The Wrap Up ...
Babel	Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga's intricately laced drama transported audiences across several borders … physically, culturally and emotionally. While the title demands that we pay attention to the perils of miscommunication, Babel also suggested that there might be something to the Butterfly Effect, after all. After an American tourist (Cate Blanchett) is wounded by a boy practicing his marksmanship on a rugged hillside in Moroccan, the filmmakers use the shooting a device to link the shooting to seemingly unrelated incidents in San Diego and Tokyo. A shared inability to use language as a way to make sense of complex situations complicates matters even further. Babel is graced by some truly amazing acting. Blanchett, Brad Pitt and Gael Garcia Bernal provided the star power to the ensemble cast, but it was the stellar work of far-less-known Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi -- as a stressed nanny and rebellious teenage deaf-mute -- that was honored by academy voters. Others were just as deserving. Sadly, we'll have to wait for the next edition of the DVD for bonus features, as this release is devoid of such goodies. -- Gary Dretzka
Marie Antoinette	By all the usual Hollywood standards, Sofia Coppola deserves applause for delivering such an impeccably designed and imaginatively conceived historical drama as Marie Antoinette for somewhere around $40 million. If nothing else, a good time can be had simply by savoring the plush settings -- the Chateau of Versailles, the Paris Opera and various other royal playpens -- along with costumes designed by Milena Canonero, Manolo Blahnik footwear, jewelry by Victoire De Castellane and pastries by Ladurée. There's a lot to look at here, in addition to appealing performances by Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn, Judy Davis, Steve Coogan and Marianne Faithfull (herself, a direct descendant of Austrian Count Leopold von Sacher-Masoch). As close as she comes to making the teen queen likable, however, Dunst might as well have been starring in a biopic of Britney Spears. The French royals couldn't be a more reprehensible lot, and, as the picture nears the 90-minute mark, it becomes increasingly difficult not to take sides with the mostly invisible rabble demanding their heads. Coppola does have fun with the music, adding a punk-lite touch to the soundtrack, but one would have preferred something more in line with Baz Luhrmann or Bollywood, in the way of choreography. The bonus featurettes, while self-flattering, do offer interesting background on the locations and design work. -- Gary Dretzka While some reviewers have rehearsed their chops as scholars of French history since the movie’s Cannes debut, the 35-year-old Coppola confesses she applied a “very girlie, feminine sensibility” toward a “silk and cake” world. Fittingly, when jokingly asked who made her dress, she shrugs and turns the label out for display. In an Observer profile, Sean O’Hagan described the affect well, playing “a day-dreamy, slightly disconnected but immaculately stylish waif.” -- Ray Pride
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing	Too much has already been made of the economic boycott imposed on Natalie Maines and her fellow Dixie Chicks by the country-music establishment. After Maines spoke out against President Bush and his war in Iraq -- as any American is are to do -- the musicians found their music banned from country stations, many of which were chain-owned and desperately afraid of upsetting even one unhappy listener (or FCC commissioner). Traditionally, country acts have preferred to exploit our nation's wars by turning out patriotic ditties intended less to inspire our troops than to cash in on their heroism … no questions asked. Johnny Cash was among the first to challenge that practice, on record and television. His outlaw credentials were long established, though, and it would take more than the threat of a boycott to spook him. While the Chicks refused to be intimated by threats and criticism, would-be censors were emboldened by the economic vulnerability felt by all women in the music industry. In Shut Up & Sing, Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck documented the Chicks' ordeal and ultimate survival through friendship and music. Now that the single "Not Ready to Make Nice" has made headlines for its showing at the Grammys, Shut Up & Sing is especially relevant … and entertaining, to boot. -- Gary Dretzka
The Departed The Infernal Affairs Trilogy: Special Collector's Edition Box Set	If The Departed wins an Academy Award in any of the five categories in which it's nominated, it will be interesting to see if anyone blows a kiss in the direction of Hong Kong. If it weren't for Infernal Affairs, the terrific crime drama created by Wai Keung Lau, Siu Fai Mak and Felix Chong, it isn't likely The Departed would have been made in the first place. This isn't to say Martin Scorsese and William Monahan's adaptation isn't wonderful in its own right -- it is -- just that it would be nice to hear those three names mentioned before the orchestra plays the winners off the stage. Those who may not be familiar with the films collected in The Infernal Affairs Trilogy are well advised to run out and pick up a DVD, or three, if only to gain an appreciation for how one master pays homage to another, without simply ripping him off. In The Departed, we're made privy to the prime conceit rather early in the game: Matt Damon plays the mole who's been planted among elite state-police recruits by Jack Nicholson's larger-than-life mob boss, Frank Costello, while Leonardo DiCaprio portrays a disgraced cop who finds a home among Costello's crew. The fun comes in watching what happens when Costello and police brass learn their operations have been infiltrated, and scramble to discover who's ratting out whom. In the similarly hyper-violent Infernal Affairs, the deceit is allowed to play out at a more gradual pace. The second and third installments of Infernal Affairs serve as prequels and sequels to the original. (We already know quite a bit about the backgrounds of the two damaged cops in Departed, so any sequel likely would focus on Costello's criminal past.) The Departed set offers nine additional scenes, with introductions by Scorsese; the TCM profile, Scorsese on Scorsese; a backgrounder of Boston's Irish mob; and another featurette on how growing up in New York's Little Italy's influenced the director's work. The Infernal Affairs box is short on extras, but long on entertainment. -- Gary Dretzka Finally and at last Martin Scorsese gives a shit about his indispensable moviemaking talent rather than the Oscars. The Departed is a departure from the muck of Gangs of New York and the moroseness of The Aviator, a welcome return to vulgar, vivid, visceral elegance for the 63-year-old director, and his serene, bloody confidence on the contemporary mean streets of Boston matches the exuberance he’s wrought in contemporary Manhattan settings. It’s the first picture of his I’ve fully admired since Goodfellas, a while back in the last century. Several of the major surprises in The Departed draw upon the sleek Hong Kong movie, Infernal Affairs (2002), and if you haven’t seen that film, it’s best to know as little as possible about the story’s twists and turns for full enjoyment. -- Ray Pride
For Your Consideration	While one needn't have been a dog owner to appreciate Best in Show -- or, in the case of A Mighty Wind, a folksinger -- his inside-Hollywood comedy For Your Consideration does, at least, require an understanding of the narcissism that fuels the movie industry. No matter how much actors and directors play down the importance of recognition in the form of an awards nomination, the vast majority would sacrifice a kidney for the opportunity to thank mom, dad, God and an agent in a televised acceptance speech. In For Your Consideration, the Oscar bug lights upon the cast of a schmaltzy tear-jerker, Home for Purim. It would take a miracle for any of the actors actually to get the opportunity, except for the whisper campaign begun on the Internet by brain-dead ass-kissers in the entertainment press. The primary recipients of such premature praise are fading-star Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara), actor-turned-pitchman Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer) and a peppy rising star Callie Webb (Parker Posey), all of whom are being directed by a veteran hack played by Guest. If the actors are guilty of nothing more serious than being self-absorbed and delusional, there's no excusing the crimes perpetrated by the reporters and publicists who worship at the shrine of celebrity. Also lampooned are the kinds of studio executives who would have changed turned Don Corleone into an Eskimo if it meant selling even one more ticket. Robert Altman previously mined the same rich vein of hypocrisy in The Player, rendering much of what happens in antics redundant. Still, Guest is incapable of making a movie that isn't worth sampling, at least, and the humor in For Your Consideration is broad enough not to require a translator. Then, too, he gets ample support from an ensemble cast that also features Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, Ricky Gervais, Michael McKean and Bob Balaban. The extras include commentary by Guest and Levy, 18 deleted scenes and outtakes, and a Home for Purim poster gallery. -- Gary Dretzka
School for Scoundrels If Todd Phillips' limp comedy School for Scoundrels ends up serving any useful purpose, it will be as a reminder of the British comedy from 1960 of the same name. A far more clever adaptation of the Stephen Potter novel, that School for Scoundrels starred Alastair Simm, Ian Carmichael and the wonderful Terry-Thomas, as denizens of the bogus College of Lifemanship. None of the actors in the contemporary American version are in same league with those fine actors, although Billy Bob Thornton does make for a convincing con man. John Heder, the one-note star of Napoleon Dynamite, plays a hapless meter reader, Roger, who enrolls in the confidence-building course run by Thornton's Dr. P. The professor is the kind of guy who enjoys pulling the wings off of flies and watching them flop around on the windowsill. Here, he takes great delight in sparring with the newly emboldened Roger for the attention of his hard-won girlfriend. Their war of attrition is occasionally amusing, but the gags are aimed mostly at teenage boys. Ben Stiller phones in an appearance as the long-traumatized victim of one of Dr. P's more cruel lessons in life. Not having seen the film in its theatrical version, I can't imagine what was added to the un-rated version in DVD. Maybe a few cuss words, but that's about all. -- Gary Dretzka
The Quiet Director Jamie Babbit returns to the world of high school cheerleaders and off-the-wall families in her follow-up to the black indie comedy, But I'm a Cheerleader. In The Quiet, Elisha Cuthbert is the teen queen with a deep, dark secret, while Martin Donovan and Edie Falco are her creepozoid parents. Camilla Bella plays their godchild, Dot, who moves in the home after a family tragedy. Instead of welcoming the supposedly deaf and mute newcomer, as would be expected of any good cheerleader, Nina treats her as if she were a virus. That is, until Dot figures out what's eating at Nina … then, they become co-conspirators. Methodically paced and extremely downbeat, The Quiet would have liked to have attracted the same teen viewers who enjoyed Heathers and Pump Up the Volume, although those trains left the station about 15 years ago. It is not without its seriously kinky charms, however. -- Gary Dretzka
Infamous Although both Capote and Infamous where produced nearly simultaneously, the version starring Philip Seymour Hoffman found its way into multiplexes first, effectively forcing the Toby Jones vehicle to sit on the shelf for a year. Indeed, the differences between the biopics are so minor as to be indistinguishable by the untrained eye. While Douglas McGrath's Infamous covers most of the same territory as Capote, the former expands on the wee writer's place among the gargoyles at the top of the heap of New York's social elite. This, along with Toby Jones' dead-on performance, makes the film well worth renting. He's joined by Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Sigourney Weaver, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hope Davis, Juliet Stevenson, Jeff Daniels and Isabella Rossellini. McGrath's commentary is the only added feature. -- Gary Dretzka
Man About Town One sure sign that a filmmaker has spent far too much time on the mean streets of Beverly Hills is when he attempts to convince an audience that talent agents are anything other than blights on humanity … as is Ari Gold, in Entourage. In Man About Town, writer-director-actor Mike Binder tells the story of uber-agent Jack Giamoro (Ben Affleck). One day, Jack snaps to the fact that his beautiful wife (Rebecca Romijn), a former supermodel, is engaged in an affair with his highest-earning client (Binder). Jack attempts to work out his anxiety by taking a class in writing, which also is frequented by a vindictive gossip columnist. After his vulnerability is exposed in the print, the competition attacks Jack with the ferocity of a shark on the scent of a wounded seal. None of this is particularly amusing or convincingly realistic. Nonetheless, Binder somehow managed to convince such known quantities as Gina Gershon, John Cleese, Adam Goldberg, Howard Hesseman, Bai Ling, Jerry O'Connell and Amber Valletta to come along for the ride. For Binder, Man About Town represents a huge step backward from The Upside of Anger. And, any resemblance between Affleck's performance here and the one for which he was appropriately nominated, in Hollywoodland, is purely accidental. -- Gary Dretzka
Archangel Folks who fell in love with Daniel Craig after seeing him play Bond, James Bond, in Casino Royale, will want to find the straight-to-DVD thriller, Archangel. Although the production could have benefited mightily from a larger budget, director Jon Jones found ways to keep Archangel from looking rushed and undernourished. As adapted from a novel by Robin Harris, Craig plays a British college professor who's in Moscow to investigate issues pertaining to Stalin-era repression. Once there, the historian is catapulted into the middle of a 50-year-old mystery involving diaries secretly buried after the dictator's demise. No one is quite sure what the diaries might reveal, or if they're legitimate, but the professor's curiosity is whetted by the recent murder of an intimate to Stalin and the recollections of the victim's daughter, a beautiful prostitute. Archangel offers plenty of action to fans of the genre, but the real drawing card is the verisimilitude of the setting. Real-life Moscow provides a perfect backdrop for all the backstabbing and double-crosses, while Latvia more than adequately doubles for the bleak and frosty territory north of the capital. Archangel wouldn't stand up to comparisons with even the average James Bond extravaganza, but no one is pretending the two films are playing in the same ballpark. In any case, there's a lot more to recommend here than an appearance by Craig. -- Gary Dretzka
C.R.A.Z.Y. The conflict in this interesting family drama from Quebec derives from a working-class father's inability to distinguish fact from fantasy when it comes the most interesting of his five sons. Dad is so afraid that young Zac Beaulieu might be gay -- even as young boy -- that he nearly manages to destroy both of their lives. Zac, who was born on Christmas 1960, is different than his ruff-and-ready brothers in that he's sensitive and more likely to enjoy playing with a stroller than a hockey puck. In the old man's eyes, this automatically makes Zac a fag. Mom, however, senses in the boy an almost Christ-like ability to heal and empathize with the pain of others. In fact, while Zac is conflicted by his own mysterious predilections, he's a terrific kid … albeit, one who dreads the possibility of offending his father. Along with most of the other kids in school -- and his hoodlum elder brother -- Dad misreads every clue to what makes Zac tick. Eventually, this leads to a major blow-up, and the boy escapes to Jerusalem, where he literally follows the sandal prints of Jesus Christ to an emotional rescue. C.R.A.Z.Y. overflows with ideas and subplots, not all of which are worth pursuing. It's also about 20-30 minutes too long. Still, given the period, the characters feel remarkably fresh, and writer-director Jean-Marc Vallée adeptly leavens the passion and paranoia with humor. -- Gary Dretzka
Going Shopping Long one of the most independent of indie filmmakers, Henry Jaglom doesn't seem to care very much if his work is embraced by anyone outside of a small circle of friends and slightly larger coterie of fans. His characters aren't intended to remind mainstream viewers of anyone they might know, and they exist in environments most people living outside of a few zip codes in L.A., New York, San Francisco and London would recognize or feel comfortable visiting. Going Shopping is typical of other Jaglom products, in that it's populated by rich and beautiful women who love to chat, shop, nosh and whine about their relationships with rich, unfaithful and underemployed men they shouldn't have married in the first place. Just as in Seinfeld, almost nothing really substantial happens in the lives of these people, neither are they particularly likable. And, yet, as we watch their dramas play out in miniature, Jaglom continually finds ways to keep us interested. In Going Shopping, the director and his actress/filmmaking partner, Victoria Foyt, imagine a scenario in which a Beverly Hills boutique owner suddenly discovers that her husband/accountant has managed to squander the money she had reserved for rent. Threatened with eviction, Holly enlists her over-privileged daughter in the campaign to sell enough inventory to save the business. In the meantime, Jaglom laces the story with the reflections of all sorts of upscale women about their shopping habits (a.k.a. addictions). That's about it. Broken down in this way, Shopping shouldn't be all that different from your average episode of Real Housewives of Orange County, Doctor 90210 or Melrose Place. For those who care about offbeat filmmaking, however, Jaglom seldom disappoints. Also new to DVD are his similarly talky New Year's Day and Someone to Love. -- Gary Dretzka
Wild Camp Although not nearly as accomplished as Lolita or Swimming Pool, this cringe-inducing French import Wild Camp fits easily among movies in which disaffected teenage girls use their precocious sexuality to turn older men into quivering jellyfish. The setting for Christophe Ali and Nicolas Bonilauri's erotic thriller is a campground alongside a scenic lake in rural France. Camille (Isild le Besco) is vacationing there with her parents, who enjoy the whole motor-home scene and don't really care if their daughter is bored to the point of felonious distraction. While the other girl campers prefer hotties closer to their age, Camille takes a shine to the camp's ex-con sailing instructor, Blaise. Naturally, when Camille begins behaving like a cat in heat, the adults and older teenagers assume Blaise corrupted Camille. In fact, the opposite is true. After Blaise takes a beating for her sins, the star-crossed lovers decide to steal a car and make their escape from normalcy on the open road. If you're guessing Blaise is the second coming of Jean-Paul Belmondo, you'd be mistaken. He's as pug ugly as Camille is hot, and this adds another layer of creepiness to the proceedings. Wild Camp is taut, ominous and erotic, even though the sex is relatively tame and the violence mostly implied. -- Gary Dretzka
Bicycle Thieves: Criterion Collection A Man for All Seasons Set among the rubble and despair of post-war Italy, Vittorio De Sica's heart-breaking 1947 moral tale is another one of those classic movies that today is more admired than seen. Once experienced, however, it is impossible to forget. Bicycle Thieves (a.k.a. The Bicycle Thief) tells the deceptively simple story of a desperately unemployed man whose ownership of a bike finally provides him the opportunity to work for pay. When the bicycle is stolen -- ostensibly by someone as impoverished as he is -- the man enlists his young son in an effort to recover it before the job offer dries up. Ultimately, the man is confronted by a dilemma that demands he choose between the well-being of his family and the sanctity of his convictions. Cast with non-actors and shot in the tortured streets and alleys of Rome, The Bicycle Thieves couldn't have painted a bleaker portrait of life after war. Indeed, less than three years prior to its production, the same people who were shown standing in line for food and work probably had been among the crowds welcoming American soldiers to the Eternal City. (The movie could be updated today, using the nightmare landscape of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward as a backdrop.) The Criterion Collection edition adds a hi-def sheen to the black-and-epic presentation, as well as interviews with screenwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico, actor Enzo Staiola and film scholar Callisto Cosulich; the documentary Life As It Is: The Neorealist Movement in Italy and a 2003 film on screenwriter and longtime Vittorio De Sica collaborator Cesare Zavattini; an optional English-dubbed soundtrack; new essays by critic Godfrey Cheshire and filmmaker Charles Burnett; remembrances by De Sica ands his family and collaborators; and essays on Bicycle Thieves by André Bazin and Zavattini. Also given a snappy new facelift is Fred Zinnemann's A Man for All Seasons, which, 40 years ago, walked away with Oscars in the Best Picture and five other categories. Today, the lush adaptation of Robert Bolt's play provides a reminder of just the sort of historical dramas that routinely were chosen by the academy as best representing the industry. Here, a steadfastly principled Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield) was pitted against King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw), who unsuccessfully sought the Roman Church's blessings on his divorce. Apart from its historical value, A Man for All Seasons remains quite entertaining and provocative. -- Gary Dretzka
American Hardcore F**K: A Documentary Paul Rachman's loud, yet strangely compelling niche documentary -- based on Steven Blush's American Hardcore: A Tribal History -- describes the brief period in the history of rock 'n' roll during which the American music scene was every bit as aggressively ferocious, contentious and off-putting as the one dominated by Britain's Sex Pistols, in the '70s. It seemed as concerts were staged merely as excuses for fistfights, and the only lasting contribution to the mass culture (apart from Henry Rollins) would be stage-diving. The music made by such bands as Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, the Dead Kennedys and DOA made the Ramones sound rhapsodic. It was, after all, a sound inspired by the musicians' rage against pop complacency and a general lack of interest from the music industry. Rachman suggests, as well, it was hardly coincidental the hardcore movement was book-ended by the first and second inaugurations of Ronald Reagan. It seems as if most of the veterans of the hardcore movement -- at least, those interviewed for the documentary -- have retained their sanity, memories and senses of humor. The bonus features expand on the interviews and music in the film. Once you get past the in-your-face title, F**K -- a provocative examination of the origin, impact and various manifestations of the F-word -- Steven Anderson's film is as entertaining as it is enlightening. Few words have the same power to shock as a strategically placed fuck, or can be interpreted in as many different ways and contexts. It's a word with a history and aura worth investigating, if only because it's used so liberally today in public and the media, and whose definitions range from making hard and warm love, to inflicting pain and expressing dismay. The film's pacing is helped mightily by original animation from Bill Plympton, judicious use of archival media material, interviews with comedians, writers and academics, and the occasional dirty joke. (Coincidentally, the similarly constructed Slut is being shown on cable this week.) -- Gary Dretzka
Beauty and the Beast: The Complete First Season The Hills: The Complete First Season Family Ties: The Complete First Season The Ruth Rendell Mysteries: Set 1 World War II: When Lions Roared The Last of the Mohicans The Journalist and the Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl Strumpet City Forty years after the release of Jean Cocteau's splendid rendition of the Beauty and the Beast legend, and four years before Disney's animated version, Ron Koslow created a television show that updated the fantasy and became something of a classic of its own. In the imaginative quasi-crime series, the man-beast Vincent (Ron Perlman) rescues from muggers a New York assistant DA, Catherine (Linda Hamilton), prompting a relationship that held its cult following enthralled for almost three seasons on CBS. Vincent lives among other pariahs in a wondrous Utopian society located beneath the subway tracks and skyscrapers of Manhattan. Vincent's empathetic powers allow him to serve as Catherine's protector, even as he's attempting to win her heart. No reason this rarely seen show won't appeal to another generation of fantasists. MTV's reality-based series The Hills chronicled the exploits of several attractive young adults as they braved the wilds of L.A.'s trendy job- and meet-market after high school. Prominent in the first season was Lauren Conrad, a recent graduate of the network's Laguna Beach, who landed a gig as an intern at Teen Vogue. She maintains a tough schedule, but not so taxing she can't enjoy all the nightlife Hollywood has to offer a pretty and ambitious kid from the O.C. Her other girlfriends are similarly tested by demands presented by balancing boyfriends, fashion school and bank accounts. Extras include deleted scenes, interviews, party and awards-show coverage, The Best of The Hills: The After Show. The conceit behind the wildly popular NBC sitcom Family Ties required viewers to believe a pair of '60s radicals, Steve and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter-Birney), would be required to love and nurture a child (Michael J. Fox) who embraced the ideals of Reagan-era Republicans. Equally troubling was a daughter (Justine Bateman) who had all the social convictions of Nicole Richie. For some post-Boomers, Family Ties was as iconic as Leave It to Beaver was to their parents. The concept would also be employed by Dharma & Greg. Not much in the way of extras. The Ruth Rendell Mysteries set includes adaptations of the psych-thrillers Master of the Moor, Vanity Dies Hard, The Secret House of Death and The Double, as well as a biography of the author. Among the familiar Brit actors who can be seen here are Colin Firth, Eleanor David, Jane Gurnett, Mark Frankel, Amanda Redman and Jason Flemyng. The mini-series and cable docs new to DVD this week include World War II: When Lions Roared, in which Michael Caine, John Lithgow, Bob Hoskins and Ed Begley Jr. re-enact the events surrounding the Tehran and Yalta Conferences, at the end of World War II; The Last of the Mohicans, an eight-part BBC production, starring John Abineri as Chingachgook and Kenneth Ives as Hawkeye; The Journalist and the Jihadi, which examines the parallel backgrounds of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and British-born Omar Sheikh, his executioner; and Strumpet City, a soaper that covers a broad cross-section of Dublin life in the early 1900s, when the British still controlled Ireland. -- Gary Dretzka