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New in Blu: 'Black Swan' and 'Tangled'
Top Shelf
Black Swan (20th Century Fox, $19.99)
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The Movie: It’s unfortunate that most of the dialogue about Darren Aronofsky’s best film seems to come up only when talking about the least consequential aspects of Black Swan. The percentage of Natalie Portman’s dancing...the lesbian sex scene...the fact that it didn’t win the Oscar for Best Picture. Black Swan isn’t about winning Academy Awards or titillating teenage boys or showcasing Mrs. Portman’s pirouettes-- it’s about telling the horrifying story of a young woman whose fragile psyche can’t handle the pressures of life in the spotlight; it’s about making you feel and fear the fracture in her mind; it’s about how the sacrifice artists make can tear a person in two.
There were few (American) films in 2010 that legitimately surprised me while watching them, and Black Swan was one of them. And it wasn’t because of Portman’s career-high performance or because Aronofsky pulled one over on the arthouse crowd and gave them an old school, ‘70s-worthy horror movie when they were expecting The Wrestler but with dancing. It was because Clint Mansell’s score and Matty Libatique’s cinematography melded together so perfectly that I couldn’t tear myself from the movie for even a second. It was one of the most engrossing films of the year and I’m thrilled to have Mansell’s score and Libatique’s cinematography on tap in HD.
The Features: A 48-minute making-of that’s really as thorough as anyone needs. It starts on day one of production and chronicles everything from there on out, peppered with candid behind-the-scenes footage and plenty of input from the film’s various artisians. Plus, even for a making-of, it just looks dynamite (it’s sad when a movie’s behind-the-scenes footage looks better than a lot of feature films do these days). If what you’re looking for doesn’t happen to be found within Metamorphosis, there are craft-specific featurettes on costume and production design. There are also a number of well-produced profiles on the film’s cast and crew, but they’re fairly surface level, so chances are you’ll spend more time with Metamorphosis than anything else.
Buy It If: You like movies with gripping performances, haunting music and seductive camera work. Black Swan may not be breaking new ground in regards to any of those things, but it puts its own incredible stamp on each.
Tangled (Disney/Buena Vista, $19.99)
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The Movie: Tangled is Disney’s fiftieth animated movie. Let that sink in for a little bit. Sure, Disney hasn’t put out fifty flawless animated movies, but they’ve given the world more than enough quality films that if they simply got out of the animation game entirely, their legacy would never ebb. So I personally consider it a treasure any time Disney does make an animated movie-- even if said movie isn’t itself a treasure (I’m looking at you, Dinosaur, Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons).
Thankfully we don’t have to worry about giving Tangled the benefit of the doubt simply because of Disney’s legacy. It’s a legitimately great little film that has a lot of fun with the Disney Princess formula, giving us memorable songs and characters without being too cheesy (I’m looking at you, Shrek). Disney’s CGI animation has come a long, long way since the days of Dinosaur - no doubt thanks to their Pixar acquisition - with many of the images in Tangled striking the delicate tone between silly and serious all while maintaining a striking visual flare that looks dynamite on Blu-ray.
The Features: This being Disney’s fiftieth animated movie, there is a featurette on counting down the 49 previous films, but unfortunately it is just a quick chronological run down of their output and not an exhaustive analysis of their history and influence (and if you’re looking for that, I highly, highly recommend getting a copy of Waking Sleeping Beauty-- it’s a must own for any Disney fan). An informative behind-the-scenes segment hosted by voice stars Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi makes up for the lack of depth to the countdown, though (it also oddly features the countdown within the segment), so the disc certainly isn’t left in the lurch for worthwhile extras. In particular, the revelation of how they settled on the Flynn Rider character design is pretty amusing (and surprisingly like something you’d see on Mad Men). And though they’re only available in a primitive storyboard format, there are several deleted scenes as well as two proposed alternative opening credits included for those who like to see how things could have gone differently.
Buy It If: You like Disney animated movies, naturally. Tangled is one of, if not the, best films the Mouse House has given us in years.
Middle Shelf
Fair Game (Summit, $19.99)
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The Movie: I’m not exactly sure of the reason, perhaps Summit didn’t feel like going toe-to-toe with the big studies on awards campaigning, perhaps its release was a bit mishandled, perhaps audiences were turned off by Sean Penn-- whatever the reason, Fair Game was unfortunately one of the more overlooked surprises of 2010. Not only does it tell a very important (and very real) story of a hardworking CIA agent - a relatively normal woman who isn’t some kind of Jason Bourne figure - being outed by her own government, but it does so in a wholly objective manner that’s as thrilling as it is informative. Even if you don’t like politics, even if you have no idea who Valerie Plame is, Fair Game is worth watching if only because it approaches the material like an old school political thriller. It’s not sensationalist, it’s not inflammatory; it’s just a well told, fascinating story.
The Features: It doesn’t look like a whole lot of features are on the disc, but what is on there sounds like a must watch (or, in this case, a must listen): a commentary track from the real life Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson.
Buy It If: You like riveting political dramas with classic sensabilities.
All the Rest
All Dogs Go to Heaven (MGM/UA, $14.99)
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All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (MGM/UA, $19.99)
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Charlotte's Web (2006) (Paramount, $18.99)
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Dead Awake (First Look, $24.98)
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Dogtooth (Kino, $20.99)
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IMAX: Hubble (Warner Brothers)
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Inferno (Blue Underground, $20.99)
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Mad Men: Season Four (Lionsgate, $29.99)
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Made in Dagenham (Sony, $23.99)
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Material Girls (MGM/UA, $17.99)
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The Mikado (Criterion, $25.99)
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Picture This (MGM/UA, $17.99)
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The Resident (Image, $15.99)
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Scar 3D (Phase 4 Films, $26.99)
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Scream (Lionsgate, $14.99)
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Scream 2 (Lionsgate, $14.99)
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Scream 3 (Lionsgate, $15.99)
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The Secret of NIMH (MGM/UA, $13.99)
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Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection (1939) (MPI, $79.99)
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Soylent Green (Warner Brothers, $14.49)
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The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Paramount, $19.99)
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Teen Wolf (MGM/UA, $13.99)
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The Ten Commandments (1956) (Paramount, $22.99)
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Topsy-Turvy (Criterion, $25.99)
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Treme: The Complete First Season (HBO, $55.99)
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