delirious Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The titles that will probably get the biggest play this week are Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, the indie auteur's take on Bob Dylan that inspired spirited critical debate, and Alejandro Monteverde's romantic drama Bella, which seemed to come out of nowhere to become an audience favorite, playing in theaters for months. Both hit DVD today; I'm Not There is packed with an audio commentary with Haynes, deleted scenes, featurettes, audition tapes, gag reel and more, while Bella has an audio commentary by the director, two featurettes and a music video.

Jess Weixler stars in Mitchell Lichtenstein's Teeth, which inspired no fewer than three reviews here at Cinematical: Scott Weinberg, Kim Voynar and Nick Schager. If that's not enough to lure you in, it's about vagina dentata! Read the reviews to learn more -- each of our reviewers focused on something different that appealed or repelled. The DVD includes an audio commentary by the director, deleted scenes, outtakes and behind the scenes footage.

As a mother of five, Kim Voynar presented a very personal perspective on Abby Ebstein's doc, The Business of Being Born, featuring Ricki Lake. Kim wrote in part: "Epstein does a thorough job of dissecting the cold, hard facts about the history of modern childbirth." Two featurettes are included on the DVD: one takes the viewer behind the scenes, and the other follows up with what happened to the participants.

I gotta say, there was a time when actress Gina Gershon was my "freebie" -- a term us married folk use to describe an actor or an actress who we'd be able to shack up with if, ya know, the opportunity were to present itself; no questions asked. Of course, everyone knows that if Gina Gershon suddenly decided that my fat ass was the most attractive thing on the planet -- and that she simply needed to [blank] my brains out right away -- there's no way my wife would be cool with it. "Sure honey, she's your freebie -- have fun doing God knows what with Gina Gershon!" Yeah. That might happen. Gershon has since slipped off my radar a bit, but she's back (and looking hotter than ever) in the new indie flick Delirious, starring someone that's not so hot (but very entertaining to watch), Steve Buscemi.

Anyhoo, big blockbusters aren't the only films testing the viral marketing waters. Delirious director Tom DiCillo has helped put together a pretty hilarious video in which he asks Gina Gershon to come to a hotel room for an interview about the film. Once Gershon is there, she soon realizes that DiCillo's promotional plans are a bit more risque than she had hoped. Yup, he wants her to shoot a porn. From there, things just get nutty -- and, well, you'll have to watch for yourself. In the pic, Buscemi stars as a paparazzi photographer with dreams of making it big time. He soon befriends a homeless kid (Michael Pitt), hires him as an assistant, but then gets jealous when the dude strikes up a relationship with a hot pop star. Gershon plays a casting director who .... spoiler spoiler spoiler. Mmmm .... Gershon. Um, but yeah -- the film arrives in theaters next week. Go see it; I've heard it's a blast. Oh, and beware of foul language. Lots of it.

Hi, there -- here's my first celeb sighting at Sundance. (A little background: Moviefone does a star-interviews-star [or sometimes director] video show called Unscripted) The first one I got to watch tape this go-round was for 'Delirious.' One of the stars of that film, Gina Gershon, and director Tom DiCillo sat down and chatted. That's what they mostly did -- they got through maybe two questions each -- and they were cool. They obviously know each other well and get along; great rapport. And, not surprisingly, DiCillo was pretty damned funny ... the movie comments on celebrity, and DiCillo ragged on it as well (e.g., he claimed he'd read in the tabloids that Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston were going to, like, fight to the death, and Brad Pitt was O.K. with that -- he'd just take the winner).

He also said that with his first movie, 'Johnny Suede,' he'd turned down bringing it to Sundance, because back then it was known as the Granola Fest, with crunchy movies about a little girl living on a farm who could see God through her dog. And Gina was gorgeous (actually better looking in real life than she is on screen, if you can believe that), if a little nervous. She needed reading glasses to see the questions on the monitor -- it was adorable. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the movie yet -- ironically, it was screening at about the same time as this taping -- but I've heard great things about it. Don't believe me? Read Scott Weinberg's review.

Satire is not a blunt instrument. In the hands of an overzealous filmmaker, jokes and pointed barbs can readily fly over your head, leaving you to think "Hey, wait, was that supposed to be funny? Cuz it kinda was." (Or, even worse, the satire is presented in such a ham-fisted fashion that the insight ends up buried beneath moronic punchlines) Such is quite definitely not the case in Delirious, a poker-faced but insightful and amusing comedic drama that takes square aim at pop stars, paparazzi and stargazers without ever settling for the obvious joke or the predictable punchline. This comes as no big surprise to me, considering that the writer/director of Delirious is Tom DiCillo, frequent Jim Jarmusch cinematographer and rather astute filmmaker in his own right. (DiCillo gave us Johnny Suede, The Real Blonde and -- one of my favorite movies about filmmakers -- the excellent Living in Oblivion)

Delirious is the tale of a kind-hearted but depressingly unfocused homeless kid called Toby (played brilliantly by Michael Pitt) who starts an unlikely friendship with a fast-talking paparazzi photographer named Les (Steve Buscemi, as good as he's ever been) and somehow manages to find himself in close proximity to K'harma Leeds, a teen idol pop sensation who is as beautiful as she is obtuse. (As the pop star, Alison Lohman is nothing short of stellar; she avoids the really obvious digs on Lindsay, Brittney and Paris ... but she sure does nail 'em to the wall anyway)

I bet some stickler out there will post a comment reminding me that Eddie Murphy: Delirious was an HBO concert film and NOT a theatrical release, and therefore I should not be posting about it on Cinematical, which is a movie blog. By that logic I could legally post about Eddie Murphy: Raw, which opened theatrically on December 18, 1987 and went on to gross just over $40 million in domestic box office, even if it was only half as funny as Murphy's first concert flick.

But I'm so excited I just don't care! Eddie Murphy: Delirious is finally coming to DVD! One of the most popular and oft-quoted concert films of my generation, Delirious was the subject of much online gossip over the years. "Murphy bought the rights and will never let it show up on DVD" was the rumor most often floated about -- and I'll admit I started to get a little worried for a while there.

But now it looks like Entertainment Studios / Starz / Anchor Bay has the DVD locked and ready to roll. Delirious will hit the shelves on February 6 and the DVD will come complete with interview segments and some deleted scenes! Cool! So while it's true that Delirious contains some truly off-color material and a few AIDS jokes that seem more than a little cringe-worthy these days, this concert is an absolute classic -- and one I cannot wait to add to my collection.

[Thanks to DavisDVD.com for the press release!]