Disc of the Week (2/21/12)

We’ve got ourselves a reasonably busy week on the home video docket, but when my favorite movie of last year is finally getting a release I have no choice but to make it my recommendation. Martha Marcy May Marlene is writer/director Sean Durkin’s first feature film, and that is a startling fact considering just how assured the movie seems. However, what completely sells the film is Elizabeth Olsen’s starring turn as the titular character, which I thought was by far the best performance I saw last year. Quite simply, this movie played me like a fiddle, and that seemed to be the case with the (rather large) crowd I saw it with. There’s a squirm-inducing brilliance to the way Durkin deliberately composes each shot, and the paranoia felt by Olsen’s character—who escaped from a cult—slowly creeps into the audience. When Martha Marcy May Marlene ended, I was completely floored. Some will likely be angry at the ambiguity of the last shot, but if I had my way that’s how all movies would end.

I actually quite enjoyed another of this week’s DVD/Blu-ray releases, and it’s not the Oscar-baiting J. Edgar, nor is it Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist. Alas, it is Puss in Boots, the Shrek spin-off that has no reason to exist yet is one of the straight-up funniest movies of last year. The best? No way. But this is a sharp, exciting animated adventure that has no business being as good as it is. Instead of going the route of the Shrek sequels and turning the film into an endless series of ephemeral pop culture references, the people behind Puss in Boots instead decided to make the film more in the style of the very good Kung Fu Panda films. The focus was instead on the action and the character of Puss as opposed to making easy jokes, and that is why this film was so surprisingly successful.

Your other two options this week are the aforementioned J. Edgar and Tower Heist, both of which just kind of coast along without any desire to be as good as they could be. In particular, Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar is an example of a prestige film gone wrong; completely undone by bad aging makeup and the choice to make the film more of a series of bullet points rather than an in-depth look at who the man was and what motivated him. Tower Heist is just a bland heist film with some good elements—chief among them Eddie Murphy’s fun performance—but it stubbornly refuses to take any real risks. It’s another example of Ratner’s devotion to making his films as slick as possible at the expense of substance.