DVDs of the Week

This week there's yet another fresh round of amazingly good movies for you guys to check out on DVD. First on my list is the 7 time Oscar nominee and my pick for the best film of 06, Babel. For those who might not know, Babel is the culture hopping, overlapping international crisis tragedy from the genius mind of Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams). It stars Hollywood heavyweights Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett as well as lesser known up and comers including Gael García Bernal and Academy Award nominees Adriana Barazza and Rinko Kikuchi. Kikuchi, in particular, gives a raw and unsettling performance that should earn her the Oscar destined to be awarded Jennifer Hudson of Dreamgirls. Kikuchi plays a psychologically tormented teenager coping poorly with her mother's suicide and her own lifelong struggle to communicate as a deaf woman. It's a magnificently complex role that is just one small part of this wonderful, heartbreaking film.

Also new is For Your Consideration, Christopher Guest's latest quirky, fun comedy satire. He's made an impact with films like Best In Show and A Might Wind and now takes on the Academy Awards in a hilarious, incisive attack on all the Oscar hype, politics, and clichés. Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey, and a collective of other notables all give great performances. The scene stealer here, though, is Catherine O'Hara who is both authentic and foolish in the leading role as an actress past her prime and desperate to reclaim the buzz of her youth.

Chris Nolan may have made his name commercially with the franchise flick Batman Begins, but it was the puzzle box thriller Memento which first broke him onto the scene. His smaller minded follow up to Batman is The Prestige, a complicated, lushly dramatic tale of dueling magicians starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Rebecca Hall, and Scarlett Johansson. The performances are superb and though the twists might not be as shocking as the ads may promise, they resonate dramatically in dark and fascinating ways.

A few final recs include A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints which stars Robert Downey Jr. as a Queens native with a dark past reflecting on his youth as he returns home for the first time in years. Shia LaBeouf plays the role in grimly nostalgic flashbacks that capture a hazy, exaggerated sense of joy and pain. Channing Tatum and Chazz Palminteri also shine is supporting roles. Lastly, Robin Williams and Laura Linney star in Man of the Year, a flawed comedy/thriller that's mostly mixed up but features great comedic jabs at the current political system and a sharp stab at the election process. It's not nearly as important a film as it seems to think it is, but when it lets loose and settles on simply being funny, it delivers some great fun.