Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Proof of Penelope Cruz's Oscar Worthiness Now on DVD

new on DVD today

The Must See
You heard me rave about Penelope Cruz in Pedro Almodovar's Volver. You know about the resulting Oscar nomination. If you missed it in theaters, do your movie-loving duty and pick this lovely flower up from the DVD garden. Sorry for the overworked metaphor...but seriously. Her Volver performance is so good it's like a complete memory wipe. Lacuna Inc has nothing on the Spanish goddess. You'll forget you ever hated her as an actress. Sahara, Woman on Top, Vanilla Sky? Sorry. Drawing a blank.

At Last!
Twin Peaks' divisive second season is finally out. David Lynch fans will be thrilled to spend more time lost in the nightmare world of red curtains. Many people will scratch their heads wondering how they ever forgot about David Duchovny's tranvestite moment or Heather Graham as a ex-nun, or Sherilyn Fenn in general. On a random note: She had the best television eyebrows ever, didn't she?

Also...
Dakota Fanning talks to spiders in Charlotte's Web. Barry Levinson releases a directors cut of the baseball drama The Natural(1984) starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger and Barbara Hershey. Matt Damon internalizes his world in The Good Shepherd.

6 comments:

J.D. said...

I loved Volver, though obviously not as much as you. Just almost made my Top 10. I think it's #11 or #12 or #13, behind or in front of LMS or Al Gore's $50,000,000 Lecture.

And The Good Shepherd is also pretty good, and I'm surprised DeNiro can direct that well. Matt Damon is great, and so is Angelina Jolie.

Scott said...

I think Stephenie LaGrossa from Survivor Series #4012 would give Audrey Horne a run for her money!

http://prevailingsolutions.com/Steph_1_lighter.jpg

Marius said...

Oh, Nathaniel, where to begin. First, I'm not a fan of La Cruz. She needs to thank her luck stars that Pedro created the perfect character for her. He loves women (and their breasts). I don't think this film is one of Almodovar's best. While I was watching Volver, I just kept thinking about the absurdity of the whole situation.

I also had an issue with his use of Carmen Maura. I loved her in "Women on the Verge . . ." Here's a talented Spanish actress and she didn't shine. Why, Pedro? It kind of felt like the movie was made to get Penelope nominated for various acting awards. Well, it worked! I’m not surprised Volver didn’t get nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Glenn Dunks said...

1. Agreed that Volver acts as a memory eraser for Cruz (except for her foriegn language work!) She's just... wow.

2. TWIN PEAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think I died.

3. All That Jazz is also released in a new "Music Edition" DVD.

4. Twin Peaks is my favourite tv show of all time. All That Jazz is my favourite movie of all time. April 4 is officially the best day ever... or, actually, the day that they arrive in the mail from Amazon will be. EEEEP!

5. Duchovny's transvestite moment surprised me so much when I first watched it. The VHS wasn't the best of quality so I wasn't sure it was him until I saw his name in the credits.

6. Sherlyn Fenn. Sigh. Why did she not because a huge star? She also gave possibly one of the best camero appearances ever by anyone in Lynch's Wild at Heart.

Anonymous said...

I loved Volver! All of Almodovar's movies are visually and lyrically brilliant. I knew I had to see it because I love "all about my mother" so much that I bought that DVD too. I’m a big movie buff too; I work for Ebert and Roeper (check out http://www.atthemoviestv.com for full-length, high-production movie reviews). Guess what? They like Volver too, they like Volver a loooooot!

Anonymous said...

Nate you dissapoint me... she was very meh... very meh... I didn't hated her, the movie was so offensive and manipulative, made fun of our culture, the first Almodovar movie that really made me angrey, that's why the film was so hated here in Spain. Of course it had its fans but the press destroeyed the film, and Almodovar needs a brake, he thinks he's god or something, people always ask why people here don't like him, well, because he is so arrogant and mean and actually asks awards shows to confirm to him if he is wining, so that he makes the decision of asisting or not, that's why he didn't go to the Globes... ugh....