Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, a solid little independent film competes for your attention with a handful of movie collections, as well as a documentary on the late John Lewis. Yes, while Guest Artist wants your time, these collections want to save you money, while the Lewis doc wants you to make some “good trouble” in your life. Read on for more about everything hitting shelves this week…
Joey’s Top Pick
Guest Artist
Jeff Daniels stars and writes, while Timothy Busfield directs this dramedy that Aaron Sorkin would surely approve of. Seeing Busfield and Daniels, both Sorkin veterans, playing with such strong dialogue is a real pleasure. Busfield films it almost like a play, while Daniels relishes the chance to have these sorts of monologues. It’s a real indie, but if you like wordy movies, Guest Artist is one to seek out! It’s my top Home Movies pick for a reason…
Recommended Viewing
Whiplash
Slipping under the radar last week was this gem coming to 4K for the first time. So, today it’s part of my Home Movies. Whiplash is a masterpiece from Damien Chazelle, who seems capable of pumping one out each time. Miles Teller is great, J.K. Simmons rightly won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and it’s truly one of the best edited films of the past 25 years. Any excuse to revisit Chazelle’s work, as well as Simmons’ Academy Award-winning turn, is a good one, but Whiplash in 4K takes the cake!
Also Available This Week
Blumhouse of Horrors 10-Movie Collection (The Purge, Ouija, The Boy Next Door, Unfriended, The Visit, Split, Get Out, Happy Death Day, Truth or Dare, Ma)
Dreamworks 10-Movie Collection (Shrek, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods, Home Trolls, The Boss Baby, Abominable)
Focus Features 10-Movie Collection (Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Pride & Prejudice, Brokeback Mountain, Atonement, Burn After Reading, Moonrise Kingdom, The Theory of Everything, On the Basis of Sex, Harriet)
Illumination Presents 10-Movie Collection (Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, Despicable Me 3, Minions, The Secret Life of Pets, The Secret Life of Pets 2, Sing, Hop, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch)
John Lewis: Good Trouble
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels: The Complete First Season (TV)
Criterion Corner
The Elephant Man
From The Criterion Collection: “With this poignant second feature, David Lynch brought his atmospheric visual and sonic palette to a notorious true story set in Victorian England. When the London surgeon Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) meets the freak-show performer John Merrick (John Hurt), who has severe skeletal and soft-tissue deformities, he assumes that he must be intellectually disabled as well. As the two men spend more time together, though, Merrick reveals the intelligence, gentle nature, and profound sense of dignity that lie beneath his shocking appearance, and he and Treves develop a friendship. Shot in gorgeous black and white and boasting a stellar supporting cast that includes Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, and Wendy Hiller, The Elephant Man was nominated for eight Academy Awards, cementing Lynch’s reputation as one of American cinema’s most visionary talents.”
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 3
From The Criterion Collection: “Established by Martin Scorsese in 2007, The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project has maintained a fierce commitment to preserving and presenting masterpieces from around the globe, with a growing roster of more than three dozen restorations that have introduced movie lovers to often-overlooked areas of cinema history. Presenting passionate stories of revolution, identity, agency, forgiveness, and exclusion, this collector’s set gathers six of those important works, from Brazil (Pixote), Cuba (Lucía), Indonesia (After the Curfew), Iran (Downpour), Mauritania (Soleil Ô), and Mexico (Dos monjes). Each title is a pathbreaking contribution to the art form and a window onto a filmmaking tradition that international audiences previously had limited opportunities to experience.”
Hard to argue with Whiplash being one of the best edited films of the past 25 years. I was actually thinking about Whiplash’s editing the other day while watching Enola Holmes, of all things. The vaguely ‘flashy’ editing in that film got on my nerves immediately and I’m like “How on earth do films like Whiplash get away with making this many cuts look so good?” Very much looking forward to seeing what Tom Cross does with a Bond film.
Agreed!