Why ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ and ‘Bachelorette’ Top Indiewire’s 5 Blu-ray Picks This Week
This week on DVD/Blu-ray: Kathryn Bigelow’s stunning follow-up to “The Hurt Locker”; one of the lewdest comedies of last year; Jacques Audiard’s moving follow-up to his Oscar-nominated 2009 crime drama “A Prophet”; Terrence Malick’s first feature; and a film that affords Parker Posey her best role in years.
#1. “Zero Dark Thirty”
Following “The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow is back with her best film
yet, a harrowing and ultimately solemn study of one woman’s obsessive
mission to hunt down Osama bin Laden. Bigelow, re-teaming with her “Hurt
Locker” screenwriter Mark Boal, isn’t out to prove that torture works
despite what many want you believe — they’re in it to relay the
enormous amount of effort that went into the manhunt, and the toll it
took on those involved. Nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress.
Extras: The making-of doc “No Small Feat”; a video tour of the film’s rebuilt compound; a featurette that shows the cast training with authentic SEAL gear; and an in-depth look at the role of Maya, titled “Targeting Jessica Chastain.”
#2. “Bachelorette”
Those that saw “Bachelorette” at Sundance or during its theatrical release will be quick to tell you, playwright Leslye Headland’s feature film debut is a hard-R comedy. The raucous, fast-paced and hilariously foul-mouthed dramedy follows a
gang of old girlfriends who come together and screw everything up at
their friend Becky’s wedding. The cast is led by a terrifying Kirsten Dunst as Regan, the sadistic
and insecure maid of honor from hell, Lizzy Caplan as Gena, a coke-head
party girl who has to confront the ex-boyfriend who she says ruined her
life, and a scene-stealing Isla Fisher as Katie, a ditzy and troubled
perpetual retail slave. The ladies are ably supported by a male cast
that includes Adam Scott, James Marsden and Hayes McArthur.
Extras: A bloopers reel; a behind-the-scenes doc; and audio commentary by Headland.
#3. “Rust and Bone”
In “Rust and Bone,” Jacques Audiard’s moving follow-up to his Oscar-nominated 2009 crime drama “A Prophet,” Marion Cotillard plays an orca trainer at Marineland, who,
after losing her legs in a freak accident at the aquarium, finds herself
cared for by a stranger (“Bullhead” breakout Matthias Schoenaerts) she
had met at a nightclub before the horrific incident.
Extras: Audio commentary by Audiard; a in-depth 60-minute making-of doc; a visual effects breakdown by the French studio Mikros Image; some red carpet footage; and the theatrical trailer.
#4. “Badlands (Criterion Collection”
Terrence Malick’s staggering feature film debut “Badlands” lands on Blu-ray for the first time via The Criterion Collection, weeks before his latest, “To the Wonder,” opens theatrically in North America (it already opened in Europe). The film — an impressionistic take on the notorious Charles Starkweather killing spree of the late 1950s, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek — was the first to introduce the many elements that would earn Malick his passionate followers (and dissenters): his use of voice-over, his approach of character over narrative, and his masterful visual poetry.
Extras: “Making ‘Badlands,'” a new documentary featuring Sheen,
Spacek and art director Jack Fisk; new interviews with associate editor
Billy Weber and executive producer Edward Pressman; “Charles
Starkweather,” a 1993 episode of the television program American
Justice, about the real-life story on which the film was loosely based;
trailer; plus a booklet featuring an essay by filmmaker Michael
Almereyda.
#5. “Price Check”
Parker Posey, ever the quirky misfit, revisits familiar territory in
her new comedy, “Price Check.” Posey, who recently played a badly
unhinged bookstore clerk on a string of “Louie” episodes, appears here
as Susan Felders, a manic but somehow charming supermarket executive who
bursts into the life of middle manager Pete Cozy (Eric Mabius) with
decidedly mixed results. Like other indie comedies of recent years —
“Greenberg,” “Win Win” — “Price Check” portrays a kind of middle-class
American life that is frequently difficult, lonely, and, often enough,
very funny.
Extras: Trailer.
