Paramount has re-mastered Roman Polanski’s 1974 classic, Chinatown in high definition but has released it only on standard DVD, presumably to make more money when they get around to producing a Blu-ray in another year or two.
The perfect film noir, it was made thirty years after the genre peaked but with situations and themes that weren’t possible in 1944. Everything about it clicked, from Robert Towne’s compelling script to Polanski’s lean direction to John Alonzo’s exquisite lighting to Sam O’Steen’s economic editing to the performances of Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway at their very best. Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting score, which was so much a part of the film, was miraculously composed in nine days and edited into the finished product after the film was previewed and producer Robert Evans ordered it re-scored.
The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, but won just one – for Towne’s script.
The tenth film in Paramount’s Centennial Collection, the DVD package includes five brand new documentaries several of which contain interviews with Towne, Nicholson, Evans and Polanski.
Brett Simon’s first film, Assassination of a High School President is a smart, witty high school comedy in the tradition of Rushmore and Election with a little Heaven Help Us thrown in. It was a hit at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival where it was bought by Sony but never released theatrically. Its DVD release is the first opportunity many of us will have of seeing it.
Although a DVD cover blurb assesses it as a combination of Rushmore and The Usual Suspects, it more closely resembles Chinatown than The Usual Suspects in its denouement, even mimicking Chinatown’s famous closing line.
Reece Thompson stars as the nerdy school reporter who solves the mystery of the school’s stolen SATs, not once, but twice. First he is tricked into falsely accusing high school president Patrick Taylor, but when he gets too close to discovering the truth he himself is framed for the crime which only makes him try harder at discovering the truth.
Mischa Barton is the hot chick who dumps Taylor for Thompson once her boyfriend is outed as the thief. Luke Grimes is her stepbrother who becomes president once Taylor is out of the way and a very good Bruce Willis is the lay principal of the Catholic high school.
As someone who couldn’t stand the overbearing Nia Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I was pleasantly surprised by her sweetly beguiling performance in My Life in Ruins.
Reminiscent of 1968’s If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, Ruins, directed by Donald Petrie, wisely concentrates on just one country, Greece, in which out of work history professor Vardalos has become a tour guide who hates her job.
Alexis Georgoulis, Brian Palermo, Ian Ogilvy and Richard Dreyfuss are among those who make life on her latest tour bearable. The film has some genuinely hilarious moments. The scenery isn’t bad either!
A film that fell between the radar when released theatrically a year ago and again when it hit DVD shelves last February, Marc Abraham’s Flash of Genius is an interesting biopic about Bob Kearns, the college professor turned inventor who successfully sued Ford and Chrysler for patent infringement. It cost him his marriage and twelve years of his life, but who’s counting?
Greg Kinnear gives a very restrained performance as the everyman genius and Lauren Graham is good as always as his frustrated wife. Durmot Mulroney is in and out of the film as his best friend and Alan Alda has what amounts to an extended cameo as his first attorney.
The most frustrating thing about the film is that it doesn’t provide a time frame with its flashbacks and flash forwards. You have to tell by the changing clothes and car styles and TV programming that the film’s time frame runs from 1963 to 1975.
If you’ve ever wondered why some of your favorite films are available on Blu-ray in Canada but not the U.S., I can’t answer that, but I can tell you that Canada is the same region as the U.S. – Region A – so any film released on Blu-ray in Canada will play on U.S. equipment. I can also tell you that you can order them from Amazon, Ca and other Canadian retailers at comparable prices to U.S. releases.
Among the titles available are Good Will Hunting; Chasing Amy; Chocolat; The Pianist; 21 Grams; Cold Mountain; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Illluisonist. If you’ve forgotten any of those titles, her are a few reminders:
One of the best coming-of-age films of recent years, 1997’s Good Will Hunting was nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director (Gus Van Sant) and Actor (Matt Damon), andwon two – for its original screenplay by Damon and Ben Affleck and for Robin Williams’ supporting performance.
Joey Lauren Adams won a Golden Globe nomination for 1997’s Chasing Amy, a more serious than usual comedy from director Kevin Smith in which Adams is a lesbian pursued by Ben Affleck in what could have been a disaster but is instead sweet and charming throughout.
Despite mixed reviews, 2000’s Chocolat, directed by Lasse Hallstrom,received five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Actress (Juliette Binoche) and Supporting Actress (Judi Dench). The romance between Binoche and Johnny Depp may be a bit too heavily on the sweet side, but the tart performances of Lena Olin, Alfred Molina and especially Dench help balance it out.
One of the best of the screen’s many holocaust dramas, 2002’s The Pianist won three of the seven Oscars it was nominated for – Best Director (Roman Polanski), Actor (Adrien Brody) and Screenplay.
Written by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu’s, 2003’s 21 Grams is a film very much in the style of their later Babel, in which seemingly disconnected story lines merge at a crucial point. Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro won Oscar nominations for their performances.
Renee Zellweger won an Oscar for her supporting performance in 2003’s Cold Mountain, a Civil War drama directed by Anthony Minghella, which was nominated for another six Oscars including Best Actor (Jude Law).
The Oscar for Best Original Screenplay went to 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a science fiction romantic drama that won Kate Winslet the fourth of her six Oscar nominations as Jim Carrey’s object of affection.
Nominated for an Oscar for its cinematography, 2006’s The Illluisonist was one of two films about turn-of-the-century magicians that clamored for our attention that year. This is the one directed by Neil Burger with Edward Norton, Paul Gaimatti, Jessica Biel and Rufus Sewell. The other one was The Prestige directed by Christopher Nolan with Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johnasson and Michael Caine. That one, which is available on Blu-ray in the U.S. was nominated for two Oscars for its art direction as well as its cinematography.
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