The Best DVD Releases of 2009 so far…

So here we are already at the mid-year point of 09! How can this be? As our little blog rolls along we continue to try to give shakers as they are due. Take a walk through a chain video store and see the sheer avalanche of DVD releases out there- most sadly to say just suck. So here’s my year to date picks on the best disks so far- note these only indicate new releases of the past year and not old films re-released. I’d also like to give a shout out to the release of the final season of “The Wire” representing a new high in TV drama. (Though this blog doesn’t usually weigh in on TV shows)

Some of these flicks were reviewed or mentioned previously on this blog, many others weren’t but trust me- all of these are good viewing! (Sorry The Reader and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” didn’t make the cut for me) Also all of these should link back to their Netflix pages for easy queuing. Let’s hope the second half of the year has some more good ones (which will include the Sin Nombre and Star Trek releases of course)

1. Alexandra


2. Days and Clouds


3. Dear Zachary


4. Doubt


5. Eden


6. Frontline: Bush's War


7. Frost/Nixon


8. Frozen River


9. George Carlin: It's Bad for Ya! (His final HBO concert)


10. Gran Torino


11. Happy-Go-Lucky


12. Home


13. I've Loved You So Long


14. I.O.U.S.A.


15. In Bruges


16. Iron Man


17. John Adams (3-Disc Series)


18. Let the Right One In


19. Mamma Mia!


20. Milk


21. Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway


22. Revolutionary Road


23. Role Models


24. Slumdog Millionaire


25. Smart People


26. Step Brothers


27. W.


28. The Wackness


29. WALL-E


30. The Wrestler

Storm Warning

It is a stormy port city ands we meet an upscale yuppie couple. Michele is an entrepreneur workaholic whose maritime firm is coming to grips with a new aggressive partner. His wife Elsa is completing her art history doctorate while working to restore a newly found fresco in an ancient building. Their daughter Alice is a twenty-something, running a healthy alternative restaurant with friends which Michele obviously disapproves of- as well as her choice of a boyfriend. The couple is planning a post-graduation trip to Cambodia to celebrate Elsa’s achievement.

With the exception of the fresco this could be many couples that I’ve met in Seattle but this film is set in Genoa Italy. Our couple boats and eats at fine restaurants ands are surrounded by equally successful friends. As the film opens we are at Elsa’s graduation party, the bubble of a perfect adult life soon bursts with a hangover and Elsa stepping on a broken lamp. It is the first in a series of problems that will try this couple, stripping them of their old life and forcing them to come to terms with an economy that robs them of their material achievements and strains all their relationships to a breaking point.

“Days and Clouds” presents great, dramatic realism in a film that tries to honestly tell the story of people dealing with our current economic crisis. With every figure in our news there are thousands of people making the difficult decisions that Michele and Elsa have to come to face. Their lifestyle has covered up their own lost passion in their marriage as effectively as time and paint covers up Elsa’s lost fresco. Attempting to restore it is agonizing and painstaking, but the film’s final shot reveals a quiet hope. In crises people find their character- I think we’ll be seeing more films like this as our recession crawls on. Quiet films of personal crises are more inspiring than super heroes after all.