What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:30:00 -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, wartime movies Rendition and In the Valley of Elah are also out this week. If you missed Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding starring Nicole Kidman, you can add that to your queue as well.

American Gangster
Great timing for this stirring drama to be released on DVD if you're trying to view Oscar nominees before the big ceremony. Director Ridley Scott recreates 1960s and 1970s Harlem to bring the true-life story of Frank Lucas to the silver screen. Played to eerie perfection by Denzel Washington, American Gangster follows Lucas as he comes to power in New York via a heroin drug ring. His savvy business instincts eventually put Lucas' business on par with that of the Italians, and catches the attention of one of the only non-corrupt law enforcement officials in town, Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe).

This film earned Rudy Dee an Oscar nod for her role as Lucas' mother, and has been nominated for Best Achievement in Art Direction. Special features include a taping of the still-living Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts discussing the film and their roles in making it.

Two more interesting films, so read more

Michael Clayton
Tony Gilmore, whose screenwriting credits include The Devil's Advocate and The Bourne Ultimatum, took the director's seat for the first time for this legal thriller starring George Clooney. Michael Clayton follows a corporate lawyer (Clooney) who has made a career as his law firm's "janitor," cleaning up client legal messes. Clayton faces his biggest legal - and moral - challenge trying to help a colleague (played wonderfully by Tom Wilkinson) who has finally broken down and grown a conscience. The film has been showered with Oscar love including nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.

Lust, Caution
Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee follows up his critically-acclaimed Brokeback Mountain with this thriller set in post-WWII Shanghai. Lust, Caution is part spy thriller, part haunting love story, and tells the tale of one Chinese woman's penetration into the world of a powerful Japanese collaborator in order to aid his assassination. Lee's ability to convey extreme yearnings of lust, combined with some drawn-out love scenes earned this film an NC-17 rating. Fans of this director's work will not be disappointed.

Fall Movie Preview: The Period Pieces

BuzzSugar — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 07:30:00 -0700

We may not be getting the crisp fall weather just yet, but we are getting previews for tons of movies opening in the fall. In preparation for this autumn and winter at the theaters, I've broken up the lengthy list of upcoming movies into many small themes for my Fall Movie Preview series. This way, you'll be in the know when the chillier months roll around, bringing a whole new crop of new films. For today's preview, let's go back in time and check out some of the period pieces coming to a theater near you.

Silk
One of the two period movies coming out this fall that stars Keira Knightley, Silk tells the story of "a married silkworm merchant-turned-smuggler [Michael Pitt] in 19th century France traveling to Japan for his town's supply of silkworms after a disease wipes out their African supply. During his stay in Japan, he becomes obsessed with the concubine of a local baron." Knightley plays the silkworm merchant's wife Helene. This film looks like it will be beautiful, and as it also stars Alfred Molina I'm already on board to see it when it comes out September 14.

More great period pieces coming out this fall, so read more

Lust, Caution
Ang Lee's follow-up project to his critically successful Brokeback Mountain is the much anticipated thriller Lust, Caution. This time he's trading in the lovestruck cowboys for lovestruck spies in post-WWII Shanghai. In the movie, "a young woman, Wang Jiazhi (Tang Wei), gets swept up in a dangerous game of emotional intrigue with a powerful political figure, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung)." From the trailer it seems that Lee continues to be a master of visual storytelling, every lush frame evoking passion, fear and sensuality without anyone saying a word. I'll be in line to see this one when it opens September 28.

Love in the Time of Cholera
Based on the beloved novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera follows "a love triangle set in turn-of-the-century South America, where two lovers wait out careers, marriages, affairs and deaths until they can reunite." There's an interesting cast attached to this one, which includes John Leguizamo, Liev Schreiber, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Javier Bardem and Benjamin Bratt. Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) directs. I'm surprised it took this long for the book to be adapted, but now that it has been, I'll be curious to see how it's done. Love in the Time of Cholera opens November 16.

Atonement
I couldn't resist posting the trailer for Atonement recently because the cast is just so darn attractive. Also, it looks like a successful and gorgeous WWII romantic drama. Keira Knightley and the beautiful James McAvoy star as lovers whose affair is interrupted when the young Briony (Saoirse Ronan, who is also in another movie this fall, and is set to play Susie in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones) makes a false accusation. If you haven't yet watched the lovely trailer, I suggest you do so before Atonement opens December 7 in the U.S. (or September 7 in the U.K.). Also, check out the Ian McEwan novel on which the movie is based.

Silk and Love photos source
Lust and Atonement photos source