Daily Archives: December 31, 2008

The Duchess

Blu-ray/DVD Reviews

Another period piece about a progressive, fashionable, forward-thinking woman constrained by and struggling against the strict mores of her time, director Saul Dibb’s The Duchess is a gear-grindingly familiar romantic drama cloaked in sumptuousness. Starring Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes and Dominic Cooper, the movie is based on the true story of the Duchess of Devonshire — an “It
Girl” of her era, and a direct ancestor to Princess Diana, as the film’s theatrical campaign nudgingly reminded viewers — who must face an agonizing choice between responsibility and love.

A characteristically beguiling young noblewoman, Georgiana Spencer (Knightley, suffering some prodigious hairpieces) is handed over for marriage by her mother (Charlotte Rampling) at the age of 17 to the wealthy and influential William Cavendish (Ralph Fiennes), the fifth Duke of Devonshire. With the arrangement, Georgiana enters into a lavish world filled with shocking deceptions, decadent scandals and stifling demands of duty. As Duchess of Devonshire, she first indulges her considerable energy in high society, outshining most of the aristocratic men around her with her incredible wit. The empty, endless chatter of the party circuit is not for her, however, and fashion icon Georgiana soon becomes the toast of London as much for her outspokenness as her iconic outfits. A devoted mother and stirring voice for the common man, she become one of the most impassioned political critics in all of 18th century England. Still, all isn’t happy at home. Lovers are taken — the dour William beds Bess Foster (Hayley Atwell), while Georgiana seeks comfort in the arms of Charles Grey (the aforementioned Cooper), a rising politician — and rigid domestic battle lines are drawn.

From Pride & Prejudice to Atonement, Knightley has a certain predilection for period piece fare, and the unfussy directness that’s a staple of almost all of her screen performances may be the film’s best attribute. She takes rather shallowly scripted clichés about loneliness and imbues them with undiluted feeling. That said, she and Cooper evidence little chemistry together, and Fiennes — a long way from the two mid-’90s Oscar nominations that gave him his reputation — can skate through stuffy material like this, and does so accordingly. Its connection to the still wildly beloved Princess Diana makes The Duchess more relevant or interesting to those across the pond (and British ex-pats living here, I guess), but the drama within the movie — consternation over Georgiana producing a daughter instead of siring a male heir, and the glass-house, woe-is-me psychological hand-wringing — is all very, very familiar, to an ultimately wearying degree.

Housed in a regular Amray plastic case, The Duchess comes presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, along with English, French and Spanish language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio tracks. Optional English, French and
Spanish subtitles are also available. Kicking off a so-so slate of three EPK-style bonus features is a 22-minute making-of documentary which explores the life of Georgiana, and the era that she came to define. Intercut interviews with cast and crew form the spine of this featurette, but extra footage from the many gorgeous locations that comprise the movie gives American viewers a glimpse of the old-world beauty that wide swatches of the United States just can’t match. In the seven-minute “Georgiana In Her Own Words,” Amanda Foreman, author of the award-winning book upon which the film is based, sits down with producer Gabrielle Tana at the actual home of Georgiana’s family, reviewing various letters, diary entries and artifacts that helped shape the historical landscape of her biography. Running six minutes, the final featurette shines a spotlight on costume designer Michael O’Connor, who talks about creating all of the film’s beautiful, extravagant wardrobes. An audio commentary track would have been nice, from either director Dibb (Bullet Boy) or the chatty Foreman, but a clutch of theatrical trailers for other Paramount releases round out this collection. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. C (Movie) B- (Disc)

Pineapple Express

Blu-ray/DVD Reviews

Produced by comedy man-of-the-moment Judd Apatow and directed by David Gordon Green, Pineapple Express follows a pair of druggie losers (James Franco and Seth Rogen) as they reach the top of the hit-list when one witnesses a mob murder by an evil drug lord (Gary Cole) and his corrupt cop partner (Rosie Perez). Marked for death, they set off on a mad-scramble escape, as both conceived and executed by habitual pot smokers.



Dale Denton (Rogen) is a schlubby twentysomething who doesn’t let his job as a process server intrude too much on his prodigious weed habit. Between official duty runs, he drops in on his high school girlfriend Angela (Amber Heard), lobbies talk radio hosts for the legalization of marijuana and of course rolls a couple joints. His dealer, Saul Silver (Franco), is a kind-hearted, wide-smiling soul who wants to be Dale’s best friend a little too much. When Dale witnesses a hit by drug lord Ted Jones (Cole) and his corrupt cop lover Carol (Perez), though, he instinctively high-tails it back to Saul’s pad… but only after accidentally dropping a very special, easily identifiable joint outside Ted’s place. Looking to tie up loose ends, Ted dispatches two henchmen (Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan) to question Saul’s supplier, Red (Danny McBride, above center), who quickly rats out Saul. The guns come out, and with their lives in jeopardy, Saul and Dale look to try to somehow score an upper hand; fisticuffs, wild chases in police cruisers and a siege at Angela’s house ensue, all before a shootout at a secret underground drug lair.

Pineapple Express more or less works as a stoner vehicle with intermittant flashes of shock violence, owing largely to the committed character work of in particular Franco, who’s a hoot. It’s this sly interplay (with Saul and Red reminiscing about how they contracted venereal diseases, say) that carries the day, much more than the brawny action — executed in only so-so fashion — that makes up the movie’s third act. With his arthouse roots, Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Snow Angels) is hired to give the film some offbeat edges, as with the montage moment — somewhat evocative of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid‘s “Raindrops Are Falling on My Head” segment — when Dale and Saul play leapfrog and blow smoke on a caterpillar. Another idiosyncratic touch that works to the film’s benefit is Graeme Revell’s alternately brawny and cheesy synth score, which sounds like an Atari game gone wild. Overall, a lesser entry in the recent “bro-mance” sub-genre, perhaps, but not without its moments.

Pineapple Express comes to home video in a variety of formats and versions, including a Blu-ray disc with exclusive bonus material, including a game based on the film. Reviewing off of the unrated single-disc version, though, there’s still plenty to enjoy. Housed in a regular plastic Amray case, the movie is presented in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen split into 28 chapters, and comes with English and French language 5.1 Dolby digital audio tracks, as well as optional English and French subtitles. The one big problem is that a cover sticker advertises both the theatrical and extended-cut versions of the film, but the latter is available nowhere on the regular menu screen. Instead, only once the regular “play” function has been selected can the extended version (117 minutes, versus 112 minutes for the theatrical cut) be chosen. This means that quick-play aficionados can’t select the long-play version, then skip past all those annoying start-up admonitions by just jumping straight to a chapter selection and toggling back to the beginning. Ah, well… small potatoes, I guess.

As for the actual bonus material, four deleted/extended scenes run a total of 10 minutes, the biggest difference being found in the movie’s black-and-white introductory sequence with Bill Hader and James Remar; Saul and Dale’s uncomfortable drug-buy conversation at Saul’s apartment is also extended, with Saul inviting Dale to go see Phantom of the Opera with him. As might be expected, the film’s feature-length audo commentary track is a rousing, messy group affair. It starts with Rogen and co-writer Evan Goldberg, Franco, Apatow, McBride, Ed Begley, Jr., and director Green, who’s patched in via conference call from another city and gives props to the shirtwear of a bit player at the film’s premiere. Begley, who the upstarts joke is “the Rod Carew of drug stories,” leaves about halfway through, and Perez and Robinson both stop by; producer Shauna Robertson also calls in, and inspires a brief discussion about the physiques of real-life drug dealers. Naturally, plenty of out-there anecdotes get mad run, including tales of being bombarded with urine-filled balloons while shooting in downtown Los Angeles, and a story in which Perez quotes L.L. Cool J as yelling at his wife, “If you don’t shut the fuck up, I’m gonna punch you in the pussy!” Special regrets also go out to Jeff Goldblum, who suffers a coarse exclamation in the movie; Rogen talks about incidentally meeting Goldblum in person during filming, but then chickening out about telling him about the line.

There’s a 21-minute making-of featurette, which includes footage from a March 2006 table read and Perez’s amusing imitation of Rogen. Producer Apatow, meanwhile, talks about the genesis of the film — watching True Romance (on laserdisc!) eight to 10 years ago, and being so enamored with Brad Pitt‘s character that he wanted to see a separate movie follow just him. A five-minute gag reel is also featured; highlights include Franco accidentally touching Rogen’s balls, Rogen baring his ass, Ed Begley, Jr. invoking the phrase “skull fucking,” and Rogen’s character pumping up McBride’s Red by telling him that he could be reincarnated “as Jenna Jameson‘s tit butter.” To view the movie’s trailer, click here; to purchase the unrated, single-disc DVD via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) B (Disc)

Kate Beckinsale on Nothing But the Truth, Her Career

Interviews

I chatted with Kate Beckinsale via phone a couple weeks back, in advance of the release of Rod Lurie’s journo-drama Nothing But the Truth, and there was plenty that didn’t make it into the Q&A for New York Magazine. More excerpts from the conversation, below:

Brent Simon: Critics have been very complimentary of your performances in Snow Angels and Nothing But the Truth. Do you think these two movies have somewhat changed people’s perceptions of you?

Kate Beckinsale: Oh, I have no idea. I try not to think about people’s perceptions, or I’ll go mad. The thing is, for me, my career has absolutely reflected what age my daughter has been, and whether or not I’ve been a single parent at the time, that kind of thing. I suppose if you just look at it entirely from the point-of-view [of a filmography] it can look a bit schizophrenic, but it makes sense being the actual career of a woman with a child and all that. And now that my daughter is older, I do feel able to maybe make slightly more selfish choices. I’m not primarily governed by, “Does it shoot when her pre-school is in?” Things like that that were very much factors at one point.

BS: You obviously play a journalist of a slightly different breed in the film, but having now spent time in the proverbial set of other shoes, did you gain any special insight that helps with having to give so many interviews as an actress?

KB: No, not really. I think I feel pretty much the same as I did before, which is that I just try not to be too boring, and avoid saying the exact same thing every time. (laughs) I probably do feel much more empathetic to the person asking the questions. I’m used to being in the defensive position, and I realized that being in the attack position has its own pitfalls and fears that come along with it.

BS: I always say that if I had to give that many interviews I’d need to spend several days ramping up to it, talking incrementally more and more about myself.

KB: (laughs) Exactly — though I find most actors do that anyway, actually.

BS: Not surprisingly, since there is a whiff of political content, some people seem to view [Nothing But the Truth] through wildly different prisms. Do you think there’s any concrete statement at its core?

KB: I don’t think it necessarily has a political statement. I think what I really like about the movie, what most grabbed me when I was first reading it, is the character and the pressures that she’s facing. I was so caught up with the dilemma that she’s in, personally as well as in terms of her beliefs. I don’t see the movie as a polemic, in that I don’t think it’s answering questions. I think what’s great about it is that it’s asking them, and I would much rather see a movie that raises a question than tries to tell me what the absolute truth is. I think the fact that my character is flawed and makes mistakes, takes risks and has to make sacrifices and doesn’t necessarily always do the most honorable thing [means] she’s not set up as a Joan of Arc-type character. She’s a human being with flaws who finds herself in this incredible situation.

BS: You share a number of scenes with Matt Dillon, who cuts a slick, cool, quietly menacing figure as the film’s federal prosecutor. When you have antagonistic scenes like that, is there a separation or boundary that you want to maintain during filming, or is that not how you work?

KB: I’ve never thought like that, to be honest. On a film like this, which was a very short and tight schedule, Matt would be in for a couple days and then out again, so even if I’d wanted to get to know him intimately and instantly well, I wouldn’t have been able to. But I did like him. We got along and had some good laughs. I often find that you have fun with the “bad guy,” because when you get all your hostility and everything out with someone you don’t even know, it sort of makes you giggle a bit when you’re off set.

BS: Jumping back in time, was acting something you were always interested in — was there a recognizable performance instinct in adolescence?

KB: My parents were actors as well, so I think it’s one of those things where when you’re still in diapers people start asking you if you’re going to be an actor too, whereas they don’t tend to do that with doctors and postmen. So it was something I thought some about, but I was always very personally into it too, I was doing plays and going to the theater and movies. And I think when I was 16 — I’d go to Paris with a friend of mine every Easter, and we’d absolutely fill up on all the old French movies — that’s when I thought, or felt on my own, [that] I really wanted to do this.

Inglourious Basterds Gets Domestic Release Date

Ephemera

The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures announced today that Quentin Tarantino’s Nazi-scalping, Brad Pitt-starring, World War II epic Inglourious Basterds — which, yes, taking an English-mangling cue from The Pursuit of Happyness, will actually be spelled like that — will open domestically on August 21, 2009. The announcement was made by Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of TWC and David Linde, co-chairman of Universal Pictures, who are partners in the production. The Weinstein Company and Universal are co-financing and co-presenting the film, with TWC handling domestic distribution and Universal handling international distribution. International release dates are still being sorted out.