I'm a little late in blogging this week's reviews. But, you know, better late than never.
Terrence Malick's The New World opens wider this week, after preliminary New York/L.A. openings. It's not the kind of movie that should be entrusted to burnt-out weekly movie reviewers on a deadline; they're apt to describe it as "pretentious," "too long," "too arty," etc. But if they'd taken the time to really watch it, to really let it sink in, they'd find it's a masterpiece for all time, and heads and shoulders above any of the award-contenders that are currently vying for Oscar slots. It kills me to think that The New World is going to be left out, when it should trounce them all.
Otherwise, we have a sure-fire Oscar contender, the documentary After Innocence and Albert Brooks's Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, which the New Yorker summed up in one word: "excruciating."
As for new DVDs, surely one of the top releases of 2006 will be Warner Home Video's Sam Peckinpah's Legendary Westerns Collection, with the long-awaited release of Ride the High Country (1962), two cuts of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), one from 1988 and a brand new one, a refurbished The Wild Bunch (1969) to replace their botched 1997 DVD, and The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970). I also checked out Big Bad Mama, part of Buena Vista's new Roger Corman collection. Corpse Bride is still a keeper, despite the boring extras, and VCI Entertainment's The Fighting Sullivans should appease WWII buffs. Finally, Sony has released Ingmar Bergman's Saraband, my choice for the best film of 2005, with an extraordinary making-of documentary showing the 84 year-old legend at work.
Terrence Malick's The New World opens wider this week, after preliminary New York/L.A. openings. It's not the kind of movie that should be entrusted to burnt-out weekly movie reviewers on a deadline; they're apt to describe it as "pretentious," "too long," "too arty," etc. But if they'd taken the time to really watch it, to really let it sink in, they'd find it's a masterpiece for all time, and heads and shoulders above any of the award-contenders that are currently vying for Oscar slots. It kills me to think that The New World is going to be left out, when it should trounce them all.
Otherwise, we have a sure-fire Oscar contender, the documentary After Innocence and Albert Brooks's Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, which the New Yorker summed up in one word: "excruciating."
As for new DVDs, surely one of the top releases of 2006 will be Warner Home Video's Sam Peckinpah's Legendary Westerns Collection, with the long-awaited release of Ride the High Country (1962), two cuts of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), one from 1988 and a brand new one, a refurbished The Wild Bunch (1969) to replace their botched 1997 DVD, and The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970). I also checked out Big Bad Mama, part of Buena Vista's new Roger Corman collection. Corpse Bride is still a keeper, despite the boring extras, and VCI Entertainment's The Fighting Sullivans should appease WWII buffs. Finally, Sony has released Ingmar Bergman's Saraband, my choice for the best film of 2005, with an extraordinary making-of documentary showing the 84 year-old legend at work.
| :: posted by Jeffrey M. Anderson, 1/24/2006 | Comments (1) Links to this post |
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