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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:30:00 -0800

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to the titles below you can view Cate Blanchett's award-nominated performance in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and The Jane Austen Book Club, which I featured as one of my February Must Haves. Additionally, the Jodi Foster thriller The Brave One, which I liked well enough, is now on DVD.

The Assassination of Jess James by the Coward Robert Ford
This movie adaptation of Ron Hansen's acclaimed novel brings to life two infamous personalities of the American wild West. Notorious outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt) befriends what amounts to a latter-day celeb stalker, Robert Ford. Played by Casey Affleck who has been nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal, Ford is a man looking for fame and will do just about anything to attain it.

I enjoyed this movie, despite some awkward pacing and artifice. The visualizations of the West and solid performances make this a great choice for home-theater viewing.

It's a fun week for DVDs so read more.

Across the Universe
I once described the look and feel of Across the Universe as a shroom-induced dream set to Beatles songs, and I stand by that description. Using the Fab Four's music, a romantic plot line, and trippy visual effects, director Julie Taymor takes audiences through the ups and downs of the 1960s. The result is an ambitious, psychedelic attempt to capture a moment in time, and I give it an "A" for effort.

The burning question you'll probably have when viewing these crazy visuals is, "How'd they do that?" Thus, the two-disc DVD set is highly satisfying with all its making-of featurettes. Also, the commentary by Taymor gives great background on why she chose the '60s as her backdrop and how the Beatles inspired her.

2 Days in Paris
Julie Delpy wrote, stars in, directed, and composed the music for this comedy that co-stars Adam Goldberg. I had a chance to talk with Delpy about this film, and it was clear she has a serious interest in exploring what makes modern relationships tick. The film follows a neurotic yet lovable couple that spends two awkward days in Paris where Marion's (Delpy's) family forces them to confront their relationship issues, not to mention their cultural differences. Overall, the movie is a charming take on all the work that goes into love nowadays. Special features include five deleted scenes and an interview with Julie Delpy.

Interview: Julie Delpy of 2 Days in Paris

BuzzSugar — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 04:30:00 -0700

Julie Delpy is almost frighteningly talented. She writes, acts, directs, and composes music - and she does all four in 2 Days in Paris, one of my favorite films of the year so far. Delpy and Adam Goldberg play Marion and Jack, a lovably mismatched couple who spend a disastrous two days with Marion's family. The movie goes beyond culture-clash humor and settles in the much richer territory of romantic relationships, which is what Delpy and I talked about on her recent trip to San Francisco.

You’re really all over this story: you’re in it, you wrote it, you directed it. I’m wondering where it came from for you.
Well, I wanted to do a story about something that scares me the most, which is - apart from death or losing someone I love physically, outside of the big, really horrible stuff in life - breaking up with people. I just wanted to approach it in a comedic way, because all my life, breaking up has been horribly painful - or being dumped, even more painful. But breaking up with someone is very painful too. It's almost impossible for me. I get too attached to people, I can't hurt people. I’ve done it a few times. I did it very badly too, because I don't know how to manage, so I disappear, like I could be dead, I’m so bad at it. And when I feel that someone doesn’t love me anymore and I can see that in their eyes, it's heartbreaking.

I went in thinking "Oh, it's going to be one of those culture clash things." But it's so much more about their relationship.
I mean, the culture difference stuff is fun, but it's mostly about conflict within a relationship and how to make a relationship work. Especially with two neurotic people. Psychotic and neurotic.

They’re so imperfect together, and then that’s kind of perfect.
Yeah, yeah, I know! Adam was always worried that my character was so unlikable. He kept telling me all the time, "She’s so horrible, your character" and "my character, I don’t want to make him unlikable." And to me it was much more exiting to make unlikable characters likable. He’s always grumpy, and he’s kind of an unbearable guy, but at the same time, with all the shit that happens to him, you start to really feel for him. She’s unbearable - I mean, she snaps at people, she's flirtatious, she’s like the worst nightmare - but at the same time, she snaps at racists, at pedophiles, you know and she's in a way protecting him. So to me it was a lot of fun to take these characters that are so anti-heroes and make them into almost likable people, or at least people you follow and embrace until the end of the film.

2 Days in Paris: Perfectly Imperfect

BuzzSugar — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:45:00 -0700

I'm almost afraid to write about 2 Days in Paris, as if somehow, by writing about it, it won't be a precious memory in my mind anymore. That sounds sappy and overwrought, but the fact is, I adored this movie more than any other movie I've seen in a long time. It's possible that the movie happened to hit all the right notes at all the right times for me personally. It's also possible that 2 Days in Paris is just a very good movie. I believe it's the latter.

Julie Delpy (who also wrote, directed, and composed music for the film) stars as Marion, a French photographer with an eye defect who goes on a vacation to Europe with her American boyfriend, Jack (Adam Goldberg), a hypochondriac with a jealous streak. In the movie's first moments, you see the couple asleep on a train, she wearing a silkscreened T-shirt with a picture of a gun that is, not coincidentally, pointing right at Jack. The two of them are on their way back from a trip to Venice that, while not exactly a disaster, was not a whirlwind of romance either. Before heading home, they need to pick up their cat at Marion's parents' house in Paris - and that's where things really get bad.

Jack, who speaks not a word of French, feels marooned in a foreign land where everything is moldy and everyone has dated his girlfriend. Marion is no saint, either, having dallied with her share of men; she plays right into Jack's phobias by stroking the sweater of a fireman who comes to the apartment one morning and taking Jack to a party filled with probable exes. They're already a bickering couple, but Jack's suspicions - and Marion's egging on - propel them to quarreling of world record proportions. The "crazy American in Paris" stuff is funny, but where the movie really hits home is in its portrayal of flawed adult love, so read more

Jack and Marion seem like such a mismatch; we can sense the love between them, but their insecurities and fears keep it from coming out. Marion is beautiful and smart and funny, but she's also deeply angry; when she picks a fight with a cab driver, Jack looks like he would rather just be stranded on the streets of Paris than have to defend this crazy woman. For his part, Jack is sarcastic and neurotic and jealous, though it's not without reason. I kept wishing for them to just cut each other a break, but instead of bugging me like it would in most movies, their arguments felt raw and real. You know those fights you have with someone you love, epic battles where you're just yelling and screaming and suddenly you realize you have no idea what you're even angry about or how the fight started? This movie is like one of those fights, but with the most tender outcome possible.

The movie has its missteps; Marion's parents (played by Delpy's actual parents, both French actors) are best when dealing with Jack and Marion, not pursuing story lines of their own. There also are a few scenes toward the end of the film where Marion's ugly side gets so outrageous that I wondered if Delpy had gone too far; they're awkward and uncomfortable, presumably on purpose, but they nearly undermined my belief that Marion was a good person underneath her copious flaws.

But I can overlook those problems, because 2 Days in Paris is, at its heart, a smart, sweet, and truly unconventional love story - the kind of love story we hardly ever see on screen. It's not a sweep-you-off-your-feet romance; it's not a fiasco. It's just two fundamentally screwed-up people doing their best to muddle through, being perfectly imperfect together.

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Movie Preview: Julie Delpy's 2 Days in Paris

BuzzSugar — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:34:41 -0700

2 Days in Paris first caught my eye back in April when it screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, and now that I've seen the trailer I'm salivating to see this film. I love pretty much anything Julie Delpy touches, and seeing as she wrote, directed, edited and stars in 2 Days in Paris, she's touched this project often and much.

The movie follows Marion (Delpy) who brings her American boyfriend (Adam Goldberg) on his first trip to Paris. There, he struggles with the language, encounters countless ex-boyfriends of Marion's and learns all about the differences in how Americans and the French view sexual relationships. Delpy seems gorgeous, adorable, smart and funny... as usual.

If you're a Delpy-phile like me - and even if you're not - you should check out the movie when it opens August 10. To watch the trailer in the meantime (and to see a picture that made me chuckle), read more

Ha ha:

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