BuzzSugar

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:30:26 -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.

Pan's Labyrinth
Not for the weak of stomach, Pan's Labyrinth is a mesmerizing, adventurous, grisly yet beautiful fantasy tale for adults. Set in 1944 Spain after the Spanish Civil War, the story follows young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), who goes to live with her new stepfather, the ruthlessly cruel Captain Vidal. In the nearby woods, Ofelia stumbles upon an other worldly realm where she meets fantastical creatures, like the Fauno (Pan) who informs her that she is actually a princess, and in order to return to her rightful royal family, she must complete certain tasks. Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro is masterful in his weaving together of a fantastical story and a grimly violent reality. For more details - including my thoughts on the film's remarkable sound production - check out my review. The 2-disc DVD includes plenty of special features, including featurettes on the myths of the film and production sketches.

Another good one if you read more

The Dead Girl
Also not for the faint of heart, The Dead Girl features a great cast including Toni Collette, James Franco and Giovanni Ribisi, and was both written and directed by Karen Moncreiff. The crime drama centers on the murder of a young woman and spins outward to tell the stories of several other characters. Each person's segment is like a well-crafted short story, with the film culminating in a story about "the dead girl" herself. Chilling and dark, The Dead Girl is a successful follow-up to Moncreiff's last project, Blue Car.

What 2007 Oscar-Winning Movie Do You Want to See Next?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 10:22:29 -0800

Now that the 2007 Oscars have come and gone, I am anxious to catch up on my movie viewing! Though I've seen most of the winners, there are a few Oscar movies I missed.

What 2007 Oscar winner have you not seen that you really want to see next?

Link Time! 2/22

BuzzSugar — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:09:07 -0800

Stereogum presents the winners of its bald Britney Photoshopping contest.
While Best Week Ever posts a pitch-perfect Spears music-video parody.
And Popwatch tells us that Craig Ferguson refuses kick Britney while she's down.
Mourning "The OC"? The TV Addict rounds up "OCbituaries" from around the Web.
My Old Kentucky Blog posts an astounding number of covers of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."
I can't stop laughing at this "Heroes" parody called "Zeroes" on GiggleSugar, while TV Squad imagines how the cast's "Larry King Live" interview will go.
Film Rotation ponders the possibility of Casino Royale beauty Eva Green playing Wonder Woman.
PopCandy asks: Which TV characters drive you nuts?
Film Experience thinks Pan’s Labyrinth has a shot at sweeping its Oscar nominations. Fingers crossed!
TV with MeeVee has the scoop on auditions for a new reality show about celebrity impersonators.
I Guess I'm Floating features a Rosie Thomas duet with Sufjan Stevens.
StinkyLuLu perfectly sums up my conflicted feelings about Jennifer Hudson’s Dreamgirls performance and Oscar nomination.

Pan's Labyrinth: Gruesome and Amazing

BuzzSugar — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 08:30:45 -0800

Pan’s Labyrinth has been marketed as a “fairy tale for adults,” and perhaps for lack of other categorization, it is. It has fanciful elements that could be compared to stories by Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, but this tale is even darker and more gruesome than many adult stories - fairy tale or otherwise. What it certainly is NOT is a fairy tale for children, though the previews can be slightly misleading. If you've considered bringing a child or even a squeamish adult to this movie, don't. If I saw this movie as a child, I would have never slept again, and I may actually have that problem now.

The film is unbelievably gory and disgusting, yet it is also one of the most wonderful movies I’ve seen in a long time. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, who brought us Hellboy and Blade II, the Spanish-language movie is a fantasy that unfolds in a very real and frightening setting: Franco’s post-Spanish Civil War Spain, 1944. A sense of darkness and desperation permeates the entire film, but it is really a story about a little girl’s journey towards hope, so

Ivana Baquero plays Ofelia, a dreamy young girl who travels with her mother to live with Ofelia's new stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez), at his military outpost in the countryside. The Captain is a coldhearted, ruthlessly cruel man, surrounded by people who live in fear of him. Meanwhile, a group of revolutionaries hiding in the woods are plotting Captain Vidal's downfall. Ofelia tries to stay by her mother, Carmen (Adriana Gil), who is enduring a very difficult pregnancy. Afraid and lonely, Ofelia wanders in the forest near the outpost and discovers an ancient labyrinth. There she meets the “Fauno,” or Pan, a large satyr with a deep voice, at times comforting and then fierce. He informs her that she is actually a princess and that her regal father has been searching for her for ages. In order to get back to her rightful family, she must complete certain tasks dictated by the Fauno. Reality, however, has other things in store, and the rest of the film alternates between the terrifying “real world” unfolding in the Captain’s home and the “other world” where she desperately works toward completing her tasks.

The “other world” is by turns enchanting and horrifying. Yes, there are darling little fairies that flit about Ofelia’s head, but there is also a bloody-fingered monster with eyeballs on his palms who rips the heads off fairies and noisily chomps their bloody skulls. When Ofelia, covered in roach-like insects, encounters a giant frog who literally throws himself up along with his gelatinous innards, I felt like I might just do the same.

The sound design on this movie is remarkable. Every flutter of fairy wings, every singed-paper sound from the Captain's cigarette, and especially the deep timbre of the Fauno’s voice are crisp and clear to a stunning degree. This also means, however, that during a bludgeoning scene, we can hear the process it goes from dull thudding to the wet crunch of bones and blood.

If we were to indeed lump this story into the genre in which Lord of the Rings reigns, there is a key, notable difference: The likes of LOTR or other fantasy stories generally focus on male protagonists who go on adventures to accomplish things, while females are largely irrelevant, thrown in as mild love interests or the harbingers of some message. This story, while grim and macabre, is also beautiful, and the characters who exhibit the most bravery, sacrifice, and cleverness are female. Dark and dismal as Pan's Labyrinth is, the golden thread of Ofelia's determination throughout the plot is unmistakable, and in the end, it is ultimately the story of a little girl who grittily fights her way toward hope and light.

Movie Preview: Pan's Labyrinth

BuzzSugar — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:03:11 -0800

Pan's Labyrinth opens in limited release today, and already the dark fantastical film is earning accolades and award nominations left and right. (Tune in on Tuesday for my review!) Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, the Mexican filmmaker who brought us Hellboy, the haunting but stunning movie tells two stories: a reality set during the Spanish Civil War and a haunting fairy tale. Check out the trailer below.