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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:30:03 -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. In addition to my selections below, you can also check out Incendiary, Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht: Season 4, and the second season of Lipstick Jungle on DVD.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett star in this curious tale of a child born as an old man, based loosely on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Using groundbreaking (and really cool) special effects, David Fincher directs this epic that follows the life of one man who grows up (and young) as an outsider.

I fell for the improbable romance between Benjamin (Pitt) and his normally-aging love, Daisy (Blanchett). Plus, when you stick both photogenic stars in gorgeous period costumes it becomes a feast for the eyes.

Special features include interviews with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, audio commentary featuring David Fincher, footage revealing the techniques behind the visual effects and makeup, and a step-by-step examination of the motion-capture process used to age Brad Pitt.

72 %

Two more up next, so read more.

Last Chance Harvey
Last Chance Harvey features two of cinema's most esteemed living actors: Dustin Hoffman plays Harvey, an aging pianist and Emma Thompson plays Kate, a woman who works at the airport. The two meet in an airport restaurant when Harvey travels to London for his estranged daughter's wedding.

They spend a pleasant day together - a surprise for both of them - and Harvey insists Kate accompany him to his daughter's reception. They are smitten with each other, but in the end Kate must decide if she truly wants to trust in love again. This movie is actually a pretty sweet pick if you're looking for something to watch with your mom this Mother's Day weekend.

Special features include the making of Last Chance Harvey, audio commentary with writer/director Joel Hopkins, and the trailer.

71%

Wendy and Lucy
Oh, man. Sad stories about dogs kill me but I still went ahead and saw this movie when it was out in theaters. The quiet little film, directed and co-written by indie darling Kelly Reichardt, effectively captures the bitter realities and melancholy that exist for those who live at or below the poverty lines, and on the edges of our society.

Michelle Williams plays Wendy Carroll, a young woman living out of her car who has her sights set on a job at an Alaska cannery. Things take a heartbreaking turn when her car breaks down in Oregon and her adorable dog, Lucy, goes missing. Williams' performance is incredible, and it's worth the doggy-related sad feelings you have to endure.

Special features include a collection of four experimental gems from the Film Faculty at Bard College, curated by director Kelly Reichardt.

84%

BuzzSugar's Must Haves for May

BuzzSugar — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:30:23 -0700

May is one of the entertainment year's blockbuster months: Big movies swoop into theaters again, TV shows have their season finales, record labels start delivering albums that will be our Summer soundtrack, and networks start getting us excited for the shows that will fill the TV schedule come Fall. So with that in mind, I tried to pick some gems for this month's Must Haves list that could easily get lost in the shuffle without a little extra attention.

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Last Chance Harvey: Realistically Adorable

BuzzSugar — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:30:15 -0800

Last Chance Harvey tells a basic, simple story of a burgeoning love and one that, in a rare instance, isn't about hard-bodied youngsters. Not so much a May-December romance as, say, October-December, it features two of cinema's most esteemed living actors in a narrative that is all the more lovable for its straightforwardness and simplicity. Simple, basic, straightforward . . . does that sound boring? Somehow, it's actually not.

Dustin Hoffman plays Harvey, an aging pianist who, having given up on his dreams of playing jazz, now struggles to remain relevant in his job composing music for commercials. Kate (Emma Thompson) works at the airport and meets Harvey in one of the airport’s restaurants when Harvey travels to London for his estranged daughter’s wedding. The two sad sacks get to talking and end up spending a pleasant day together, a surprise for both of them. Harvey had planned on attending his daughter’s ceremony and not the reception, but Kate convinces him to go - and he insists she accompany him. They are smitten with each other, but in the end Kate must decide if she truly wants to trust in love again. That's most of the story itself, now for more of my take on it, read more.

Fantastical stories make for wonderful escapism, but part of this movie's charm is how feasible it is and how relatable the main duo is. These are flawed, funny, very human characters, and because their flirtation and even their topics of conversation are so plausible, the sweetness of it all is that much more affecting.

Much of this is due to the pitch-perfect acting. I'm convinced there could be nobody else in these roles besides Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. What a pair! In the first third or so of the movie, we get to know Harvey mostly as a pitiable, bumbling old man who is desperate to remain relevant in his work. Scene after scene harshly hammers home the fact that Harvey is a relic in a constantly advancing field. What with computers doing all his work, he's not really needed anymore. So, he fights tooth and nail to remain important, which only makes him seem more and more pathetic. We need these cringe-worthy scenes of Harvey's crestfallen face and gradual acceptance of his changing purpose in life, however, so that the payoff later is more intensely sweet - when he delights in getting to know Kate, and when he starts to figure out how he might fit into his daughter's life.

Thompson's Kate, meanwhile, is easy to relate to, full of good humor and kindness and realistic ambitions. She's a very "normal," attractive woman who enjoys children but just didn't do the whole married-with-kids thing years ago. Now she's a little bit older and a little bit sad, but she's not in agonizingly bad shape. She's just going along, doing her thing, not without hope for a slightly sweeter future - much like the rest of us. She is so normal, we root for her all the more, wanting her to succeed and get the guy and have some excitement . . . because that could be any of us up there. Perhaps that is what endears this movie to me so much - it provides a true and comforting sense of hope. It's adorably, realistically hopeful.

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Screen Sounds: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis in Last Chance Harvey

BuzzSugar — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:15:43 -0800

Last Chance Harvey is a wonderfully cute movie for a variety of reasons (more on that later) and during a particularly fun scene, Harvey (Dustin Hoffman) and Kate (Emma Thompson) stop to enjoy a band playing on the street in London. The young lead singer's throaty, impassioned vocals and the toe-tapping bluesy/country sounds of the band stuck with me and I just had to look them up. Turns out it's British family band Kitty, Daisy & Lewis. Kitty, Daisy and Lewis are three siblings whose spunky covers of songs like "Mean Son of a Gun" (which is the song featured in the movie) and "Going Up the Country" take me back to bygone eras in American music. It's old-fashioned, inspired by swing, jazz, and country, but with a distinctly young sound - perhaps partly because vocalist Kitty is just 15 years old.

To check out some of their music (more available at their MySpace page), read more.

Mean Son of a Gun - Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

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Movie Preview: Last Chance Harvey

BuzzSugar — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:30:12 -0700

It can be a little obnoxious when the few movies featuring middle-aged folks finding love are melodramatic and poorly done, a la Nights and Rodanthe, which came complete with horses galloping on the beach. I am thankful when Hollywood pays attention to this age group at all, but I feel like there's room for improvement.

So it's a wonderfully pleasant surprise to see a romantic movie starring Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman that looks sweet, plausible, and quirky.

Last Chance Harvey takes place in London, where Harvey (Hoffman) has traveled to attend his daughter's wedding. Even though a wedding ought to be cause for celebration, Harvey's world seems to be unraveling around him and he meets Kate (Thompson) just as he's hit bottom (in a bar, naturally). The story looks sweet and hopeful with both of these tremendous actors sparking a nice chemistry together.

The film opens in limited release on Dec. 26. To check out the trailer and let me know what you think, read more.

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