Author: BO

Perhaps we were spoiled with “30 Rock,” Tina Fey’s whip-smart,
heroically silly network comedy show that recently ended its run on NBC.
Graced with ace timing, a remarkably pliable cast, and a commitment to
playfulness, the show was a free spirit that never grew old. “Admission”
is Fey’s introduction to the world of Serious! acting, and while she’s
capable of expanding her craft, this movie doesn’t challenge the actress
in a manner that’s expected. Contrived and eventually gutless,
“Admission” is boosted by a few meaningful moments and a sharp ensemble
who always seem to be aware they’re being handcuffed by a disappointing
screenplay. It’s certainly a pleasant picture, but far from the
knuckleball wit and goofball wonder Fey is typically associated with. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Waiting Room” is a documentary about health care. While a touchy
subject these days in America, it’s also a topic worth every moment of
exploration, allowing for a deeper education and a wider appreciation
for patient and medical staff. Mercifully, it’s not a politicized effort
eager to turn heads with opinions, instead treating the topic with the
directness it deserves, highlighting the frustrations and complications
that take place during an average day at a public hospital. “The Waiting
Room” is grim but enlightening, perhaps required viewing for those who
care to debate themselves blue about a crisis they’ll never fully
understand. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Christian Petzold has proven himself to be a nuanced filmmaker with a
specific interest in the heartbeat of his characters. With “Yella” and
“Jerichow,” he’s displayed tight command of mood and visual
communication, using body language to express what long passages of
dialog cannot possibly convey. Even when the material doesn’t quite
stimulate the senses, Petzold shows an investment in the life of his
screenplay, refusing to hand his audience easy answers. “Barbara” isn’t a
tightly wound story of sacrifice, yet its distance is alluring,
retaining secrets and motivations, building to a satisfying conclusion.
Petzold may not summon a gripping pace, but his concentration on the
minutiae of behavior remains riveting. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I don’t discount the importance of the message contained within “Eden.”
Taking a look at the elaborate system involved in human trafficking, the
feature is noble in its efforts to depict the horrors of prostitution
and the psychological void of its victims. However, it’s not a very
comprehensive picture, brushing by salient points of submission to
achieve a conventional arc of consciousness punctuated with violence.
There should be more to chew on with a story as horrific as this, yet
writer/director Megan Griffiths isn’t interested in the crucial details
of decay, robbing the film of necessary motivations and a lasting welt
of reality. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Tempted by the success of all things Nicholas Sparks, the producers of
“Love and Honor” attempt their own take on the proven formula, offering a
story trafficking in warm acts of attraction and nostril-flaring
moments of decision. Also mirroring the Sparks touch is the picture’s
distracting weightlessness, tackling a significant story of choice and
heartbreak with all the impact of a soap opera, failing to find the
feral emotions inherent to such a taxing series of life choices. It’s
easy enough to digest, yet “Love and Honor” is capable of much more than
predictable melodrama, though director Danny Mooney seems absolutely
determined to ease this effort into a honeyed coma as quickly as
possible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Upside Down” is a stunning visual experience spoiled by a trainwreck of
a screenplay. It’s an awful film that’s easy to watch, utilizing
intense CGI artistry to manipulate frame activity in a way that’s rarely
been seen before, out to manufacture a bizarre alternate universe of
swirling gravity defiance and megacity juxtaposition. Dramatically, the
feature goes nowhere fast, wasting the potential of the premise on
tiring clichés and absurdly earnest characterizations. Perhaps
writer/director Juan Solanas understood he had a clunker of a script,
watching him gradually downplay the story in favor of elaborate visual
effects. “Upside Down” is certainly something to see, but difficult to
sit through. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With “The Machinist,” “Session 9,” and “Vanishing on 7th Street,”
director Brad Anderson has developed a reputation for smart, challenging
thrillers that embrace the art of manufacturing suspense instead of
pulverizing the audience with cheap thrills. Well, intelligence
apparently doesn’t pay the bills, finding Anderson in command of “The
Call,” an idiotic offering of tension (co-financed by World Wrestling
Entertainment) that plays like an exploitation picture made by a man
who’s never seen an exploitation picture. With plot holes galore, hammy
performances, and an easily telegraphed screenplay, “The Call” goes from
passably engaging to insulting in a hurry, finding Anderson unable to
make the sloppily cut puzzle pieces fit, relying on moldy trends in
horror cinema to maintain pressure. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” is a great title for a promising
premise involving dueling Las Vegas magicians fighting for stage glory.
Unfortunately, the feature moves beyond the basics to beef up a sense of
character and fuel formulaic story arc ambitions, dropping its sense of
cartwheeling absurdity to tend to a tale of spray-tanned rebirth I
doubt few will be on the edge of their seats to see played out in full.
Thankfully, it’s an entertaining picture when locked on silly business,
and hilarious when the gifted cast is permitted to let loose pantsing
casino entertainment icons long overdue for such a treatment. It should
be funnier and tighter, but there’s amusement to be had for those who
can endure a few considerable comedic roadblocks. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Even with the monster success of “The Artist,” the 2011 French
production that cleaned up at the box office and took home Oscar gold,
it seemed unlikely that similar silent film endeavors would follow. The
Spanish feature “Blancanieves” is proof that perhaps a renaissance of
the lost cinematic art form is in order, returning directorial ingenuity
and blissfully exaggerated performances to the screen. It’s a humorous,
heartbreaking return to old moviegoing habits, using fairy tale
inspiration to emphasize heroes and villains while retaining a
bittersweet quality that keeps the effort earthbound, despite a sense of
humor that tends to carry the picture away at times. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Lore” is a post-WWII picture, but don’t let the relative familiarity of
the setting fool you. This is a powerful, sensorial effort to
understand the mentality of hate and its programmed origins, mixed with a
survival story set during a dark period of countrywide evaluation.
Exceptionally crafted by director Cate Shortland, “Lore” is a film of
few words but contains robust atmosphere, sifting through the pieces of
soulful wreckage with an unflinching concentration on the erosion of
routine and the bitter challenges of truth, using a quaking Malickian
visual sense of nature and intimate struggle to bring a troubling tale
of acceptance to the screen. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Stoker” is Korean director Park Chan-wook’s English language debut. A
master of the macabre, Park’s previous ventures include “Oldboy,”
“Sympathy for Lady Vengeance,” and “Thirst,” solidifying his taste for
the violent and the extreme, though he’s a very patient filmmaker,
interested in manipulating his audience with baroque visual elements and
suffocating emotional weight. Refusing to go Hollywood, Park retains
his personality with “Stoker,” a vicious head-rattler of a feature that
blends horror and raw psychological exposure, while inspecting a most
diseased family tree. Unpredictable and enchantingly outlandish, the
movie is often extraordinarily composed. Perhaps it’s far from perfect,
but the atmosphere is deliciously thick with psychosis and the
characters ideally unraveled.
Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The animation masters at Studio Ghibli are well-versed in the realms of
fantasy, routinely offering odd creatures and faraway lands to
adventurous viewers (recent efforts include “Ponyo” and “The Secret
World of Arrietty”). “From Up on Poppy Hill” returns the filmmaking
collective to reality, avoiding the fantastical and the bizarre to focus
on a tender story of human connection, feeling out a delicate mood of
thinly veiled emotions while expectedly gorgeous animation supports the
characterizations. “From Up on Poppy Hill” might initially come off as
inconsequential, yet it actually isolates what Studio Ghibli does best:
constructing an evocative landscape of vivid personalities scrambling
around a compelling conflict dusted with idiosyncrasy and visual poetry. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With “Ginger & Rosa,” writer/director Sally Potter searches for ways
to isolate the internal churn of adolescence as it’s rocked by troubles
ranging in intensity, from global fears to silent shame. It’s an
intimate story brought to life by a sharp cast, who locate the wounded
spirit Potter is looking to communicate, while the inherent burn of the
screenplay creates a welcome heaviness despite a few corners cut in
characterization. “Ginger & Rosa” is emotional and real, even when
it takes a few soap opera detours, always returning to a place of
scrambled teen introspection that’s engaging and, in many ways,
relatable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The intimacy of “Into the White” is absorbing, helping to move a
familiar story about sworn enemies along. It’s based on a true tale of
survival and unexpected companionship at the outset of World War II, and
the feature gets plenty of mileage out of tense confrontations in the
freezing cold, with a sharp collection of actors chosen to embody
national pride as it’s tested in a most unforgiving environment.
Dramatically rewarding and geographically vivid, “Into the White”
generates a satisfactory amount of suspense and personality to achieve
its limited goals, successfully spinning routine with welcome attention
to character. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s extremely frustrating to watch “Dead Man Down.” Frustrating because
there are so many bright, inventive production participants making very
dim decisions with suspense and action, turning a promising thriller
about instability and revenge into a gun-worshiping DTV-esque downer.
Teasing complexity and a sincere pass at full-bodied characterizations,
“Dead Man Down” has the raw materials to redirect steadfast genre
elements into new and interesting directions. Director Niels Arden Oplev
only manages to tease potential, strangely second-guessing himself as
he brings a crude script to life. For every step forward, Oplev takes
two steps backwards, consistently undermining the positive aspects of
the picture by remaining so slavish to its palpable stupidity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been difficult to get a proper read of Abbie Cornish as an actress.
She’s done some interesting work in pictures such as “W.E.” and
“Limitless,” but she’s not a performer who commands the screen,
preferring coolness of character and deep introspection. Often, this can
read as simple disinterest. “The Girl” provides Cornish with a leading
role of substantial weight and patience. In fact, the entire movie
hinges on her body language, with the small-scale drama uninterested in
outbursts of melodrama, instead holding to subtleties of thought and
urgency to generate essential tension. Cornish is marvelous in “The
Girl,” finally proving herself to be a formidable actress after years
spent struggling to be noticed. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After the raging success of 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland” reworking, it
makes sense to find Disney sniffing around for another literary property
open for a high-tech update. Mixing the world created by author L.
Frank Baum with the 1939 classic, “The Wizard of Oz,” “Oz the Great and
Powerful” comes into view, and mercifully, a few lessons were learned
after Tim Burton’s blockbuster fairy tale left many cold. While limping
along in a few areas of production, the “Oz” rebirth/prequel/tribute is
truly extravagant family entertainment, gifted an epic swell courtesy of
director Sam Raimi, who manages a troubling balance of reverence and
originality with style and sweetness. Obviously, it’s impossible to
touch the Judy Garland perennial, yet Raimi manages to return to this
well-worn fantasy world and find new notes to play, while retaining his
unmistakable filmmaking interests in dented valiance and spooky
developments. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com