SCREENING ROOM

DVD: “The Nice Guys,” “Wiener-Dog,” “Hell Town,” & More!

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It’s a great week in home entertainment for fans of smart and subversive filmmaking!

Writer/director Todd Solondz (Welcome To The Dollhouse) brings us yet another example of slyly humorous, slightly cringe-inducing storytelling with a queer character in Wiener-Dog, while Hollywood snarky buddy movie master Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) teams up Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in The Nice Guys (above). Finally, prolific indie queer director Steve Balderson brings us the first of several August/September releases with soapy horror flick Hell Town.

How about some trailers and details? Scroll down!

 

The Nice Guys

($24.95 Blu-ray, $15.95 DVD; Warner)

Writer/director Shane Black is Hollywood’s master of the smart, snarky buddy flick – his twisty noir Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a must-see for reviving pre-Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer as a gay detective – and here brings Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe together in a 1970’s-set caper. The pair play a third-tier alcoholic P.I. and thug for hire, respectively, who come together on a dangerous case involving a porno film, a missing woman, and a bloody conspiracy. The dialogue is crackerjack, situations outrageous, Matt Bomer plays a hitman, and the 70s design and costuming is amazing. Extras include a pair of featurettes.

 

Wiener-Dog

($15.99 Blu-ray, $14.99 DVD; Amazon)

Although Todd Solondz titled his latest film after the nickname of his Welcome To The Dollhouse protagonist, this isn’t really a sequel per se. Instead, the title refers to a dachshund, and the film is essentially a short story compilation that follows a series of different owners: from a love starved veterinarian (Greta Gerwig, playing Dollhouse‘s Dawn Wiener) to a pre-teen cancer survivor and his parents to a film professor (Danny DeVito) who clashes with a gay student. Sublimely subversive!

 

Hell Town

(VOD; Gravitas Ventures)

Prolific queer indie filmmaker Steve Balderson, who until recently worked out of Wamego, Kansas, unleashes a trio of films in August/September including Elvis Lives! (for Mark Cuban’s AXS network) and next month’s theatrical El Ganzo. In Hell Town, a John Waters-ish horror soap opera – and presented as episodes – starring Canadian scream queen Debbie Rochon. Set in a high school where the “Letter Jacket Killer” is wreaking havoc with the senior class, this is alternately campy, bloody and queer stuff indeed.

 

 

ALSO OUT:

 

61pbg47rf8LThe Hunstsman: Winter’s War

Clown

The Man Who Knew Infinity

Maggie’s Plan

Roots

Narcos: Season 1

 

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