Children of Men (directed by Alfonso Cuarón): Seeing movies in the theater is a wonderful viewing experience—big image, big audio, big popcorn—but there's no rewind button. To really enjoy a film like Alfonso Cuarón's futuristic drama Children of Men, the ability to rewind the really masterful sequences for an immediate second or third viewing almost seems necessary. As you watch Clive Owen's Theo makes his way through the chaotic English countryside in 2027 trying to protect the first pregnant woman in 18 years (Claire-Hope Ashitey), it's striking how much detail Cuarón is able to squeeze into the frame and still use long, single camera takes. To choreograph that many people, explosions, moving vehicles and whatever else all at once is a really amazing movie-making feat. As the Entertainment Weekly reviewer so aptly puts it, "Cuarón out-Touch-of-Evils Touch of Evil." While the DVD doesn't contain a commentary from Cuarón, it does have a short on how they put together the car chase and bomb in the cafe [pictured] sequences. Plus, it also features erudite comments from sociologists, philosophers and cultural commentators like Slavoj Zizek about the sci-fi plot's feasibility and glowing tributes from his fellow Mexican directors, Guillermo Del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu. On the official website you can sample some of this content to whet your appetite before you rent or buy the DVD. The weather in New York may be warming up finally, but Children of Men is definitely a movie worth staying in to watch or re-watch.
Other DVDs of note coming out today include the Oscar-winning animated penguin tale Happy Feet, Will Smith's Oscar-nominated The Pursuit of Happyness, the depressing Australian heroin-fueled romance Candy plus special releases devoted to director Darren Aronofsky, Dame Judi Dench and Shirley Temple. Maybe that's what was missing from Aronofsky's last movie, a singing, tap dancing moppet like Shirley Temple.
