DVD Round-Up

Recent Feral Boy rental activity, w/ thumbnail reviews:

Gus Van Sant did not Gerry the cinéma vérité high-school skate-punk film that is Paranoid Park. It captures - accurately, I think - the zeitgeist of modern adolescence, and reminded me just a little of Larry Clark's Bully.

XXY is an impressive Argentine film about a hermaphrodite teenager at the crossroads of gender choice, and how his/her family deals with the situation. Co-stars that eerie-looking guy from The Aura.

A modern Hatfields v. McCoys tale set in rural Arkansas, Shotgun Stories looks like it was made with about a $1000 budget. Rent it anyway, Bubba.

Poultrygeist is a horror movie played for lowest-common-denominator laughs. It is one of the most revolting, and worst, movies I've ever watched. Or tried to, at least.

I have tried to appreciate Dario Argento's oeuvre, most recently with Mother of Tears. A reviewer on Netfix wrote: "I can describe this movie with only a few words. Catholic, Black magic, cannibals, boobs, lesbians, ghosts, demons, and a monkey!! NOW, take those words and put them in NO particular order and you have this movie." I had made it less than an hour into the film when disc damage stopped me, but I'd have to say that viewer was pretty accurate. I chose to not replace the disc.

I had low expectations for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but was pleasantly surprised. It is a funny, quirky romp à la Knocked Up.

Stuck (2007) is great noir - like Dead Calm, but set in an urban garage. (supposedly NYC but filmed in Saint John, New Brunswick!)

Jellyfish really impressed me. If Jim Jarmusch made entertaining films, and made them in Israel, they might view like this dreamy, multi-storied gem. BTW, my favorite Jarmusch film is probably Dead Man.

Sukiyaki Western Django = (Kill Bill + A Fistful of Dollars) X Natural Born Killers. Too self-conscious for its own good, it is ultimately an empty spectacle. Visually creative and stunning but hampered by a combination of thick accents and sub-titles. And it automatically loses one star for featuring Quinton Tarantino.

Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is over-long and yet unsatisfying.

Encounters at the End of the World is another unsatisfying documentary. Herzog shares some awesome undersea footage, de-glamorizes the notion of a South Polar visit, and interviews a few Slacker-like characters who try too hard to be deep. An unintentionally hilarious moment: Herzog is asking one of these research station employees how he came to be working down there; after about ten seconds the sound fades and Herzog's voiceover begins: "Well, to make a long story short... " I love Herzog's cinematic spirit but he's like a great college prof whose own work never lives up to his promise, and I think he would be better as an essayist.

A somewhat better film, I think, is To the Limit, the document of a pair of brothers who are trying to break the speed record for climbing the Nose route of El Capitan in Yosemite. The movie features beautiful footage of Yosemite and Patagonia, and rock climbing, but is ultimately about the relationship between brothers, and partners, and the quest for self-determination.