Video releases - 9/29/09

September 29, 3:31 PMSF Film Industry ExaminerDennis Willis

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This week on DVD ...

 Something for everyone!  We're talking monsters, aliens, a pregnant couple searching for a home, a high-priced call girl running from hers, and Kevin Spacey as a messed-up shrink.

AWAY WE GO (2009)
John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Allison Janney, Catherine O'Hara, Melanie Lynskey, Chris Messina
SCR: Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida / DIR: Sam Mendes
R / 1:38 / BOX: $8,865,155
An expectant couple, Burt and Verona (Krasinski and Rudolph), travel the U.S. in search of the perfect place to put down roots.  Their adventures take them down a laundry list of family and friends scattered across the land and it’s through their eyes that we see varying results on the American endgame of getting married and having a family. Although the movie’s tone slides around, the performances are earthy and credible: O'Hara and Daniels are Krazinski’s selfish parents; co-worker Janney is brittle and controlling; Lynskey is a college friend who, with her partner, has adopted a rainbow coalition of kids and wears her choices on her entire body.  Perhaps the biggest surprise is just how adept comedian Rudolph is at handling dramatic scenes, but it shouldn’t be.  Just take a look at how deeply committed she’s been to any five-minute SNL skit. Mendes, who previously directed American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, isn’t a huge fan of suburbia but, instead of pointing out the problem, he seems to be searching for a solution. Married San Francisco screenwriters Eggers and Vida cut through the acidity with sudden moments of earnestness. Verona and Burt aren’t struggling to become grown-ups.  They just want to make sure they will be good parents.  And who can’t relate to that?   (Focus Features)

GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, THE (2009)
Sasha Grey, Christopher Santos, Peter Zizzo, Timothy J. Cox, Jeff Grossman, Bill Dow, Bridget Storm, Ken Myers, Ted Jessup
SCR: Brian Koppelman, David Levien
DIR: Steven Soderbergh
R / 1:17
www.girlfriendexperiencefilm.com
Soderbergh’s interesting low-budget experiment features porn star Grey as a high-priced call girl.  “Girlfriend Experience” is the term for when an escort goes above and beyond the call of duty to create a very intimate and personal environment for the client (kissing, cuddling, talking, etc.).  But there is not a lot of that in this film. And although Grey certainly has the street cred for such a thing, one would also expect at least a little high-class naughtiness, but there’s none of that either. Much of the sparse plot (that unfolds in a non-linear structure with improvised dialogue) has to do with our enterprising young heroine as she attempts to make more money – through endorsements, websites, even by considering a sleazy offer to ply her trade in Dubai.  You’d also think with all the chatter about the economy in this film that there might be an exploration of how hard times affect the world’s oldest profession.  Or why she would suddenly want out of a relationship in which her boyfriend has no problem with what she does to roll the dice on a married guy she recently met.  Or how she balances the whole “girlfriend experience” thing with relationship intimacy.  Unfortunately, Soderbergh’s movie isn’t nearly as engaging or stimulating as the half dozen scenarios I thought of while watching it.  This was Soderbergh’s second film (following Bubble) to be released simultaneously in theaters, on DVD and on the TV network HDNet.  Further blurring the distribution model that collapses all windows together, Amazon officially began offering the film as a “pre-theatrical rental” on May 1, 2009. (Magnolia)

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS (2009)   
Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Kiefer Sutherland, Paul Rudd
PG / 1:34 / BOX: $187,551,681
www.monstersvsaliens.com
What if all the classic B-movie creatures from the 1950’s got together to stop an alien threat?  This is a superficially entertaining animated film with nods to The Blob, the Creature from the Black Lagoon (a half-fish, half-ape called The Missing Link), the Fly (now he’s called Dr. Cockroach) and the 50-foot Woman (except she’s now 49 feet, 11 inches called Ginormica).  A movie like this is all about the tiny details, because the humor and action is a given. Witherspoon (as Ginormica) and Rogen (as a gelatinous blob with no brain) are great but it’s the vast supporting cast that steals the show: Colbert, Tambor and Sutherland as, ahem, General W.R. Monger. Oh, and why does San Francisco get destroyed all the time? ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT REDUX: As the Missing Link, Arnett almost seems to be reprising his role as the cocky empty-headed Job Bluth II.  His Arrested father Jeffrey Tambor is among the many star voices.  (DreamWorks)

SHRINK (2009)
Kevin Spacey,  Saffron Burrows, Keke Palmer, Dallas Roberts, Pell James, Jack Huston, Mark Webber, Robert Loggia, Laura Ramsey, Robin Williams (uncredited)
SCR: Thomas Moffett
DIR: Jonas Pate
R / 1:50 / RELEASE: 7/24/09
Spacey plays it dark (and scruffy) as a Hollywood psychiatrist who’s also a grieving widower in a perpetual state of “self-medication.” The clichés and overused plot points stack up pretty quickly in this barely-released indie drama: the frustrated screenwriter who finds inspiration in a true-life story … the still-young-but-over-the-hill-in-Hollywood actress … the wise young drug dealer … the shrink who’s more messed up than his patients – and who finds solace by mentoring a troubled teenager.  The good news: the ensemble of seasoned actors never plays the clichés, but find interesting, funny and original ways to create moments that ring with some sort of emotional truth … a challenge considering most of them are narcissistic and shallow.  Palmer is especially good as a troubled teen who mourns her mother by going to the movies.  Williams is an alcoholic actor who thinks he has a sex addiction, and as usual, he’s great.  But this is Spacey’s tour-de-force, made all the more powerful by the fact that he underplays almost everything.  He’s grizzled, looks like hell and is the one character we are rooting for the entire time. (Roadside Attractions)

ALSO OUT:
THE BROTHERS BLOOM
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: THE LEGENDARY SEASON FOUR
LIES & ILLUSIONS
LIFE ON MARS: THE COMPLETE SERIES
MANAGEMENT
THE UNIT: THE FINAL SEASON
THE WIZARD OF OZ