Confessions of a Pop Fan

Saturday, April 19, 2008

HAPPINESS IS A WORN PUN

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Bernard & Doris, Bob Balaban's underfed biopic of billionairess Doris Duke and her butler. Starring Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes.

* Dam Street, a Chinese film, directed by Li Yu, showing the stigma and long-lasting effects of Communism's strict moral code in the 1980s/90s on a teenage girl who becomes pregnant.

* The Pied Piper of Hützovina, a documentary on Gogolo Bordello's Eugene Hutz returning to the Ukraine.

* Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies - Eclipse Series 10, a boxed set showing the Japanese director's formative years. (Also at Criterion Confessions.)

* Starting Out in the Evening, in which Frank Langella gives a tremendous performance as a writer at the tail end of his career and facing the outer edges of obscurity.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

This week's reviews written specifically for the site are:

* Le Bonheur, another from 4 X Agnès Varda, this time a colorful satire showing one life too well lived.

* Death of a Cyclist, Juan Antonio Bardem's Spanish classic mixing Hollywood suspense with political discourse.

* Paddle to the Sea, a highly regarded children's short about the journey of a wooden boat from the Canadian mountains to the Atlantic Ocean.