In Theaters and on DVD
FIND presents films that screened at the LA Film Festival that are now available on DVD.
It’s never too late to start your Christmas shopping, so here are the Los Angeles Film Festival alums being released on DVD.
Recent Releases
Encounters at the End of the World
Written and directed by Werner Herzog. Produced by Henry Kaiser. USA, 2008
Werner Herzog’s passport must be a sight to behold. From the burning oil fields of Kuwait to the deadly jungles of the Amazon to, most recently, a POW camp in Laos, no location is too remote or too inhospitable for Herzog to tackle. In Encounters at the End of the World, Herzog takes on the frozen continent of Antarctica, a foreign landscape that defies even his preconceived notions. As we wrote when the film screened at the 2008 Festival, “his expectations of an untouched icy refuge are met with a dirty slush-coated, 1,100-person town of scientists, adventurers, and Caterpillar trucks.” And despite his protests that his film will not be about “cute, fluffy penguins,” he finds himself drawn to a penguin nonetheless, albeit a disoriented and possibly suicidal one.
Hell Boy II: The Golden Army
Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Produced by Lawrence Gordon, Mike Richardson, Lloyd Levin. USA, 2008.
You might not pair Guillermo del Toro and Clint Eastwood together, but actually the two men share a filmmaking philosophy of alternating between commercial Hollywood movies and more personal projects. With Hellboy II, which was the Closing Night film of the 2008 Festival, Del Toro accomplished both goals. It’s a high-octane summertime actioner with a distinctly del Toro feel—humorous and mournful, beautiful and ominous, often at the same time.
Also available:
Billy the Kid
Directed by
Jennifer Venditti. Produced by Jennifer Venditti, Chiemi Karasawa. USA, 2007.
Elite Squad
Directed by
José Padilha. Written by José Padilha, Bráulio Mantovani, Rodrigo Pimentel.
Produced by Marcos Prado, José Padilha. Brazil, 2007.
Upon its release, José Padhila’s Elite Squad got plenty of comparisons to City of God, while a few, like New York Magazine’s David Edelstein, saw resemblances to classic Seventies urban thrillers like The French Connection. When we screened the film during the 2008 Festival, here’s what we had to say: "Winner of the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival and a huge hit in Brazil, Padilha's unapologetically brutal, heavy-ammo actioner has been leaving controversy in its wake as viewers debate whether Padilha's depiction of Nasciamento's "shoot first, ask questions of anyone left standing later" approach to lawmaking should be seen as celebration or critique. With its provocative subject, directorial verve, and visual flair, Elite Squad is both food for thought and high-energy entertainment."
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Directed by
Eric Brevig. Written by Michael Weiss and Jennifer Flackett & Mark Levin.
Produced by Charlotte Huggins, Beau Flynn. USA, 2008.
In this age of blue-screen/green-screen/motion capture movies, when more and more actors are being asked to interact with co-stars and other things that aren’t actually there yet, Brendan Fraser rules supreme. Not to belittle his work with other humans, but he truly shines when surrounded by special effects: the bizarre train wreck that is Monkeybone, the first two Mummy movies, the underappreciated Looney Tunes: Back in Action, and now this updating and dimension-busting version of Jules Verne’s classic tale of extreme spelunking.
Liberty Kid
Written and directed by Ilya Chaiken. Produced by Larry Fessenden, Roger Kass, Mike S. Ryan. USA, 2007.
Ilya Chaiken’s Liberty Kid, which premiered at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival, is a streetlevel look at the two young men struggling to find their way in a post 9/11 New York. When the film was released in its hometown, the Times said, “There’s not a single wrong note in Liberty Kid, Ilya Chaiken’s poignant drama about marginal lives strained to breaking...Tender, wise, and deceptively low-key... everything about this film feels effortless.”
Little Fugitive
Written and directed by Morris Engle, Ruth Orkin, Roy Ashley. Produced by Morris Engel. USA, 1953.
When pioneering independent director Morris Engel passed away in 2005, the Festival screened his directorial debut in tribute. Co-directed by Ruth Orkin and Roy Ashley , Little Fugitive influenced a generation of independent filmmakers, both in America and abroad. Francois Truffaut once said, “ Our New Wave would never have come into being if it hadn’t been for Morris Engel.” The Special Edition DVD includes 5 minutes of footage not seen in the film’s original theatrical release.
What We Do Is Secret
Directed by Rodger Grossman. Written by Rodger Grossman, Michelle Baer Ghaffari. Produced by Kevin Mann, Matthew Perniciaro, Rodger Grossman. USA, 2007.
It took ten years for Rodger Grossman to bring his biopic of Darby Crash, the lead singer of seminal Los Angeles punk band the Germs, to the screen, One of the last pieces to fall into place was the casting, but when Grossman met actor Shane West, he knew he had found the perfect Crash. In What We Do Is Secret, West perfectly captures the charisma and the self-destructive nature of the singer. His commitment to the role so impressed the surviving members of the original band, they invited him to join them for special reunion gigs, including one at the Festival’s outdoor stage.
