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THEATERS
FESTIVALS & SITES
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
GENERAL TITLES
Check out our list of general titles that Video Americain Staff recommend!
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Atlantic City Buy
NOW!
In 1980, Atlantic City was desperately trying to shed its seedy
image. Sally, a seafood waitress played by Susan Sarandon, dreams
of becoming a croupier and moving to Monte Carlo. Lou, played
brilliantly by Burt Lancaster, is a small-time bookie who yearns
for bigger, better crimes. A visit from Sally's estranged husband
and curiously pregnant sister will change the course of all
their lives. Directed by Loius Malle (Au Revoir les Enfants)
and written by John Guare (Six Degrees of Separation). A must
see film that captures the glum spirit and feel of a city that
was... (Joe Tropea) |
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Best in Show Buy
NOW!
With Christopher Guest and company’s A Mighty Wind on
the way, it’s a good time to revisit their earlier hijinks.
Most people preferred Waiting for Guffman, but Best in Show
hit me like few comedies do; I’ve never owned a dog, yet
this satire of dog show contestants and their owners sent me
back to the theaters for five or six additional viewings during
its initial run. Like Guffman and This is Spinal Tap, the cast
of Best in Show improvised their dialogue from scenarios developed
by Guest and collaborator Eugene Levy, a working method that,
if we’re willing to reject the notion that drama somehow
exists on a higher plane than comedy, produces work as fresh
and hilarious as the similarly-constructed Mike Leigh dramas
are incisive and emotionally cathartic. Fred Willard owns this
one, his riffing as the dog show’s telecaster unrelentingly
uproarious. (Eric Allen Hatch) |
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The Devil, Probably Buy
NOW!
As much as any other director of the modern era, the films of
Robert Bresson developed a secret language of their own, a starkness
of motion and sound that moved the vocabulary of filmmaking
further away from its roots in narrative fiction and the visual
arts. Bresson’s career also covered an intriguing period,
beginning during the end of the Nazi occupation, preceding and
inspiring the French New Wave, and carrying into the bleak and
plastic decade that was the 1980s - all the while refining and
complicating his personal brand of filmic self-expression. My
personal favorite is Bresson’s late The Devil, Probably,
a jarring tale of disaffected youth that eschews traditional
notions of plot and character for concentration on types and
moods. Fassbinder also championed this film, and its devastating
final frames will leave no doubt as to why. (Eric Allen Hatch) |
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Don
This one has it all: guns, drugs, sultry ladies, car chases,
‘70s Bollywood funk, and two lead performances by legendary
vegetarian and Indian “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”
host Amitabh Bachchan. Bachchan, one of the world’s most
beloved film stars (although almost completely unknown in these
isolationist United States), portrays sinister crime boss Don,
who continues to elude the police with one nefarious scheme
after another. Eventually, the cops nail Don - but enlist the
help of a hapless look-alike (also Bachchan) to impersonate
Don and bring down his crime syndicate from the inside. It’s
long, the plot’s a little thin, the action scenes are
a lot hokey - but it’s got charm to spare, giving me one
of the most delightful viewing experiences I’ve had in
years. A perfect Sunday afternoon rental. (Eric Allen Hatch) |
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Do the Right Thing – DVD Criterion Buy
NOW!
The Criterion Collection is no doubt a large motivating
factor for those contemplating the switch from their VCR to
a new DVD player. This double disc set of Spike Lee’s
hot summer masterpiece comes with a ton of extras including:
a 60 minute “Making of…” documentary, audio
commentary by Spike Lee, Public Enemy’s video for “Fight
the Power” (also a Spike joint), interviews and much,
much more. After this you may just want to start sending your
paychecks directly to Criterion. Outstanding! (Joe Tropea) |
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Happiness
Buy NOW!
By far the best-renting title ever at Video Americain’s
Charles Village location in Baltimore, Todd Solondz’s
merciless dark comedy Happiness has the final word on suburban
American life, making American Beauty look like Mary Poppins
in comparison. Perhaps best seen as a perverse suburban Jersey
reworking of Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters, Solondz’s
masterpiece focuses on three sisters who have found varying
degrees of success in life, each with some major frustrations
boiling over underneath the surface. What’s more, the
men in their lives - a pedophiliac husband, a newly nihilistic
father, a heavy-breathing, prank calling suitor - set these
ladies up for some major disappointments along the road. This
isn’t a movie you can recommend to everyone, especially
given the sometimes comedic treatment of its theme of child
abuse and the remarkable number of scenes in which ejaculate
plays a key role, but open-minded people will want to see this
film, and a large number of them will love it. Brutal, uncompromising,
but with an odd, potent compassion buried deep, deep within.
(Eric Allen Hatch) |
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Inserts
Fans of Boogie Nights take note of this little gem.
Richard Dreyfuss plays a washed up silent film director, unable
to make the transition to the talkies. Secluded in his Hollywood
home making porn films and suffering the knowledge of his sexual
impotence, he receives few visitors. When his producer and his
producer's girlfriend come by to check in on him (to supply
heroin to an actress as her payment) things take a bizarre and
deadly turn. Originally released with an X rating and released
on the heels of Jaws, this is one of Dick Dreyfuss’ coolest
and most daring roles ever! (Joe Tropea) |
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Pandora’s Box Buy
NOW!
Louise Brooks' nearly artless portrayal of the amoral
sprite Lulu made her a cinematic immortal. Considered a maverick
has-been in Hollywood at age 22, Brooks was invited to Germany
by director G.W. Pabst to star in his adaptation of the Franz
Wedekind play LULU, acing out Marlene Dietrich among others.
Silent film had not quite reached its apex when sound truncated
its ascendant arc; PANDORA'S BOX is one of the best indicators
(others being THE WIND, SUNRISE and QUEEN KELLY) of the power
and majesty that silent films were finally achieving. In some
ways, it's unfortunate that the advent of sound didn't occur
just a few years later, if this is the direction in which silent
film was going. Not yet available on DVD, sadly. (Scott Wallace
Brown) |
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Satan’s Brew Buy
NOW!
Maybe the extreme and esoteric Satan’s Brew isn’t
the best Fassbinder for the uninitiated to start with - Godard
fans might try the American Soldier instead, and Ali: Fear Eats
the Soul has enjoyed a well-deserved revival in the wake of
Far From Heaven-inspired Sirkmania - but Satan’s Brew
definitely represents some sort of perverse high point in the
history of New German Cinema. Kurt Raab (one of the most dynamic
forces among Fassbinder’s cadre of recurring actors, and
also frequently his assistant director) portrays a heterosexual
wannabe poet who suddenly decides himself to be the 19th century
versesmith Stefan George, and begins living that man’s
homosexual lifestyle. A disturbing cycle of humiliation begins,
as this new identity forces grand changes upon Raab’s
relationships with everyone he previously knew - and attracts
a few new friendships formed on dubious grounds. Should it worry
me how much I love this film? (Eric Allen Hatch) |
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Secret Ceremony Buy
NOW!
A beautiful mystery, this one. Which isn’t to
say that it belongs to the mystery genre, but rather that it
operates under the spell of its own ghostly logic, never feeling
the need to articulate its carefully developed psychological
subtexts, but rather making viewers learn to trust their own
instincts. A plot synopsis would really ruin the impact this
film has, but, in its barest form, this film revolves around
two women - portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor at the beginning of
her end and Mia Farrow and the end of her beginning - both grieving
over deaths in their family. The two meet on a bus and wordlessly
form a pact to pretend to be each other’s lost ones. At
some point Robert Mitchum shows up and lecherously creeps the
hell out of everybody. One of Joseph Losey’s truly great
films, perhaps underappreciated because he isn’t working
here from a script by Harold Pinter, as he did on such acknowledged
classics as The Servant and The Accident. Secret Ceremony evokes
moods similar to Don’t Look Now or Repulsion - again,
even if it isn’t, strictly speaking, a thriller. See it
for yourself. Sadly, so far, no DVD has been issued for this
title. (Eric Allen Hatch) |
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The Silent Partner
A film that virtually defines the phrase “sleeper
1970s thriller,” 1978’s Canadian-made Silent Partner
stars Elliot Gould as a bank teller who notices a suspicious
Santa casing his workplace. Gould devises a plan to benefit
from the robbery attempt, becoming the perpetrator’s willy-nilly
silent partner. Unfortunately, said perp turns out to be a very
psychotic Christopher Plummer, who - in top form here - won’t
rest until he’s reunited with his money. It’s a
rough neo-noir with lots of little pleasures, including great
Toronto-area photography, an early supporting role from John
Candy, a script from Curtis Hanson in the days when L.A. Confidential
and 8 Mile were but glints in his eye, and impeccable direction
from Daryl Duke, who also gave us the equally intriguing, less-heralded
Payday. This one is crying out for a DVD re-release, and soon.
(Eric Allen Hatch) |
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Sweet Smell Of Success Buy
NOW!
J.J. Hunsecker (Lancaster), the most powerful newspaper columnist
in New York, is determined to prevent his sister from marrying
Steve Dallas, a jazz musician. He covertly employs Sidney Falco
(Curtis), a sleazy and unscrupulous press agent, to break up
the affair by any means possible. Bristling with “vivid
performances” by Lancaster and Curtis, this highly influential
masterpiece contains some of the sharpest dialogue ever used
in an American film. Vintage black comedy. (Joe Tropea) |
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Uzumaki (aka Vortex)
With all the attention the Japanese Ringu cycle has garnered
- due largely to Ring, the recent U.S. remake of the original
Ringu film - more people should check out the much more inventive
Uzumaki, a Japanese horror film that begins as a wacky teen
comedy and ends as an apocalyptic thriller. A Japanese village
begins to lose its residents to a strange obsession - an unhealthy
fixation on visual vortexes, whether represented by snails,
clouds, noodles, or patterns on porcelain. A pair of young lovers
pick up on this obsession and its lethal consequences for their
parents, but find themselves helpless to combat a faceless adversary
- a virus? an alien? a supernatural force? - with a seemingly
unquenchable bloodlust. Fans of Ringu should move on the Uzumaki,
and then also check out the work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation
to Akira), all films that stretch the boundaries of the horror
genre, and point to a very creative scene operating in Japan
right now. This VHS-only import is available for in-store rental
only. (Eric Allen Hatch) |
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