VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA — My favorite superhero this summer is Woody Allen, who has given us a light, engaging movie that has everything one could ask for: an attractive cast, a sexy and unpredictable story, all set against a beautiful Spanish backdrop. It’s as refreshing as a cool drink on an August day.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is an exercise in storytelling for storytelling’s sake. Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall play best friends who stay with fellow Americans at their beautiful home in Barcelona for the summer. An artist (Javier Bardem) propositions them to join him for a weekend of pleasure, and while one of the young women is insulted, the other is ready for action. That’s where the plot thickens. Kevin Dunn and the marvelous Patricia Clarkson play the Americans, and Penelope Cruz has her second great showcase of the season as Bardem’s emotionally volatile ex-wife.

I’m deliberately not saying more about this film because I think it will be enjoyed most by viewers who know little or nothing about it ahead of time. Suffice it to say that Woody Allen is in fine form here, and for that I am extremely grateful.

ELEGY — Five years ago Nicholas Meyer adapted Philip Roth’s novel The Human Stain, which became my favorite unsung movie of the year, in spite of widespread indifference from critics and moviegoers alike. Now I’m ready to beat the drums for another Meyer screenplay, this one taken from Roth’s novel The Dying Animal and directed by the gifted Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, The Secret Life of Words).

Ben Kingsley gives yet another enthralling performance, as a somewhat smug college professor in New York City who enjoys his regular sexual appointments with Patricia Clarkson but seeks no genuine attachments in his life…until he is smitten with beautiful student Penélope Cruz.

Elegy was made by and for adults, and deals with the complexities of relationships in a world populated by less-than-perfect human beings. Cruz has never had such a juicy role in an English-language film and she makes the most of it. She understands every nuance of her loving, open-hearted character, whose heart is destined to be broken by the selfish Kingsley. Clarkson, amazing as ever, has a sharply-written role as a self-aware, sophisticated woman with dialogue that any actress would kill for.

I only hope that enough people discover this little gem to keep it alive for a while. It would be a crime if such outstanding work were overlooked while the summer’s brainless movie blockbusters flourish.

THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS 2 — It’s rare that a sequel matches the freshness and originality of the film that spawned it, but The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 comes awfully close. I don’t think fans of Ann Brashares’ novels or the 2004 movie will be disappointed with this follow-up. The girls are now college students and finding it hard to maintain the closeness they felt during their high school years. As they go off on a series of individual adventures during summer break, their relationships are put to the test, and Elizabeth Chandler’s screenplay neatly dovetails one story into another. Only the final segment seems a bit contrived, but by then you’re so wrapped up in the picture that only a card-carrying curmudgeon would object.

When the first film was released America Ferrera and Blake Lively were relative newcomers alongside costars Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel. The change in their career fortunes hasn’t affected their ability to inhabit these characters completely, I’m happy to report. This is engaging summer entertainment, especially for teenage girls.

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS — Having reinvented the raunchy comedy for the 21st century, producer-writer Judd Apatow, performer Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg are ready to break down more barriers with this outrageous new film. Not only does it hearken back to the days of Cheech and Chong in its gleeful immersion in pothead culture, but it attempts to do for violent action films what Knocked Up did for romantic comedies. No matter what you think Pineapple Express is going to be, I’m pretty sure it will surprise you.

Rogen is his usual funny self, but James Franco is a revelation here, displaying comedy chops we haven’t seen before. (His relationship with Apatow dates back to their work together on the TV series Freaks and Geeks.) As an Olympic-class stoner Franco is disarmingly believable and funny.

Once again, Apatow and Company create their own playbook and offer us something we haven’t seen before. I can’t pretend that I embrace all of their ideas—some of them are still too extreme for my taste—but I found that I was laughing in spite of myself. Pineapple Express won’t be everybody’s cup of lemongrass, but it’s definitely an original.

SWING VOTE — Here’s the nicest surprise of the summer: a comedy that’s smart, funny, relevant, and perfectly cast. It combines all the best ingredients of mainstream moviemaking, yet I know next to nothing about the man who co-wrote and directed it, Joshua Michael Stern. Based on this endeavor, I’m certainly going to keep my eye out for anything he does in the future. (He collaborated on the screenplay with Kevin Richman.)

Kevin Costner is in great form as a beer-swilling single dad who’s completely irresponsible, forcing his young daughter to take the reins of their family. She takes her civic responsibility quite seriously, so when he expresses no interest in the upcoming presidential campaign, she goes into action. That’s what creates the movie’s central gimmick, which gives Costner the deciding vote in our national election, and makes him an overnight media sensation. He also becomes the object of heavy courting by both candidates, incumbent Kelsey Grammer (and his take-no-prisoners campaign manager, Stanley Tucci) and Dennis Hopper (whose campaign manager is played to a fare-thee-well by Nathan Lane).

I’ve already heard people using the term Capra-esque to describe this movie and the appellation is not inapt. Swing Vote has a populist feeling that Hollywood used to specialize in, but we haven’t seen in a while: intelligent, but not elitist, and sincere in its beliefs about the essential goodness of the average man. Yet it never feels like a tract or a message movie; it’s simply first-rate entertainment.

FROZEN RIVER — From the first moment of this film—a close up of Melissa Leo’s haggard face as she drags on a cigarette—I knew it was going to be good. Sometimes an expressive actor’s face can convey more than pages of dialogue.

Writer-director Courtney Hunt’s expansion of her 2004 short subject is a first-rate film that’s part character study and part thriller. The tension builds almost unbearably as two disparate characters in a dreary part of upstate New York embark on a dangerous and foolhardy endeavor, smuggling people across the Canadian border in the trunk of a car, driving on a frozen riverbed. Leo plays an embittered woman who’s just scraping by, trying to raise two sons after her husband has deserted her, while Misty Upham is a seemingly emotionless Mohawk woman who’ll do anything for a buck.

Hunt tells her story in a spare, matter-of-fact fashion, but it all has the unmistakable ring of truth. That’s why we vicariously share the trepidation that comes with each new risk the women take. Frozen River won the Grand Jury prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and deserves to be a word-of-mouth sleeper in its theatrical release.

AMERICAN TEEN — It’s rare to find a documentary that plays like a mainstream feature-film while retaining its credibility, but Nanette Burstein has pulled off that considerable feat with American Teen. Burstein, whose past credits include the Oscar-nominated On the Ropes and The Kid Stays in the Picture, spent ten months in Warsaw, Indiana, documenting the senior year of five “typical” high school students.

The first person we meet is Hannah, a non-comformist who’s not part of the “in” crowd and doesn’t want to be. Her polar opposite is Megan, the richest and most popular girl in town. Megan is cliquish, possessive, and surprisingly vindictive. As the film progresses we learn more about her background begin to understand some of the factors that shape her personality. There’s Colin, the senior basketball star, who’s under tremendous pressure to perform this year, and Mitch, a teammate of his who—unlike most of his buddies—is curious enough to break out of his social circle. Jake is the class oddball, and certainly odd enough for any gathering, but his low self-esteem torpedoes any effort he makes to socialize.

What struck me while watching this fast-paced, utterly compelling film is that it’s filmed, and edited, like a traditional feature film, with over-the-shoulder and reaction shots. When I asked Burstein about this she explained that, given her background as an editor, she encouraged her crews to move around and get that kind of coverage since they often filmed for hours at a time. Burstein also scored the film as one would a Hollywood feature, and incorporated animated sequences to take us inside the heads of its youthful protagonists.

This has caused some critics to accuse American Teen of being overly slick. Slick it may be, but it’s also enormously entertaining, and that’s what really matters.

MAMMA MIA! - I’ve never seen the popular stage musical that inspired this film, but I’ve heard repeatedly that it disarms even cynics, who get caught up in its high spirits and the infectious nature of the ABBA songs that propel it. That’s exactly how I felt watching this lively and colorful screen adaptation.

The film has several assets the stage play didn’t, however: first and foremost, Meryl Streep in the leading role. Let’s face it, the woman is a marvel. She throws herself into the spirit of the piece and gets to exercise her considerable pipes in a series of impressive vocal tracks. (Remember, she was once considered for the leading role in the film version of Evita. Too bad she didn’t get the part.) She is surrounded by compatible costars, including two of the most engaging women on screen, Christine Baranski and Julie Walters, as longtime pals who once served as her backup singers when she was in show business. The men aren’t bad, either: my wife had a great time watching Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgård—and was even willing to forgive Brosnan’s shaky singing.

Then there’s the gorgeous Greek scenery that forms the backdrop for the story and its musical numbers. One couldn’t ask for a more attractive setting.

The screenplay—indeed, the story itself—is serviceable, just solid enough to offer a framework for its likable characters and a parade of ABBA hits. Director Phyllida Lloyd, who steered the original stage production, and choreographer Haris Zambarloukos make excellent use of their locations, and provide one dynamic musical sequence after another. At times they fall into the music-video trap of using cutting to energize a number, but they also understand that one can build energy within the frame.

The movie has three or four finales, but based on the reaction of theater audiences, people can’t get enough of that music. What matters—and what silences my propensity for nit-picking—is that Mamma Mia! is a highly entertaining experience. I would recommend it to moviegoers of all ages; I certainly had a good time.

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY — Okay, so he’s not Batman…indeed, you might call Hellboy an anti-superhero. As we learned in the first movie several years ago, the big red guy has enormous strength and a lot of guts, but he also has a hair-trigger temper and a knack for stirring up trouble. He is an irreverent character, and that’s what sets this saga apart from other more serious ventures in popcorn moviemaking. Ron Perlman is the perfect actor to bring this quixotic character to life, and the story concocted by Hellboy’s comic book creator Mike Mignola and director Guillermo Del Toro picks up right where the last movie left off.

There’s a rather complicated back story about a king and his dormant army of mechanized soldiers, and the rogue prince who wants to activate them and take over the world. But the story almost seems secondary here; it’s simply a clothesline on which to hang a series of wildly imaginative vignettes, filled with fanciful creatures and settings. This installment also deals with relationships—between Hellboy and his wife (Selma Blair), between Hellboy and his superiors (including the unctuous Jeffrey Tambor), and between Abe Sapien and a fragile princess who figures in the story. These threads add a human dimension to the proceedings.

Speaking of humans, Abe Sapien is played once again by gifted mime artist Doug Jones, a favorite of Del Toro’s, who also turned up in Pan's Labyrinth. He delivers his own dialogue here instead of being dubbed by David Hyde Pierce as he was in the first Hellboy. It’s also nice to see veteran British actor Roy Dotrice in a small but effective role as the haunted king.

My only complaint about Hellboy II is that it goes on a bit too long and loses some of its momentum in the process but it also offers wondrous sights and sounds and enough imagination to fill a dozen movies. That is the hallmark of its creator Guillermo del Toro.

KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL — How encouraging to find a G-rated film that doesn’t talk down to its audience and features a heroine who’s smart, compassionate, ambitious, and (yes) plucky. And who better to fill that role right now than Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin?

Like Valerie Tripp’s series of books, this film takes place in 1934 and gives young viewers an idea of what it was like to grow up in the Midwest during the Great Depression. There isn’t a lot of sugar coating: the next-door neighbor’s family is foreclosed, and Kit’s father loses his job early in the story. I would imagine this material will inspire questions from kids, but I think that’s a healthy springboard for family conversation. What matters most is Kit’s determination, inquisitiveness, steadfastness as a friend, and great love for her mother and father.

Adults won’t be bored, because the film is handsomely mounted and features an array of talented actors in supporting roles, including Joan Cusack, Stanley Tucci, Glenne Headly, Wallace Shawn, and Jane Krakowski. Chris O’Donnell plays Kit’s father, and Julia Ormond is especially good as her mom. Screenwriter Ann Peacock and director Patricia Rozema imbue their film with just enough substance to make it solid, but not so much menace or melodrama to turn off its target audience. I wish I could give you an eight-year-old’s perspective on this movie, but I can tell you that at a local matinee the movie won audible approval from viewers of all ages...including me.

THE WACKNESS — If your taste doesn’t run to summer blockbusters—or you’re trying to undo the ill effects of seeing Hancock—The Wackness should come as a tonic. Jonathan Levine’s highly original spin on a coming-of-age story is specific in its depiction of time and place: the setting is New York City in 1994, at the beginning of the Giuliani era. His hero (nicely played by Josh Peck) is a high-school senior who’s attracted to hip-hop music and black culture, though he’s always been a loner. His home life is a mess, so he escapes to the streets and sells pot; his best customer, it turns out, is an aging hippie psychiatrist (Ben Kingsley) who trades therapy for weed. In fact, the doctor and the patient turn out to be soul mates, even as Peck falls in love with the shrink’s stepdaughter (Olivia Thirlby).

The Wackness takes us along on its characters’ journey of discovery, and while there are no weak links in its ensemble, Ben Kingsley’s performance blew me away. This imposing actor has been taking chances lately in his choice of screen vehicles and scoring a bull’s-eye every time. He and Peck make a fine team here.

TELL NO ONE — While embracing high-concept action movies, comedies, and comic-book yarns, Hollywood has apparently turned its back on bread-and-butter mysteries and thrillers, figuring that those genres are now the territory of hour-long TV dramas. French filmmakers don’t share that prejudice, as evidenced by several recent imports, including this crackerjack mystery adapted by writer-director Guillaume Canet from American writer Harlan Coben’s best-selling novel. (Philippe Lefebvre shares screenplay credit.)

François Cluzet stars as a dedicated pediatrician who, eight years after the fact, still lives under the cloud of his wife’s murder. The police have never stopped thinking of him as a suspect, in spite of a serial killer’s confession, and now that two new bodies have been exhumed near the scene of his wife’s murder they’re on his case again. That’s the starting point for a compelling, densely-plotted yarn that actor-turned-filmmaker Canet brings to life with style and energy to burn. (He and co-writer Lefebvre also turn up in supporting roles.)

With a first-rate cast (Marie-Josée Croze, André Dusollier, Kristin Scott Thomas, François Berléand, Nathalie Baye, Marina Hands, and the late Jean Rochefort), an unpredictable storyline, and some nail-biting action scenes, Tell No One has all the ingredients for satisfying adult entertainment. It was a great success in France, and won four César Awards including Best Actor and Best Director. It’s the kind of movie Hollywood used to make, but chooses not to any more.

WANTED — Some films aim for your heart. Wanted aims for your gut and makes a direct hit. I can’t remember the last time I saw a film so visceral, arresting...and entertaining.

The producers hired Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov to bring a distinct approach to this adaptation of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ comic books, and he has come through with flying colors. It’s flashy, violent without being gory, and almost never stops to take a breath. Not since The Matrix have there been so many innovative, eye-popping visual flourishes in a single movie. (It won’t take long for others to “borrow” and emulate those effects, but right now they are startlingly new and unique.)

None of this would matter if the story and characters weren’t equally well developed. James McAvoy is well-cast as a nebbishy office drone who lets everyone dump on him, from his shrewish boss to his nagging girlfriend. Then he learns that his father was a member of a secret society of assassins, and after a grueling indoctrination he joins their ranks and gradually becomes empowered. Angelina Jolie is seductively sexy as the lone female in the group, and Morgan Freeman is properly aloof as their leader. But McAvoy is our everyman, and he carries us through the outlandish doings without missing a beat.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK — The folks at Marvel Comics have hit on a simple but effective idea this year: hire exceptional actors to play comic-book heroes. First there was Robert Downey Jr.’s engaging performance as Iron Man, and now Edward Norton portrays Bruce Banner in this well-made popcorn picture. Ignoring the wrong-headed Ang Lee movie of recent years, this one gets back to basics, and makes several graceful and satisfying references to the vintage TV show that so many people remember with fondness. [You’ll even hear some of the late Joe Harnell’s music from the show.]

In every other way, this saga of the man who turns mean and green has been revitalized with 21st century special effects and enough energy to power a small city. The climactic street fight between the Hulk and an even more formidable opponent plays like the last sequence in Transformers, and the resemblance may be more than coincidental. After all, in Hollywood nothing succeeds like success.

The Incredible Hulk isn’t especially innovative, but it is entertaining and well-acted by Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt, Tim Roth, and Tim Blake Nelson (who’s great fun in a small but significant role as a somewhat mad scientist). If the preview audience I was in is any indication, diehard fans of the Hulk will eagerly embrace this newest incarnation.

KUNG FU PANDA — At one time, every new animated feature was an event. Now that they’ve become commonplace, and the quality of animation has risen to a high level, it’s more difficult for each new venture to stand out. Given that, I find Kung Fu Panda all the more impressive. It’s well written, beautifully designed and animated, and perfectly cast. What more could one possibly ask?

Jack Black is ideal as the vocal alter ego of the big lug named Po, who dreams of martial arts glory when in fact he’s the son of a noodle chef. When fate determines that he is indeed the “chosen one” to battle a fearsome villain who threatens Peaceful Valley, you know he’s going to try his very best. His tutor, amusingly depicted as a mouse, is a martial arts master voiced with deadpan theatricality by Dustin Hoffman. He and Black make a marvelous team.

The film is uncommonly handsome, as well. Special kudos go out to production designer Raymond Zibach for filling the wide screen frame so beautifully and tastefully. As icing on the cake, the movie opens with a slam-bang action sequence animated (in old-school fashion) by James Baxter, the brilliant artist who also supervised the hand-drawn sequences in last year’s Enchanted.

To my mind, Kung Fu Panda takes it’s place among the very best animated features: a delightful entertainment that also represents the state of the art.

SEX AND THE CITY — Having never seen the long running TV series of the same name, I came to this movie with no expectations or preconceived notions. What I got was an enormously entertaining, surprisingly intelligent and socially relevant story of four tight-knit female friends who manage to sustain each other in middle age. Writer and director Michael Patrick King, who worked on the HBO series, clearly knows these characters well, and plays to their strengths. Each of the four women has a distinct personality and represents a different facet of modern womanhood. (And let me salute the fifth wheel—the disarmingly delightful Jennifer Hudson, who plays Parker’s assistant, who’s come to New York City with the hopes and dreams that Parker and her friends had when they arrived twenty years ago.)

Hollywood movies don’t offer us many characters—male or female—who seem genuine. The women of Sex and the City may be a little smarter, a little more successful, a little sexier than the folks next door, but they still enable us to relate to them in significant ways.

It’s equally rare to find a mainstream movie that is sexually frank without being cheesy or voyeuristic. This film manages to pull it off with élan, while justifying its R rating.

I’ve said before how I dislike the term “chick flick” and I’ll say it again. For some people, this movie may represent the ultimate in girl-power, but for me it’s a hearty—indeed, nutritious—slice of entertainment that men and women can enjoy.

BIGGER STRONGER FASTER— First-time filmmaker Chris Bell tackles a meaty subject — performance-enhancing drugs — and manages the balancing act of making his film both personal and universal. It’s personal because he tells the story of his own family: he and his two brothers grew up in the 1980s admiring and emulating the musclemen they watched on Wrestlemania and on the big screen. They all became involved in body building, but, unbeknownst to Chris, his brothers started using steroids at some point. Chris always believed that this was a form of cheating, but he takes us along on his journey of exploration as he probes that very question, interviewing athletes, coaches, doctors, and experts who weigh in on the subject. (Why has the word “steroid” been demonized, the movie asks, when its medical uses are widely accepted, and similar drugs like cortisone carry no such taint.)

This documentary turned my head around on a topic I thought I knew a little about. It’s remarkably fair-minded and just might open your eyes, too.

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL — Steven Spielberg knows how to entertain an audience, and he has brought his boyish enthusiasm for old-fashioned action-adventure to this long-gestating project. At the same time, Harrison Ford reminds us why he became a star, and why he was (and remains) the ideal person to play the character of the intrepid Indiana Jones.

One might think after all the iterations of the screenplay that someone would have realized there was too much exposition in the mid-section of this movie, but I’m inclined to be forgiving because Spielberg and his A-list collaborators have provided so many rousing action sequences before and after that lull.

Shia LaBeouf hops on board with ease and becomes a worthy companion to Ford, while Cate Blanchett has fun as a snarling Russian villainess. And it’s great to see Karen Allen and her megawatt smile, evoking fond memories of the original Raiders of the Lost Ark .

Is this the cultural event of the year? Is it a work of cinematic genius? No. It’s just a beautifully crafted, perfectly cast piece of popcorn entertainment.

REDBELT — David Mamet is a brilliant playwright, but a spotty filmmaker. I don’t think he’s ever topped his debut movie, House of Games, which I recently revisited; it’s just as mesmerizing as it was when I first saw it twenty-one years ago. In that film, as in his latest, Redbelt, Mamet creates a unique environment onscreen. The characters of Redbelt ostensibly live in Los Angeles, yet it doesn’t seem like any L.A. you’ve ever encountered before.

The gifted Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as a jiu-jitsu instructor who works with all kinds of students—including cops—to teach them not just the right moves, but the right attitude. For him, the martial arts are pure; he won’t engage in fights, even though it would help him pay the rent. In this densely plotted story he encounters a variety of characters who would corrupt his sense of honor, including gamblers, promoters, dealmakers, and even a movie star (nicely played by Tim Allen, in a rare dramatic turn)...but he remains true to himself.

Redbelt doesn’t spell everything out, and some aspects of its story might have benefited from more elaboration, but I found myself swept into Mamet’s world. It doesn’t look or feel like any other movie I’ve seen lately, and that’s one reason I found it so fascinating. Ejiofor is surrounded by first-rate actors including Emily Mortimer, Alice Braga, and such Mamet regulars as Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, David Paymer, and many real-life denizens of the fight world who add immeasurably to the movie’s tangible atmosphere.

SON OF RAMBOW — If you’re wondering what could possibly put a fresh spin on a coming-of-age story, I encourage you to see Son of Rambow, a disarming new British import written and directed by Garth Jennings. Set in the early 1980s, it details the highly unlikely friendship of two lonely, fatherless boys: Lee (Will Poulter), whose mother has all but abandoned him, leaving only an emotionally absent older brother—and turning him into a bully, the other an innocent named Will (Bill Milner) whose upbringing in a strict religious sect has apparently promoted an overactive imagination.

This particular bully has borrowed his brother’s VHS video camera, and is determined to make his own action-packed version of the Hollywood movie First Blood, and recruits (or rather, shanghais) his newest patsy into becoming an action star. In fact, the boy becomes enchanted with moviemaking, which allows him to take the ideas he’s always fantasized about, or drawn on paper, and make them come to life on camera.

Son of Rambow is a quirky, charming film that respects its characters, and takes the emotions of childhood seriously; that’s why it’s so good.

THEN SHE FOUND ME — Helen Hunt hasn’t been highly visible on screen in the past few years; it turns out that she’s devoted much of her time and energy to making her feature-film directing debut. She also stars in Then She Found Me, and helped to adapt Elinor Lipman’s novel. In my opinion she’s hit a bull’s eye in every department.

The protagonist of the story is a woman whose biological clock is ticking loudly. In the midst of marital turmoil, and recovering from the death of her adoptive mother, she receives a message from a woman claiming to be her birth mother---a garrulous TV talk show host played by Bette Midler.

I resent the term “chick flick” because it implies that men have no interest in stories about women’s feelings…but if that’s a shorthand way to interest people in seeing this movie, so be it. Hunt not only gives an excellent and empathetic performance, but orchestrates the actors around her with great skill. This is the best role Midler has had in years, and while her character is brash she’s entirely believable, and her exuberance never becomes outlandish. Colin Firth gives a deft performance as a single parent who becomes involved with Hunt, a caring schoolteacher, and Matthew Broderick strikes just the right note as Hunt’s feckless husband. There’s also amusing bit of casting in the person of author Salman Rushdie as Hunt’s ob-gyn.

The movie was shot in and around New York City, and takes a straightforward, no-frills approach to its material, letting the performances, and the dramatic turns of the story, dominate the proceedings, as they should. I’m not sure why Then She Found Me isn’t a major studio release; it’s a mainstream story with recognizable stars. Whatever the case, I hope audiences will seek out this entertaining and satisfying film.

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL — It’s taken me a little while to come around to what I’ll call the new vulgarity in movies. This current strain bears little relation to the gross-out antics of the past few decades, thanks in large part to the smarts of writer-director-producer Judd Apatow. In films like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Superbad he’s discovered a way to combine heartfelt emotion with crass language and a candid approach to sex. He’s also created intelligent female characters (especially in Knocked Up) who are in on the fun, instead of standing on the sidelines or serving as sexual props.

Clearly, actor Jason Segel has paid attention. (He currently appears on the TV series How I Met Your Mother, but first met Apatow on the short-lived but well-regarded Freaks and Geeks.) Segel wrote the screenplay of Forgetting Sarah Marshall for producer Apatow, creating a first-rate vehicle for himself that doesn’t hew to any particular formula. The story’s surprising twists and turns make it feel fresh even though the setup is fairly simple. Segel plays a low-level composer of music for television who lives like a slob in his cocoon of a house, secure in his relationship with glamorous blond TV star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). When she suddenly dumps him, he is both clueless and inconsolable. His best friend encourages him to take a vacation, and he goes to a beautiful resort in Hawaii—only to find his ex also staying there with her new boyfriend, a seemingly foggy but self-aware British rocker (played with gusto by newcomer Russell Brand, a British stand-up comic and talk show host). He’s immediately attracted to a hotel concierge (the very appealing Mila Kunis) but can’t get over Sarah.

The movie is peppered with supporting and incidental parts played by a likable ensemble of skilled comedic actors, from Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd to some newcomers as members of the hotel staff. Apparently, Segel isn’t afraid to let other performers get laughs and let him be the straight-man; good for him.

But if you’re of a certain age, your eyebrows may hike upward from time to time. I’m not referring to the much-discussed full frontal male nudity in the film—it’s about time Hollywood stopped endorsing a double standard where the human body is concerned—but frank sexual talk and candid (if non-exploitive) shots of couples in bed still manage to push the envelope. Young people of both sexes seem to have no trouble with this, from my random observations; my wife and I are still acclimating.

Still, funny is funny, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, piloted by first-time feature-filmmaker Nicholas Stoller, is undeniably that. If I have to adjust my sensibilities to suit the times, I’d rather do it in smart movies than in stupid ones.

PRICELESS — The recent crop of Hollywood romantic comedies is a sorry lot indeed. If one were to offer advice to anyone aspiring to make that kind of film, I would say, “Take a look at Priceless and see how it’s done right.” Director and co-writer Pierre Salvadori never seems to break a sweat in executing this bauble of a film set in the south of France. Audrey Tautou plays an unabashed gold- digger who mistakenly thinks a hotel worker (played by Gad Elmaleh, star of Francis Veber’s The Valet) for a multimillionaire. When she learns the truth, she dumps him without a second thought, but he’s not willing to give up on her so easily. The story then takes interesting and unexpected turns which I don’t want to reveal. Suffice it to say that this is pure entertainment, with an appealing layer of wish- fulfillment folded in, as we get to vicariously experience the lifestyle of the super-rich who holiday in Biarritz. This is high-quality escapism that’s well worth seeing on a theater screen.

IN BRUGES — Given that this is normally a fallow, if not downright discouraging, time of year for new movies, it’s nice to be able to recommend a film as entertaining and original as this one. Writer-director Martin McDonagh apparently used his Oscar-winning short subject, Six Shooter, as a calling card to get to make his first feature, and it’s a good one. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson have played Irish thugs before, but the hit-men they portray here aren’t out of a cookie-cutter. Gleeson is a gentle soul, while Farrell is hot-headed and impatient—yet both of them are individuals, with a variety of personal quirks and unexpected characteristics. They have been temporarily exiled to the Belgian tourist town of Bruges after Farrell has bungled a job at home. When their enforced vacation turns sour, for a variety of reasons I shouldn’t reveal, their impatient and mercurial boss (Ralph Fiennes) is forced to come after them. Fiennes and Gleeson turn out to have at least one thing in common: a highly individual code of honor.

We’ve all seen a lot of crime capers in recent years, from the post-Pulp Fiction American brand to the Guy Ritchie school out of the U.K., but In Bruges carves its own niche. I’ll be curious to see what McDonagh cooks up next.

PERILS OF THE NEW LAND: FILMS OF THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE 1910-1916 (Flicker Alley) Here is another in a growing line of historically valuable silent-film DVDs from Flicker Alley’s Jeffery Masino and film archivist David Shepard. The two-disc set includes a pair of early American feature films, The Italian (1915) and Traffic in Souls (1913) along with a handful of vintage short-subjects depicting life in New York City in the 1910s. Their impeccable presentation puts to shame the amateurs who are invading the silent-film-on-DVD turf. The Italian, the story of an immigrant who struggles against prejudice as he tries to make good in “the new country,” was produced by Thomas H. Ince and stars renowned character actor George Beban, is taken from three different sources, including an original 35mm nitrate print. The score is comprised of music from the period, compiled by Rodney Sauer and performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. The notorious Traffic in Souls, a purported exposé of the white slave business, also comes from a nitrate print and looks remarkably good. Silent-film pianist extraordinaire Philip Carli provides a first-rate score. The importance of 35mm source material is underscored by the amount of detail that is clearly visible in each frame of film, precisely the kind of detail that is so often lost in even good 16mm copies.

As for the content, these films demand informative commentary tracks, and these too are excellent. Prof. Giorgio Bertellini provides a well-balanced look at The Italian that examines both the social attitudes the story reflects and the cinematic value of director Reginald Barker’s work. Similarly, Prof. Shelley Stamp, author of Movie-Struck Girls: Women and Motion Picture Culture After the Nickelodeon, offers a wealth of detail about the reality of white slavery in 1913 as opposed to its depiction in this sensational drama. As icing on the cake, Flicker Alley has reproduced original programs for both films in a handsome booklet.

POPEYE THE SAILOR 1938-1940 (Warner Home Video) — I can’t think of a DVD release this year that has brought me so much pure, unadulterated joy as this one, a worthy follow-up to last year’s long-awaited set of Max Fleischer’s Popeye cartoons. Having grown up with a daily dose of Popeye, it’s heartening to revisit many shorts I haven’t seen in years and find them as fresh and entertaining as ever. I’ve always loved classics like Goonland, but this chronological set reminded me how good even the bread-and-butter series entries are. The Fleischers achieved something that their successors at Famous Studios in the 1940s and King Features in the early 1960s could not: they doggedly resisted falling into a rut and making this series an endless repetition of the same formula.

What’s more, the decision to mute Jack Mercer’s mutterings (some of them adlibbed, others planned) in later years removed the cartoons’ most endearing and distinctive asset. The general air of irreverence exemplified by those sotto voce moments is indelibly identified with the Fleischer era, as a result.

In addition to pristine, razor-sharp transfers of the cartoons, this two-disc set offers a number of excellent bonus features. Out of the Inkwell, Constantine Nasr and Mark Nassief’s forty-seven minute documentary about Max Fleischer’s career, is filled with rare photos, well-chosen film clips, and observations by family members and historians (myself included). Best of all, it includes home-movie footage of the animators at play both in New York and Miami (where the studio relocated in 1938). The film doesn’t shirk discussing the bitter labor strike in 1937 or the sad demise of the Fleischer studio in 1942. In addition to several shorter vignettes focusing on Mae Questel, the voice of Olive Oyl, and those unique characters Poopdeck Pappy and Eugene the Jeep, there is a valuable storyboard reel of Stealin' Ain't Honest, an audio interview with Jack Mercer conducted some years ago by animator Michael Sporn, plus a revealing folio of drawings by a fourteen-year-old Max Fleischer, provided by his granddaughter Ginny Mahoney. They are clearly the work of a would-be engineer, carefully replicating the look of various objects, but less successful in their depiction of animals and human beings.

Finally, there are informative commentary tracks on key cartoons by such animation buffs and professionals as Jerry Beck, Eric Goldberg, Greg Ford, Paul Dini, Mark Kausler (who has the uncanny ability to identify any individual animator’s work) and Mike Barrier, who shares vintage audio recordings of Fleischer animators. What a cornucopia of delights for any cartoon lover.

PERSEPOLIS (Sony) — If you somehow missed this extraordinary animated feature during its theatrical run, I urge you to check it out on DVD. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before: a highly personal, diary-like film executed in the form of an animated feature. What’s more, the look of the picture is as striking and original as its content.

Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran, as a little girl under the rule of the Shah—when her well-educated family lived in comfort—and afterwards, when she and everyone around her underwent a series of jarring and violent upheavals. Satrapi drew on her life experiences to create a pair of graphic novels, which were so well received that a producer approached her about turning them into a film. She and an artist friend, Vincent Parronaud, had no experience working in animation but decided to plunge into the project head-first.

The result is a remarkable piece of work on every level—and a resounding reminder of how effective hand-drawn animation can be.

It’s also a surprisingly entertaining and funny, given the serious subject matter. Satrapi includes intimate and self-deprecating moments that remind us that even in the midst of sadness life has a way of throwing us a curve.

The new DVD has several valuable featurettes: one, in French (with English subtitles), follows the production of the film and gives us a candid view of how the first-time filmmakers expressed themselves to their fellow artists and voice actors (including Catherine Deneuve, her daughter Chiara Mastroianni, and the legendary Danielle Darrieux). The other, in English, takes us behind the scenes as Satrapi worked with an alternate cast (including Gena Rowlands, Iggy Pop, and an unseen Sean Penn) for the English-language soundtrack. A press conference from the Cannes Film Festival, where Persepolis won a Special Jury Prize, and selected scene commentaries flesh out the DVD content. As icing on the cake, both the French and English-language versions of the feature are included.

CHOP SHOP (Koch Lorber) — Two years ago I caught up with Ramin Bahrani’s first feature film, an exceptional portrait of life on the streets of New York called Man Push Cart. His newest work is just as good—if anything, even better. Chop Shop reminds me of Italian neorealism, transported to modern-day New York City.

Its main character is a 12-year-old Hispanic boy who has learned to fend for himself on the streets of the city, selling bootleg DVDs on the streets and candy bars on the subways...but his home base is an auto body repair shop in an area of Queens near Shea Stadium. The owner has taken a liking to the plucky kid and even allows him to sleep there at night. Alejandro—called Ale by his friends—tries to persuade his older sister Isamar to join him there and get away from the bad influence of her friends.

The miracle of this film is that it doesn’t seem scripted or even acted; as audience members we become a fly on the wall, watching life unfold, unpredictably. Bahrani likes using nonprofessional actors, and worked with his two youthful leads for months before his cameras ever turned. As a result, they seem completely natural and unaffected on camera; it’s hard to believe anyone gave them dialogue to memorize or stage directions to follow.

Chop Shop is a major discovery for anyone eager to discover something fresh and new in American filmmaking.

THE FURIES (Criterion Collection) — Continuing their cherry-picking of worthy films from the post-1949 Paramount Pictures library, the folks at Criterion have chosen another unsung gem: Anthony Mann’s production of The Furies (1950), adapted by Charles Schnee from a novel by Niven Busch, the man who brought sex and psychological complexity to the Western in Duel in the Sun. (Mann thought the story resembled Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, but the title derives from the last play in the Oresteia trilogy, The Eumenides.)

Walter Huston, in a perfect valedictory performance before his death in April of 1950, plays the ego-driven feudal lord of a Texas property called The Furies. This is no occasion for subtlety: the character of T.C. Jeffords is larger than life, and Huston doesn’t hold back. His son (John Bromfield) has long since resigned himself to being a minor presence in the family, but his daughter (Barbara Stanwyck) has a complex, competitive relationship with her father. She would seem to be the heir apparent to the land—but that’s where the plot thickens. Stanwyck is in her element here, pursuing a sexually-charged friendship with Mexican land squatter Gilbert Roland, parrying with local gambler Wendell Corey, who has a major score to settle with her father, and competing with wily Judith Anderson, who aims to marry Huston.

Veteran cinematographer Victor Milner earned an Oscar nomination for his stunning black & white cinematography, which includes many striking dusk and night scenes and much silhouetting against the sky... all of which is nicely captured in Criterion’s excellent transfer from the original 35mm negative.

Bonus materials include a booklet featuring a new essay on Mann by Robin Wood and a revealing 1957 interview with the director from Cahiers du Cinéma, plus a paperback reprint of Niven Busch’s novel. On the disc itself you’ll find a brief but excellent British TV interview with Mann (filmed shortly before his death during production of A Dandy in Aspic in 1967) plus a charming conversation with his daughter Nina, who’s only recently discovered her father’s work. Also included on the disc: a commentary track by film historian and theorist Jim Kitses and a genuine curio, an entry from the quaint 1931 short-subject series Intimate Interviews featuring a young and playful Walter Huston.

Incidentally, I believe my annual Movie Guide underrates this film at **½. If it were possible to revisit and reevaluate thousands of movies every year, I would. In this case, I’ll have to wait another year before revising my review—and my rating.

THE CARMEN MIRANDA COLLECTION (20th Century Fox) — There was only one Carmen Miranda, and she lit up the screen like a Roman candle. The new five-disc collection from Fox is a mixed blessing, however: on the one hand, several of the films are mediocre (If I’m Lucky, Doll Face, Greenwich Village). On the other hand, it does include The Gang’s All Here (1943), which showcases the Brazilian Bombshell in what is arguably her most famous number, Busby Berkeley’s “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat.” What’s more, there is an excellent documentary about Miranda’s career as a bonus on Something For the Boys.

Like Paramount and Sony, Fox doesn’t like the idea of feature-length documentaries, so the longform piece called Carmen Miranda: The Girl From Rio is split into four sections: Coming to America, The Spirit of Brazil, Hollywood, and Life After Fox. Even having seen Helena Solberg’s 1998 feature Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business, I found this material enlightening and informative. Producer John Cork of Cloverland has called on a wide range of interviewees, from Darryl F. Zanuck’s daughter Darrilyn and Magda Kari Mastrogiovanni, a costar in Miranda’s first Broadway revue Streets of Paris, to a variety of experts on Brazilian music and culture. (If one took ingredients from this intelligent survey and combined them with material from the earlier Solberg doc and the A&E Biography done in ‘90s (which both had the benefit of interviews with people who have since passed on, like costars Alice Faye, Cesar Romero, and Carmen’s sister Aurora), we’d have the ultimate Miranda bio.)

The one film given deluxe treatment in this set is, not surprisingly, The Gang’s All Here; in addition to a commentary track by film scholar Drew Casper and a deleted sequence from the film, the disc includes We Still Are!, a 24-minute short that is quite properly billed as Alice Faye’s last film. We Still Are! was produced by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, on whose behalf the actress toured in her later years. It’s a charming curio that Faye fans will be glad to see, as it includes footage from a number of her films—even her debut feature, George White’s Scandals (1934). There are also episodes of The Phil Harris-Alice Faye radio show on the disc.

The other major featurette focuses on the movie’s director and choreographer, the great Busby Berkeley. Such eloquent and knowledgeable sources as Miles Kreuger and Richard Jewell offer valuable insights, but the piece can’t support their comments with footage from anything but this lone Fox musical. Without even a snippet of his groundbreaking work at Warner Bros. in the 1930s—which was not available to producer Cork—the piece seems incomplete.

Still, with five movies, a colorful booklet, and an array of extra material, this Carmen Miranda box is well worth the price—even if you have to “write off” a couple of the lesser films.

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD [Criterion Collection] — It will come as no surprise that the folks at Criterion have put tremendous care and effort into their release of this beloved 1940 film. This new two-disc edition surpasses anything we’ve seen before. First, there is a breathtakingly beautiful transfer of the film itself, accompanied by a unique commentary track involving two major filmmakers who number this fantasy among their all-time favorites: Francis Coppola and Martin Scorsese. The track ping-pongs between the two, who recorded their tracks at separate times and places. Coppola waxes nostalgic about his discovery of the film in his youth, while Scorsese offers more insights into its production that he gleaned through his long friendship with co-director Michael Powell.

On disc two a featurette about the visual effects offers three more contemporaries who were heavily influenced by this picture: visual effects master Ray Harryhausen, who seems to know the film by heart, modern-day effects whiz Dennis Muren, and matte painting expert and aficionado Craig Barron. They explore and even dissect the visuals in The Thief of Bagdad without sacrificing their love for them. The combined impact of this feature and the commentary reminds us what an extraordinary impact this one film had, on an entire generation that was not inundated with fantasy films, and held each one special.

Disc two also offers audio interviews with composer Miklos Rozsa and Michael Powell as well as a seventy-five minute black and white feature that producer Alexander Korda rushed into production when The Thief of Bagdad was forced to suspend shooting in the early days of World War II. The Lion Has Wings is an out-an-out propaganda piece made to stir the hearts and minds of English audiences, combining newsreel footage with dramatic scenes featuring such actors as Ralph Richardson and Merle Oberon. [One young actor who appears briefly as a spy has an interesting tangential connection to The Thief of Bagdad. He is Torin Thatcher who, in 1957, played an evil wizard for Harryhausen in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, inspired by Conrad Veidt’s performance in this film.] This semi-documentary has limited entertainment value today, but is certainly a curio of its time. The Thief of Bagdad, on the other hand, is a film one can revisit over and over again. MGM released a handsome DVD several years ago from the British Film Institute restoration, but this deluxe edition is definitely worth owning.

THE GUNFIGHTER, RAWHIDE (20th Century Fox) — Fox scores again with a box of Fox Western Classics, offering superb new restorations and first-rate bonus material. (I confess I haven’t had a chance to revisit the third feature in the set, Garden of Evil, which also has the weakest reputation.)

The Gunfighter (1950) is one of the great Westerns of all time, written by William Bowers and William Sellers (with a story co-credited to Andre De Toth) and directed by Henry King. Gregory Peck gives one of his strongest performances as the gunman who can’t run away from his reputation. The film makes superb use of black & white, and appropriately, one of the special features on The Gunfighter disc is a tribute to its masterful cinematographer Arthur Miller, with knowledgeable comments from such admiring colleagues as William Fraker and Caleb Deschanel. The other featurette offers a concise, intelligent background piece on the project, and reveals that studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck was incensed when he saw his handsome star looking so unattractive in the rushes!

Like its companion feature, Rawhide (1951) takes a spare approach to its straightforward story (adapted by Dudley Nichols from the 1935 gangster film Show Them No Mercy!) Tyrone Power is very good in a part that must have seemed unheroic for a traditional leading man, while Susan Hayward is an equally untraditional leading lady—an assertive, take-charge woman who doesn’t want to be protected by any man. They are held captive at an isolated stagecoach stop by the motliest band of outlaws imaginable: Hugh Marlowe, cast against type as an escaped criminal, and his henchmen—a slow-witted, unkempt Dean Jagger, an obedient George Tobias, and the ultimate loose cannon, wild-eyed Jack Elam. One supplementary feature briefly profiles Susan Hayward, but the highlight of the disc is a segment on Rawhide’s famous location, Lone Pine, California, with a wonderful tour of its shooting sites by Chris Langley of the Beverly and Jim Rogers Museum of Lone Pine Film History.

These featurettes from Trailer Park were supervised by Steven Smith, Brian Bartelt, & Michael Sackett and are gracefully edited and full of information; what’s more, they call on an interesting variety of experts and not just the usual “talking heads.” Nice work!

Incidentally, when Rawhide was first released to television, it was retitled Desperate Siege, to avoid confusion with the popular CBS television series. To the best of my knowledge, that title hasn’t been used in many years, and I’m of a mind to expunge it from reference sources—including the next edition of my own Movie Guide. This is the kind of minutiae that now becomes sheer clutter.

THE NOEL COWARD TRILOGY (Kultur) — Having recently immersed myself in The Letters of Noel Coward, published by Knopf, I was in a perfect frame of mind to enjoy this three-part television documentary about the playwright, composer, actor, occasional filmmaker, and wit. Co-produced by the BBC, NVC Arts and WNET, it aired in 1998 and runs 149 minutes. Somehow I missed it the first time around, so I’m grateful to Kultur for bringing it to DVD.

Producer-director Adam Low traces Coward’s life and career by visiting all the significant places he lived and worked, talking to friends and colleagues (including some who are gone now, like John Gielgud and Coward’s longtime companion Graham Payn), and calling on three of his most articulate biographers, Sheridan Morley, John Lahr, and Philip Hoare. What’s more, in addition to the expected photos and film clips, there are vintage interviews with the Great Man himself and—seen for the first time—his own home movies from his travels around the world.

I’m not sure that this survey would win Coward new admirers if they weren’t already familiar with his work, but as a dedicated fan, I loved every minute.

TAILSPIN TOMMY and TAILSPIN TOMMY AND THE GREAT AIR MYSTERY (VCI Entertainment) — In a summer movie season heralded by the return of Indiana Jones, it’s fitting that two new Saturday matinee serials are being released on DVD by VCI. Without serials, there never would have been a Star Wars or an Indiana Jones, and I only wish more young film buffs would give this wonderful genre a try. The plotting is rudimentary, as these chapter-plays were aimed strictly at kids—the unworldly kids of an earlier generation—but if you can embrace your inner child and put aside your cynicism, they’re an awful lot of fun.

Tailspin Tommy is based on the popular comic strip by Hal Forrest. The first serial, produced by Universal in 1934, shows us how gee-whiz mechanic Maurice Murphy realizes his lifelong dream to become an aviator when he helps a barnstorming pilot whose plane makes a forced landing in his one-horse town. Tommy takes his best friend Skeeter, played by the genial Noah Beery, Jr., along on his great adventure as they go to work for an independent airline firm. Little do they know that their good-hearted boss is being sabotaged by one of his own men [played by silent-film serial star Walter Miller].

There is a rough-hewn charm to this simple story, enhanced by some genuinely exciting aerial footage. Planes spin, dive and even crack up in various action scenes spread throughout the twelve chapters...and most of the footage seems to be genuine. What’s more, the cliffhanger chapter endings and recaps don’t cheat, as many later Universal serials would.

One year later, Universal produced a sequel, Tailspin Tommy and the Great Air Mystery, retaining Beery as Skeeter, bringing in another fresh-faced young actor, Clark Williams, as Tommy, and casting the prettiest heroine ever to grace a serial, Jean Rogers, as leading lady. (She’s best remembered as Dale Arden in the original Flash Gordon serial.) This production is a little slicker, if just as simplistic, as the first, and takes our heroes far from home as they investigate strange doings south of the border. You can’t help but love a serial that has a masked character, and this one does in the person of a mysterious flying ace known only as The Eagle, who repeatedly comes to Tommy’s rescue, never stopping to identify himself or take credit for his good deeds.

Again, there is some pretty impressive aerial action, credited to “Air Ace Frank Clarke.” Speaking of credits, two of the five screen writers, George H. Plympton and Basil Dickey would go on to become mainstays at Republic Pictures, where most of the best serials were made.

Picture and sound quality on both DVDs is better than average for serials of this vintage; the entertainment quality is sky-high.

THE BIG TRAIL (20th Century Fox) — It would be unthinkable for most major studios to release an early-talkie western on DVD, let alone invest in a special presentation of that film. Fortunately for us, The Big Trail (1930) stars a young John Wayne, and that gives the movie commercial muscle in the marketplace. Fox first issued the film on DVD several years ago, but is now offering it in both standard and widescreen versions, with four first-rate documentary featurettes produced by John Cork and Cloverland Productions.

If you’ve never seen the widescreen version of Raoul Walsh’s epic film about the settling of the West, you’re in for a treat. Tableaus of actors, extras, livestock and wagons extend as far as the eye can see; I don’t think there is another film that captures the westward trek with such a wealth of detail. Producer William Fox couldn’t have found a better subject to show off his new 70mm Grandeur process, even though it made the production of this elaborate film even more cumbersome than anyone had anticipated. Forget all those stories about locked-down cameras in the early sound era and watch how fluidly Walsh stages outdoor scenes with moving camera shots.

As professor Richard Jewell points out in one of the featurettes, the movie features a wide array of acting styles, from the theatrical bombast of Tyrone Power Sr.’s performance as the main heavy to the naturalism of Wayne as the wagon train leader. I think Wayne is quite impressive here, given his almost complete lack of screen experience at the time; his readings aren’t always polished but they express sincerity and a lack of artificial histrionics. A newcomer couldn’t have asked for a better screen showcase; it’s cause for endless speculation as to what success Wayne might have enjoyed in his early career had The Big Trail not tanked at the box-office.

GEORGES MELIÉS: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA 1896-1913 (Flicker Alley) — Wow! While there is no shortage of Meliés material available on DVD, this massive, meticulously produced package tops them all. Producers Jeffery Masino (of Flicker Alley) and David Shepard (of Blackhawk Films) have amassed the best available prints of 173 separate films from the movie magician who is probably best known today for his 1902 classic A Trip to the Moon. If that’s the only film of his you’ve seen, you owe yourself the experience of diving into Meliés’ world. There’s plenty to absorb in the thirteen hours of material here, spread over five generous discs.

In addition to the chronological parade of Meliés movies there is a wonderfully evocative half-hour tribute film directed by George Franju in 1952 called Le Grand Meliés, featuring the pioneering filmmaker’s widow (then 90 years old) and his son Andre (portraying his father). Did you ever wonder how Meliés achieved some of his fantastic effects? Franju replicates some of the sets and devices to bring Meliés movie workshop to life.

An accompanying booklet features an extensive essay by John Frazer, and a tribute by the great Norman McLaren which has never been published before. McLaren, who made such innovative use of the motion picture medium, fully appreciates the path that Meliés trod before him, and says, “The most heart-warming thing about Meliés is that he was both an experimental film-maker and a people’s film-maker.”

As for the films themselves, they are ageless: charming, clever and amazing, just as they were when audiences first laid eyes on them a century or more ago. Many of the surviving 35mm prints incorporate hand-coloring, which enhances their effectiveness, and some feature narration which Meliés would have spoken aloud during live presentations.

What is most impressive to me is how early this stage magician embraced and understood the potential of film. There isn’t a great sense of progress in his work, because he “got it” so early on, and simply embellished his techniques of combining stagecraft and stop-motion cinematography. The props and sets (and their illusion of dimensionality) become more elaborate as the years pass, rather than the filmmaking craft itself.

It is well-nigh impossible to choose highlights amidst so much material, but I would call your attention to the 20-minute epic Voyage à travers l’impossible/The Impossible Voyage (1904), The Living Playing Cards (1905) and Whimsical Illusions (1909).

For more information on this title, visit the Flicker Alley website.

THE DRAGON PAINTER (Milestone) — This striking and unusual silent film from 1919 serves as a testament to the remarkable Hollywood career of Sessue Hayakawa and the surprising diversity that characterized silent films during that decade, before Hollywood’s product became more mechanized—and homogenized. Following his sensational success in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Cheat (1915), Hayakawa formed his own production company, Haworth Pictures, to create films that reflected Japanese culture, as opposed to American interpretations of that culture. The Dragon Painter certainly achieves that goal, as it tells the story of an artist who lives in the wild, in mad pursuit of an ancient goddess. When he is taken in and “civilized” by an elderly artist who sees in him a potential protégé, he becomes smitten with the man’s daughter and convinces himself that she is, in fact, that goddess. Having finally seen her in person, he loses the will to create.

The Dragon Painter is a modest but lyrical film which tells its story in a simple, straightforward manner. Hayakawa’s charisma is undeniable; it’s easy to see why he was so popular. (Incidentally, his wife, Tsuru Aoki, costars in the film.) Mark Izu’s new music score complements the film perfectly, and the 35mm source print from George Eastman House, with its original tints, is impressive indeed.

As a bonus, Milestone includes another film from the Eastman House collection, The Wrath of the Gods (1914), an interesting potboiler written and produced by Thomas H. Ince, also starring Hayakawa and Aoki. This involves a simple Japanese fisherman who renounces his Buddhist religion at a moment of emotional crisis and then suffers the wrath of the gods—namely the eruption of a volcano. It’s well-made and well-told, especially for such an early feature. For kicks, Milestone includes a bonus feature that shows you how you can replicate the volcano at home.

Kudos to Milestone for bringing another important silent film to the widest possible audience.

DIVA DOLOROSA (Zeitgeist Video) — Filmmaker Peter Delpeut has developed a fascination with the leading ladies of early Italian cinema. Like his previous work, Lyrical Nitrate, Diva Dolorosa is a compilation of sequences from rarely-seen silent films in which themes and storylines overlap. The heroines are overtly sexual creatures who inevitably pay a heavy toll for their liberated behavior. This movement, which was apparently prevalent in Italian cinema as well as opera, is known as Black Romanticism. Delpeut says, “In their films divas like Lyda Borelli, Pina Menichelli, and Francesca Bertini perform the lives of their protagonists as a spectacle of the body. This simultaneously indicates their strength as well as their tragedy. They carouse with an unsurpassed sexual independence, but the price they have to pay is that they are doomed to hysteria. I feel a great compassion for the divas: as actresses and as women.”

Excerpts from such films as La donna nuda (1914), Sangue bleu (1914), Tigre reale (1916), and Rapsodia satanica (1917) are woven together in chapters with titles like “The Liberated Diva,” “Stirring Appetites,” “Shattered and Defeated,” and “The Veil of Death.” Although the material grows familiar after a certain point, it is undeniably interesting to watch, especially in the beautifully tinted prints used here, with appropriate music provided by composer Loek Dikker. I would encourage any true silent film buff to give this a try.

WARNER BROS. HOME ENTERTAINMENT ACADEMY AWARDS ANIMATION COLLECTION (Warner Home Video) — Only Warner Home Video, with its vast and varied library, could assemble an ambitious collection like this, with 15 Oscar-winning cartoons and 26 nominees from the Warner Bros., Max Fleischer and MGM Studios. Even though many of these shorts are available in other compilations, this collection easily justifies itself by including such relatively uncommon goodies as Chuck Jones’ The Dot and the Line, From A to Z-Z-Z-Z, and Now Hear This, Hugh Harman’s Peace On Earth, and Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera’s CinemaScope remake, Good Will to Men. What’s more, many of the cartoons are accompanied by commentaries by such animation experts as Jerry Beck, Eric Goldberg, Mark Kausler, Greg Ford, and Amid Amidi.

The bill of fare includes the breathtaking new restoration of Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor, Max and Dave Fleischer’s initial Superman cartoon, such Tom and Jerry favorites as Mouse Trouble, The Cat Concerto, and The Two Mouseketeers (all uncut and uncensored, I’m happy to report), notable Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies like Tweety Pie, For Scent-imental Reasons, Rhapsody in Rivets and Swooner Crooner. They’ve even included So Much for So Little, the Oscar-winning short Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng made for the U.S. Health Service in 1949. An hour-long documentary traces the history of animation at the Oscars, but it’s the cartoons themselves that speak most eloquently in this three-disc package.

IMITATION OF LIFE: TWO DISC SPECIAL EDITION (Universal) — Bravo to Universal for not only releasing these two worthy films together but accompanying them with commentaries and a thoughtful documentary featurette. A number of critics and commentators make excellent points about the differences between the 1934 version of Fannie Hurst’s enduring soap opera and its glossy 1959 remake. One major difference is that the daughter who passes for white in the 1934 version is actually played by a light-skinned black, the talented Fredi Washington, while the same role is played (quite well) by a white Susan Kohner in the latter version. The emotional impact is roughly the same because the dramatic conflict is unchanged, but there is a difference in the way the audience perceives the character.

My only quibble is with critic and historian Foster Hirsch, who appears on camera and also provides a commentary for the 1959 film. He’s a card-carrying auteurist and waves the flag for director Douglas Sirk. Without diminishing Sirk’s skillful handling of the material, or his distinctive visual touches, he was part of a well-oiled machine at Universal that included Ross Hunter, cinematographer Russell Metty, and screenwriters Eleanore Griffin and Allan Scott. I even heard the director remark, at a 1970s tribute, that in his mind “the studio was the auteur.” (The very articulate Avery Clayton, who also appears on-camera in the documentary featurette, offers a full-length commentary on the 1934 film.)

Whatever your feelings on that issue, there is no question that both John M. Stahl’s straightforward production (with a screenplay credited to William Hurlbut) and Sirk’s slick but gut-wrenching remake offer many layers of content and food for thought. As simultaneous fodder for film study and social study, they are almost without peer.

SAVED FROM THE FLAMES (Flicker Alley) — Serge Bromberg is a unique figure He is a popular television personality in France, the director of the prestigious Annecy Animation Festival, and a world-class film scholar and archivist. It is safe to say that he has no equivalent. For many years he has presented a series of programs in theaters throughout France called Retour de Flamme or Saved from the Flames, in which he introduces rare 35mm films that have only recently been unearthed. He even accompanies these long-buried treasures on the piano! Having finally seen one of his presentations at 2007’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival, I can understand why his shows are so popular.

Now, for the first time, Serge has teamed with his friend, film archivist extraordinaire David Shepard, to offer a program of diverse rarities for the American audience. This three-disk set contains an unpredictable potpourri of material which wouldn’t easily find a home on DVD (or an audience) if not for this kind of umbrella. Bromberg & Shepard have divided the films into categories: New Beginnings (early and experimental films, including a color, sound version of Cyrano De Bergerac from 1900!), Magical Movies (trick films from Georges Méliès and others, many of them hand-colored), Seeing the World (actuality films from around the globe), Persuade Me (promotional and propaganda films, including theatrical commercials from France with Michel Simon and Jacques Tati and one of the notorious MGM-produced “newsreels” from 1934 designed to defeat gubernatorial candidate Upton Sinclair), and Grace Notes (musical films including an especially rare piece of footage from 1938 featuring the great Django Reinhardt with Stephane Grappelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France).

Some of the films are extraordinarily rare, even unique. I would be hard pressed to find another short subject quite like the 1912 French comedy Arthème Swallows His Clarinet, newsreel footage of The Seine Flood from 1910, or a Ford Motor Company travelogue called A Visit to Los Angeles made in 1916. Each film is preceded by a written introduction which explains its significance and often cites the origin of the print. Charlie Chaplin’s landmark Kid Auto Races at Venice is included, for instance, because it comes from a recently-discovered 35mm nitrate negative that enables us to watch it with unprecedented clarity. The 1936 Max Fleischer cartoon Play Safe comes from an original 35mm Technicolor nitrate print.

I could quibble with a handful of inclusions, like Mack Sennett’s Lizzies of the Field or Duke Ellington’s Black and Tan, which are pretty widely available elsewhere, but I don’t want to carp too much about such a generous and eye-opening array of goodies. I hope a second volume is in the works.

Visit the Flicker Alley website for information on how to purchase this title and browse through their other DVDs that are "Bringing Film History to New Audiences."

THE STANLEY KRAMER COLLECTION, VOL. 1 (Sony Home Entertainment) —Stanley Kramer is best remembered as the producer-director of such significant films as The Defiant Ones, Judgment at Nuremberg, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, but I must confess I have a special fondness for the films he produced early in his career. It was then that he established his reputation as a man of uncommon taste and daring in his choice of material. Three important early Kramer productions appear in this boxed set, produced and introduced by his widow, former actress Karen Sharpe Kramer: The Member of the Wedding (1952), The Wild One (1953) and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953). While the lion’s share of attention is given to Ship of Fools and especially Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (which includes an extra disc of features relating to that film in particular and Kramer’s career in general), I’m happy to report that there are many worthwhile “extras” that go along with these early titles as well.

For The Member of the Wedding, Fred Zinnemann’s skillful translation of the Broadway play featuring its original stars (Julie Harris, Ethel Waters, and Brandon de Wilde), the principal voice is that of eminent Carson McCullers scholar Virginia Spencer Carr, who appears on camera and does a commentary track. (Kevin Spacey also speaks quite well about the delicacy of translating a play to film.)

For The Wild One there are two interesting featurettes: one about the real-life motorcycle gangs whose exploits in sleepy Hollister, California inspired sensationalized stories and fiction that led to this movie; and a concise piece about the impact of Marlon Brando’s iconic biker character, with eloquent testimony from filmmaker Taylor Hackford and Easy Rider’s Dennis Hopper, among others. Film scholar Jeanine Basinger provides a commentary track that underscores its impact at the time of its release, acknowledging that many modern-day viewers find it quaint and/or unrealistic without seeing it in its proper framework.

Best of all, there is a stunning new transfer of Kramer’s Technicolor musical fantasy, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, written by Theodore Geisel aka Dr. Seuss. In one featurette, dancer George Chakiris shares clear-eyed memories of working on the set of this highly stylized film, and Cathy Lind Hayes, daughter of the film’s co-stars Mary Healy and Peter Lind Hayes, recalls their involvement in the picture and her reaction to it as a child. In a separate documentary, the musical score (by Dr. Seuss and Frederick Hollander) is astutely analyzed by Michael Feinstein, who has many interesting observations. My only regret is that while several participants, including Karen Kramer, talk about the producer’s disappointment at what might have been, no one actually explains how and why the film was scaled back and didn’t become the masterpiece it might have been.

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER – 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION (20th Century Fox) — Everyone remembers the best qualities of this movie, to the exclusion of its many faults. That’s understandable, because the first portion of the film, a shipboard romance between Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, is superb. One couldn’t ask for a more elegant, witty, or stylish pair of stars, or better material for them to work with. Like the original 1939 Leo McCarey film Love Affair (with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne) the story turns serious, as the would-be lovers’ agreement to meet in six months at the top of the Empire State Building goes awry. The problem is not the shift of tone, but the fact that the movie turns downright treacly. If we’re forgiving, it’s because we like the actors so much and root for their characters.

An Affair to Remember got a tremendous boost on the pop-culture radar when it became the subtext for Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle in 1993. Who can forget Rita Wilson’s tearful recitation of the storyline? I just wish the film were as good as her memory of it…and I wish people would seek out the 1939 original.

That said, the features on the bonus disk of this 2 DVD collection are certainly welcome. Cary Grant’s widow, the former Barbara Harris, shares her warm memories of the man so many of us admired from afar. (Interestingly enough, when she met him she didn’t really know his movie work at all.) Deborah Kerr’s husband, screenwriter Peter Viertel, provides an equally moving interview about the love of his life and the difficulties they had clearing the path to a happy marriage. (Viertel passed away on November 4, 2007, which isn’t indicated on this DVD.) A profile of producer Jerry Wald is also quite interesting, as we meet his widow, brother, and son and get a real sense of this well-liked Hollywood workaholic.

Only the feature on director Leo McCarey is mildly disappointing, because there are so few excerpts of his work, and the film scholars who are interviewed can only provide so much satisfaction without illustrations to accompany their remarks. Fortunately, Peter Bogdanovich is on hand to add personal insights, as he knew McCarey toward the end of his life and interviewed him about his career.

I’m glad Fox is devoting this kind of attention to the filmmakers behind An Affair to Remember, and in spite of my quibbles, I hope they continue to do so for future releases of vintage films from their vault.

HARRY LANGDON, LOST AND FOUND (All Day Video/Facets Video) — Silent comedy enthusiasts should find much to celebrate in this collection, including twenty complete Langdon shorts from the silent era, a handful of talkies, promotional films, and even home movies. What’s more, producer and archivist David Kalat has attempted to piece together the Langdon feature, His First Flame (filmed in 1924, but not released until 1927), falling just seven minutes short of a complete restoration.

Print quality varies sharply from one subject to the next. Most of the material comes from private collections rather than museums and archives, so the viewer must be tolerant. The commentary tracks also vary in quality, although one cannot fault the participants for lack of enthusiasm; they are all comedy buffs of the highest order. In the same vein, a documentary about Langdon’s star-crossed career is somewhat amateurish, and insists on debunking Frank Capra’s long-accepted view of the comedian’s rise and fall, when the films tend to support Capra’s claims that he got the best out of the comic.

I’ve always liked Harry Langdon, but I’ve attended showings where you could hear crickets chirping in the audience. He is definitely an acquired taste, and while it’s true that his early Sennett shorts lack coherency, as well as nuance, they’re still pretty funny, whereas some of Langdon’s later, more ambitious films simply fall flat. But if he appeals to you at all, you’ll find much to enjoy and discover here.

CHARLES McGRAW: BIOGRAPHY OF A FILM NOIR TOUGH GUY by Alan K. Rode (McFarland) — I must admit, I was doubtful that anyone could produce a readable, full-length biography of an actor like Charles McGraw—a memorable presence in many films but a minor player in the grand scheme of things. I was wrong.

Alan K. Rode, who writes the entertaining One Way Street web site (www.xanga.com/Alanrode), not only loves film noir but the era in which it flourished, the 1940s and 50s. In detailing the life and career of a working actor like McGraw, he chronicles the bigger picture of how Hollywood evolved during those years, from the movie-factory era to the television age. McGraw was a Midwesterner who received his training in the New York theater during the late 1930s, then made his way West, where he progressed from bit parts to supporting roles to leads, mostly in B-movie melodramas, before settling into a comfortable niche as a solid character actor. Like many others of that period, he was a hard-drinking guy who thought the gravy train would never stop, and who finally did himself in through his addiction to alcohol.

Rode’s colorful prose is peppered with anecdotes and recollections of friends, colleagues, and family members who help create a three-dimensional portrait of a loner who put great stock in his professionalism, but ultimately lost his grip. It’s an interesting life story, emblematic of its time, and I’m glad Rode invested the time and effort to tell it.

SHORT AND SWEET: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE LOLLIPOP MUNCHKIN by Jerry Maren with Steve Cox; Foreword by Sid Krofft (Cumberland House) — Jerry Maren has had a unique show business career. A pituitary midget, he was the youngest of twelve children and had never seen another little person until, at age 18, he was hired to join Singer’s Midgets in the cast of The Wizard of Oz. He achieved immortality as a member of the Lollipop Guild who presents a giant-sized lolly to Judy Garland.

This concise but lavishly illustrated volume traces Jerry’s life and career, from doubling for Edgar Bergen’s dummy Charlie McCarthy to appearing as Buster Brown and promoting Oscar Meyer wieners (there’s even a photo of him with Mr. Meyer himself!). His memories of making The Wizard of Oz are candid and evocative, and he talks about both the challenges and opportunities of being a diminutive performer. I enjoyed this stroll down memory lane and acquired interesting show-business tidbits along the way (did you know that Jerry, Billy Curtis, and Billy Barty were all Italian-Americans?). Steve Cox, author of Oz: The Munchkins Remember and many other books, adds a warmly personal introduction about his longtime relationship with Maren and his fellow Munchkins.

CHARACTER ANIMATION CRASH COURSE! By Eric Goldberg; Foreword by Brad Bird (Silman-James Press) — A lifelong cartoon buff who has become one of the world’s foremost animators, and animation directors, Eric Goldberg brings immense knowledge and infectious enthusiasm to this heavily illustrated how-to manual. As a young man he worked for Richard Williams in London alongside such Hollywood cartoon veterans as Ken Harris and Art Babbitt. His outstanding work for Williams and his own commercial animation studio eventually caused Disney to beckon. He designed and animated the Genie in Aladdin and Phil in Hercules and codirected Pocahontas and several segments of Fantasia 2000. Eric also supervised the superb animation in the feature film Looney Tunes: Back in Action, bringing Bugs Bunny and friends to life again in fine fashion.

Even as a layman I found his pointers for aspiring animators compelling, because they help a fan like me understand why certain scenes—and specific animation of key characters—stands out from the crowd. Goldberg cites great scenes from classic cartoons as reference points throughout the book, putting his ideas into useful context. The book comes with a DVD in which Eric puts his theories into practice, illustrating timing, spacing, weight and mass, squash and stretch, and other fundamentals.

This volume, borne of long experience, receives ringing endorsements from John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Andreas Deja, David Silverman, Ron Clements, John Musker, and other leading lights of contemporary animation. Who am I to disagree?

CELEBRITY VINYL by Tom Hamung (Mark Batty Publisher) — I grew up in the era of the LP, and still find myself thumbing through boxes of old albums at flea markets and antique shops. I find something undeniably appealing—and nostalgic—about those 12-inch jackets, regardless of the content. If you feel the same way, you’ll get a kick out of this eminently browsable (if hardly definitive) volume: a collection of covers featuring movie and TV stars who, however briefly, got their chance to record an album or two. From Jerry Lewis Just Sings to Lorne Greene: The Man, you’ll find genuine stars as well as celebrities from other orbits like Grace Jones, Muhammad Ali, and the stars of The Brady Bunch. Author Hamung provides smart-alecky comments which are almost redundant; these album covers speak for themselves. Loudly.

AND...ACTION by Stephen Lodge (Mirage Books) — I’m normally leery of self-published books, but here’s a happy exception to that rule. Lodge was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time: as a child of the first television generation, he was hooked on the cowboy movies that played incessantly in those early days of broadcasting and in 1951 his mother arranged to take him and his brother to the set of a Monogram Pictures western starring Johnny Mack Brown. The location was Iverson’s Ranch, and it would be the first of many such visits for the lucky youngster. We’re lucky too, because a) Lodge has excellent recall of his childhood encounters with stars, stuntmen, and crew members and b) his mother took along her Brownie camera so we have a wonderful scrapbook of photographic memories.

In time, Lodge got to play bit parts in a handful of TV shows, and wound up working as a costumer in the late 1960s and 1970s. Even when he went to work professionally at CBS Studio Center (the former Republic Pictures lot), or on location in Old Tucson, Arizona, he never lost his boyhood enthusiasm for westerns and the people who made them. That’s what makes this book such an enjoyable read.

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