THE SCREENING ROOM

OUT ON DVD: Ryan Gosling in Drive; Skinnyfat Goes Soft, And Candy Is A Beautiful Darling

Who’s gonna drive you home tonight? Ryan Gosling, if you pick up the hotly anticipated Drive! And you should— it’s awesome. Seriously.

But let’s not forget the other releases this week, including the gay body-fascism comedy Skinnyfat (above); Beautiful Darling, a documentary on Andy Warhol’s transgender muse Candy Darling; and the creepy crawly sci-fi prequel, The Thing.

 

http://youtu.be/CWX34ShfcsE

Drive
($30.99 Blu-Ray, $26.99 DVD, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

Yes, it’s as cool as you’ve heard. Drive stars hunky—shit, smoldering—Ryan Gosling as an unnamed driver who steers stunt cars in Hollywood films by day and getaway cars for the Mob by night. Of course a gig goes wrong, bringing down the wrath of violent-criminal types including Golden Globe nominee Albert Brooks as evil fuck Bernie Rose. Drive is an homage to 1980s Michael Mann films, complete with neon fuschia titles and Giorgio Moroder-inspired synthpop realness. It’s by turns atmospheric, suspenseful, gory and melancholy—and though it may be short on actual car chases, the few we get are fab. (One is shot entirely from inside the getaway car.)

DVD extras include a revealing featurette with director Nicolas Winding Ryfn, who shares that the film was partly conceived while he was on a drive with Gosling, high on flu medicine, and listening to REO Speedwagon. All we can say is: more, please!

http://youtu.be/VeT6hdHwD3g

Skinnyfat
($24.99 DVD, Abstrakt Films)

When gay hipsters Chaz and Davy realize they’ve gone soft in the middle, they decide to give themselves an eating disorder—and do pretty much anything else that might give them hipbones “sharp enough to trim hedges.”  Satirical and un-PC, director Andy Bydalek’s 40-minute black comedy aims squarely at gay men’s obsession with self-image. It’s a body-fascism comedy—a bomcom! (So wrong it’s right, no?)



Beautiful Darling

($24.99 DVD, Corinth Films)

During the 1960s, Andy Warhol’s Factory was the place to be and Candy Darling, born James Slattery, was one of its biggest “superstars.” This brisk, entertaining documentary traces Candy’s transformation from a Long Island suburbanite to an Old Hollywood wannabe who found friends in the likes of Tennessee Williams but died tragically young at 29. Darling scores bonus points for interviews with John Waters and the acerbic Fran Lebowitz, and Chloe Sevigny reading from Candy’s letters and diaries.

http://youtu.be/gNKjkMpHANw

The Thing
($34.98 Blu-Ray, $29.98 DVD, Universal)

A prequel to John Carpenter’s amazing, gooey sci-fi classic (itself a re-imagining of a 50s monster movie), director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr’s movie fills in some story gaps for horror nerds—and packs a few scares—but there’s nothing really new and waaay too much CGI. DVD extras include deleted/extended scenes, a couple of featurettes and a commentary with Van Heijningen, who doesn’t say anything like “here’s where we bastardized what made Carpenter’s film so memorable.”

ALSO OUT ON DVD

The Big Year (20th Century Fox)

Dream House (Universal)

The Mill & The Cross (Kino Lorber)

The Other F Word (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Queen: Days Of Our Lives (Eagle Rock Entertainment)

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