Introducing a new weekly feature: Disc of the week. Each Tuesday I will look through the week’s DVD/Blu-ray releases and choose the one that most deserves your attention. It’s an obvious feature, but a fun enough one. You’re having fun, right?
Obviously, the best film hitting the shelves of your local retailer this week is Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky’s psycho-thriller set in the world of New York ballet that won Natalie Portman her first Oscar. But if the box office returns are any indication, you’ve probably already seen it. With this feature, I’m going to try and turn you on to pieces of entertainment you might have missed the first time around.
This week I recommend Doug Liman’s Fair Game, one of the better political dramas I’ve seen in recent years. (It was on my top 10 list for a while, until it was pushed out by Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void.) It takes a story most all of us in America know (the Valerie Plame saga) and turns it into a terrific film about the effect the story had on Plame’s family and social life. Not only did the ordeal cause her to lose her job, but suddenly her neighbors and friends start to see her in a different light. She was an ordinary woman with an unusual job; all it took was one sentence in the newspaper and she became a household name.
Fair Game didn’t make a great deal of money and it was ignored during awards season, but it’s ready to surprise all who approach it looking for an interesting way to spend a couple hours. It’s not merely about the leak, but about Plame’s life both before and after the information became public knowledge. It doesn’t recite back to you what you already knew. It’s got a few surprises in its back pocket.
However, if you’re looking to entertain the kids there’s no going wrong with Tangled, the newest animated princess story from Disney.
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