DVD review: ‘Elena’ Sedately and methodically, director Andrei Zvyagintsev leads the viewer to a point of view that is the complete opposite of his own, in telling the story of a former nurse, now married to a rich man. The bulk of his estate will go to his daughter, a woman whom Elena (the remarkable Nadezhda Markina) views as a cold, unfeeling drug addict. From that setup, the director …
Movies opening Nov. 30 Opening Friday The Collection Dragon Just 45 Minutes From Broadway Killing Them Softly The Starlet
DVD review: ‘Jolene’ A decade later he cast a Juilliard graduate named Jessica Chastain in her first movie role as the title character in “Jolene.” A magnet to men, she winds up married to a bigamist and to an abusive religious zealot and in relationships with a Las Vegas mobster (a compelling Chazz Palminteri) and with a female warden (Frances Fisher) at a mental hospital where Jolene is …
Movies opening this week, Nov. 23 The Big Picture It’s good to be Paul (Romain Duris), a partner in an elite Paris law firm who has a beautiful wife, Sarah, and adorable kids
Blu-ray review: ‘Umberto D.’ Umberto D. One of the masterpieces of world cinema – and a supreme example of Italian neorealism at its very best – Vittorio De Sica’s 1952 classic is now available in pristine Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection. Battisti (who died in 1977 at age 94) achieved screen immortality on the basis of a single film
DVD review: ‘Secret Beyond the Door’ Secret Beyond the Door In the mid-1940s, Fritz Lang and actress Joan Bennett combined for a trio of magical film noirs that proved important to both careers.
What movies to see this week, Nov. 16 Lincoln An amazing film from Steven Spielberg featuring one of the year’s best performances, with Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, working every possible angle to pass the 13th Amendment in the waning days of the Civil War. Skyfall A good-enough action movie, but a disappointing James Bond entry, with a sober, somber, downbeat Bond trying to protect M …
New on DVD and Blu-ray, Nov. 9 Khodorkovsky This is a rather eccentric entry, the product of one documentarian’s interest and unflagging passion concerning a billionaire businessman in Russia unjustly imprisoned in Siberia for challenging Vladimir Putin’s regime. Last Call at the Oasis The latest fright-fest from Participant Media (“An Inconvenient Truth,” “Food, Inc.”) looks at the global water …
New on DVD and Blu-ray, Nov. 2 The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye Marie Losier’s remarkable documentary is an experimental, impressionistic and ultimately touching biopic film that is anchored by a once-in-a-lifetime relationship between musician/artist Genesis P-Orridge and his muse, Lady Jaye