THE SCREENING ROOM

OUT ON DVD: J. Edgar Plays It Straight-Ish, Plus: Black Briefs, Bad Actress And More

Tired of catching up on high-falutin’ Oscar nominated films? Well, this week we have plenty of snubbed, ignored, and completely ineligible titles for your home viewing pleasure! Leo DiCaprio plays gay-ish in the biopic J. Edgar. Queer, dark short films make up the compilation Black Briefs (above). And a washed-up television star finds a silver lining to murder in the satirical Bad Actress.

We don’t need no stinkin’ envelopes, do we?

http://youtu.be/F70CtXRaSP0

J. Edgar
($35.99 BluRay, $28.98 DVD, Warner Home Video)

Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and director Clint Eastwood ambitiously track Hoover (Leo DiCaprio) from youth to jowly old age, presenting his long rumored relationship with Clyde Towlson (played by Armie Hammer) as one that barely crossed the river platonic.

http://youtu.be/fl5TvcAA1PA

Black Briefs

($24.95 DVD, Guest House Films)

This new compilation disc of gay shorts with dark themes ranges from the creepy to the inadvertently campy. Greg Ivan Smith’s horror tale, Remission, is about a gay man who finds there are worse things to be worried about than having cancer. In Spring, a casual  S&M hookup changes two men’s lives forever. And Winner Takes It All sees two guys duke it out for a manipulative hottie while Alec Mapa watches on. (No, that’s not the creepy one.)

http://youtu.be/IVB-4E50gRo

POP-U-Larity
($24.95 DVD, Ariztical)

Billing itself as American Idol meets Best in Show, this mockumentary follows contestants in the fictitious Penskeegee POP-U-Larity singing contest. Among those competing for $1,000 (and a year’s supply of fried chicken) is four-time champion Katrina Whitman (aided by her loyal gay assistant, Sebastian), cowboy Charlene Hornsby, and housewife Marcia Anderson (singing with her performance-artist son, Darque). Extras include outtakes, behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted scenes.

 

http://youtu.be/8VSq_Gdg79Q

Bad Actress

($24.99 DVD, Strand Releasing)

Psycho Beach Party director Robert Lee King returns with another screwy soapy satire: When has-been TV star Alyssa Rampart-Pillage (Beth Broderick) finds her career and family imploding, she wonders if perhaps murder might offer a solution. If you didn’t already receive the memo that Hollywood be crazy, double feature this with an episode of The Celebrity Apprentice.

 

http://youtu.be/qjzRPRBQngo

Blank City

($34.95 BluRay, $29.95 DVD, Kino Lorber)

Before Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg made the streets safe (or boring, depending on your perspective), Manhattan was home to edgy and sordid artist types. The No Wave  and Cinema of Transgression cinematic movements of the 1970s and ’80s were led by  Super 8 subversives like Jim Jarmusch, Eric Mitchell, Lizzie Borden and Amos Poe. Their work and legacy is expertly recounted in Celine Danhier’s fascinating documentary. Featuring the likes of John Waters, Steve Buscemi and Debbie Harry, this is a history lesson you won’t be snoozing through.

 

ALSO OUT ON DVD

Martha Marcy May Marlene (20th Century Fox)

Nurse Jackie: Season 3 (Showtime)

The Son of No One (Anchor Bay)

Tower Heist (Universal)

 

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