: Christy Colcord : City Brights

Aussie gangsters, Ed Norton in cornrows & Freakonomics

Hi folks - It's kind of a study in extremes today - either Ryan Reynolds getting buried alive, portraits of African revolutionary leaders or East German experimental sci-fi from the 70s. In other words, a little something for everyone! Check it out.

This Week's New Releases on DVD

There's only one drama this week so I'll start with that. 'Jack Goes Boating' is the first film directed by actor's actor Philip Seymour Hoffman ('Capote', 'Doubt'). It's an adaptation of the Off-Broadway play of the same name. Hoffman plays a shlumpy single guy embarking on a courtship with a similarly introspective single woman (played by Amy Ryan from 'The Office'). Their nascent relationship is in contrast to that of the struggling longtime couple who introduced them. This film is pretty dark and the main characters are pretty difficult. Both of them are so socially awkward (not in a charming way) that it makes for painful viewing some times. It feels like a play but the relationships and emotion are authentic. Watch it with a comedy. Read More 'Aussie gangsters, Ed Norton in cornrows & Freakonomics' »

Posted By: Christy Colcord (Email) | Jan 19 at 06:00 AM

Tech geeks, Mexican mercenaries & Beat poets

Hi folks - Sorry that I neglected you last week and have taken so long to get this out this week; still recovering from the holidays, I guess. There's not much out today, so it works out that I can catch you up on last week's stuff. Happy New Year and let's dive right in.

I'll start with dramas and the big title for today is 'The Social Network', the new film from director David Fincher ('Seven', 'Zodiac') and writer Aaron Sorkin ('West Wing') about the founding of Facebook. Fascinating as that sounds and no matter how much I love David Fincher, I can't say I was all that thrilled about watching it. However, it's clear that it's going to win a million Oscars and everyone's going to ask me about it, so I bit the bullet and watched it the other day. I will admit that it's a really well-made film. It looks great, it sounds great and they somehow made a film about white collar lawsuit depositions interesting. Jesse Eisenberg ('Adventureland', 'Zombieland') really nails Facebook founder (and world's youngest billionaire) Mark Zuckerberg's mannerisms and delivery and Justin Timberlake is suitably sleazy as Napster founder Sean Parker. So it's a great film and will win loads of awards, but it still made me feel really bad afterward. The vast majority of the people portrayed in this film are really horrible to spend any time with. They're brilliant but they're too young and too socially inept to wield the power they have responsibly and consequently they just treat each other really badly (hence all the lawsuits). My business partner loves Aaron Sorkin, so he'll probably love the snappy dialogue, but to me it's like 'His Girl Friday' but without any humor. I just wanted them to please.stop.talking for.just.one.minute. It did make me glad that I didn't get into Harvard because the film makes it look like a terrible place. My boyfriend, who's a computer engineer and co-founder of an internet startup, enjoyed the film a lot more than I did as I think that he could relate to everyone a bit more. He says they got all of the technical stuff right as well as really captured the atmosphere and vocabulary of that scene. I also think that anyone under the age of 30 will love it since it'll probably speak to them more than me. Last week's biggest drama was the Alan Ginsberg biopic 'Howl' starring it-boy James Franco and directed by local documentarians Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman ('Times of Harvey Milk', 'Celluloid Closet'). I haven't seen this one yet, but one thing I do know is that Ginsberg was never as handsome as Franco. On the other hand, judging by Franco's recent literary work, he will never be as deep or poetic as Ginsberg. The critics reviews were generally favorable, but customer reviews have been less generous. The last drama of the week is 'Touching Home', a locally produced film about family and baseball. It stars Ed Harris ('Pollack'), Robert Forster ('Jackie Brown'), Brad Dourif ('Cuckoo's Nest', 'My Son, My Son...') and the Logan Brothers in their acting and directorial debut. Not sure how these twin brothers got so many stars to be in their debut film, but there must be something there. They play brothers who are trying to make it in the big leagues while managing their homeless, alcoholic father (Harris). It says that it's based on a true story. Read More 'Tech geeks, Mexican mercenaries & Beat poets' »

Posted By: Christy Colcord (Email) | Jan 13 at 06:00 AM

New Year's flicks for a night in

For those of you who prefer a quiet night at home on New Year's away from the madness (and the stray bullets of the Mission), I thought I'd mention a couple of go-to New Year's Eve related films. You also might consider them when trying to avoid daylight through your hangover on New Year's Day. A movie marathon is a good excuse for a day laying in bed.

If you're a romantic comedy lover with no cheese filter like myself and don't mind a little Meg Ryan, you can do the ultimate 90s double feature and hit up both 'Sleepless in Seattle' and 'When Harry Met Sally'. Both have crucial New Year's Eve scenes, including the big delare-your-love final scene in 'WHMS'. I pull this double feature once a year around this time and just finished it off on Tuesday. I have to say, even though 'WHMS' is a little dated and has some really amusing fashion/hair styles, the humor still holds up. I chuckled my way through it yet again even though I know all the lines by heart. 'Sleepless' is much more somber in tone since Tom Hanks plays a widower, but it still has its yuks. My favorite scene is when the ladies and the gents argue about the whole 'more likely to die of a terrorist attack than get married after age 35' statistic and Susan Faludi's 'Backlash'. Very 1991. You certainly have to turn off your inner cynic, but when I put these on at the store customers of both genders sit and watch, which means they've got something. Read More 'New Year's flicks for a night in' »

Posted By: Christy Colcord (Email) | Dec 31 at 06:00 AM

'The American', 'Resident Evil: Afterlife', 'US of Tara' plus cool new old stuff

There are only three new releases in video stores today so I'm going to take some time to talk about some of the older stuff that has come out over the last couple of weeks from Warner & Columbia Archives & the Criterion Collection. Let's do it.

This Week's New Releases

The biggest title this week is George Clooney's newest crime drama, 'The American'. It's directed by music video specialist Anton Corbijn, who directed the excellent Ian Curtis/Joy Division biopic 'Control' a couple of years ago. This film is obviously very different since it's filmed in the glorious colors of the sun-dappled Italian countryside instead of the stolidly black and white of Northern England, but they're similar in tone. 'Control' was very downbeat because it's about a tortured artist suffering from crippling depression. This film is similarly downbeat because it's about a man who kills for a living and who has finally become unwilling to tolerate his own inhumanity. The two characters are similarly semi-suicidal and seem both isolated from their own emotions and yet totally self-absorbed. Clooney plays a hitman and gun technician whose clinical attitude toward death has hardened him to human contact. When he himself becomes the target of a hit he's forced to hide out in the Italian countryside while preparing for "one last job". The story follows his meticulous preparations and a relationship he starts with a local prostitute. The film is very solemn and while the scenery is gorgeous and Clooney is even more so, his character is so morose he's difficult to connect with. Clooney does a lot of frowning in this film, which counteracts his abundant charm as an actor. I'd say it's a beautiful film, but more than a bit of a downer (though the sunny Italian villages are a nice antidote to this miserable rainy weather). Read More ''The American', 'Resident Evil: Afterlife', 'US of Tara' plus cool new old stuff' »

Posted By: Christy Colcord (Email) | Dec 29 at 06:00 AM

A Christmas Carol for every mood

When compiling my list of favorite Christmas movies this week I purposely left out any versions of 'A Christmas Carol'. I didn't want to bog down that list with what may seem to be redundant mentions of all my favorite versions. I figured instead that I'd dedicate a whole post just to 'A Christmas Carol' on its own. I'm a Charles Dickens freak and an enthusiast particularly of this story. Every year I re-watch all of the versions that we have at the store on DVD and then I go see ACT's live version downtown. I usually end up going alone, but I'd rather go alone than go with someone who'll be cynical about it. It's my holiday gift to myself. Anyway, it's a classic story of second chances and redemption and it makes me cry every time (OK, maybe not the Jim Carrey version). IMDB lists 58 versions (including made-for-TV ones) so this is in no way a complete list, but it is a list of the most famous, most noteworthy or most well-loved by me. Read More 'A Christmas Carol for every mood' »

Posted By: Christy Colcord (Email) | Dec 23 at 06:00 AM

'Wall Street 2', 'Easy A', 'Best Worst Movie', 'Salt' & 'Devil' all out this week

There aren't as many quality films to report this week on DVD since last week had such a bumper crop, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to to talk about. I'll dive right in. First up, action/horror. Angelina Jolie is a CIA agent, I mean spy, I mean black ops agent, I mean...oh who knows? Her name is 'Salt' and she's a Russian specialist at the CIA or some other shady government group when one day a Russian walks in from the cold and tells her (and the entire world) that she's an undercover Russian spy planning to assassinate the President. This comes as news to Salt, but she's instantly thrown into defense mode as the government has to lock her down just in case. Of course, since she's an agent/spy/whatever she's got mad skills and no one will ever recognize her once she dyes her hair. The whole film is Jolie running around in spy outfits looking great and kicking ass. They keep you guessing right 'til the end as to is she or isn't she the bad guy, but the ass-kicking is really the most important part of the plot. This kind of film is right up my alley, so I saw it in the theater, naturally. I'm not going to claim that it's as good as one of the 'Bourne' movies (that it's clearly apeing), but I like Brangelina despite my instincts and I was entertained even if I immediately forgot it afterward. The other film is 'Devil', which I haven't seen. It's about a group of people trapped in an elevator. The lights keep going out and every time they do, someone gets bit or mauled or something. But who's doing the biting? Which one of the seemingly normal people in the elevator is actually a "devil"? I haven't seen this one because I'm way too claustrophobic to watch an elevator movie. Plus, the preview scared me, so I know I couldn't handle the whole film. It's directed by John Erick Dowdle ('Quarantine') and produced by M. Night Shyamalan (presumably why it's set in Philly). Read More ''Wall Street 2', 'Easy A', 'Best Worst Movie', 'Salt' & 'Devil' all out this week' »

Posted By: Christy Colcord (Email) | Dec 22 at 06:00 AM

Christmas flicks for every taste

When I posted my list of great Thanksgiving movies I promised to make a Christmas list, as well. Here I'll give you a few in each genre so that you can have a holiday movie for every mood. This isn't a comprehensive list, just a few flicks that I turn to every year to brighten my mood and fill the holidays with cheer.

I'll start with the classics. Every December I watch 'White Christmas' at least twice and I cry at least twice per viewing. It has everything you want in an adult holiday movie (I say 'adult' because it doesn't have kids dealing with their is/isn't there a Santa Claus issues) - singing, dancing, romance, comedy & heart-warming holiday do-gooders making sacrifices for others. Best of all, you get a "slam bang finish" with Bing Crosby singing 'White Christmas'. High points are Rosemary Clooney singing 'Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me' and pretty much every scene with Danny Kaye in it - especially when he's singing and dancing with Vera Ellen (a crazy talented and crazy anorexic dancing actress of the era). Honestly, I sometimes sneak a watch of this movie off-season because it warms the heart so. 'Christmas in Connecticut' is another movie that I watch every year without fail. Barbara Stanwyck plays the kind of sassy lady journalist who only exists in movies from the 1940's. She's a wartime Martha Stewart who writes a hugely popular cooking/homemaking column in a women's magazine about her perfect home, husband and baby. Unfortunately, she's actually a bachelorette who can't cook to save her life and who spends all of her extra money on mink coats. Everything goes wrong when her publisher (the great Sydney Greenstreet) insists that she prepare Christmas dinner for him and for a handsome war hero. In order to keep her job, she agrees to marry a long time suitor (whom she doesn't love) who has a perfect home in the Connecticut countryside. Hijinks ensue when the war hero is too hunky to resist, the borrowed baby keeps changing gender and she has to figure out how to survive the holiday without getting married to the man she doesn't love. Great movie to wrap your Christmas presents to. Can't miss. 'Remember the Night' is a darker film than either of those and gives you even more great Barbara Stanwyck. Stanwyck & Fred McMurray are reunited (great together in 'Double Indemnity') in this tale of a small time thief and the Assistant DA who who takes pity on her. Stanwyck is a shoplifter facing her third arrest and certain jail time. McMurray is the ADA in charge of prosecuting her. He feels bad that she'll be stuck in jail over the holiday waiting for a trial date in the New Year, so he bails her out and offers to take her home for the holidays (they're both from Indiana). After spending Christmas with a loving family, Stanwyck rethinks her life path and McMurray finally realizes what a sexpot Stanwyck is. I say the film is dark because even though it's funny (Preston Sturges wrote the screenplay), Stanwyck is a criminal with a very evil and unloving mother (who we meet briefly). Another great classic holiday romance. Of course, 'It's a Wonderful Life' is another great classic and probably the best Christmas movie of all time, but I'll talk about it in a later post (about Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol').

Read More 'Christmas flicks for every taste' »

Posted By: Christy Colcord (Email) | Dec 21 at 06:00 AM

Surf Night! Music, surf doc screening & Spicoli contest 12/16

Several months ago you might've read my review here of the surf documentary 'Dear & Yonder' directed by a couple of local surfers, Tiffany Campbell and Andria Lessler. The film gives a brief history of women in surfing and then follows a series of women as they pursue their passion for the sea, either by surfing, body surfing or sailing solo around the world. The filmmakers traveled from our humble Bay to Mexico, Indonesia, Australia & French Polynesia to follow these stories. It's a great film, gorgeously shot on 16mm with excellent archival footage and a dynamite soundtrack. In order to show our devotion to this film, to local film-makers and to local surf culture Lost Weekend Video will be hosting our first ever Surf Night on Thursday 12/16 (tomorrow!). It's an ode to summer that'll warm your winter bones.

The evening will go as follows:

7pm: Acoustic set by veteran local band Mover (one of the bands on the soundtrack). Check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/sidewalkmoses

7:30pm: Jeff Spicoli Look-Alike Contest. First Prize is a free pair of checker Vans! (For those of you too young to remember, Jeff Spicoli is Sean Penn's character in 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High').

8pm: Screening of 'Dear & Yonder'.

9:15pm: Tiffany and Andria will stick around to answer questions.

It's all free and plenty of chairs will be set up for your comfort. Tell your surfer pals and please come join us. See you there!

Posted By: Christy Colcord (Email) | Dec 15 at 10:30 AM

'Micmacs', 'The Town', 'Cyrus', 'Despicable Me' plus Banksy & Joan Rivers

I promised last post that I'd actually get my weekly new releases newsletter out on time this week and here we are. Be careful what you wish for. We have so many crazy good titles to cover today, you might as well make a cup of coffee and settle in. Just a mention first that this Thursday is Surf Night at Lost Weekend. We've got music, movies & a Spicoli contest going on, so you don't want to miss it. I'll give the details in a separate post later today. Anyway, onto the films. These should all be available in your local video store sometime this week.

This Week's New Releases

Let's dive right in and see if I can keep this somewhat reasonable in length. I'll start with the two action/thrillers of the day. 'The Town' is Ben Affleck's second film as a director and it seems that he has a better track record with the critics behind the camera than in front of it as this film was generally well-received. Affleck also stars in the film as a long-time bank robber from the South Side of Boston, looking to launch the biggest heist of his career. Oscar nominated actor Jeremy Renner (for 'Hurt Locker') plays his best friend and co-conspirator who becomes troubled by Affleck's new interest in love over crime. As they prepare for "one last job", the FBI led by Jon Hamm ('Mad Men') is hot on their trail. Affleck hopes this heist will allow him to leave not only the life of crime, but also the suffocating culture of the neighborhood he grew up in. Prepare yourself for some outrageous Southie accents. Not necessarily a bad thing, but still. The other action film of the day is not trying to win any Oscars. 'The A-Team' is the big screen adaptation of the 1980's TV show starring George Peppard and Mr. T. This movie could've been a lot worse than it was. I saw it in the theater and thoroughly enjoyed it until the last 15 minutes or so, but my boyfriend was less forgiving. The best part of the film is the casting. Liam Neeson ('Taken') does an amazing George Peppard impression as Hannibal and Bradley Cooper ('The Hangover') captures all the charm and arrogance of 'Face'. The best news is Sharlto Copley ('District 9') as Murdock. Great to see the South African actor getting a high profile role. My only beef with it was that someone at the studio seemed to think it needed a slam bang finish and so they tacked a ridiculous '2012'-style computer graphics marathon onto the end. Anyway, it was a romp. Read More ''Micmacs', 'The Town', 'Cyrus', 'Despicable Me' plus Banksy & Joan Rivers ' »

Posted By: Christy Colcord (Email) | Dec 15 at 06:30 AM

'Inception', 'Restrepo', 'Shrek 4Ever' & more DVD goodness

I keep promising to post my weekly newsletter of store announcements and DVD releases here and somehow it never happens. Here's my last shot at starting a new habit so that I don't have to make it a New Year's Resolution. The following films were released on DVD this past Tuesday, the 7th. I'll be more on top of things this week, I promise!

Most people are solely interested in one release this week and that's the blockbuster sci-fi/action/thriller, 'Inception'. For those of you who haven't suffered from the barrage of advertising about this film upon its release either in the theaters or on DVD, I'll give you the run-down. Directed by Christopher Nolan ('Memento', 'Dark Night') and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the film was the subject of great buzz while it was being made and even greater word-of-mouth once it was released. Nolan cashed in all of his favors at Warner Brothers (for the billions of dollars his Christian Bale 'Batman' franchise has made for them) in order to get the mega-bucks necessary to complete such an ambitious and risky project. It was ambitious because Nolan insisted on flying the production around the world to shoot and on physically creating many of the sets required for the elaborate stunts rather than relying solely on computer graphics. When several of the characters fight floating in mid-air in a world that's spiraling upside down, Nolan hung his actors on ropes and then physically turned the set around them. The combination of old fashioned effects such as this and state-of-the-art computer effects makes for a really breathtaking watch.

The reason the film was a risky project is that the plot (not unlike his previous film, 'Memento') is high concept, very complicated and difficult to follow at times. It requires the audience to participate intellectually with the film in order to keep up with the many levels of reality the characters pass through. I actually didn't find myself getting too confused throughout the film once I understood the overall concept, but it's refreshing to see a film-maker give the audience credit for being able to keep up with a sophisticated plot. It's rare that you see big action films marketed to the general public that require this much brain power. Hopefully the huge success of the film will convince the major studios to green-light more action films with non-standard good guy/bad guy plots. Anyway, as a very general overview, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a man who specializes in extracting information from people (mostly businessmen targeted for industrial espionage) while they sleep by infiltrating their dreams. This time, instead of extracting information, he and his team are attempting to plant an idea in the target's brain (known as inception). It's much more difficult than extraction, because the target must believe that the idea was organic. In order to succeed, the team must follow several layers of dreams within dreams, using the dream states of several different participants. Things get very complicated and DiCaprio's character has skeletons in his closet that may need to be dealt with while digging around in his subconscious. The excellent cast is backed up by Ellen Page ('Juno'), Marion Cotillard ('La Vie en Rose'), Ken Watanabe ('Letters From Iwo Jima'), Joseph Gordon Levitt ('500 Days of Summer'), Cillian Murphy ('Dark Night', '28 Days Later') and Tom Hardy ('Bronson') among others. I really really loved this movie. I was afraid that it couldn't possibly live up to its hype and potential, but it really delivered. I was absolutely gripped the whole way through, literally clasping the armrests on the theater chair for the last 20 minutes. It looked spectacular, really breathtaking and the complex plot keeps you guessing 'til the final shot. A real gem and a great treat. Films rarely live up to their expectations and you should savor them when they do. Nolan should be rewarded for being so ambitious and for actually pulling it off. Don't miss it.

Read More ''Inception', 'Restrepo', 'Shrek 4Ever' & more DVD goodness ' »

Posted By: Christy Colcord (Email) | Dec 12 at 06:00 AM