Proposition: Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, while not a great movie, is one of 2009’s most personal movies, expressing Ephron’s admiration for old-school get-shit-done ladies like Julia Child in tandem with her disgust at self-indulgent navel-gazers like Julie Powell, the blogger whose book inspired the film. The result is a movie that’s half a delight (when it’s dealing with Child) and half an irritant (whenever it’s about Powell), but one that at least aspires to a point of view.
Another proposition: Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, which is a great movie, was misinterpreted by many critics, who seem to have been expecting jittery realism rather than Mann’s formalist study of myth vs. truth, life vs. death, and fame vs. anonymity. In years to come, Public Enemies will get its due.
Want to weigh those propositions more fully? Good news! Both Julie & Julia and Public Enemies are in stores today. You can also take a closer look at two movies likely to land on a few Top 10 lists in the coming weeks: Bob Goldthwait’s pitch-black comedy World’s Greatest Dad and the dolphin-saving documentary The Cove. And for those who have the coin, today’s the day when Criterion drops AK 100: 25 Films Of Akira Kurosawa. (Stand clear; it’s heavy.) For those who don’t have the coin, but would still like to experience the kind of sweeping adventure, desperate human drama and genre-hopping facility of Kurosawa, there’s always Lost: The Complete Fifth Season. At the least, you will (eventually) find out what lies in the shadow of the statue.
AK 100: 25 Films Of Akira Kurosawa
Criterion, $399.95
American Experience: The Civilian Conversation Corps
PBS, $24.99
Beautiful Losers
Oscilloscope, $29.99
Brick City
First Run, $29.95
The Brigitte Bardot Classic Collection
Image, $29.98
The Cinder Path
E1, $19.98