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Certified Copy DVD Release Date: May 22, Criterion Collection Don’t let the word “copy” fool you—this film is like nothing you’ve seen before. Certified Copy, by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, is about a man and a woman getting to know each other over the course of a day—or do they already know each other, and are just pretending they’re acquaintances? Kiarostami will have you scratching your head trying to figure it out. (The Criterion Collection DVD also includes Kiarostami’s The Report, which deals with similar themes.) The film stars William Shimell and Juliette Binoche, who won the Best Actress prize in Cannes for her performance. |
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The Grey DVD Release Date: May 22, Universal Studios Home Entertainment File under “May DVDs: Tough Guy Edition”: In The Grey, Liam Neeson stars as Ottway, a man who leads a small band of plane-crash survivors through the bitterly cold Alaskan wilderness—while they’re being pursued by man-eating wolves. The film was directed by Joe Carnahan, who’s no stranger to making macho entertainment, having directed The A-Team and Narc. But he also manages to make The Grey a little deeper and more ponderous than your typical male-bonding films. |
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Haywire DVD Release Date: May 1, Lionsgate Home Entertainment File under “May DVDs: Tough Girl Edition”: Real-life mixed martial artist Gina Carano stars in this thriller about a black-ops spy out for revenge on her shady handlers (played by actors including Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, and man-of-the-moment Michael Fassbender). And, unlike most thrillers as of late, director Steven Soderbergh knows how to shoot a fight scene without resorting to the close-up, shaky, hand-held camera gimmick, so you can see all of Carano’s punches really land. |
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Albert Nobbs DVD Release Date: May 15, Lionsgate Home Entertainment Kudos to Bedford neighbor Glenn Close for receiving an Oscar nomination for her performance in this film (she lost to Meryl Streep). Close plays the title character, a woman who’s secretly been living as a man for 30 years in order to work as a waiter in a hotel in Ireland. Close’s co-star Janet McTeer also received a nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and the makeup wizards who manned-up Closes’s face actually came home with the statue. |
