Every Thursday, a triple feature rental suggestion: Fill up your online queues.
Unquestionably one of the greatest benefits of home viewing is the chance to catch up with or revisit movies that can inform features we’ve just seen or are about to in the theaters. With DVD players in over 80% of homes in the US, what’s to stop anyone from programming their own retrospectives or mini festivals? Besides time that is. Recently The Reeler, a popular film blogger, had a home viewing retrospective of all 699 minutes of Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)’s filmography. What a great idea.
Here are three rental suggestions that might make for interesting juxtapositions with movies that are now playing in theaters. Not that we all have time for six movies this week but…
If you’ve just seen Sweeney Todd (review), and thrilled to Johnny Depp’s rock star goes psycho vibe, rent…
CRYBABY (1990)
Johnny Depp plays a young rock and roller who sheds a tear –just one!—each and every day in this John Waters (Hairspray). Depp’s face was born to be on the movie screen, and the first shot of him in extreme closeup with that single glycerin tear falling down one cheek...well, it's just classic. The rest of the movie is funny, too. Incidentally Johnny Depp was dubbed for this picture even though the score is about 27,000 times easier to sing than the one in Sweeney Todd. Oh and like Hairspray before it, Crybaby is going to become a Broadway musical.
If you’ve just seen There Will Be Blood and marveled at Daniel Day-Lewis’ capitalist misanthropy as "Plainview", rent…
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (1986)
This indie hit, which wound up with a well deserved Oscar nomination for its screenplay, was one of the first glimpses audiences ever had of the now legendary star Daniel Day-Lewis. You won’t see any of Plainview in DDL’s gay punk anarchist but you’ll marvel at his range. Plus, if you’re feeling beat up by There Will Be Blood’s highly disturbing look at emotional corruption through capitalistic impulse, My Beautiful Laundrette offers up a nimble and more optimistic picture of a relationship that’s also viewed in the context of the socioeconomic and the political.
If you’ve just seen The Bucket List and thought it was shamelessly Hollywood trite, rent…
MY LIFE WITHOUT ME (2003)
This under seen Canadian feature, something of a star vehicle for actress Sarah Polley (now doing a stellar job behind the camera for Away From Her), is about a young woman with a terminal illness who makes a to-do list to complete prior to her death. Sarah Polley is more interested in other things now but for awhile she was one of the bright intelligent lights in the innumerable army of pretty blond movie actresses. If My Life… is finally too modest, specific and not universal enough to be "great" it’s still an interesting worthy watch if you’ve recently seen too much Hollywood bombast. It won’t insult your intelligence. As much as some film snobs (including myself in weak moments) may look down their noses at inspirational messaging in films, the New Year is a common time to attempt to heed the advice the movies so often impart "seize the day…" and that’s not such a bad message for any time of year, now is it?
