Prepare to enter alternate realities with this week’s home video offerings: A depressed Polish teen turns to an avatar-filled virtual world in @SuicideRoom. A comic-book icon enjoys animated derring-do and globetrotting in The Adventures of Tintin. The end of the world comes to a gorgeous countryside home in Melancholia. And find out what (probably) happened when two silver screen icons met, in My Week With Marilyn.
@SuicideRoom
($24.95 DVD, Wolfe)
Well-to-do high schooler Dominik kisses another boy on a dare. When a video clip of this act goes viral, Dominik’s life turns wonky—and virtual, thanks to an avatar in the social website SuicideRoom. Poland’s version of Leo DiCaprio, Jakub Gierszal is an intense slice of eye candy, while the animated sequences and real life cinematography are both superb. One of the year’s most interesting queer titles to date.
Melancholia
($29.98 BluRay, $26.98 DVD, Magnolia Home Entertainment)
Director Lars von Trier brings us this apocalyptic yet utterly human drama about a planet on a possible collision course with Earth. Kirsten Dunst plays a manic-depressive bride who senses the impending doom, with Charlotte Gainsbourg as her seemingly stable sister, who fears for the safety of her family. The first eight minutes alone, a sort of epic fever dream, are a visual feast.
My Week With Marilyn
($39.99 BluRay, $29.98 DVD, The Weinstein Company)
Oscars schmoscars! Golden Globe winner Michelle Williams brings Marilyn Monroe back to life in this dramatization of the icon’s experience in England shooting The Prince and the Showgirl with Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). The DVD release includes “The Untold Story of an American Icon,” with cast and crew dishing on the conflict between Olivier and Monroe.
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The Adventures of Tintin
($54.99 3D BluRay, $44.99 BluRay, $29.99 DVD, Paramount)
Belgium’s beloved boy detective jumps from the comic book page to 3D screen thanks to director Stephen Spielberg. A bevy of featurettes flesh out all aspects of the film’s production, while the showstopping single-shot Moroccan chase sequence bears watching again and again.
The Descendants (Fox Searchlight)
The Last Temptation of Christ (Criterion Collection)
My Joy (Kino)
Anonymous
I’ve seen Suicide Room (aka Sala Samobójców). Boy is it a depressing movie. Far from flawless but still worth seeing if you’re interested in the topic of teen suicide.
SKANK
I loved Melancholia so much.
ZB
reminds me of Chatroom (2010)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1319704/
ML
Melancholia is not for everyone but I loved it.