New on DVD/VoD

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This article was published 08/01/2015 (4271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Among the movies you can watch at home this week are a pair of films that were denied a wide theatrical release, for vastly different reasons.

 

The Interview

DUBIOUS threats from an organization calling itself Guardians of Peace prevented the wide Christmas theatrical release of this satire from co-directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. For a few days there, the most discussed film of 2014 became, briefly, the most difficult to see, prior to Sony’s decision to release it in a few select independent theatres, and online on iTunes, YouTube and other digital platforms.

One wishes Rogen and Goldberg had been gifted with the foresight that their comedy was going to be a freedom-of-expression flashpoint. They might have made a film more deserving of all the discussion.

As it is, this is a broad, gross burlesque, in which Rogen’s TV producer Aaron Rapaport urges his friend, dim-witted entertainment journalist Dave Skylark (James Franco), to aim higher in his journalistic endeavours. Taking the advice to heart, Dave scores an interview with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (Randall Park), who turns out to be a fan of Skylark’s ingratiating interview skills. (Skylark’s chat with Eminem in the beginning of the film is an unexpected comic highlight.)

Shortly after they announce the journalistic coup, CIA agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan) comes calling with a pitch for the duo to take the opportunity to assassinate Kim.

But once on North Korean soil, Skylark is disarmed by Kim’s fanboy enthusiasm and the two share a bond related to their disapproving fathers. (Somehow, the movie avoids making any Dennis Rodman jokes.)

The Interview is amusing but dumb. For all its subversive intent, the movie itself is subverted by Franco’s penchant for shameless mugging, and Rogen’s gravitational pull towards the scatological.

That might have sufficed if it was merely a lampoon of contemporary infotainment. It falls short when it comes to mounting a meaningful attack on North Korea’s mad dynasty, descending to the tropes of a spy spoof. If terrorists threats against theatres screening The Interview prove anything, it’s that the oppressive forces depicted in the film deserve a stronger, more considered counter-attack. **1/2

 

The Guest

THIS indie thriller from Adam Wingard (You’re Next) failed to get a wide theatrical release, which is a shame, because it deserved better.

The film offers a perverse twist on the American action movie wherein violent military-trained professionals arrive on a troubled scene to deploy their deadly skills, a sub-genre that takes in everyone from John Rambo to Jason Bourne.

David Collins (English actor Dan Stevens, a long way from Downton Abbey) is just such a man of mystery, arriving on the doorstep of the Petersons. The family is psychologically bruised by the death of marine son Caleb in Afghanistan.

David, claiming to be a good friend of Caleb’s, has come to share his condolences. Impressed by his good manners, parents Spencer (Leland Orser) and Laura (Sheila Kelley) invite the itinerant David to stay for a few days. He becomes a role model to surviving son Luke (Brendan Meyer), especially when he effectively beats up the high school bullies who have been tormenting him. Employing more subtle means, David makes good things happen for borderline alcoholic dad Spencer.

But daughter Anna (Maika Monroe) senses something is off about this hunky house guest, an instinct that proves true when the house is visited by David’s former employer (Lance Reddick), a military contractor who reacts to the news of David’s appearance as another commander might react to the news of an impending nuclear attack.

The new-to-DVD thriller The Equalizer recently demonstrated how the contemporary thriller has come to resemble the horror movie. If a masked psycho dispatched opponents the way Denzel Washington does in that film’s finale, we would call it a gruesome slasher. But because it’s Denzel Washington, it’s a kick-ass action movie.

The Guest plays with that dynamic too, landing firmly on the horror side. Decades of action movies have conditioned us to believe that the sexy, capable outsider is the hero, and the slow reveal of his psychopathic nature packs a sucker punch. ***1/2

 

Also new on DVD and VOD:

 

Boyhood

WRITER-DIRECTOR Richard Linklater filmed this unique coming-of-age drama over a period of 12 years, essentially documenting the growth of his central character Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from age six to 18. Linklater also signed on his frequent collaborator Ethan Hawke (Before Sunrise) and Patricia Arquette, committing to a long thespian haul, to play his parents, Mason Sr. and Olivia.

Linklater has opportunity to turn the movie into a lucrative exercise in nostalgia. Anyone in the age bracket of Mason and his older sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) might experience warm tingles of familiarity (witness an early scene where young Samantha bugs little bro with a rendition of Britney Spears’ Oops, I Did it Again). Later, Mom takes her children to a magical book release for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and dad makes the kids help campaign for the election of Barack Obama, an adventure in itself, given the film’s Texas setting.

Linklater is not here to trade in cheap sentiment, however. While the film affixes certain cultural markers to the timeline, especially in the soundtrack (everyone from Bob Dylan to Coldplay to Lady Gaga), the emphasis is on an organic coming-of-age tale where the audience is spared the typically jarring transition in which a child actor is suddenly replaced by a different teen actor. ****

 

Get On Up

WHEN we first meet James Brown in this biopic from director Tate Taylor (The Help), he is pretty much the unhinged showbiz train wreck we know from his drug-fuelled, shotgun-discharging later years.

But a feature-length flashback reveals Brown’s trauma-laced past, including abandonment by his mother and serious prison time for stealing a man’s suit. We also get a chance to appreciate his untrained but formidable musical acumen.

This film was produced by Mick Jagger, whom Brown famously upstaged in 1964 on the T.A.M.I. Show with a deliberately explosive performance, an event duly replicated here.

It was a tall order to play Brown, but the job is handled here by actor Chadwick Boseman (42) with superb technical expertise coupled with humour and, of course, soul. ***1/2

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca