University of Western Ontario technology and pop culture expert Tim Blackmore presents his second annual Top 10 Weirdly Missed or Dissed DVDs of 2008.
1. “The Fall”
This is a gorgeous story about two people recovering from injuries. As the Hollywood stuntman considers his fall off a horse, and out of the graces of the woman he loves, he meets a far more interesting person, a young girl (played with astounding humanity and wit by the then nine year old Catinca Untaru) to whom he tells a magical tale of love and revenge. This is without doubt the most beautifully envisioned film, orchestrated in part by director Tarsem Singh’s designer, the famous Eiko Ishioka.
2. “Tex Avery’s Droopy – The Complete Theatrical Collection”
Hard not to identify with the deadpan little dog that keeps looking straight into the camera and drawling “You know what? I’m the hero.” Avery’s brilliance shines through in these classics, and even more hilarious, cartoons that taught a generation how to time action and comedy.
3. “Travellers and Magicians”
Another wonderful crossing of the story boundaries as the young man, Dondup, eager to escape what he sees as the suffocating cultural backwater of Bhutan, travels with a group of people who become part of another story told on the road to keep the travelers occupied. And what a story of myth and magic, romance, betrayal and beauty it is! The documentaries here are also worth the whistle, in part because this film and the process of film making is as much about how we live as what we watch (but presented in a very acceptable, non-sermonizing way, I promise).
4. “Redbelt”
David Mamet’s zen (or Stoic, if you prefer) entry into the world of, as he unreconstructedly calls them, ‘fight films.” As Forest Whitaker had to in Jim Jarmusch’s superb “Ghost Dog,” Chiwetel Ejiofor struggles to determine the balance between principle, studied non-violence, and doing what one must to survive. A brilliantly cut sharp gem of a film about the zen of martial arts.
5. “Emile De Antonio: Films of a Radical Saint”
Last year, I talked about one of De Antonio’s single films, but here in a new set are four wonderful, hilarious, iconoclastic (and hey, just amazing) documentaries: the famous “Vietnam: In the Year of the Pig,” and the equally famous but now unjustly forgotten “Millhouse: A White Comedy” (where Richard Nixon with every word blunders into new and bathetic territory), and two others. De Antonio’s humor, his eye for the absurd, taught Errol Morris of “The Fog of War” and “Standard Operating Procedure,” so much of what he knows.
6. “Dark City” (Re-release)
This terrific little film was eclipsed by “The Matrix” (remember that one?) when it was first released. Now here it is again in an extended and beautifully re-mastered edition, complete with superb bonus features where director Proyas (“The Crow” and “I, Robot”) explains his astonishing, nightmarish vision of a city and people that change every night. If you look hard, there’s a pre-“24” Keifer Sutherland in there, too.
7. “Counterfeiters”
As tightly and carefully made as “The Counterfeiters” was, the bonus features on this disk make it worth re-seeing. The best is a documentary that follows one of the original counterfeiters telling his own story, and talking about dealing with Holocaust denial. A beautiful original with nothing fake about it.
8. “Creature Comforts” (Second Season)
If you haven’t yet met “Creature Comforts,” then you’re a lucky person! Here Nick Park’s crew (“Wallace and Gromit”) interviews the most unusual ‘usual’ people in Britain (there’s also an American version which is completely different and equally hilarious) about, well, everything. But the interviews are played out by claymation animals of different kinds, and the subtlety of expression is hilarious, delightful, and very, well, human.
9. “Honeydripper”
John Sayles’ films are always a landmark events, and this one about the mythic beginning of blues, R&B and early rock at the Honeydripper Lounge in 1950s’ Alabama, is no different.
10. “Horton Hears a Who” (Two-Disk Edition)
You need to get the two disk set so you can see the documentaries about how the artists adapted Theodore ‘Dr. Seuss’ Geisel’s visions from flat page to 3D computer graphics. The incredible love that went into the making of Whoville may be lost otherwise, since it goes by so quickly. And watch Horton’s skin dry as he gets out of the cool of the pool in the kingdom of Nool.