Just try finding a drama as sumptuous as “I Am Love,” one of four new DVD releases this week.
The film casts Tilda Swinton as a married woman who starts a most improper affair with her son’s chum. The story is luxurious in its every detail, down to the gourmet food devoured by the cast. But it takes what feels like eons to reach the boiling point.
- “I Am Love” -Swinton is known for her icy exterior – remember her villainous role in “The Chronicles of Narnia?” Here, she’s allowed to melt over a hunky young chef. The story takes a turn for the melodramatic in the final act, but the first 40 minutes are an absolute chore to sit through. Patience is demanded – and ultimately rewarded. The Blu-ray extras include an audio commentary with director Luca Guadagnino and Swinton, a 14-minute making-of doc dubbed “Moment on the Set of I Am Love,” and more than an hour of cast and crew interviews.
- “Jonah Hex” -You really can’t blame Megan Fox for this big screen debacle. The DC Comics hero gets a scattershot adaptation, finding the perfect actor to play Jonah Hex – Josh Brolin – but fumbling nearly every other facet of the film. Blu-ray extras include three additional scenes, the history behind the gun-slinging character and a short “making of” featurette.
- “How to Train Your Dragon” – Not every viking lives to pillage and plunder. Young Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is just such a Viking, and his genteel existence gets more complicated when he befriends a fire-breathing dragon, the scourge of his fellow citizens. “Dragon” doesn’t rise to the level of a Pixar film, but at times it comes awful close – high praise, indeed. The voluminous extras include picture-in-picture commentary by some of the animators, three deleted scenes, a primer on how to draw Toothless the dragon, new animated shorts and “Your Viking Profile.”
- “S&Man” -Horror director J.T. Petty delivers a quasi documentary look at the underground horror scene. And if you thought “Saw XVIII” was grisly, you won’t like what you see here. The film focuses on a pudgy filmmaker whose underground videos – the “S&Man” series- may be more real than anyone would like to think. The concept behind the film feels flawed, and the execution only confirms that fear. Extras include full “S&Man” videos and commentary from Petty.
(Photo: Tilda Swinton stars in the lush drama “I Am Love,” a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.)
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
As much as I like Tilda Swinton, I am so sick and tired of movies about people having affairs, I think I’ll pass. Is there anything the film industry glamorizes more than adultery?