DVD: Toxic Sisters, Wooden Boys and Swedish Vampires

You know how in December about 79 movies emerge at the same time wanting all of your very limited attention during the holidays? Well, yesterday here in Marchland, that happened on a slightly smaller scale only on DVD. I tried to write a post yesterday three or four times about the new DVDs but the sheer volume of interesting stuff defeated me. So here goes nothing everything too much. It's the 70th anniversary of that wooden boy with the world's greatest lie detector right on his face? He probably needs his own post. Those magic twins I was obsessed with as a wee tyke in the original 70's Witch Mountain features deserve a whole post, too now that their movies are reissued. Not just these three sentences. (I'm not sure I'm ready to think about the, uh, reboot.


And the new films...

Perhaps it's time to dive back into the muddy potentially infectious waters of Synecdoche New York. DVD seems like the only hope for learning to love that relentlessly ashen labyrinthine puzzle -- which inadvertently... no, no purposefully begs you to reject it so it can go on being misunderstood. It's like a self loathing lover who continually pushes for both attention and self-fulfilling rejection "I'm ugly and pathetic! You hate me ...[long pause] ...WELL, DON'T YOU???" A lot of people I respect love this movie so I may try again. Help me.

Also new on DVD: Charlize Theron in Battle in Seattle, Beyoncé in Cadillac Records (A.O. Scott seems to think she can suddenly act but I have my doubts), Vera Farmiga stars in 2008's other split decision Holocaust picture ("Offensive!"/"One of the Year's Best!" you know how those things go) The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Marie and Bruce stars Julianne Moore and it's finally made its way to DVD years after filming and being shoved into a vault somewhere. Is it bad or just unmarketable... there's a very big difference. This means that soon I'll be able to say (again) that I've seen everything she's ever done including Broadway's Vertical Hour and the awesome Beckett short Not I.

Most importantly this week a full 33% of my top dozen films of 2008 arrive on DVD simultaneously: Mike Leigh's clear-eyed ode to optimism Happy-Go-Lucky with Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins (interviewed here), the terrific Swedish horror flick Let the Right One In, Best Picture nominee Milk and my pick for the cherry on top of 2008 cinema: Jonathan Demme's tender and thorny Rachel Getting Married with Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie DeWitt (interviewed here) brilliantly portraying two squabbling sisters. Debra Winger and Bill Irwin (interviewed here) co-star as their confrontation averse parents.

Which of these films are you just getting around to, which do you already love and which do you plan to go nowhere near?
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