The week’s DVDs begin in the south:
DVDs for June 25 by Boo Allen
This week we begin in the south:
Stoker (***)
Three Australian actresses play three Southern ladies and are directed by a Korean visionary in this odd, off kilter Gothic tale loosely based on Alfred Hitchcock’s 70 year-old Shadow of a Doubt (which featured the rare screenplay by Thornton Wilder). Nicole Kidman plays Evelyn Stoker, immediately widowed by husband Richard (Dermot Mulroney). She and her daughter India (Mia Wasikowska) are surprised when Richard’s mysterious brother Charlie (Matthew Goode) turns up. He smoothly ingratiates himself into the family, becoming close, and even closer, to Evelyn and doing his best to become close, and even closer, to India. But India finds her Uncle Charlie mysterious and menacing. Always interesting Jacki Weaver plays Richard’s aunt, an officious sort who comes to warn that the avuncular Charlie may not be what he seems. Director Park chan-Wook slowly develops this sense of danger by his odd camera angles, deliberate pacing, exact settings with specific colors, and an uncanny genius to cinematically render an unstable state of mind.
Rated R, 99 minutes. The DVD offers a 28 minute “Filmmaker’s Journey,” ten minutes of deleted scenes, a five part, 15 minute “behind-the-scenes” featurette, and 21 minutes of the red carpet premiere along with a singing performance from Emily Wells, and more.
The Rambler (**1/2)
Calvin Lee Reeder wrote and directed this puzzler starring Dermot Mulroney as The Rambler, a recently released convict who seems not to have a name and who spends almost the entire film wearing sunglasses and a cowboy hat. What passes for a plot involves the Rambler stealing some money and then heading to Oregon to work for his brother. Various picaresque experiences happen to him along the way, such as being beaten twice in two street fights and having several odd meetings with a mysterious woman. In addition to her, he runs into a repeating cast of oddball characters. The film, however, eventually takes an even sharper turn into David Lynch-land, and from there, the narrative breaks down while Reeder delivers some striking images, which, while novel, do not bring clarity or resolution.
Rated R, 99 minutes.
21 and Over (**1/2)
This week’s guilty Guilty Pleasure comes, not surprisingly, from the febrile minds of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the writers behind The Hangover series. Here, they also direct their raucous tale about JeffChang (Justin Chon) who, on the night he turns 21, joins his high school friends Casey (Skylar Astin) and Miller (Miles Teller) in a prolonged night of extreme revelry. JeffChang (one word) has his medical school entrance exam the next morning, but that does not stop him from drinking himself into unconsciousness and leaving his buddies to take him home. This Homeric quest sends Miller and Casey into dangerous territories—to a Latina sorority house, into several bars, to a college pep rally, and various other spots to deliver some of the off-color gags and extreme humor expected from Lucas and Scott.
Rated R, 93 minutes. The DVD offers a four minute “making of” featurette, a three minute segment on the film’s “Tower of Power” sequence, a brief gag reel, and more.
And finally, from this week’s TV arrivals:
Web Therapy—second season
Lisa Kudrow co-created, produced and stars, as Fiona Wallice, in this series about a counselor, of sorts, who sees her patients via webcam. And she does it three minutes at a time. Victor Garber plays her often beleaguered husband Kip, and Lily Tomlin appears as Fiona’s mother. What could be static turns into a revolving menu of comedy with some of the season’s noted guest stars: Rashida Jones, Meryl Streep, Conan O’Brien, Minnie Driver, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and others. The season’s 12 episodes arrive on two discs.
Not rated, 325 minutes. The set also includes a six minute “behind-the-scenes” featurette, two 13 minute or so director’s cuts with both Meryl Streep and Conan O’Brien, a music video, five deleted scenes, a 19 minute gag reel, and more.
Rectify—first season
This intense Sundance Channel series starred Aden Young as Daniel Holden, condemned to death row for a murder. In the first episode, he leaves a Georgia prison after 19 years because of exoneration from DNA evidence. The trouble arises because he originally confessed to the crime and everyone in his small town still thinks he is guilty, including the sheriff and opportunistic politicians who exploit him and his case. Daniel’s sister Amantha (Abigail Spencer) and mother (J. Smith-Cameron) work to integrate Daniel back into society, a process that plays out over the season’s six episodes on two discs. Supremely multi-talented writer-director-actor Ray McKinnon created the series, while also writing and directing episodes.
Rated TV-14, 272 minutes. The set includes a four minute “On Set” featurette, and 12 minute and eight minute “behind-the-scenes” featurettes. Plus, eight minutes with the cast and a nine minute “Inside the Episode With Ray McKinnon” segment.
Todd and the Book of Pure Evil—second season
This sophomore season of 13 episodes, on two discs, of the unlikely Canadian hit program features the endangered students at Crowley High (and yes, that is supposed to be Alistair Crowley). The powers of an evil book plague the school and now only four of the youngsters, lead by Todd Smith (Alex House), can defeat it before it takes over the campus, with the help of zombies of course. During the season, the hazily explained book also unleashes various abilities to unexpecting recipients. With Jason Mewes, Maggie Castle, Bill Turnbull.
Not rated, 346 minutes. The set contains three separate commentaries, deleted and extended scenes, and featurettes on the musical numbers, “behind-the-scenes,” the fallen students of Crowley High, the special effects, and a blooper reel.
Body of Proof—second season
TV veteran Dana Delany returns for her third season as feisty Philadelphia Medical Examiner Megan Hunt. She feels for the dead bodies brought into her and becomes their advocate, weekly working to help track down a murderer, even if she sometimes works against the orders of her supervisor (Jeri Ryan). In the season’s 13 episodes, on three discs, Hunt goes back to work after an untimely death at the end of season two. During this year, among many tragedies and dramas, her daughter is kidnapped, and military veterans turn up inexplicably murdered. With Mark Valley as new detective Tommy Sullivan and Geoffrey Arend as colleague Ethan Gross.
Rated TV-14 LSV, 559 minutes. The set also includes a four minute featurette on the film’s cinematography with Director of Photography Patrick Cady. Plus: a five minute gag reel, and a three minute featurette with special effects master Cory Jamieson and another of six minutes on how the effects turn the Los Angles streets and sets into Philadelphia.
Also on DVD: The Call, Into the White, No, Shark, Upside Down.