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DVD Off the Map
Off the Map avoids conventional drama (hardly any event leads to an outcome you could expect) but the lean, sharp dialogue and superb performances make this movie a rich, human comedy. A young girl named Bo, living in the New Mexico desert, rebels against her bohemian parents by reading Forbes magazine and applying for credit cards. Her father Charley (Sam Elliott, Tombstone) has sunk deep into a paralyzing depression; her resilient, industrious mother Arlene (Joan Allen, The Upside of Anger) alternates between gently supporting Charley and railing against his zombie-like state. Into this off-balance family comes a tax auditor (Jim True-Frost, Singles), who--after being stung by a bee and lapsing into a sudden fever--becomes an accidental catalyst for change. In her movie debut as Bo, Valentina de Angelis gives a wonderful performance, head and shoulders above most actors her age. Campbell Scott's direction, as with his first film Big Night, is warm but not sappy; he has a gift for letting a story wander without it ever getting lost. The New Mexico landscape glows in the sun and helps give Off the Map a quiet but mysterious vision of life. --Bret Fetzer
This movie was a gift to me and I was told that I needed to own it. OK, I was game but I had never even heard of this movie, but I do enjoy offbeat and independent films, so what the heck.
At first, I really didn't know what to make of this movie, it seemed a bit slow and without order. Since it was already in progress and there was nothing better to do at the time, I just waited a while and then suddenly..............everything starts moving and things get interesting.
Without warning, like shape-shifting, transporting you to a "magical" and beautiful place as is the desert itself. A place where a family living among nature and under the big beautiful sky of New Mexico is carving out a self-sufficient existence with "just-enough" money but a whole lot of love.
The father that is temporarily depressed, the mother whom is a decendent of Hopi indians, and the delightful sunshine of a daughter, live and love among the cactus, mountains and coyotes trying to cope with everyday life in a unique environment.
There is sooo much going on in this movie, it really is hard to convey what's up.....anway....
Then comes a stranger with a briefcase from the IRS to begin an audit. The agent comes upon the young girl's Mother, weeding in the garden naked, and that's all the plot you are going to get out of me, because the rest is amazing.
From there, you are completely captivated.
When this film is over, you feel uplifted and enriched, (even though there are a few sad moments along the way), and ultimately rewarded with a treat for the soul!
Well, that was certainly different
No, this isn't another installment in National Lampoon's Vacation series, nor does it chronicle the wacky adventures of a group of friends who get lost on their way to some idyllic vacation spot and wind up trying to hide from inbred cannibalistic hillbillies. Off the Map refers to the isolated setting of the story - as well as the very nature and tenor of the film compared to what you expect from movies these days. I won't talk about this film in terms of comedy at all, as I don't think it has anything to do with comedy. This is a low-key yet impassioned human drama about nothing and everything, an odd study of human nature, family life, living in communion with nature, and the whole cycle of life that always turns out to be much more circular than we ever expected.
Amy Brenneman only appears at the beginning and end of the film, as this is really a story of her character's childhood, especially one important and meaningful summer. Valentina de Angelis plays the twelve-year-old Bo, a girl who dreams of bigger and better things and, to some measure, helps provide for her family in her own special way. Hers is not exactly the classic American home. For one thing, they do live off the map; take a left at the boondocks, go about thirty miles until you reach the sticks, and you've still got a decent trip ahead of you to get to their house. The family has almost no income, living off of what they grow and kill, and Bo's life basically includes only three people: her resourceful mother, her dad's friend George, and her father - who, at this time, was an extremely depressed man. Sam Elliot spends most of his screen time staring into space or crying. Young Bo, on the other hand, is perpetually spirited - and infectiously charming (and I must mention the fact that Valentina de Angelis is a remarkably gifted young actress).
This summer of Bo's father's depression, the family gets audited by the I.R.S. Agent William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost) somehow manages to find their house, only to be stung by a bee and lapse into a days-long fever. He wakes up a changed man, deciding apparently be default to stay right there in the New Mexico desert and begin painting. His presence there turns out to be important in more ways than one.
You know, I really can't even describe this movie. Things just slowly take shape as the summer draws to a close, and the ending does provide a great deal of cloture to this unusual, slightly surreal storyline. By and large, this is a rather depressing movie, yet it somehow seems to shine a flashlight into dark, overlooked nooks and crannies in your soul. You feel as if you have learned something from the whole experience - even if you can't describe what that might be. I can't say with any assurance that there is any real point to the movie - but maybe that in and of itself is the point. The whole movie's sort of a metaphor for life - it's a strange journey, you don't always know where you are or where you're going, and in the end you feel like the whole experience must have meant something.
"Forty-One Feet Of The Ocean's Horizon" -The Curvature Of The Earth
Charley (Sam Elliot) and Arlene (Joan Allen) live in a small home out in the middle-of-nowhere (New Mexico) with their twelve year old daughter Bo (Valentina De Angelis). Pennyless, they survive by trading what they grow in the garden for whatever essentials they need. It's a quiet, simple and relatively happy life for the Grodin's until Charley unexpectedly falls into a deep, prolonged depression. Now lost somewhere in his own inner world he has become almost immobile, uncommunicative and does little else but cry and drink water to replenish his bodily fluids.
Going bad to worse an IRS agent named William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost) appears on their doorstep to audit the Grodin's who haven't filed a tax return in six years. William is immediately bitten by a bee and has an allergic reaction, forcing him to remain with the Grodin's until he's feeling better. When he recovers he appears somehow different than he was upon arrival. Was it the bee sting, the Grodin's bohemian lifestyle or the enchanted New Mexico landscape that has brought about this profound change in their unexpected guest? William has discovered that "New Mexico is a very powerful place."
The film moves at a very slow, protracted pace in tune with the directorial objective of establishing the meaninglessness of time when living "off the map" and free of the constraints of jobs, schedules and responsibilities. If you're not prepared to give your full attention to the film from the beginning you are likely to quickly lose interest, but if you give yourself over to the experience and allow the New Mexico desert to envelope you a multi-faceted gem of a story awaits.
Marvelous performances by all, but the real star of this film is little Valentina De Angelis. She's definitely destined for greatness.
The sight of two lost souls finding something unavoidably necessary in each other carries The Upside of Anger through it pleasant episodic drift. When Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) realizes that her husband won't be coming home again, she hits the skids and the bottle, leaving her four thunderstruck daughters (Alicia Witt, Keri Russell, Erika Christensen, and Evan Rachel Wood) to fend for themselves while she fends off the attentions of concerned neighbor Denny Davies (Kevin Costner). Writer/director Mike Binder (who has a good bit as Costner's sleazy producer) juggles too many subplots in this comedy/drama--his charming young actresses are all but wasted--then tosses in a wrongheaded climactic twist and terrible explanatory narration from young Wood. But the two leads do... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Joan Allen - Kevin Costner - Erika Christensen - Keri Russell - Alicia Witt Director(s): Mike Binder DVD Release Date: Released the 26 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock, biting into a welcome change of pace from Miss Congeniality) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Haggis DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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With Sideways, Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Storytelling) has become an unlikely but engaging romantic lead. Struggling novelist and wine connoisseur Miles (Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party. Almost immediately, Jack's insatiable need to sow some wild oats before his marriage leads them into double-dates with a rambunctious wine pourer (Sandra Oh, Under the Tuscan Sun) and a recently divorced waitress (Virginia Madsen, The Hot Spot)--and Miles discovers a little hope that he hasn't let himself feel in a long time. Sideways is a modest but finely tuned film; with gentle compassion, it explores the failures, struggles, and... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Alexander Payne DVD Release Date: Released the 05 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Four extremely beautiful people do extremely horrible things to one another in Closer, Mike Nichols' pungent adaptation of Patrick Marber's play that easily marks the Oscar-winning director's best work in years. Anna (Julia Roberts) is a photographer who specializes in portraits of strangers; Dan (Jude Law) is an obituary writer struggling to become a novelist; Alice (Natalie Portman) is an American stripper freshly arrived in London after a bad relationship; and Larry (Clive Owen) is a dermatologist who finds love under the most unlikely of circumstances. When their paths cross it's a dizzying supernova of emotions, as Nichols and Marber adroitly construct various scenes out of their lives that pair them again and again in various permutations of passion, heartbreak, anger,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Mike Nichols DVD Release Date: Released the 29 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The brilliant writer-director Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies, Naked) has crafted an utterly compelling movie about one of the most controversial of topics. An irrepressibly hopeful housecleaner in 1950s London named Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton, Antonia and Jane, Shakespeare in Love) mothers everyone around her, from her own family to helpless shut-ins and lonely men living in tiny, isolated apartments. None of these people know that Vera also helps young women get rid of unwanted pregnancies, until the police appear and tear her world apart. Vera Drake isn't just an inspired character portrait; through simple and straightforward scenes, the movie weaves a quiet but mesmerizing portrait of how people--both wealthy and poor--cope with... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Imelda Staunton - Heather Craney Director(s): Mike Leigh DVD Release Date: Released the 29 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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