Susan Granger’s DVD Update for week of Fri., June 1:
“Gone” is a psychological thriller, positioning Amanda Seyfried as a waitress who seems all too familiar with the maniac who abducted her sister in the Pacific Northwest.
On the other hand, “Goon” is a dramedy, starring “American Pie’s” Seann William Scott as an amiable, mild-mannered minor-league hockey enforcer.
“We Need to Talk About Kevin” is a ponderously sinister story about the relationship between a guilt-ridden mother (Tilda Swinton) and her malevolent teenage son (Ezra Miller), exploring nature vs. nurture, suggesting neither parents nor society is to blame when a child is – quite simply – born evil.
Oscar-nominee Ralph Fiennes makes his directorial debut in a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus,” starring as the arrogant, disdainful Roman General at odds with the city of Rome and his fellow citizens when he’s pushed by his controlling, ambitious mother (Vanessa Redgrave).
Like biopics? William Sudler-Smith’s “Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston” peeks inside the life and times of Roy Halston Frowick, America’s first celebrity designer, while “Worried About the Boy” is Julian Jarrold’s biopic of George O’Dowd, better known as Boy George.
“Dawn of the Dead” analyzes the rise of the San Francisco psychedelic underground and its definitive band, The Grateful Dead, while Susanne Rostock’s “Harry Balafonte: Sing Your Song” reveals the beloved calypso singer, actor and activist.
On the lighter side: “History of the World in Two Hours” condenses 13.7 billion years in a rapid-fire view of history; it’s an epic story that reveals surprising connections to our daily lives.
From Troma, “Purge” goes to a utilitarian, genetically engineered parallel universe; “Kill” six strangers, winners of a dream vacation contest, wake up to unspeakable terror; and “Where Evil Lives” presents three 30-minute horror stories, as told by Jack Devlin (Claude Akins).
Looking ahead to Father’s Day, “The Lethal Weapon Collection” has five-discs, comprising all four films, along with documentaries and music videos.
PICK OF THE WEEK: American history meets fantasy in “Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island,” a newly updated version, as five northern Civil War POWs hijack a hot-air balloon in Richmond, Virginia, and wake up marooned on a desert island, filled with survivors who have been lost in space and time.