The DVD Collection Keeps Growing

Quite a few of the Hollywood Videos around here are shutting down. They're selling their entire libraries for really cheap. Here are some of the DVDs I picked up the other day.


Old Joy - The first Mumblecore movie I ever saw. Two old friends take a roadtrip through Oregon. This has been on my Top 10 to Own list for a long time.

The Last Detail - The poster for this movie made me never want to see it. Randy Quaid didn't help either. But when I finally broke down and watched The Last Detail, I loved it!

Stuart Saves His Family - This is a terrible movie but I'm an SNL junkie. If they had had It's Pat I would have bought that too.

Coneheads - Like I said, SNL junkie. And Conehead is way funnier than you remember.


Festival Express - Buying this DVD was a personal victory. For six years, I've been waitng, biding my time until I found a copy that was less than ten bucks. Finding it for $3.99 was definitely worth the wait. If you haven't seen this great documentary yet, you should.

A Nous La Liberte [Criterion Collection] - They were selling Criterion Collection films for four dollars a piece! Whitney bought a ton of them. I bought this Rene Clair classic. Whitney bought Criterion films while I opted for Stuart Saves His Family. We're a great couple.

Adam - This played at Sundance last year but I didn't get to see it. But my mom rented the DVD and loved it so I bought her a copy.

The Wrestler - Most of my friends got copies of The Wrestler from me for Christmas. But I forgot to buy myself one.


Searching For Bobby Fischer - I can't tell you how many times I've seen Searching For Bobby Fischer. It was a mainstay in my house as I grew up. That and Sister Act, haha.

Planet B-Boy - Like Festival Express, I've been waiting to find a cheap enough copy. I'm just glad it turn less than six years to find one.

She's Gotta Have It - Spike Lee's first feature film for four dollars and the DVD looked brand new! No scratches. No fingerprints. I doubt that anyone had ever rented it. Great find.

Are the video stores in your area closing down? Maybe it's just a regional thing. Have you found any great DVD deals lately?

Best Picture? Hardly.

Here's what this post is trying to say: there are a lot of undeserving producers with Oscar statues on their mantles. Take a look back at what's won Best Picture, it's pretty ridiculous in some cases. Not as ridiculous Cary Grant never winning and Oscar and Alfred Hitchcock never winning Best Director, but still...

2000: Gladiator

[What it Beat: Chocolat, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,
Erin Brockovich, Traffic]
[What Should Have Won: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon]

If you were half as blown away as I was by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and half as underwhelmed by Gladiator, then you understand my dismay concerning the 2000 Oscars. Do you remember the first time you saw Chow Yun-Fat running up through the trees? It was incredible! But it wasn't just the special effects that made CTHD the most deserving nominee that year, the story was deep and powerful, and every performance was delivered impecably. I'm saying this fully aware of how many friends I have that love Gladiator but it just did nothing for me. Even the fight scenes, and in my younger years, I loved me some fight scenes, bored me. Russell Crowe is one of the least captivating leading men this side of Kevin Sorbo. Sorry to all those who love Gladiator but if the academy hadn't pawned Crouching Tiger off on the Best Foreign Film category, we would have had a different winner.

2001: A Beautiful Mind
[What it Beat: Gosford Park, In the Bedroon,
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, Moulin Rouge!]

[What Should Have Won: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings]

Don't get it twisted, I am NOT a fan of the Lord of the Rings movies. At all. The first film was a torturous experience for me, the second literally put me to sleep, and the third has still be sucessfully avoided. That being said, while I didn't personally enjoy the movie, I wholeheartedly respect it and can recognize that it deserved to win Best Picture in 2001. I really enjoyed A Beautiful Mind when it was released, but if you go back and watch it, you'll realize just how cheesy, conventional, poorly written, and nearly unwatchable it really is. Out of the five films nominated, ABM really should have come in dead last. I understand not wanting to give out three Best Picture awards to one trilogy, but if the award is truely going to the "best" movie, then give the statues to those films which truely earned the title.

2002: Chicago
[What it Beat: Gangs of New York, The Hours,
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist]
[What Should Have Won: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers]

Here's where my emotions are split. I wanted Chicago to win that year. I loathed The Two Towers. After much consideration, I have to maintain my same logic used with 2001's nominees. A film on such a grand scale, with an attention to detail unmatched by nearly any filmmaker (except for maybe Gilliam), filled with convincing performances and an awe-inspiring visual style is probably going to deserve to win Best Picture. That being said, Chicago, in my opinion, is an almost equally impressive film. One year after proved that musicals still held their place in mainstream Hollywood, Rob Marshall's film knocked it out of the park. Everything the musical should be, Chicago is. Thankfully, I didn't have to make the decision of choosing a winner. The academy chose the film I wanted over the film over the film that should have won.

2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
[What it Beat: Lost in Translation, Master and Commander,
Mystic River, Seabiscuit]
[What Should Have Won: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King]

Same logic as before. The Lord of the Rings films...I hate them. Cannot stand them. That being said, they're fuckin' impressive. My vote would have went to either or Lost in Translation or Mystic River. How the hell did Seabiscuit get a nomination? Even Finding Nemo could have (and should have) kicked the piss out of that damn horse. Blech.

2004: Million Dollar Baby
[What it Beat: The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray, Sideways]
[What Should Have Won: Sideways]

Fuck Million Dollar Baby.

2005: Crash
[What it Beat: Brokeback Mountain, Capote,
Good Night and Good Luck, Munich]
[What Should Have Won: Brokeback Mountain]

I'm not even going to try to lie about how much I love Crash. There are just too many people who would call me on my shit. When I first saw Crash, it hit me like a ton of bricks (in a good way). Why people don't like...actually despise is a better word, this movie makes complete sense. It's the opposite of subtle, it's over-the-top at times, and screams when it should whipser. BUT...for myself, personally, this was the film I needed at that time. kick-started my interest in studying racism, American history, the Civil Rights movement, etc. Looking back on Crash, it wasn't as good of a movie as Brokeback Mountain (the most-deserved winner) but I'll always appreciate it and its Tony Danza cameo.

2006: The Departed
[What it Beat: Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima,
Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen]
[What Should Have Won: Hustle and Flow]

It's better than Babel.
It's better than Letters from Iwo Jima.
It's better than Little Miss Sunshine.
It's better than The Queen.
Want to know what it's not better than?
Hustle and Flow.
Hustle and Flow got screwed over. No screenplay nominations. No picture, directing, actress, cinematography, or editing nominations either. Three 6 Mafia won Best Original Song though. Thanks academy.

[Edit: My research team has been fired. Hustle and Flow was actually released the previous year...where it earned all of the awards it should have. Suddenly, my day just got a little better. In closing, Hustle and Flow is still better than all the movies previously listed.]

2007: No Country for Old Men
[What it Beat: Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood]
[What Should Have Won: No Country for Old Men]

Damn, what a great year for American cinema. I didn't understand why Michael Clayton was nominated but at least Tom Wilkinson almost picked up Best Supporting Actors. This slot clearly should have went to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. And say what you will about Juno, it deserved its nomination. It didn't deserve to win, but it deserved its nomination. But overall, 2007 saw the best films nominated in more than couple years.

No Country for Old Men took two viewings for me to fully appreciate its innovation and its various strengths. The second viewing allowed me to forget that Josh Brolin gets to sleep with Diane Lane every night and that Woody Harrelson still gets acting parts. Learning to love the ending was difficult at first but after seeing the film again and discussing the film with my MA Westerns class, it became clear that No Country for Old Men was the best film of the year (slightly edging out TAOJJBTCRF and There Will Be Blood which completely falls apart in the third act).

This brings us to 2009. Tonight is the Oscars ceremony.
I'm about to go see Slumdog, saw Milk last night, hated The Reader.
The Wrestler wasn't nominated.
If Slumdog isn't as good as the hype has made it seems then it looks like we're back to normal.

The Wrestler

Sorry Planet B-Boy, you've been bumped to Number Two. Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is my favorite film of 2008. Caught a screening last night and despite all of the hype, I wasn't even slightly disappointed. Believe what you hear, it's that good. It's so much more than "Mickey Rourke's Comeback Movie." If a local theater is cool enough to pick this up, thank them by paying the seven bucks and maybe a couple more for Red Vines or whatever sugary/salty/liquid snacks you like best.

Before a real-life friend calls me out on this, I have a confession to make. I love pro wrestling. I did in high school, anyway. Backyard wrestling too. That being said, I still have all my own teeth, literacy is a skill I possess, and NASCAR's appeal has yet to work its charms on me. And even with all of spandex, chair shots, and predetermined winners, wrasslin' happens to be something I know quite a bit about.

Besides the impressive squared-circle scenes, the film captures life outside of the ring just as precisely. Rourke plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson (brought to you by the letter "R"), a washed-up has-been with a broken body and a van that doubles as a bedroom when he can't pay the bills.

There's already been so many parallels made between the actor and the character he's playing. I'll toss in my two cents and agree with those comparisons. He used to be a pro boxer with a laundry list of concussions and broken bones. He stopped acting and fell out of the limelight with plenty of people praying for his return. And I'm sure there were plenty of nights where Rourke slept in his car.

It's incredible that the role wasn't written for him specifically. Nic "Bangcock Dangerous" Cage was originally attached to star which, in my opinion, would have drastically hurt the film in ways that only repeated viewings of Con Air could explain.

Go see The Wrestler, it's the best film of the year.
Even if you don't like wrestling, go see The Wrestler.
Even if you only see it for all the Marisa Tomei boobage...
I've said too much.
Go see The Wrestler.