DVD Picks of the Week: August 25th, 2009

August is coming to a close and school is starting up, so check out a few ways you can spend your last week of total freedom. That is, if you have enough money left over after buying all those books you probably will never use.

Adventureland [DVD][Blu-ray]

Some weeks I struggle deciding which film to feature first, but I had no trouble spotting Adventureland number one today. The film came out back in April but still reigns as one of the best films I’ve seen all year, after titles like In the Loop, The Hurt Locker and District 9 (*Note: I haven’t seen Inglourious Basterds yet). Greg Mottola’s self-reflective 1980’s time piece plays more like Dazed and Confused for a different generation and less like Superbad, the way it was falsely advertised as, since Mottola directed both films. All for the better, I say. The film is extremely rewatchable, charming and enjoyable. It also let Kristen Stewart give a genuinely good and emotional performance outside of her Twilight spotlight. Give Adventureland a chance.

The Last Days of Disco [Criterion DVD]

By now you should know that I never let a Criterion Collection release slip past me. And why should I? With all I have to owe to the company for helping me expand my film library and knowledge with their additions to their ever-increasing collection of previously hard to find classics and under-the-radar gems, I can’t afford to let a title slip by me. This week they released The Last Days of Disco, a film by Whit Stillman. Made in the late 1990’s, the film focuses on highly educated young people living in Manhattan, just like in Stillman’s previous film Metropolitan. The comedy-drama has performances from Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale.

Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir [Criterion DVD]

Criterion’s sister project falls under the moniker “Eclipse Series” and is the company’s attempt at bundling important films by important artists at a cheaper price. Of course, this comes sans extras, something that many Criterion fanatics crave. But still, this lowers the price, and makes for an affordable package for all those interested. The series began with a collection of early Ingmar Bergman films and has stayed strong and popular ever since. Up this time around is a selection of film noir from the Nikkatsui film production company in Japan, the oldest film studio in the country. These titles all came out in the 1950’s and 1960’s, so the influence from American film noir can be found in heavy coats. I haven’t seen any of the titles yet, but I already have a few ready to go on the trusty Netflix queue. I’m most interested in seeing how the Japanese translate the typical American film noir mythos into their own yakuza-blended spellbinders. Keep on reading the blog and I’m sure you’ll find out what I thought.

Red Velvet [Amazon.com Exclusive]

I saw a trailer for this film months ago. It actually might have been over a year ago. Regardless, the film looked so intriguingly original and so downright strange that my interest was invested in the title. The film really had no release information as it was pretty low on the food chain. Just now I’ve discovered that the title is being released via Amazon’s DVD-R service, in which they do a legal burning of the film, in good quality and complete with artwork, after you order it. Now I’m not sure if I’m sold on spending $14 for a DVD-R of a film I’ve never seen before (and one that has hardly been reviewed at that), but damn do I ever want to see this film. Check out the trailer below and tell me, as a fan of original horror you have the same urge.

What else comes out this week: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles- Criterion Collection, House, M.D. – Season Five, NCIS: The Complete Sixth Season, Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season, One Tree Hill: The Complete Sixth Season, Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season, Californication : The Complete Second Season, Duplicity, Sunshine Cleaning, Lie to Me: Season One, Fighting, The Informers, Wanted Dead or Alive: The Complete Series, The Complete Billy Jack Collection, Children of the Corn [Blu-ray], Rudo Y Cursi, Goodbye Solo.

What to stay away from: Fighting. There were a lot of stupid films released this week. I’ve heard terrible things about The Informers but can anything really stop a god damn film starring Channing Tatum about fighting simply named Fighting? If only all studios were this clever. Too bad Fast and Furious wasn’t simply called Illegal Street Racing. Maybe the world would be a better place.

Catch you later.

Warning: Adventureland Not As Advertised, But Better

In the trailer for Adventureland, the booming voiceover announcer lets the viewer know that the film’s director and writer, Greg Mottola, was the director of the huge 2007 smash hit comedy Superbad. But he didn’t write it.

The stigma of being known as “the guy who directed Superbad” follows Mottola into his semi-autobiographical coming-of-age comedy about James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg), a recent college graduate, and his summer spent working at his local amusement park and chasing one particular girl, Em Lewin (Kristen Stewart).

For all intents and purposes, Adventureland is not Superbad. It isn’t the gut-busting, laugh till it hurts teen sex romp as it was advertised to be. Unfortunately, this may disappoint some looking for just that type of film. As far as I’m concerned, the end result was for the better. Instead of simply funny but not so inflicting film, viewers are treated to an absolutely delightful, likeable and resonating film. To say this is Dazed and Confused of the 1980s would be a rather fair statement.

Adventureland is a very funny film. It’s smart, witty and wise. But what makes the film work as it did are the characters themselves. Mottola gives thought to each and every one of his characters, including lead character James Brennan, who Mottola said he put a bit of himself into. The characters, and their relationships with one another, work at such a grounded and realistic level that it’s absolutely astonishing to watch play out in the dramatic and emotional way it does.

Part one, and it is an important part, of the characters working the way they do is indeed Mottola’s experiential writing. The other credit goes to the entire cast. Jesse Eisenberg is absolutely wonderful as the sometimes unsure and awkward James Brennan. Kristen Stewart, fresh off her rise to fame thanks to her portrayal of Bella in Twilight, couldn’t have played Brennan’s summer flame Em Lewin better. Stewart’s performance will probably go overlooked come next year’s award season, but it shouldn’t, as she makes the audience care more and more as the film moves towards its later romantic and drama laden stages. Adventureland undoubtedly marks the coming-out party for Stewart as an actress to be reckoned with.

What becomes increasingly obvious as Adventureland progresses forward is that the majority of the characters, whether goofy or not and whether important or not, have their own deeper set of motivations and problems. Such holds true for the character of Em, whose troubled home and relationship life is delved into. I think Sean Burns of the Philadelphia Weekly puts it best when he says Adventureland is like a John Hughes film directed by the great French new wave director Francois Truffaut. It’s so deep and emotionally touching yet charming, cool and down to earth on all levels.

Eisenberg and Stewart are aided by a great supporting cast of known and unknown talent. A constant reason of laughter can be credited to SNL cast members Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, the couple that manages the park’s employees. Hader and Wiig add to the goofy, odd and sometimes offbeat humor found throughout the film. Then you’ve got Ryan Reynolds, as the resident creepy older guy. Think Matthew McConaughey’s character in Dazed and Confused. Except married.

If you add in names such as Martin Starr as Joel, the nerdy down on life type, Matt Bush as Tommy Frigo, the embarrassing screwball character who thinks a good joke consists of punching you below the belt, and Margarita Levieva as Lisa P, the perfect girl in the mind of all the park’s employees, the film is left with an appealing and likeable mixture of characters, all who add to the film’s emotional drama and humor in one way or another, large or small.

All this comes full circle back to Greg Mottola and the extraordinary job he did in crafting this fine and rare comedy. The awkward teen comedy genre might be something we’re used to, but Mottola adds such conflict and affliction to his characters and the actors portray them so well that I didn’t care that I might have seen a somewhat similar plot about a guy chasing down the perfect girl over the course of a summer here and there before.

Amid all the recent Judd Apatow produced, directed and written films and the other typical cast of comedies in mainstream cinema, Adventureland stands out in the crowd as something else. The film invokes the passion of youth and to our amusement lets it all play out over the course of a summer inside an amusement park.

I for one am glad the film wasn’t Superbad slightly grown up as advertised. Mottola works wonders behind it all creating a funny, intelligible, smart and plain enjoyable film. I realize it is only April, but Adventureland is the first great film of 2009. It has everything a fan of the genre can ask for and more, as the film leaves the cardboard character world to develop legitimate and genuine character relationships in an active, humorous and relatable carnival world.

Hopefully Mottola’s terrific and compassionate original screenplay won’t be forgotten come Oscar time. If a film as terribly unrealistic, cliché and awful as Juno can get nominated for best picture and best original screenplay I see no reason as to why Mottola’s well-deserved efforts for Adventureland can’t be recognized either.