Susan Granger’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, Oct. 23:
Produced, written and narrated by Madonna, “I Am Because We Are” relates the heart-wrenching stories of several of the overwhelming number of orphans in Africa’s Malawi.
“Unmistaken Child” is a fascinating journey into a spiritual world rarely seen by outsiders, as a Buddhist monk launches a four-year search for the reincarnation of Lama Konchog, a world-renowned Tibetan master who passed away in 2001 at age 84.
Shallow, soufflé-light “Cheri,” set in turn-of-the-20th century Paris, revolves around a middle-aged yet still radiant courtesan (Michelle Pfeiffer) who embarks on what she thinks will be a casual tryst with a callow, foppish 19 year-old playboy (Rupert Friend), whose mother (Kathy Bates) has different plans for him. Similar to but not as good as “Dangerous Liaisons,” it’s all about the wicked game of seduction and its aftermath.
Yes, there is a baby elephant in “The Elephant King,” starring Ellen Burstyn and Josef Sommer, but it’s basically the provocative story of two dysfunctional American brothers (Jonno Roberts, Tate Ellington) adrift in an exotic Thailand.
Kids will be clamoring for the Hasbro toys featured in this summer’s box-office hit “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” starring Shia LaBeouf as a geeky teen and Megan Fox as his sexy girlfriend who become involved in the robot war between Optimus Prime and his Autobots and the evil Magatron with his Decepticons.
For Spanish-language fans, director Simon Brand’s “Paradiso Travel” is about a young Colombian couple (Aldemar Correa, Angelica Blandon), illegal immigrants who take a shot at the American Dream in Jackson Heights, Queens.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Woody Allen’s “Whatever Works” stars Larry David (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) as misanthropic Boris Yallnikoff, a recently divorced physics professor. One night, a rain-drenched teenage runaway (Evan Rachel Wood) seeks shelter in his dingy, downtown New York apartment. Admittedly dim-witted, this cheerful, dewy-eyed innocent insinuates herself into Boris’ life – until her irate parents (Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr.) unexpectedly arrive. Capricious complications occur as partners change and form amusingly unanticipated, if far-fetched alliances. Unfortunately, as with all Woody Allen pictures, the dvd contains no ‘extras.’