Georgy Girl (DVD)

Georgy Girl (1966) starring Lynn Redgrave, James Mason, Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling. It's the Swinging Sixties in London, and Redgrave stars as "ugly duckling" Georgy, who's 22 and "never been kissed." Mason plays James, an older, married man who wants to make her his mistress. When Georgy's flatmate, Meredith (Rampling) gets pregnant, it's decided that Georgy will stay on -- and Meredith's husband, Jos (Bates) falls in love with Georgy. The whole movie is thoroughly delightful and funny, with many unexpected turns. It's made even better by the knowledge that Lynn Redgrave was really quite attractive. I've read that she gained weight so that she could look "ugly" for this film. The only complaint I have about the subtitles is that the songs are not captioned. Grade: A

The Eclipse (DVD)

The Eclipse (2009) starring Ciaran Hinds, Iben Hjejle, Aidan Quinn. Supernatural thriller in which widower (Hinds) senses a presence in his house and at first can't figure out what it could be. Meanwhile, as one of the organizers of a literary festival, his life becomes entwined with a couple of authors (Hjejle and Quinn). This movie has elements of horror, drama and romance, but none of them are really explored fully. It felt incomplete, and all the plot elements got short shrift. The only subtitles available for this disc are closed captions, which serve adequately. Grade: C+

The Paper Chase (DVD)

The Paper Chase (1973) starring Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman. A Harvard Law School freshman named Hart (Bottoms) becomes slightly obsessed with a difficult professor named Kingsfield (Houseman). Hart's problems are compounded when he discovers that his new girlfriend Susan (Wagner) is Kingsfield's daughter. I found the chemistry between Bottoms and Wagner to be a bit tepid. The legal jousting in Kingsfield's classroom was rather interesting. The '70s hairstyles are hi-larious. The subtitles are good. Grade: B+

Walkabout (DVD)

Walkabout (1971) starring Jenny Agutter, Lucien John, David Gulpilil, John Meillon. A teen-age girl (Agutter) and her young brother (John) are abandoned in the Australian outback after their father suffers a fatal breakdown. They end up depending on an Aboriginal youth (Gulpilil) for their survival. A mere summation of the plot, however, does not begin to describe this film. It has a near-hallucinatory quality, as the director makes strange jump-cuts and interpolations which seem to make no sense. A couple of nude scenes featuring Agutter, who was 16 at the time the movie was filmed, are thrown in for no apparent reason other than titillation. In fact, there are many scenes whose presence I can't explain, perhaps because the film doesn't adequately explain them. Whether there was some guiding hand behind the movie who could make sense of it all seems highly doubtful to me. And yet, I found it to be rather compelling. Grade: B

Little Big Man (DVD)

Little Big Man (1970) starring Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Richard Mulligan, Chief Dan George. Jack Crabb (Hoffman), a 121-year-old man, and the "only white survivor of Custer's Last Stand," reminisces about his long life on the American frontier. At 10 years old, his family (except his sister) is wiped out by Pawnee raiders, and he is adopted by the Cheyenne, who refer to themselves as the Human Beings. He stays with them five years. After returning to live with white people, Crabb tries various avenues in life, including religion, quackery, gunfighting and store keeping -- all to no avail. Known as Little Big Man to the Cheyenne, he keeps running into them on the frontier. Among other things, Little Big Man is witness to the wanton slaughter of a Cheyenne tribe by soldiers under Custer. The movie is both funny and tragic, which, combined with the fact that it's a good movie, makes it great. The subtitles are very good. Grade: A

The Country Girl (DVD)

The Country Girl (1954) starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, William Holden. Complex psychological drama in which Crosby plays an aging performer (and alcoholic) named Frank Elgin, who is trying to make a comeback, while Kelly plays his wife, Georgie, who feels that she must play go-between to help him deal with producers and directors. Holden portrays Bernie Dodd, a director trying to help Elgin with his comeback, who comes into conflict with Georgie. Kelly won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance, and Crosby delivers a spot-on portrayal of a man who can't be honest with anyone and is wracked with guilt over the death of his son. I wasn't expecting to like this movie much, but the script just blew me away. As happens so often in Hollywood, Crosby was 51 at the time the movie was made, Kelly was 25; yet they play a couple who have been married for 10 years. The subtitles are good. Grade: B+

Paper Moon (DVD)

Paper Moon (1973) starring Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman. Due to circumstances which would not be allowed today, a 1930s con man (Ryan O'Neal) ends up traveling through Kansas and Missouri with a young orphan named Addie (Tatum O'Neal) who is not his actual daughter (although the actress portraying her is O'Neal's actual daughter). He tries to get rid of her as soon as possible, but she proves to be a better con artist than he is. When they are arrested for bootlegging, it is Addie who engineers their escape. Tatum O'Neal, 10, won a Supporting Actress Oscar for this, her screen debut. The subtitles are OK. Grade: A

The Last Station

The Last Station (2009) starring Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, Kerry Condon. Set in 1910, during the last year of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy's (Plummer) life, this movie explores the fractious relationship between Tolstoy and his wife (Mirren). Tolstoy in his latter years wanted to make a gift of his writing (and the copyright) to "the people," and his wife resisted stoutly, believing that he was giving away his children's inheritance. Into this maelstrom comes his new assistant Valentin (McAvoy), who can't quite figure out what to make of it all. The film at times ascends to melodrama, and it's not above going for a laugh. The subject matter is, of course, quite serious. The subtitles are absolutely top-notch. Grade: A-

Whip It (DVD)

Whip It (2009) starring Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon, Daniel Stern, Alia Shawcat. Disaffected Texas teen Bliss (Page) is seduced by the dark side of sports and -- even though she is underage -- she joins a roller derby team, where she is known as Babe Ruthless. The name of the team is the Hurl Scouts, and they are the worst team in the league -- and proud of it. That is, until Babe Ruthless arrives and the team begins to get tired of losing. Meanwhile, Bliss must deal with her overbearing mother (Harden), who just wants her to be good in school and to win beauty pageants. Things get complicated when Bliss falls for a young man, who betrays her, and her best friend (Shawcat) gets arrested for drinking underage at a Hurl Scout afterparty. The dramatic choice then becomes, will Babe Ruthless play for the Hurl Scouts in the championship game, or will Bliss appear in a beauty pageant (the events are on the same day) to please her mother? I think this movie is supposed to be all about grrrl power (Barrymore directed as well as acting in the film), but to me it just comes off as a piling up of sports-movie cliches. The parts don't add up to a coherent whole, and the plot is all too predictable. The novelty -- that the sport is roller derby -- quickly wears off. The subtitles are good. Grade: B

The Reivers (DVD)

The Reivers (1969) starring Steve McQueen, Sharon Farrell, Mitch Vogel, Rupert Crosse, Will Geer. After stealing er, borrowing a car from young Lucius' (Vogel) grandfather (Geer), Boon (McQueen), Lucius and Ned (Crosse) set off cross-country from Mississippi for the big city of Memphis. The year is 1905, and the story is told as a flashback, narrated by Burgess Meredith. Their picaresque adventures prove a sobering experience for 11-year-old Lucius, who learns more than he'd like about lying, women and racism. The script is based on a novel by William Faulkner. The movie finishes strong, which makes up for some slow spots in the middle. Good subtitles. Grade: B+

Panic in the Streets (DVD)

Panic in the Streets (1950) starring Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jack Palance, Zero Mostel. Dr. Clint Reed (Widmark) finds that a recently murdered man had pneumonic plague, and the killers (Palance, Mostel) must be found before they start an epidemic. The police captain (Douglas) is not very cooperative, so Dr. Reed goes off by himself, searching the docks of New Orleans for anyone who has seen the dead man. Meanwhile, the killers are doing everything they can to elude capture while the plague incubates inside them. Despite the 1950 production values, it's a pretty intense film. The subtitles are very helpful. Grade: B

The Princess and the Frog (DVD)

The Princess and the Frog (2009) with the voices of Anika Noni Rose, Jennifer Cody, Jennifer Lewis, Keith David, Oprah Winfrey. Tiana (Rose) dreams of opening her own nightspot and restaurant, but when she kisses a frog, she turns into a frog herself. Set in New Orleans during the Jazz Age, this Disney animation is notable principally for the fact that the princess of the title is (at last) an African American. Trouble is, she spends most of the movie as a frog. The animation mostly looks flat, probably because it is -- as opposed to CGI; the songs are uninspired. Still, this will likely appeal to youngsters who still go for animated films. It's a cute movie. The subtitles are good. Grade: B

Collapse (DVD)

Collapse (2009) starring Michael Ruppert. Investigative journalist Ruppert is interviewed at length, and gives his reasons why he thinks civilization is headed for collapse. His central argument is that modern civilization, and the population growth that has accompanied it, is attributable to and dependent on the exploitation of oil -- and that we have already passed the permanent peak of production for oil worldwide. Not only that, but there is on the horizon no viable substitute for oil. Ruppert's discussion is wide-ranging, encyclopedic, and apocalyptic, but never boring. Also, the film is subtitled for the hearing-impaired. Grade: B+

Invictus (DVD)

Invictus (2009) starring Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon. Directed by Clint Eastwood. In 1995, South Africa's newly elected president Nelson Mandela (Freeman) decides that the rugby World Cup would be a good place to begin the process of reconciliation. Damon, as the captain of the rugby team, "gets" it -- Mandela wants them to win the World Cup. It's an inspiring story, but let's face it: In the end, this is a movie about rugby -- a sport that will be incomprehensible to 99 percent of Americans, and was to me. They should make a movie about cricket. Now that would be great. Subtitles: fine. Grade: B

Pan's Labyrinth (DVD)

Pan's Labyrinth (2006) starring Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Ivana Baquero. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. In 1944 in Franco's Spain, the triumphant forces of Fascism set up outposts to hunt down the Communist guerrillas who continue to resist. The brutal Fascist Captain Vidal (Lopez) commands a mountain garrison, where his new wife and young stepdaughter Ofelia (Baquero) have come to stay with him. Ofelia escapes the violence around her by drifting into a fantasy world where she is a princess given three tasks by a mysterious faun who lives underground at the center of a labyrinth. In the end, I had the feeling that I had seen something profound and moving. But what does it all mean? I couldn't say. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Grade: A-

The Panic in Needle Park (DVD)

The Panic in Needle Park (1971) starring Al Pacino, Kitty Winn. Bobby (Pacino) and Helen (Winn) meet each other in New York City and become involved. Bobby is a small-time hustler and thief, while Helen has just recently been abandoned by her boyfriend. Soon Bobby and Helen are both hooked on heroin, and things go straight downhill from there. The "panic" of the title is a shortage of heroin on the streets. This is a real strong anti-drug movie. What the heck, I'm anti-heroin myself. The subtitles are essential and helpful, though a little hard to read. Grade: B+

The Painted Veil (DVD)

The Painted Veil (2006) starring Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Toby Jones, Diana Rigg. In 1925, Dr. Walter Fane (Norton) enters into a marriage of convenience with Kitty (Watts). It's convenient for her, anyway. He's in love, she's not. His work as a bacteriologist takes them to China, where she strikes up a love affair with Charlie Townsend (Schreiber). Dr. Fane is no fool, however, and he agrees not to divorce her only if she will accompany him into the interior of China to fight a cholera epidemic. While battling the disease together, they unexpectedly fall in love with one another all over again. This movie is beautifully photographed, scripted, and acted (especially by Watts). The subtitles are helpful, but not great. Grade: A-

From Here to Eternity (DVD)

From Here to Eternity (1953) starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra. Intrigue and romance in the U.S. Army on Hawaii in 1941, right before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Prewitt (Clift) doesn't want to box, but the Army wants him to box. Meanwhile, Sergeant Warden (Lancaster) is fooling around with the company commander's wife (Kerr). This film features the famous scene of Lancaster and Kerr kissing on the beach while the surf rolls over them -- not nearly as much of a thrill in context as it is in outtakes. But I have to admit, I got caught up in the soap opera. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor puts an exclamation point on the film -- but time has robbed it of some of its impact. This movie won eight Oscars, including Best Picture. The subtitles are very legible, but frequently omit fragments of dialogue. Grade: B

Mogambo (DVD)

Mogambo (1953) starring Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly. Directed by John Ford. Gable, as Victor Marswell, captures wild animals in Africa for sale to zoos, circuses and trainers. Eloise Kelly (Gardner) shows up as an uninvited guest, expecting to go on safari, but her "date" stands her up; and at first she proves to be a nuisance. When Mrs. Nordley (Kelly) shows up, it is apparent that Marswell is drawn to her -- and Eloise Kelly is jealous. The result is an awkward sort of love triangle that may have been interesting in 1953, but in 2010 seems stilted and dated. The movies back then had to adhere to different rules, of course, and as an artifact of the '50s this one has its good points. The gorilla safari, however, isn't one of them. It's embarrassingly retro by today's standards. "Mogambo" was a remake of "Red Dust," a 1932 film in which Gable also starred. The subtitles are just barely adequate. Grade: C+

As It Is in Heaven (DVD)

As It Is in Heaven (2005) starring Michael Nyqvist, Frida Hallgren. A famous conductor suffers a heart attack, ending his performing career, and decides to move back to the small village where he grew up. He has changed his name, however, so no one knows that he is from the village. He ends up in charge of the local church choir; as he says, "Music is all I know." It's a thankless job, at a menial wage, but he throws himself into it with vigor. His passion for music stirs up a lot of suppressed emotions in the choir members, however, and some in the village aren't happy with what he's doing. The many little dramas that are thus played out make up the bulk of the movie. It was fun to watch. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Picture at the Oscars. In Swedish, with very good English subtitles. Grade: B+

Artists of the 20th Century: Paul Klee (DVD)

Artists of the 20th Century: Paul Klee (2004). This documentary is the video equivalent of an art book, with reproductions of many of Klee's paintings, accompanied by a running commentary. I happen to really like Klee's work, so I enjoyed this DVD immensely -- even though it has no subtitles, which in this rare case are not needed. If I have a complaint about this disc, it is that it is too short, and Klee's works are not placed in historical context. For example, he continued to work through World War I, but no indication of how the war may have affected him is given, even though he is German. The disc could have used some added depth. Grade: A-

Fantastic Mr. Fox (DVD)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) with the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray. Mr. Fox (Clooney) decides he wants to pull "one last job" before quitting his chicken-stealing ways. But he arouses the ire of three mean farmers, who set out to kill him. It's basically the wild animals against the humans in this stop-motion fantasy, which makes for passable entertainment. It's good clean fun, with the word "cuss" used everywhere a curse word might appear. Rated PG, I think it would be fine for kids. Good subtitles. Grade: B

The Young Victoria (DVD)

The Young Victoria (2009) starring Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Paul Bettany. Blunt plays 18-year-old British royal Victoria, who in 1837 ascends to the throne whilst court intrigue swirls around her. She proves to be a firm but inexperienced queen, and has a lot of learning on the job to do. Young Victoria soon (1840) marries Prince Albert of Germany (Friend), who has difficulty fitting in as the husband of the Queen. Interesting factoid: They had nine children, and Albert died 20 years later, at age 42, from typhoid. This is not a bad movie, by any means, but it covers such a short span of Victoria's life and covers it in such a shallow manner that the film seems a mere trifle. The subtitles are excellent. Grade: B