The Wind that Shakes the Barley Tagged Articles at Cinematical

My favorite starting point, DVD Journal, has ceased publication, though they've added a plethora of fan mail to their front page. What I liked about their Release Calendar was the stunning simplicity -- just the title, in alphabetical order, sometimes with the original release date. If you have a personal favorite "upcoming releases on DVD" site or page that you find useful, please share by leaving a comment.

My pick of the week is Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Cillian Murphy stars as an aspiring doctor in 1920s Ireland who gets caught up in his country's struggles against England. Cinematical's James Rocchi says it has "all the suspense of a wartime film -- ambushes, clever plots, daring escapes -- but it also has a kind of gut-punch realism that's hard to shake ... in many ways it's a film that best demonstrates what makes [Loach] one of our greatest living directors." I can't find details on any extra features for the Region 1 disk. A two-disk special edition is available for those able to play Region 2 DVDs.

In Ryan Stewart's review of Stephanie Daley, he says the lack of a clear answer for the actions of a teenage girl who suffocates her newborn child is 'dramatically intriguing up to a point, but also frustrating.' I wasn't sure I wanted to watch this drama, but after reading his review again, I'm sufficiently curious to add it to my rental list. This is another DVD where I can't find any suggestion of additional features.

Georgia Rule sounds like it would appeal to indie film fans, with its cast including Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman, but Jette Kernion says: "It's difficult to become absorbed in a story about characters with little personality and no complexity." These titles aside, I'll be hitting my local rental shop to see if they have the Korean action film City of Violence and/or the Japanese sports flick Ping Pong, both of which sound promising.

2007 is now one-third over, and four movies have broken $100 million: 300, Wild Hogs, Ghost Rider and Blades of Glory. Eddie Murphy's Norbit is creeping up on a $100 million score as well. Only Blades of Glory is interesting in the slightest. It's a poorly-directed, uneven comedy, but with plenty of laughs, all thanks to Will Ferrell. I guess I could waste time wondering why people are paying good money to see these so-called movies, but the fact remains that they all opened on more than 3000 screens, and were available for just about everyone in the country to see.

Despite these duds, the year in movies hasn't been so bad so far. I'd rather focus on some of the year's really good entries, the ones that will probably be forgotten eight months from now when the list and awards season starts all over again. I haven't been able to see it yet, but Syndromes and a Century (1 screen) from Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul should be enlightening. His Mysterious Object at Noon (2000), a beautiful combination of documentary and storytelling, is on my personal list of the best films of the past ten years. His amazing Blissfully Yours (2002), among other things, rolled the credits right in the middle of the movie, and his Tropical Malady (2005) had a gay romance far more tender and engrossing than the more widely celebrated Brokeback Mountain.

The ninth annual British Independent Film Awards have been announced, and I can't say there are any huge surprises, although Jeff Wells thinks its significant that The History Boys only scored four noms, compared to The Queen (leading the pack with seven noms), The Last King of Scotland and This is England (six apiece) and Red Road and Venus with a respectable five each. Some of the not-so-shocking noms include nods for Best British Independent Film to The Last King of Scotland, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, The Queen, Red Road, and This is England, Best Actress nominations include Helen Mirren for The Queen. Mirren will likely dominate the rest of a pack that includes Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn, both for Breaking and Entering, Kate Dickie for Red Road, and Frances de la Tour for The History Boys.

Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy, both of The Last King of Scotland, will duke it out for Best Actor, but may be overshadowed by Peter O'Toole's extraordinary performance in Venus. Also from Venus, newcomer Jodie Whitaker, who was quite good in her role (she rather reminded me of a British Evan Rachel Wood), scored a nom for Best Newcomer, and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi has been nominated for the script (no nod for director Roger Michell, interestingly), though I'd look for Peter Morgan to take the screenplay prize for The Queen (Morgan is also nominated for co-writing The Last King of Scotland). Also of note (to me at least) are a couple of the nominees for Best Foreign Indie: Brick and Hard Candy, two films that may very well end up on my personal top ten list by the end of the year.

The awards take place November 29, 2006. Full list of nominees after the jump.

The combination of its Palme d'Or win and the fact that it was directed by Ken Loach was more than enough to have a lot of American film geeks eagerly looking forward to The Wind That Shakes the Barley. The problem, is that Loach's films tend to get limited distribution here at best, and for several months there was no news of any sort of deal. Thankfully, though, Variety reported today that IFC Entertainment has picked up the rights to the film, and plans to have it in theaters some time next year.

What's particularly cool about this deal is that IFC will be releasing the film through First Take (you may recognize the name from that I Am a Sex Addict/Mark Cuban kerfuffle earlier this year), their day-and-date arm tha makes films available both theatrically and via On-Demand, a cable service that is available primarily (only?) to Comcast subscribers. So, if Loach fans in, say, Omaha are lucky enough to have Comcast cable, they'll be able to see the movie on the same day as folks in New York. Which is pretty damn cool for those people in Omaha.

In all my life, I have never met anyone that has had the perfect relationship. Whether it be a relationship with themselves, their country, their friends, family or significant others -- nothing is ever perfect. The closer you are, the more vulnerable. And we don't like to be vulnerable. Or do we? Nah, I'm just joking -- any word that begins with the letter 'V' is off limits to me. Well, expect for one word ... but we won't get into that. Literally.

So, if perfection doesn't exist, then what types of relationships should we strive for? A satisfying one? A stable one? More comfort than conflict? On the subject of relationships, a good friend of mine always says, "You must be challenged." It's way too easy to slide through life un-phased and un-attached. A solid relationship is one that always keeps you on your toes. It takes work. It takes commitment. And, at the end of the day, you're a better person because of it. Is it perfect? Never. But you don't want it to be.

While the following films are completely different from one another, they all explore different kinds of relationships we have throughout life. Sure, some are a bit more, well, mature than others, but that's what makes this whole journey interesting, right? Welcome to this week's Trailer Park:

 

Ignoring the odds-makers and pundits who touted Pedro Almodóvar's Volver and Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu's Babel as the likely winners of the festival's top prize, Cannes jury chair Wong Kar Wai and his colleagues instead tonight awarded the Palme d'Or to Ken Loach's The Wind that Shakes the Barley. The film, a brutal tale of life in the IRA in the 1920s, impressed critics, but had nevertheless been completely overlooked in the pre-awards gossip. The Grand Prize (the festival's unofficial second-place ribbon), meanwhile, went to Bruno Dumont's Flanders (a film that made James so angry he wanted to slug Monsieur Dumont), while Red Road, which moved and unsettled a lot of critics, took the Special Jury Prize.

Though both films failed to take the top prize, neither Babel nor Volver went home empty-handed. Iñárritu was named the festival's best director, while Almodovar's female cast -- Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Duenas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, Chus Lampreave -- was collectively named the festival's best actress (the largely male cast of Algerian drama Days of Glory received the same treatment when it came to the best actor award).