Two Oscar-nominated films release on DVD today: Up in the Air and Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. Be sure to check out our guest reviews of both Precious and Up in the Air.
The Wedding Song, a film lauded for its portrayal of female relationships, releases on DVD as well. An excerpt from the NYT’s review by Jeannette Catsoulis:
Filmed with subtle eroticism and dreamy intimacy, the girls’ bond becomes a compelling love story that will be tested not only by personal grudges but also by anti-Jewish propaganda and inflamed animosity for the French colonists. Against a background of marching jackboots and falling bombs, the film’s women look to one another for emotional sustenance, and Ms. Albou creates a marvelously fleshy, female world in the casual nakedness of the bathhouse and the ribald humor of Nour’s engagement party.
But from henna-stained fingertips to a blood-spotted wedding sheet, the film’s images (lovingly captured by Laurent Brunet) remind us that here, female flesh is always the property of men.
Here are some additional women-centered films releasing on DVD that we haven’t yet seen, so they may (or may not–don’t blame us!) be interesting viewing:
Flick’s Chicks
imdb synopsis: Flick’s Chicks is a romantic comedy that centers around a young mother named Flick. After a lifetime of problems and disappointments with men, she decides she wants to spend her life with a woman. As sweet and funny as she is, Flick is flawed and confused but has come up with an unconventional way to find her new mate; A weekend sleepover. She finds the 5 women that she’s recently met and has been attracted to in one way or another and invites them to spend a weekend at an out of the way summer house by the beach. A weekend to get to know her and her daughter Roxy, who at only 10 years old, has a maturity far beyond her years. The only problem is, she has invited all 5 women to stay with her at the same time in the same house and none of them know that.
Plan B
amazon.com synopsis: There’s no telling what her Plan A might have entailed (perhaps a one-woman rendition of “Grey Gardens?”), but Bamford’s Plan B turns out to be a virtuoso, one-woman performance of a self-imposed stint in Northwoods exile. Filmed live at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, the extra-packed DVD now out from Stand Up! Records has an intimate and theatrical flavor that may feel unexpected to some of Bamford’s followers, but skillfully weaves together the most well-wrought portions of her repertoire. More focused than her usual stand-up routine, in Plan B Bamford takes on the story of her own Hollywood life, viewed from the much safer and possibly much weirder climes of Duluth, MN. Playing all of the characters, from her parents to her high school nemesis-cum-Target checkout girl, Bamford lovingly skewers her origins, reminding us that, while there may be no place like home, there’s really no place like home.
Shattered
imdb synopsis: Nikki, Claire, Regina and Heather have been best friends since the first grade. Now adults, they have just mortgaged their lives to open a bar together. But on the morning of its grand opening, Heather is attacked inside. She manages to escape, trapping her assailant in the bar’s storage room. As the clock ticks closer to opening night, they push their friendship to the limit deciding whether they will trust justice to take it’s course… or take justice into their own hands.
Stained Glass Windows
imdb synopsis: A darkly intelligent teenage girl struggles to overcome her past and the restraints of suburban society while trying to come to terms with the present.