January 9, 2004

{ punch drunk love dvd }

okay, i know i'm a little late, but i got screwed out of having this dvd when it was first released, or rather- before it was released- because my malaysian ebay guy bailed on me... so- i just recently had the pleasure of watching this film... when it came out in the theatres, i was stoked, i thought it looked pretty cool- especially since it wasn't a typical adam sandler flick (not that those aren't usually great)... but i sort of lost interest in seeing it after my disenchanting experience with malaysia man and after some good friends who saw it told me that it was just "pretty good"... that made me feel like it could wait... but after snagging it for free, (thanks to a very nice friend who worked at a video rental shop) i realized that i had been missing one of the most simple, yet delightfully lovely films of the year.... punch drunk love left me wondering if the character sandler played in the movie was more true to his real self than any other character he's ever played... it seemed that way- and if it wasn't, he sure did an excellent job in portraying that character that we all feel like in our own lives, maybe not always in the most outwards of ways- but this flick certainly seemed to be based on familiarity with ourselves, consciously or not... Contributed by: Stacy Broce

» Buy it...

By Alan Smithee in Film & TV | Comments:

Comments

I think this movie is fantstic. One of the things I love the most is the idea of some typical Sandler fan picking it up thinking it's the next "Billy Madison" and then having his/her mind blown. The dvd version I watched had an interesting special feature, 12 "Scopitones" which seemed to be short abstract color fields arranged to musical tones played on a harmonium. As fascinating as these are, I'm a bit puzzled as to whether I'm supposed to treat them like art-film or filmed art. Anybody know what's going on here?

Posted by: Adam Barraclough at January 14, 2004 7:17 PM

don't know about that either, but it is really cool....

Posted by: stace at January 15, 2004 6:59 PM

The "scopitones" are the work of NY based digital video artist Jeremy Blake. He makes dreamy, looped video works, which often falls into my "ho-hum" category, but his stuff just does something that touches me. He pulls a lot of emotion out of plain 'ole colored light. He calls his stuff 'time-based paintings" and has really done some nice stuff... The really cool thing is that usually his stuff is installation only, and this DVD lets you bring some home.

Posted by: Shane Bryant at January 16, 2004 2:09 AM

Shane with the knowledge!
Now if we can just get Matthew Barney to peel off a couple of those Cremaster dvds that normally bill at $1000+ each, (you know, as a promo for the website, so we can perform an accurate review) we can watch art all day long!
He does have out an excerpt from Cremaster 3, it's the Murphy's Law vs. Agnostic Front section that takes place in the Guggenheim. Still, 20 minutes from a 3 hour film does not a decent purchase make.

Posted by: Adam at January 16, 2004 8:01 PM

I know! I have the Cremaster DVD that has been released, and I had no clue what it was going to be beforehand. I must admit it was incredibly disappointing when I realized it was just part of the full install, but still, it is a hell of a piece to own. And it is actually 240 minutes of footage (off the box); 30 minutes from the real thang, and a nice meaty chunk of bonus outtake kinda stuff and other weirdness. I intend on a review soon..... And fear not buddy, can you say box set in the 0-4? I knew you would stutter.

Posted by: Shane at January 18, 2004 8:14 PM

well, i for one, thought the nonsense of the cremaster dvd was fantastic, i could watch the half hour of girls with tap shoes with a slinking snaking man crawling around underneath them while they make lovely sounds with their feet all day... that's my kind of art... and btw, if you buy that dvd along with the works of spike jonze, michel gondry and chris cunningham from amazon, it'll only run you about $50, not too bad...

Posted by: stace at January 19, 2004 4:38 AM