Two movies that saw success at the Academy Awards one starring the Oscar-winner for best actress, and the other being the winner for best adapted screenplay have been released on Blu-ray and DVD.
Room (Lionsgate, 2015, R for language, audio commentary, featurettes). Brie Larson won the Oscar for best actress for her remarkable performance in this disturbing melodrama as Joy, a 24-year-old woman held captive in a small shed with her 5-year-old son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay, also excellent).
Over the course of the films first half, we learn about their situation: Joy has been a hostage for seven years after being kidnapped by a man she refers to as Old Nick (Sean Bridgers). And for the past five years, she has been calling the area Room and trying to make life as normal as possible for her boy, who has come to believe that their living space is the only reality and what he sees on TV is just fantasy. Then, after they are finally rescued, a new nightmare replaces the old one.
Larson earned her Oscar, and the film is quite compelling, troubling and all too plausible in todays world. Filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson working from Emma Donoghues script, adapted from her own novel deftly conveys Joys cloistered world in the first half and her difficulty in readjusting to life outside in the second. Abrahamson and Donoghue both earned Oscar nominations (losing, respectively, to the director of The Revenant and the screenplay writers of The Big Short).
The Big Short (Paramount, 2014; R for language, sex, nudity; deleted scenes, featurettes). This fast and furious Wall Street satire is occasionally amusing but just as often rather confusing and filled with caricatures rather than characters. I enjoyed filmmaker Adam McKays Moneyball, a similar treatise, albeit in the world of baseball, but I found this one smug and rather condescending as four outsiders try to beat the big banks at their own game, anticipating the 2008 financial crisis. Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt provide good performances as the quartet of investors, with Marisa Tomei and Melissa Leo in support. It was nominated for five Oscars and won one (best adapted screenplay).
Victor Frankenstein (Fox, 2015, PG-13, deleted scenes, featurettes, photo galleries). Hunchbacked Igor Strausman (Daniel Radcliffe) is rescued from a circus by Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy) and becomes a partner in his experimental attempts to create life. This weird mix of humor and horror attempts to be an original take on the oft-filmed Mary Shelley novel (with nods to other movie versions) and occasionally succeeds.
Legend (Universal, 2015; R for violence, language, sex, drugs; audio commentary, featurette). Ronnie and Reggie Kray were brutal organized-crime figures of the 1950s and 60s in Londons East End, and director Brian Helgeland (42) doesnt hold back in putting that brutality on display. The film is notable primarily for Tom Hardys disparate performances as both Kray twins, who were also the subjects of The Krays (1990) and another film from last year, The Rise of the Krays (the latter with a sequel due this year).
Sisters (Universal, 2015; R for sex, language, drugs; deleted/extended scenes, audio commentary, featurettes, bloopers). In 1981, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi switched up their usual characterizations in Neighbors by making Aykroyd the loud, obnoxious one and Belushi the staid wimp. In this film, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler do the same thing, with Fey playing the outrageous, boisterous sister and Poehler the timid one. Except that now they can be unremittingly raunchy, so they are. Co-stars include Dianne Wiest, James Brolin, Maya Rudolph, John Leguizamo and John Cena.
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (Magnolia, 2015, R for language, deleted scenes, featurette, trailer). Yet another exploration of Steve Jobs, this one is from documentarian Alex Gibney, who spends most of the film on Jobs contradictions, sparked by the filmmakers surprise at the outpouring of emotion that followed the Apple founders death. Chrisann Brennan, the mother of Jobs oldest daughter, and former Apple executives are the primary interviewees.
The Hatching (Lionsgate, 2015; R for horror violence, gore, language, drug use and brief sexuality; featurette, trailers). Owing a debt to Lake Placid, this British monster movie a broad and very gory horror comedy has giant killer crocodiles munching on the locals in and around the Somerset Levels, the wetlands of Somerset in South West England, where the film was shot on location.
Room (Lionsgate, 2015, R for language, audio commentary, featurettes). Brie Larson won the Oscar for best actress for her remarkable performance in this disturbing melodrama as Joy, a 24-year-old woman held captive in a small shed with her 5-year-old son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay, also excellent).
Over the course of the films first half, we learn about their situation: Joy has been a hostage for seven years after being kidnapped by a man she refers to as Old Nick (Sean Bridgers). And for the past five years, she has been calling the area Room and trying to make life as normal as possible for her boy, who has come to believe that their living space is the only reality and what he sees on TV is just fantasy. Then, after they are finally rescued, a new nightmare replaces the old one.
Larson earned her Oscar, and the film is quite compelling, troubling and all too plausible in todays world. Filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson working from Emma Donoghues script, adapted from her own novel deftly conveys Joys cloistered world in the first half and her difficulty in readjusting to life outside in the second. Abrahamson and Donoghue both earned Oscar nominations (losing, respectively, to the director of The Revenant and the screenplay writers of The Big Short).
The Big Short (Paramount, 2014; R for language, sex, nudity; deleted scenes, featurettes). This fast and furious Wall Street satire is occasionally amusing but just as often rather confusing and filled with caricatures rather than characters. I enjoyed filmmaker Adam McKays Moneyball, a similar treatise, albeit in the world of baseball, but I found this one smug and rather condescending as four outsiders try to beat the big banks at their own game, anticipating the 2008 financial crisis. Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt provide good performances as the quartet of investors, with Marisa Tomei and Melissa Leo in support. It was nominated for five Oscars and won one (best adapted screenplay).
Victor Frankenstein (Fox, 2015, PG-13, deleted scenes, featurettes, photo galleries). Hunchbacked Igor Strausman (Daniel Radcliffe) is rescued from a circus by Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy) and becomes a partner in his experimental attempts to create life. This weird mix of humor and horror attempts to be an original take on the oft-filmed Mary Shelley novel (with nods to other movie versions) and occasionally succeeds.
Legend (Universal, 2015; R for violence, language, sex, drugs; audio commentary, featurette). Ronnie and Reggie Kray were brutal organized-crime figures of the 1950s and 60s in Londons East End, and director Brian Helgeland (42) doesnt hold back in putting that brutality on display. The film is notable primarily for Tom Hardys disparate performances as both Kray twins, who were also the subjects of The Krays (1990) and another film from last year, The Rise of the Krays (the latter with a sequel due this year).
Sisters (Universal, 2015; R for sex, language, drugs; deleted/extended scenes, audio commentary, featurettes, bloopers). In 1981, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi switched up their usual characterizations in Neighbors by making Aykroyd the loud, obnoxious one and Belushi the staid wimp. In this film, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler do the same thing, with Fey playing the outrageous, boisterous sister and Poehler the timid one. Except that now they can be unremittingly raunchy, so they are. Co-stars include Dianne Wiest, James Brolin, Maya Rudolph, John Leguizamo and John Cena.
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (Magnolia, 2015, R for language, deleted scenes, featurette, trailer). Yet another exploration of Steve Jobs, this one is from documentarian Alex Gibney, who spends most of the film on Jobs contradictions, sparked by the filmmakers surprise at the outpouring of emotion that followed the Apple founders death. Chrisann Brennan, the mother of Jobs oldest daughter, and former Apple executives are the primary interviewees.
The Hatching (Lionsgate, 2015; R for horror violence, gore, language, drug use and brief sexuality; featurette, trailers). Owing a debt to Lake Placid, this British monster movie a broad and very gory horror comedy has giant killer crocodiles munching on the locals in and around the Somerset Levels, the wetlands of Somerset in South West England, where the film was shot on location.