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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:30:07 -0700

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.

Confessions of a Shopaholic
Sometimes I just want to stick in a funny, feel-good movie about someone who learns a lesson and finds love. Even if said movie is about excessive shopping and comes in the midst of hard economic times, it can be a welcome bit of escapism. Plus, Isla Fisher is really funny and I like seeing her in a starring role.

Confessions of a Shopaholic follows Rebecca (Fisher), a woman with an addiction to shopping who dreams of writing for a fashion magazine. Instead of fashion, Rebecca winds up writing for a financial magazine - and she's surprisingly good at it. Eventually, though, she spends more than she earns and comes very close to losing everything, including her best friend (Krysten Ritter) and her adorable love interest played by Hugh Dancy. Joan Cusack and John Goodman also star as Rebecca's parents.

Special features include bloopers, deleted scenes and a "Stuck With Each Other" music video by Shontelle featuring Akon.

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Two more up next, so read more.

Waltz With Bashir
An animated drama from Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman, Waltz With Bashir was nominated for an Oscar this year in the Best Foreign Language Film category. I have been really looking forward to this one coming out on DVD.

The story is an autobiographical account of life during wartime and follows a 1982 Israeli Lebanon War veteran who begins to recover lost memories of his role in a massacre of Palestinian civilians inside a refugee camp. The animation looks completely stunning and the story sounds riveting. You'll definitely want to add this to your queue.

Special features include commentary with director Ari Folman, a featurette titled, "Surreal soldiers: making Waltz with Bashir," a Q&A with Ari Folman, and a behind-the-scenes look at animatics.

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Phoebe in Wonderland
I have been talking about this movie for a long time - ever since I went to Sundance in 2008 (but didn't catch a screening of it, boo). So, yay! Now it's out on DVD and we can all finally watch it. The movie looks like a darkly whimsical and cute film about the incredible imagination of a little girl.

That girl is Phoebe (played by Elle Fanning), who is obsessed with a powerful fantasy life. She has trouble with her rule-filled world, and finds relief and inspiration in her quirky teacher (Patricia Clarkson). Felicity Huffman and Bill Pullman play Phoebe's frustrated parents. I think I'm drawn to this movie for the same reasons the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are nearly had me in tears.

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Movie Preview: Phoebe in Wonderland

BuzzSugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:30:57 -0700

One of my saddest moments at Sundance this year was not being able to get into a screening of Phoebe in Wonderland, which looks like a darkly whimsical, adorably bizarre film all about the incredible imagination of a little girl. The girl at the heart of it is Phoebe (played by Elle Fanning), who is talented, gifted, and obsessed with a powerful fantasy life. She has trouble with her rule-filled world, and finds relief and inspiration in her quirky teacher (Patricia Clarkson). Felicity Huffman and Bill Pullman play Phoebe's frustrated parents.

We already got a tiny taste of the movie, which opens in limited release Sept. 12, and this new trailer for it makes me a little weepy (perhaps it's the use of both "Everybody Hurts" by REM and "Imagine"). To see it for yourself, read more.

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Sundance Spotlight: Phoebe in Wonderland

BuzzSugar — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:30:00 -0800

I am so thrilled to go to Sundance this year, and I can't wait to see as many movies as possible while I'm out there! For the next few days I'll be highlighting some of the films I'm most curious to see. Today's spotlight: Phoebe in Wonderland.

Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, and Patricia Clarkson come together in Phoebe in Wonderland, what looks like a tender childhood drama all about that period of time during one's youth when it's painful to accept that the real world is, sadly, nothing like a fairy tale. The plot description states, "Confounded by her clashes with the rule-obsessed world around her, Phoebe (Fanning) seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher (Clarkson), even as her brilliant but anguished mother (Huffman) looks to Phoebe herself for inspiration."

You can check out a scene from Phoebe in Wonderland in which this brilliant/anguished mother has a heart-to-heart with her daughter if you read more.

Bauer-Griffin