Leave Me Alone, Roscoe Jenkins
This Week’s DVD Releases / The Pajiba Staff
DVD Releases | June 17, 2008 | Comments (20)
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days: 4 Months, a film about a woman trying to obtain an abortion in a Romania under Nicolae Ceauşescu rule, received a rave review from Phillip. He wrote, “Mungiu’s film is not meant to be a paean to the pro-choice ethos, but he makes it clear that the subjugation of women is a monstrous injustice. But even this is but the symptom of a larger sickness — the social sickness of a people bullied into fear and mistrust by their total lack of power. And in 1987, so cruelly close to the end of Ceauşescu’s reign, that sickness was all the more bitter. Mungiu wants to show us that merely surviving that era was unremarkable, but surviving with your humanity intact was all but impossible.”
Fool’s Gold: Agent Bedhead understood Gold for what it was, writing: “If you expect more than the evenly-tanned, glorious bodies of Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, you’ll likely be very disappointed. Fool’s Gold sees the leads from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days reunited for more begrudging romance in the form of an action-adventure caper. Unfortunately, director Andy Tennant, along with fellow screenwriters John Claflin and Daniel Zelman, weaves a convoluted tale that is far too overwrought and plot-heavy for the film’s lighthearted mood. The result is mixed, but it will find its salvation with those who acknowledge that between love and shirtlessness lies Matthew McConaughey.”
Under the Same Moon: Nathaniel gave in to the endearing La Misma Luna, and I don’t blame him. He wrote, “I resisted, but Under the Same Moon prevailed. I swallowed the first round of lumps in my throat and I held strong against it until about halfway through, when I caved. I especially loved the way the film cuts itself off before risking overkill in the endearingly awkward city-street rhythms of its predictable but highly satisfying conclusion. The movie didn’t capture the entirety of my cold and cynical heart, but it laid claim to a good chunk of it for 106 minutes. That is to say, the comparison to the relentless eye-flooding power of Cinema Paradiso is really overdoing it, but I won’t lie to you. There’s probably surveillance video at Lincoln Plaza Cinema to prove this anyhow. I did dab my eyes several times as I exited the theater. Damn you, Carlitos, and your unbreakable mother/son love bond! You got me.”
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins: Must we even speak of it, for to do so only reminds us that it exists.
Comments
Posted by: Julie at June 17, 2008 1:07 PM
Aw, poor little dvd releases that no one cares about.
[hugs you to my bosom]
I'll take you to the zoo, the people at the zoo will treat you real respectable like.