Arriving on DVD this week is the recently crowned Best Picture:
DVDs for March 4 by Boo Allen
This week, we begin in the Old South:
12 Years a Slave (****)
In this recently crowned Best Picture Oscar winner, Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Solomon Northup, a free man in 1841 New York who is abducted and sold into slavery in the south. The Oscar nominated Ejiofor turns in a powerful, passionate yet unaffected performance as Northup, who documented his experiences of torture and humiliations from his various owners in a best-selling book of the time, which Oscar nominated John Ridley uses for the screenplay. Paul Dano plays a cruel slave master, while plantation owner Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) proves an even more sadistic brute. He rapes the slave women, but even his cruelty is surpassed by his wife (Sarah Paulson). The often hard to watch film conveys both the physical tortures as well as the slaves’ humiliating dehumanizing experiences. Director Steve McQueen shows a rhythmic story-telling progression, deftly using Sean Bobbitt’s cinematography and Hans Zimmer’s musical score.
Rated R, 133 minutes. The DVD, in all formats and downloads, contains the comprehensive 41 minute featurette “A Historical Portrait,” with Ejiofor narrating excerpts from Solomon Northup’s book along with extensive cast and crew interviews. Plus: the eight minute featurette “The Team,” in which McQueen expounds on his filmmaking unit, and the self-explanatory four minute featurette “The Score.”
Hours (***)
Before his November death, Paul Walker had made attempts to branch out from his narrow Fast and Furious profile. This often gripping drama may have helped his cause because it shows a range not seen in his action films. Walker plays Nolan Hayes, whose pregnant wife Abigail (Genesis Rodriguez) gives a premature birth as Hurricane Katrina shuts down New Orleans. The hospital loses its power and subsequently evacuates everyone, yet unknowingly leaves behind Nolan with his ventilator-bound daughter. But the battery proves faulty, and Hayes must crank it by hand for only minutes at a time. Writer-director Eric Heisser creates a series of inventive challenges for Nolan, dilemmas which echo Robert Redford in All Is Lost but with a little more human interaction. At times the strains show in sustaining the narrative, but Heisser mostly keeps it engaging.
Rated PG-13, 97 minutes. The DVD holds a music video and a Public Service Announcement.
Nocturne (**1/2), Roadblock (***)
Warner Archive releases two unrated, mid-century dramas from their RKO Radio Pictures library, and both have a distinct noirish feel about them. Nocturne (1946, 87 minutes) stars ever-wooden tough guy George Raft as Joe Warne, a detective who lives with his mother. But he’s no softie. When a composer, Keith Vincent (Edward Ashley), the author of “Nocturne,”commits suicide, Warne believes it was murder, a hard-held belief that lands him a suspension from police duty. Warne’s task proves even more difficult by the string of jealous girlfriends left behind by Vincent. And to complicate the investigation, Vincent called all the women “Dolores.” But Warne stays on the trail until the surprise killer is pinned. Perennial bad guy Charles McGraw stars in Roadblock (1951, 73 minutes) as intrepid but honest insurance investigator Joe Peters. When he meets and falls for Diane (Joan Dixon), he feels he must provide her with more than his insurance salary allows. So, he orchestrates a big heist with Diane’s former, mob-connected boyfriend. Before long, naturally, things go wrong. Steve Fisher and George Bricker’s screenplay may take license with Double Indemnity, while director Harold Daniels succeeds in squeezing Joe Peters for maximum discomfort.
Thomas and Friends: Spills and Thrills, Angelina Ballerina: Spring Fling
In the six episodes of the first of these two unrated kids’ offerings, Thomas the Tank and his buddies James, Stephen, Hiro and others try to be helpful but often find themselves stymied. The 67 minute disc also includes a game, a music video, and a puzzle. The second entry holds six episodes featuring Angelina and her friends Gracie, AZ, and others discovering traditions from around the world. The 61 minute disc also offers a game and a music video.
And, finally, from this week’s TV arrivals:
The Middle—season four
In this ABC series of 23 episodes, the much harried Heck family from the middle of the country, Orson, Indiana, returns in this eventful season to see Frankie (Patricia Heaton) question her career choices, Mike (Neil Flynn) further encouraging lazy son Axl (Charlie McDermott), Sue (Eden Sher) trying to get a driver’s license, and young Brick (Atticus Shaffer) still staying to himself.
Not rated, 512 minutes. The collection also includes a gag reel and deleted scenes.
Also on DVD: Girl Rising, The Grandmaster, Hours, The Iran Job, Oldboy.