So the site has been a little molasses-like lately; the above picture provides clues to my absence. The production company I work for is currently filming two episodes of our puppet-filled kid’s show, Pahappahooey Island. Yours truly is the script supervisor, and in between 13 hour work days and making sure Puppet #3’s ray blaster doesn’t magically switch hands from scenes 33 to 34, I have had no time to regale you with film reviews and sparkling commentary. Come Friday life returns to normal and the site should as well. In the mean time, some of these things called “movies” are being released on this new technology called “DVD.” You might find such things of interest.

Jellyfish –
In a week full of quality releases, this is my number one pick. This tiny Israeli film about the casually intersecting lives of 3 women took me completely off guard. It’s not about plot or even character, but evoking a distinct mood. I expected to be bored to tears, but instead I was absolutely enchanted. Jellyfish worked some kind of black magic over me, and while I hesitate to recommend it since it is such a unique flavor, I can’t contain my enthusiasm for it.

Recommended if you liked Lost In Translation.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster* –
It’s been a great year for docs: Man On Wire, American Teen, Up the Yangtze, and now Bigger, Stronger, Faster: The Side Effects of Being American. Ostentatiously about the controversy surrounding performance enhancing drugs in competitive athletics, it ends up becoming something so much more. One part personal journey, one part info-intense breakdown of drug abuse, one part sociological commentary, this is one of the year’s best films. Watch Oscar screw it over come February.

Recommended if you liked Pumping Iron or Sicko.

Iron Man -
A teensy-weensy film about this dude in an iron suit clocks in at #3. A great summer blockbuster in a summer filled with a surprising number of great blockbusters (The Dark Knight, Speed Racer, Hellboy 2), this could have potentially been another Daredevil, Elektra, or (shudder) Catwoman, if not for one mitigating factor: Mr. Downey Jr. If Johnny Depp can get nominated for Pirates of the Caribbean, then why the heck can’t Robert snag a nomination? Especially since he pulled a second killer punch with his scene-stealing turn in Tropic Thunder?

Recommended if nothing would make you happier than attaching a rocket powered ordinance to every one of your appendages.

| Buy Iron Man on Blu-ray

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
This is a gem of a film, and if there was ever an excuse to use mise-en-scène (which is basically a French term for the “look” or overall “feel” of a film that pretentious people like to bandy about), this is it. Not only is the film French, but it has the most giddily preposterous aesthetic I’ve seen in a long time. The film is shot to look like a cheezy 1950s spy flick, what a James Bond knock-off might have looked like back in the day, replete with goofy special effects and over-the-top slapstick. This is a one-of-a-kind film that needs to be experienced to be believed. Peruse Daniel Getahun’s excellent review on it.

Recommended if James Bond is too serious and Austin Powers is too silly, but by golly you’ve just gotta watch a spy flick.

Hit the jump for the rest of the selections, which are by no means shabby propositions.

Taxi to the Dark Side
Alex Gibney is quickly becoming the premiere documentary filmmaker (and no, I don’t count Michael Moore in that category). First was Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room. Recently was Gonzo: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson. But in betwixt those two came his Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side, about the systematic torture and abuse of an innocent man at the whim American military machine. Now I’m not one to hop on the Bash America bandwagon, but stories like these need to be told.

Recommended if you liked No Way Out or One Day in September.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Yeah yeah it’s another Apatow film, and yeah yeah another grubby man-child in the midst of arrested development shows off his Captain Winkie for the whole wide world. Yikes, how tired am I of this formula? By all accounts this really wasn’t a bad film, but I am so burned out on the Apatow formula, and there are so many other great films to be watched, that I can’t muster any excitement here. You know if you want to see it, and I am not likely to stop you. Go forth and be Apatowed.

Recommended if blah blah blah penis blah blah blah gets your attention.

| Buy Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Blu-ray

Beaufort
Along with The Band’s Visit and Jellyfish, Israeli film has had a killer year. Beaufort is quite different, a war film rather than a sublime comedy about the human experience, and for some awful reason it was submitted to the Academy rather than the other two (stupid rules about the English language and financing, whatever). It didn’t win, but it arrives on DVD now, asking for your attention.

Recommended if you liked No Man’s Land or The Battle For Algiers.

Bin Of Shame
Ok, it’s really not fair to stick some of these films in the Bin of Shame, but two of them are musical docs (I think I’ve made myself quite clear on that account) and the third is apparently an exercise in cinematic hubris outclassed only by M. Night Shyamalan. Anyway, I mention them here for those who care. Follow the Amazon links if you’re curious.

CSNY / Deja Vu –

Lou Reed Berlin –

Chapter 27 –