Recommended DVDS: July 8, 2008
Independent filmmaker Ramin Bahrani's moving drama Chop Shop, the chilling French thriller Heartbeat Detector, starring Mathieu Amalric, and Julien Temple's fine documentary about the Clash frontman Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten are among this week's best new DVD releases.
Chances are Ramin Bahrani's Chop Shop, which premiered at the Film Forum in New York, did not play at a theater near you. Don't miss this necessary independent film, the story of scrappy twelve-year-old Alejandro, who fends for himself in near-apocalyptic landscape of Willet's Point, Queens. The DVD offers audio commentary with director Ramin Bahrani, cinematographer Michael Simmonds, and actor Alejandro Polanco.More »
Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) stars in Heartbeat Detector, Nicolas Klotz's political thriller about a man who unwittingly unearths the ghosts of his corporate employer's sordid past.More »
Tales of meteoric rise, inevitable burnout and slow climb back to something resembling normalcy are familiar from the biographies of a thousand haunted artists, but Julien Temple's Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten stands out for its extraordinarily smooth filmmaking, which incorporates clips from contemporary films, photos, Strummer's own artwork, and music from his BBC radio show to good effect.More »
1. Chop Shop
Chances are Ramin Bahrani's Chop Shop, which premiered at the Film Forum in New York, did not play at a theater near you. Don't miss this necessary independent film, the story of scrappy twelve-year-old Alejandro, who fends for himself in near-apocalyptic landscape of Willet's Point, Queens. The DVD offers audio commentary with director Ramin Bahrani, cinematographer Michael Simmonds, and actor Alejandro Polanco.More »
2. Heartbeat Detector
Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) stars in Heartbeat Detector, Nicolas Klotz's political thriller about a man who unwittingly unearths the ghosts of his corporate employer's sordid past.More »
3. Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
Tales of meteoric rise, inevitable burnout and slow climb back to something resembling normalcy are familiar from the biographies of a thousand haunted artists, but Julien Temple's Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten stands out for its extraordinarily smooth filmmaking, which incorporates clips from contemporary films, photos, Strummer's own artwork, and music from his BBC radio show to good effect.More »
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