Home Media Magazine - May 25 - 31, 2008 - (Page 34)

REVIEWS I HONEYDRIPPER Prebook 5/27; Street 6/24 Universal/Screen Media, Drama, B.O. $0.3 million, $27.98 DVD, ‘PG-13’ for brief violence and some suggestive material. Stars Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Sean Patrick Thomas, Stacy Keach, Mary Steenburgen, Yaya DaCosta. www.homemediamagazine.com keep a business going strong, and the proprietor is desperate for an idea to keep his place up and running. Bringing in fresh musical talent conjures only minimal success, before the character gives a shot to a mysterious newcomer — a drifting, backwoods guitar maestro who changes the lives of the bar’s frequent inhabitants forever. Rich in great blues music, and alive with the detailed, character-driven storytelling and dialogue Sayles employs, Honeydripper also shows off the creative use of camera Sayles is known for, particularly his ability to make a slow pan across a scene ooze with impact and emotion, yet never seem showy. For Sayles fans, who have watched for almost three decades as the writerdirector has nibbled on the outside edges of larger appreciation, this is another welcome entry to the canon. – Dan Bennett J ohn Sayles has certainly captured the American South with intelligence and dramatic flair in the past. Matewan and Passion Fish are little-known mini-masterpieces from the prolific writer-director, while Lone Star may be one of the best American films of the past 25 years. Honeydripper continues the run. Sayles is a gifted storyteller, and Honeydripper again shows that talent. Glover stars as the owner of a backwoods Alabama bar in 1950, a place where sweet music entertains the poor locals. It’s also a time when Jim Crowe laws hampered the efforts of a black man to I TELLING LIES Prebook 5/27; Street 6/24 Echo Bridge, Thriller, $14.99 DVD, ‘R’ for language and some violence. Stars Melanie Brown, Jason Flemyng, Kelly Stables, Jenna Harrison. I I SHOTGUN STORIES Prebook 5/27; Street 7/1 Genius/Liberation, Drama, B.O. $0.04 million, $24.95 DVD, ‘PG-13’ for violence, thematic elements and brief strong language. Stars Michael Shannon, Barlow Jacobs, Douglas Ligon. R evenge threatens to destroy a generation of two families’ men in the Arkansas-based drama Shotgun Stories. The powerful film starts with a portrait of sweeping, sedate landscapes of the cotton fields, a run-down town, and a trio of soft-spoken, reserved adult brothers: the oldest, Son (Shannon); the soonto-be-engaged Kid (Jacobs); and the chubby, gentle-hearted Boy (Ligon). The greatest mystery in the beginning is why Son’s back is peppered with shotgun scars. Caught in bed with someone’s wife? Robbed a liquor store? But that mystery disappears in viewers’ memory as Son, Kid and Boy become angrily involved with their good-for-nothing father’s second family. The boys’ absentee dad has died, and Son shows up to deliver a few words at the graveside and tops it off by spitting on the casket. We learn through his angry words that their father used to be a drunkard, but mended his ways and cut his ties with this abandoned trio and their bitter mother. The father’s new respectable family doesn’t take kindly to Son’s outburst, and soon harsh words on both sides give way to violence that begets more violence. This stunning debut from writerdirector Jeff Nichols, while always retaining a mood of a hot, slow Arkansas summer, uses small movements, words and facial expressions by these good old boys to unravel their characters, their pasts and the dangerous future they’re careening toward. Nichols never settles for telling us what’s happened or is happening to this family when showing us works better. He gives us time to fall in love with this town and these characters and deliciously and slowly reveals a plot and a past that resonates with anger and broken childhoods. A masterful storyteller drawing first-rate performances from his actors and actress is at work here. – Brendan Howard n the British psychological thriller Telling Lies, Melanie Brown (aka Scary Spice) takes center stage as Det. Maggie Thomas, who is investigating a teenage girl’s role in the death of a young man named Vincent. The troubled youth is Faith (Harrison), who has just returned to her snooty private school, following her mother’s apparent suicide, to find her best friend, Portia, dating her boyfriend, Derek. Heartbroken and angry, she begins acting out at school and befriends Eve (Stables), a brash, fiery girl who fuels Faith’s growing self-destructive side. The pair spend time ditching school and coming up with ways to torment Portia and Derek. But Faith is still not over her ex, so Eve convinces her to create a phony boyfriend to make Derek jealous. Together they fabricate a relationship between Faith and a guy named Vincent, including fake love letters and altered photos of the happy couple. The plan seems to work until Faith’s imaginary beau turns out to be a real person who was brutally murdered in a hotel room. Conveniently, Eve disappears just as the body surfaces, leaving a trail of evidence that leads right to Faith. While the police are convinced that Faith is a psychopathic killer who made up Eve, the only one who still believes her is Det. Thomas, who goes out of her way, against her colleagues’ wishes, to find out the truth behind Eve and the murder. Telling Lies is a smart, suspenseful teen thriller, along the lines of Swimfan and Abandon, that comes to life thanks to its dynamic cast, notably Harrison and Stables. Of course, the big draw is Mel B, who is back in the spotlight after making it to the finals of the fifth season of “Dancing With the Stars” and is fresh off the Spice Girls’ reunion tour. Her star power alone will draw crowds of all ages — and they won’t be disappointed. While the film is teen-friendly, it’s gripping enough to hold adults’ attention as well. – Matt Miller Q U I C K TAK E Feeling the Lovecraft Following its release of The Call of Cthulhu silent film homage last year, Microcinema returns to the unique world of H.P. Lovecraft May 27 with four DVDs of films based on the celebrated horror master’s works. “The H.P. Lovecraft Collection” includes 1999’s Cool Air, 2000’s Dreams of Cthulhu: The Rough Magik Initiative, 1998’s Out of Mind and 2000’s Pickman’s Model. The four volumes are available for $19.95 each. Cool Air, Rough Magik and Pickman’s Model (aka Chilean Gothic) are relatively faithful adaptations of Lovecraft fiction. Out of Mind serves as an effective quasibiography of Lovecraft. –John Latchem 34 Home Media Magazine May 25–31, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - May 25 - 31, 2008

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