Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, June 27:
Iconoclastic writer/director John Sayles evokes the complexities of 1950s Jim Crow Alabama in “Honeydripper” about a former blues piano-man (Danny Glover) whose dilapidated roadhouse will be taken by the sheriff (Stacy Keach) if he can’t come up with mortgage money; the soundtrack rocks!
Roland Emmerich’s “10,000 B.C.” is an intense, action-packed, prehistoric adventure. With a banal plot and minimalist dialogue, it’s a guilty pleasure for those partial to woolly mammoths. The heartwarming romantic mystery, “Definitely Maybe,” follows a precocious 10 year-old (Abigail Breslin) who questions her father (Ryan Reynolds) about the three women in his life (Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz); extras include deleted scenes, insight into production design and director/actor commentaries.
If you’re into senseless, bloody violence, Martin McDonaugh’s “In Bruges” mixes dark comedy with crime as two morally conflicted gangsters (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleason) from London are trapped in the Flemish town of Bruges in Belgium, awaiting instructions from their boss (Ralph Fiennes). In the gripping “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” a Romanian college student (Anamaria Marinca) struggles to help a friend (Laura Vasiliu) get a black-market abortion under the repressive Communist regime; the ‘extras’ include revealing interviews. Along the same lines but quite different, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s animated “Persepolis” revolves around a young Iranian girl searching for her place in the world; what’s unusual is that it tells the story of a nation in turmoil from a child’s perspective.
For kids, ages 3-5, “Loopdidoo,” based on the popular comic books “Grabouillon,” is about a goofy dog and his five year-old owner, Petunia.
PICK OF THE WEEK: With high spirited exuberance, “Charlie Bartlett” is a tart, refreshingly clever coming-of-age tale about teens’ recreational use of prescription medications and the necessity of parental involvement.