Steven Soderbergh and the late Anthony Minghella: two modern filmmakers whose most important works are being re-released on Blu-ray this month. Not only will home video aficionados be able to savor new HD transfers on Traffic and The English Patient, they’ll find other Soderbergh and Minghella works arriving as well, making January an unofficial month to celebrate both of their careers. Soderbergh fans have Contagion arriving on video and Haywire in theaters, while Minghella fans can watch Cold Mountain on Blu-ray and read this month’s article on The Talented Mr. Ripley in The Definitives.
In addition to the Soderbergh/Minghella films featured, the below DVD and Blu-ray picks from Deep Pockets include this site’s top home video recommendations for January. Click the Amazon.com link, preorder away, and help support Deep Focus Review. To see a full directory of upcoming titles, check out the Calendar or visit Deep Pockets for a more complete shopping list.
January 3:
Beyond being one of Steven Soderbergh’s best films in years, Contagion also reunites three stars (Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law) from The Talented Mr. Ripley, which, as stated above, will be featured this month in The Definitives. Coincidence? Yes! Soderbergh’s ensemble in this sweeping, Traffic-like depiction of how a worst-case-scenario virus works also features Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, and Jennifer Ehle. Though it may not make my Top 10 Films of 2011, it’ll come damn close. Regardless if it makes the list or not, this was unquestionably one of my favorite releases of the year—something I wanted to watch again as soon as it was over, and a prime example of how elegant commercial filmmaking can be. The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack offers three featurettes: Contagion: How a Virus Changes the World, False Comfort Zone: The Reality of Contagion, and The Contagion Detectives. The latter two are exclusive to the Blu-ray release.
Troy Nixey’s fabulously creepy directing debut Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was underseen, although we were lucky to have seen it at all, based on the rocky production history. Guillermo del Toro produced and co-wrote this unsettling remake of the 1973 television movie, imbuing it with an effective combination of both unseen scares and scary monsters. Youngster Bailee Madison out-acts co-stars Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce as a child who meets whispering, conniving creatures in her father’s new home, a haunted house with a sordid history. (Is there any other kind?) Given Nixey’s use of blackness and shadows, the film will be best appreciated on Blu-ray, which contains three making-of featurettes: The Story, Blackwood's Mansion, and The Creatures. (Order Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
January 10:
What’s likely to be a major contender at this year’s Oscars, The Ides of March offers truth (and cynicism) toward the American Political System on a most impressive scale, aligning nicely with director George Clooney’s similar assessment of media corruption with Good Night, and Good Luck. Clooney is rumored for a Best Supporting Actor nod, while star Ryan Gosling may earn a Best Actor nod as well. The story follows Gosling’s campaign staffer who finds his candidate (Clooney) has a damaging secret. The video release has four featurettes: Developing the Campaign: The Origin of The Ides of March, Believe: George Clooney, On the Campaign: The Cast of The Ides of March, and What Does a Political Consultant Do? (Order The Ides of March
January 17:
Paired along with Contagion due earlier in the month, a double-feature with Soderberg’s Traffic sounds like a perfect night of home viewing. The Criterion Collection has completed a much-needed Blu-ray upgrade of Soderbergh’s landmark film from 2000, which details the ins-and-outs of America’s drug problem with an impressive ensemble. An Oscar-winner for best director, best screenplay, best editing, and best supporting actor for Benicio del Toro, it’s easy to overlook how great a film Soderbergh has made here. Though Traffic has already been released on Blu-ray by Universal Studios, this must-buy edition contains an exhaustive set of features: All the supplements from Criterion’s previous 2-disc DVD carry over, including a director-approved transfer, 25 deleted scenes with commentary, an editing demonstration, multiple film commentaries, and an essay by film critic Manohla Dargis.
Janurary 24:
In this must-own release for any monster movie fanatic, Criterion offers both Japan’s 1954 release Gojira and the 1956 American cut Godzilla, King of the Monsters. Aside from laughs to be had from the American dubbing, the original Japanese version suggests a potent postwar assessment of their national angst over being bombed in WWII, and the subsequent nuclear tests that took place over the Pacific. In addition to monster-sized destruction, there’s actually some genuine emotion to be felt here. Criterion’s impressive disc features several interviews with the film’s actors, special effects artists, and composer; an essay by J. Hoberman; and, most interestingly, The Unluckiest Dragon, "an illustrated audio essay featuring historian Greg Pflugfelder describing the tragic fate of the fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryu Maru, a real-life event that inspired Godzilla." (Order Godzilla
January 31:
This barebones Blu-ray upgrade of Spike Jonze’s Adaptation is necessary for anyone familiar with the lousy transfer on the DVD edition. Here, Jonze reteams with his Being John Malkovich writer Charlie Kaufman for a genius tale of how Kaufman was hired to adapt Susan Orlean’s plotless book The Orchid Thief, but then didn’t. Instead, Kaufman’s screenplay becomes about the process of adaptation itself, swirling into a clever give-the-audience-what-it-wants finale, only to twist into something more cynical and creative than the viewer could imagine. It’s a film about how screenplay conventions dull not only the writer, but the expectations of the audience. Of course, Kaufman challenges the audience with every turn. Moreover, Nicolas Cage gives an incredibly nuanced, Oscar-nominated dual performance as both Charlie and Donald Kaufman, the former a thin veil for Kaufman himself, the latter a construct of everything wrong with Hollywood writers.
Since Lionsgate Home Entertainment purchased the Miramax library for home video distribution, a wealth of catalog titles are slowly trickling in on Blu-ray, including two essential titles from the late writer-director Anthony Minghella that will make their Blu-ray debut. The more underrated of the two is Cold Mountain, a Civil War epic that earned several Oscar nominations and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Renée Zellweger. This gorgeous, sweeping Civil War-set romance follows a woman (Nicole Kidman) who must make it on her own while her solder husband (Jude Law) braves wartime terrain to return home. The supporting cast includes Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, and Ray Winstone. Features from the previous DVD edition carry over, including deleted scenes, a making-of documentary, and audio commentary with Minghella and his editor Walter Murch.
One of 2011’s best and most stylish films, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive combines his brooding style with the characteristics of a 1980s noir, complete with a Tangerine Dream-esque score and pink titles. Ryan Gosling is so damn cool as an L.A. stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway wheelman; his subtle performance crackles with intensity when he’s revealed to be something more dangerous than the controlled “quiet type” he appears to be. Carey Mulligan plays Gosling’s sweethearted neighbor whose crooked ex-con husband (Oscar Isaac) puts Gosling’s driver in with the wrong crooks. But it’s Albert Brooks that deserves any Oscar consideration here; he’s brilliant in his small villain role, putting his charm to good use as an intimidating-but-likable gangster. Exciting car chases, slow-burning suspense, and great performances all around—you can’t go wrong here. The disc contains five featurettes: I Drive, Under The Hood, Driver and Irene, Cut To The Chase, and Drive Without A Driver: Interview With Nicolas Winding Refn. (Order Drive
Along with the aforementioned Cold Mountain, Lionsgate will debut several Oscar winners on Blu-ray in January. Other notable titles include Frida, The Piano, and Shakespeare in Love. But none is more romantic or more celebrated than Anthony Minghella’s masterpiece The English Patient, a film that remains overlooked and undervalued for the popularity it inspired upon its release (including some lampooning on Seinfeld). Minghella’s beautiful, sophisticated treatment of Michael Ondaatje’s winding novel returns Hollywood romances to the epic heights established by David Lean—the film’s desert scenes evoke Lawrence of Arabia and its romantic affair channels Doctor Zhivago. The story follows the affair between a Hungarian Count (Ralph Fiennes) and a British mapmaker (Kristin Scott Thomas), cleverly using flashbacks seen from the peak of WWII when Fiennes’ torched character is cared for by a melancholy nurse (Juliette Binoche). Minghella folds the narrative’s varying periods together into a magnificent piece of storytelling that may not be linear, but uses its nonlinear structure to tell a more powerful tale. As January’s “Disc of the Month”, this Blu-ray features all of the considerable supplements on the previous DVD edition, but an HD transfer to showcase Minghella’s stunning, unforgettable film, which was also entered into The Definitives in 2009 (read the article HERE).
