Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, August 15th:
In “Smart People,” a self-absorbed literature professor (Dennis Quaid) has turned his daughter (Ellen Page) into a friendless, overachieving teen. Sent to dig them out of their self-inflicted misery are his inept, irresponsible adopted brother (Thomas Hayden Church) and former student-turned-doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker). It’s a potentially provocative dysfunctional family situation that drifts into a predictable conclusion.
Paul Soter, part of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe that did “Super Troopers,” tries directing with “Watching the Detectives,” a screwball comedy starring Cillian Murphy as a repressed video store geek enticed by a mysterious woman (Lucy Liu) who delights in dangerous practical jokes.
“Confessions of a Superhero” is Matthew Ogens’ chronicle of four celebrity impersonators who spend their days dressed as superheroes, posing cheerfully for photos on Hollywood Boulevard; homelessness, addiction, humiliation and fear are their constant companions as they search for some kind of meaning in their lives.
“Brand Upon the Brain!” is a wildly imaginative, extremely peculiar concept of Canadian director Guy Maddin; it’s not only black-and-white but silent as well, narrated by Isabella Rossellini, embellishing on limited information contained on primitive title cards. And “CJ7” is Stephen Chow’s Cantonese homage to “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” as a construction worker gives his son a toy he finds in a landfill that turns out to be an adorable alien creature with remarkable powers.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Straight from the heart, Helen Hunt’s directorial debut, “Then She Found Me,” is the fresh, funny, feel-good emotional journey of a schoolteacher (played by Hunt). Following a separation from her unfaithful husband (Matthew Broderick) and death of her adoptive mother, she’s contacted by her birth mother (Bette Midler), a brassy TV talk-show host and comforted by the parent (Colin Firth) of one of her students.