Susan Granger’s DVD Update for week of Fri., August 10
Robert Pattinson’s “Twilight” fans may enjoy “Bel Ami,” in which he plays a cunning, callow social climber in Belle Epoque Paris who quaffs Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Cristina Ricci like glasses of absinthe.
Winner of three Audience Awards, Justin Lerner’s “Girlfriend” is a compassionate, coming-of-age drama about a young man (Evan Sneider) with Down Syndrome who decides to use his inherited money to help a deeply in-debt single mother (Shannon Woodward) facing eviction.
In the earnest comedy “Blues Like Jazz,” a pious 19 year-old (Marshall Allman) impulsively decides to escape his Texas Baptist upbringing, enrolling at progressive Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
“Surviving High School” is a collection of four Lifetime original movies, tackling everything from drinking and drugs to prom crushes, racial equality and bullying. It’s a high school endurance kit!
Celebrated author H.P. Lovecraft’s classic tale of alien horror “The Whisperer in the Darkness” finds Professor Albert Wilmarth investigating legends of strange creatures in the remote Virginia hills and the truth that lurks beneath the legends.
There’s the 25th anniversary edition of Stanley Kubrick’s intense Vietnam War saga “Full Metal Jacket,” and Kevin Macdonald’s documentary “Marley” profiles the renowned Rastafarian reggae artist from Jamaica, one of the first musical superstars to emerge from the Third World.
“Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale” is Wei- Te-Sheng’s Taiwanese historical epic with English subtitles, reclaiming an extraordinary episode in which aboriginal tribes and Han Chinese immigrants plotted rebellion against their Japanese colonial masters.
For pre-schoolers, there’s the animated TV version of “The Cat in the Hat” and “Fireman Sam: Heroic Rescue Adventures.”
PICKS OF THE WEEK: Three family films: “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” a cautionary environmental fable, and “Mia and the Magoo” from French animator Jacques-Remy Girerd about a young girl who must overcome her fears on a quest to find her father and save the world from destruction. Last but definitely not least, the fanciful “After the Wizard,” re-introduces Oz’s beloved Tin Woodman and Scarecrow who head to modern-day Kansas to find 12 year-old Dorothy in an orphanage.