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THE SCREENING ROOM

ON DVD: Leave It On the Floor, The Last Of England, Indie Features, And More!

By Lawrence Ferber July 24, 2012 at 3:33pm
Have we got some realness  for you this week: vougeing, disco, and low-budget indies! First, its the video-on-demand release of Leave It On the Floor, an exuberant musical about a black gay man’s experience in Los Angeles’ vogue-ball scene. More music and dancing informs the long-awaited Criterion release of Whit Stillman’s retro-comedy, The Last Days of Disco, while Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston have an affair in The Deep Blue Sea. Also out: Pioneering queer filmmaker Derek Jarman’s experimental masterpiece, The Last of England (above), comes to Blu-ray, and gay characters figure heavily in the American indies Invisible Ink and And Then Came Summer. FIRST: Leave It on the Floor  
http://youtu.be/NkuuHX1iebE Leave It on the Floor (VOD, Wolfe) An electrifying musical dramedy set in the world of L.A. drag balls, Leave It follows  young gay Brad (Ephraim Sykes) as he finds love, a new family and a new identity in the House of Eminence. Directed by Sheldon Larry (Noah’s Arc) with a screenplay and lyrics by Glenn Gaylord (Eating Out: All You Can Eat), the film gets a boost of star power from two of Beyonce’s collaborators, composer Kim Burse and choreographer Frank Gatson Jr.  A DVD release follows on August 14. NEXT: The Last of England  
http://youtu.be/F7VqAK3WI3Y The Last of England ($29.95 Blu-ray, $24.95 DVD; Kino) Tragically under-appreciated in the States, Derek Jarman’s explosive non-narrative film captures his impressions of Thatcherite England as a post-war wasteland, spliced together with home movies and dire lyrics from poets like T.S. Eliot and Allen Ginsberg. In this new high-definition transfer, Jarman muse Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) is able to demand the viewer’s gaze like never before. NEXT: The Deep Blue See
The Deep Blue Sea ($38.94 BluRay, $29.95 DVD, Music Box Films) Rachel Weisz is Hester Collyer, a post-WWII housewife in London whose marriage to a crusty ol’ judge leaves her unfulfilled. Enter the dashing Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston), a Royal Air Force pilot who stirs her loins. Ah, affaires de coeur. Directed by the artful and openly gay Terence Davies, The Deep Blue Sea is a first-rate period piece with extras like a commentary track, interviews with the director and stars, and a few insightful featurettes. NEXT: Invisible Ink  
Invisible Ink ($19.99 DVD, Vanguard) Invisible Ink centers on themes of family, love and the search for truth with three interwoven tales—including that of Anna, an obsessive-compulsive designer with a dying gay brother, and a queer romance between an advice columnist and a musician. Directed by and co-starring Christopher Julian (who financed this low-fi indie through Kickstarter), Ink is a heartfelt examination of the human spirit. NEXT: The Last Days of Disco  
The Last Days of Disco ($39.95 Blu-ray, Criterion Collection) Set in the early 1980s at a Studio 54-inspired New York City disco, Whit Stillman’s long unavailable 1998 feature, The Last Days of Disco, stars Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny as two fresh-out-of-college frenemies navigating a sea of social climbers, dancing queens and manwhores. As with Metropolitan, Barcelona and the recent Damsels in Distress, Stillman is a master of acerbic dialogue, satire and memorable characters—Beckinsale is hysterical as an über-underminer—while the vintage disco soundtrack is a definite keeper. The new Criterion edition features nine minutes of deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, commentary by Stillman and Sevigny, and a gallery of photo stills. A Criterion edition of Metropolitan, also about snotty young Manhattanites, hits shelves this week as well. NEXT: And Then Came Summer  

http://youtu.be/PBR9pMq7J2w

And Then Came Summer
($14.99 DVD, Wolfe)

During a vacation, two teenage boys discover their feelings for each other, unearthing other family secrets and massive amounts of guilt and denial in this intense character study from director Jeff London. Filmed back in 2000, And Then Came Summer is finally getting a proper DVD release.

 

ALSO OUT ON DVD

 

Meeting Evil

Footnote

Silent House

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

 

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One Comment*

  • streeteditions

    PARIS IS BURNING remains a classic.

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