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DVD Children of the Revolution
Australia's most consistently fascinating export, Judy Davis has made a career of playing intriguingly high-strung women with a hilariously icy edge. Here, she plays the leader of Australia's Communist Party in the early 1950s whose struggles to keep the party alive are rewarded with a trip to Russia to meet Stalin himself (F. Murray Abraham). The meeting turns into a seduction, and she returns to Australia carrying Stalin's love child. So it's no surprise when her son Joe (Richard Roxburgh) grows up to be a political rabble-rouser, bringing the country to the brink of disaster. Filmed in mockumentary fashion by writer-director Peter Duncan, the film is never quite as funny as you wish it would be, but works as well as it does because of the performances by Rush and, particularly, Davis. --Marshall Fine
This wonderful, sparkling bubbly commentary is simply a masterpiece. Showing the exploits of a Communist mother and her suspecting son this movie is not only a commentary on COmmunism and the excess of liberalism but it is also a hilarious film with an amazing funny cast and a profound group of intrigue. The main character is followed through his life as he slowly realizes he is none other then the son of Stalin, the man his mother loves but who he learns to loathe. Yet as time goes on the viewer is led to wonder: Maybe in his rejection of his father he actually becomes him. Funny, great. Wonderful!!!!
The difference a moustache can make
This is an extremely original and well made farce. the film is generally comical but there are some tragic overtones throughout. The story of the idealist leader of the Australian communists earns a trip to meet Stalin in Moscow. The visit provides the setting for some of the funniest moments in the film. The idea of Stalin dancing and singing is funny in itself, imagine watching it realized on screen. But this comical interlude provides the crucial elemnt of the plot, the conception of Stalin's son. His identity is kept secret by his mother, but through a series of fortuitous circumstances Joe (thta's his name palyed by Roxburgh) becomes a union leader and organizes the police force. Hints are given throughout his childhood, he loves handcuffs for instance - leading to a steamy scene with a seduced policewoman. as a result of an 'accident' he has to grow a moustache and discovers his true personality after this event. There is sadness also, but I felt it beyond the plot or film itself. The mockery is certainly funny but it's undeniable that many idealists were betrayed by Stalin and his unbound evil. Communism in the Soviet union (and elsewhere) might have developed differently had Stalin not hijacked it. Now we're left with no alternatives and embarking on a dangerous course of increasing inequality. The film ironizes and does an excellent job (Judy Davis' excellent acting apart) of showing the demoralization of an idealist who has to face the sad reality and the poor 'loves' of the past. I saw the film twice and remember it with an ironic smile. Highly recommended
Wicked
A real find. The film starts out as a broad satire (perhaps just a bit too broad), then sharpens to a steely point in the second half.Judy Davis has never been more ferocious (and that's really saying something). A romp, but one that leaves bruises. Grab it.
Geoffrey Rush is wry, sly, and deviously funny in A Little Bit of Soul, writer-director Peter Duncan's follow-up to his offbeat black comedy Children of the Revolution. Rush plays the smooth-talking Australian finance minister (who, as it turns out, is confounded by the simplest economic theory) and husband of a philanthropist (Heather Mitchell). They play host to a pair of rival scientists and former lovers (David Wenham and Mansfield Park's Frances O'Connor) competing for the same grant. Sound like the weekend from hell? That should come as no surprise, for the hosts just happen to be Satanists. Well, it's really more of a hobby, they insist, but when a mysterious third guest paints the bathroom with her blood in a supposed suicide attempt, suspicions bubble to the... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Peter Duncan (II) DVD Release Date: Released the 29 April 2003 Usually ships within 6 to 8 days
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A sleek George Clooney and a seductive Catherine Zeta-Jones square off magnificently in the divorce comedy Intolerable Cruelty. The plot is simple: Lawyer supreme Miles Massey (Clooney, Out of Sight, Ocean's Eleven) skillfully outmaneuvers gold-digger Marylin Rexroth (Zeta-Jones, Chicago, Traffic) when she divorces her wealthy husband--and she sets out to get revenge. But this movie comes from the creative minds of the Coen Brothers (Fargo, Raising Arizona, O Brother Where Art Thou?), and so Intolerable Cruelty includes a Scottish wedding chapel in Vegas, an asthmatic hit man, fluffy-dog-stroking European nobility, and a legendarily unbreakable pre-nuptial agreement. Still, it's pretty restrained for the Coens; smooth and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): George Clooney - Catherine Zeta-Jones - Billy Bob Thornton Director(s): Ethan Coen - Joel Coen DVD Release Date: Released the 10 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The luminous Audrey Tautou (Amelie) stars in Dirty Pretty Things, a riveting thriller about an illegal immigrant in London named Okwe (Chiwetal Ejiofor, Amistad), a doctor in his homeland who now works days as a taxi driver and nights as a hotel desk clerk. When a hooker tells him there's a mess in one of the hotel's bathrooms, Okwe finds a human heart in the toilet. He soon discovers a snare of desperation, poverty, and black-market body organs--and finds that his only friend, a Turkish hotel maid (Tautou), may be the next to be caught. Dirty Pretty Things, skillfully directed by Stephen Frears (High Fidelity, Dangerous Liaisons, My Beautiful Laundrette), fuses taut suspense with an unsettling portrait of life among the British underclass... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Chiwetel Ejiofor - Audrey Tautou - Sophie Okonedo Director(s): Stephen Frears DVD Release Date: Released the 23 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Jennifer Connelly followed up her Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind with this dark but moving story of small mistakes that escalate, with tragic necessity, to disaster. In House of Sand and Fog, Kathy (Connelly) gets evicted from her house for failing to pay a tax she never should have been charged in the first place. The house is swiftly put up for auction and bought by a former military officer from Iran named Behrani (Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast). When legal efforts fail her, Kathy turns to a sympathetic cop (Ron Eldard, Bastard Out of Carolina), who wants out of a loveless marriage and who's willing to step over legal boundaries if it might give him a fresh start. Topnotch performances by the entire cast make House of Sand and Fog a compelling... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jennifer Connelly - Ben Kingsley - Ron Eldard Director(s): Vadim Perelman DVD Release Date: Released the 30 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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One of the most acclaimed films of 2003, American Splendor is also one of the most audaciously creative biographical movies ever made. Blending fact, fiction, and personal perspective from the comic books that inspired it, this marvelous portrait of Harvey Pekar--scowling curmudgeon, brow-beaten everyman, insightful chronicler of his own life, and frustrated file clerk at a Cleveland V.A. hospital--is an inspired amalgam of the media (comic books, TV, and film) that lifted Pekar from obscurity to the status of a pop-cultural icon. As played by Paul Giamatti in a master-stroke of casting, we see Pekar and his understanding wife (played by Hope Davis) as underdogs in a world full of obstacles, yet also infused with subtle hope and (gasp!) heartwarming perseverance. We also see the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Shari Springer Berman - Paul Giamatti - Harvey Pekar Director(s): Robert Pulcini - Shari Springer Berman DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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