic son (Tom Guiry) struggles to overcome issues
of self-esteem while sliding into surrender. The complexities of the family
dynamics are nicely observed, and Jun doesn't resort to grand gestures or
dramatic confrontations to understand their lives or their conflicts. By the
time he tips the audience to the guilty secret (the closest Jun comes to a
dramatic twist), his characters have earned the spark of hope he offers. America
Ferrera, Clayne Crawford and Raymond J. Barry co-star. The DVD features two
commentary tracks (one by director Brian Jun and cinematographer Ryan Samul with
performers John Heard and Clayne Crawford, the other with just Jun and Samul),
deleted scenes, Jun's 2001 short film "For Jimmy Brown" and a stills
gallery.
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| Dans Paris |
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Christophe Honore's comic drama about two brothers co-existing
in a Paris apartment with their gentle curmudgeon of a father (Guy Marchand) is
a tribute to the freewheeling energy and youth of the French New Wave. The
brooding elder (Romain Duris) has come home to recover from a painful breakup,
taking over the bedroom of happy-go-lucky younger (Louis Garrel), a student who
spends his days using his easy charm and cheerful irresponsibility to bed
practically every young beauty he comes across. Garrel narrates his brother's
story in direct address to the camera (with a brief detour to acknowledge the
fact that he's talking to the camera), and then slips away to play through the
streets as Honore plays with the story, bouncing between the sorrow of Duris and
the impish joy of Garrel. Joana Preiss, Alice Butaud and Marie-France Pisier
co-star. The DVD features deleted scenes and "Rendez-Vous With Louis," a short
film by director Christophe Honore.
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In addition to his regular contributions to MSN Movies, Sean Axmaker is a
film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a DVD columnist for MSN
Entertainment. He is also a contributing writer for GreenCine.com, Turner
Classic Movies Online and Asian Cult Cinema, among other publications.
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On the RocksWith 'Iron Man' and 'Hancock' featuring
heavy-drinking protagonists, we reflect on the most memorable drunks in movie
history UnclassicsThough they may be listed among the
greatest films of all time, these 10 movies deserve to be
downgraded Surveying Coen CountryAs 'No Country for Old
Men' arrives on DVD, we celebrate two of America's most original filmmaking
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