Susan’s DVD Update for week of Friday, April 9:
Werner Herzog’s darkly comedic interpretation of the popular action/crime genre, “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” pivots on Nicolas Cage’s rogue Detective Terrence McDonaugh descending into a world of compulsion, desire and conscience.
Based on a Stephen King story, “Dolan’s Cadillac” is a diabolical direct-to-DVD thriller starring Christian Slater and Wes Bentley and giving a contemporary twist to Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” a classic tale of murder and revenge.
If you missed the powerful, controversial musical “Spring Awakening” on Broadway, the DVD adaptation about three youths who discover their sexuality in a provincial town features Jon Aniston, Victoria Tenant, Alex Schemmer and Jesse Lee Sofer.
“Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love” is a vibrant, soulful, in-depth look at the Grammy-winning Senegalese pop musician hailed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. And “The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty” is the A&E docu-series about America’s most news-worthy musical family.
Timed for Earth Day and narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis, “Dirt! The Movie” takes a humorous and substantial look at the glorious and unappreciated ground beneath our feet. Traveling from California’s vineyards to Kenya’s plains, it reveals how our relationship with dirt can create new possibilities for all life.
Investigative journalist Danny Schecter (“In Debt We Trust”) dissects Wall Street fraud in “Plunder: The Crime of Our Time,” a new documentary that explores how our current financial crisis was built on the foundation of criminal activity.
Perversely fascinating, visually striking and satirical, Gyorgy Palfi’s “Taxidermia” explores three nightmarish generational stories in Hungarian with English subtitles.
“Alice in Wonderland: Classic Film Collection” shows how Lewis Carroll’s beloved tale was a cinematic favorite in various versions, long before Johnny Depp “went Mad.”
PICK OF THE WEEK: “An Education” pairs a suave, seductive thirtysomething man (Peter Sarsgaard) with a precocious 16 year-old (Carey Mulligan), and the result is an enticing, engaging coming-of-age drama set in suburban London in the 1960s with the title serving as a double entendre about a transformative “university of life” experience.