This week’s top recommendation is pretty obvious – the absolutely winning The Sapphires, a charmer about Australian Aboriginal teens forming a girl group to entertain troops in the Vietnam War.
I still love two indies on Video on Demand:
- Letters from the Big Man: a beautifully looking and sounding fable about a prickly woman with a guy and a Bigfoot competing for her affections.
- Electrick Children: an entirely unique teen coming of age story with fundamentalist Mormon teens in Las Vegas.
The other best choices in theaters:
- No: Gael Garcia Bernal stars as the regular guy who brainstormed the guerrilla advertising campaign that dethroned Chilean dictator Pinochet.
- The Incredible Burt Wonderstone: a pleasant comedy and a showcase for Jim Carrey.
- Side Effects: Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller starring Rooney Mara, Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
- Quartet: a pleasant lark of a geezer comedy with four fine performances.
Music fans will enjoy the bio-documentary Beware of Mr. Baker, available on VOD.
Emperor, with Tommy Lee Jones as Gen. Douglas MacArthur leading the American occupation of Japan, is historical but plodding. On the Road is the faithful but ultimately unsuccessful adaptation of the seminal Jack Kerouac novel, with surprisingly little energy. The HBO movie Phil Spector is really just a freak show.
You may still be able to catch the fine PBS documentary Philip Roth: Unmasked. Roth himself gets lots of screen time to explain his career and his creative process.
I haven’t yet seen the bleak Romanian drama Beyond the Hills. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD of the week is the superbly acted drama A Late Quartet.
On April 7, Turner Classic Movies has the film noir masterpiece Double Indemnity. But, if you like noir, don’t miss the underrated The Set-Up on April 10; for more on The Set-Up, scroll down to #5 on my 10 Best Boxing Movies.