2008 Woodie Awards
Say No to the Blockbuster
Non-mainstream DVDs are great stocking stuffers.
Jesus Esquivel
Issue date: 12/14/05 Section: Valley Life
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Those three DVDs ("Batman Begins," "Star Wars Episode III" and "Crash") are the top sellers this holiday season, yet there are more unpredictable DVDs that also came out this year that would make for more surprising gifts.
Bill Murray ("Lost in Translation") leads an all-star cast playing marine biologists and unpaid interns in the Criterion Collection double disc set of "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou."
The film is a perfect balance of sensitive sadness and witty humor all set to a score that resembles an 8-bit Nintendo soundtrack.
The set contains deleted scenes and commentary from director Wes Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach. It also has many video interviews with cast members and composer Mark Mothersbaugh. It contains a handful of featurettes and 10 complete performances of David Bowie songs in Portuguese by Seu Jorge. The list price is $33.
Re-released by Universal this year was the 1980 film "Where The Buffalo Roam," based on several writings by the late Gonzo journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. It also features Murray starring as Thompson and Peter Boyle ("Taxi Driver") as Carl Lazlo, Thompson's attorney.
Fans of the 1998 release of "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas" should enjoy the tales of drugs, revolutionaries, anti-Nixonism and the 1972 Super Bowl. The list price is $13.
In a completely different realm "Mysterious Skin" directed by Gregg Araki and based on the novel by Scott Heim manages to provide serene, yet gritty visuals in a movie laced with pedophilia and shocking sexual content. This movie isn't for the easily offended.
It tells a compelling story of two different teens. One is a male prostitute (Joseph Gordon-Levitt of TV's 3rd Rock from the Sun) and the other is obsessed with alien abductions (Brady Corbet, "Thirteen"). They cross paths and uncover a dark secret that haunts both their pasts.
The DVD features interviews with Araki, Corbet, Gordon-Levitt, and Heim. It includes a book reading, director's commentary and a Tribeca Film Festival featurette. The list price is $25.
