Welcome to the inaugural edition of 'Get Reel Digital', your monthly roundup of all the discs fit to pop in your Blu-ray player. We’ve waded through the glut of releases October has to offer and plucked out five gems sure to make those chilly fall evenings a bit warmer, on account of all the hearty laughter, melted hearts and cowering under the covers. Enjoy! And be sure to check back in each month for all the worthwhile cinematic offerings coming to a store/cable box near you.
The Guild: Complete Megaset (Now available, eOne)
Pic Credit: www.newvideo.com
All 63 episodes of this seminal Web series come to DVD. Geek queen Felicia Day (Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) writes, directs and stars as Cyd, a woman utterly obsessed with an online role playing game. As the series begins, Cyd, fresh off a game-induced breakup, finds some unexpected company in the form of Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh), a fellow gamer who arrives in her apartment complex looking to expand on (what he misinterpreted as) some online flirting.
It’s not long before her entire online posse gather in person, spending six uproarious, innovative seasons braving the much more daunting obstacles and adversaries found in the real world (e.g. Zaboo’s 'boss villain' of a mother).
Only God Forgives (Now available, eOne)
Pic Credit: peterrollins.net
Nicolas Winding Refn re-teams with his Drive star Ryan Gosling for this surreal, blood-drenched nightmare.
Gosling plays Julian, an American gangster running a drug ring in Bangkok; after his brother is killed, Julian, at the behest of his ruthless mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) seeks retribution, culminating in a gory bare-fisted brawl with a local cop (Vithaya Pansringarm). It sounds like a standard crime thriller, but Only God Forgives is actually light on story and character. It’s the film equivalent of a tone poem, and the tone it strikes is seedy, visceral and often downright ugly. Many critics balked at the director’s style-over-substance approach, but as in all Refn’s films, that style is completely transfixing.
Midnight’s Children (Now available, Mongrel Media)
Pic Credit: wsnhighlighter.com
Canadian helmer Deepa Mehta’s superb adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Booker Prize-winning novel is finally yours for the buying. It’s the tale of Saleem Sinai (Satya Bhabha), a man born at the moment of India’s independence in 1947. Like all the men and women who began life at that time, he’s imbued with a magical ability (in his case telepathy) as well as an inexorable connection to the soul of his country.
As India suffers through the birth pains of cultural, social and political turmoil, so too do the children of midnight suffer, yet the promise of the future they represent shines on, occasionally dimmed but never extinguished.
Before Midnight (October 22, Sony)
Pic Credit: dreamsandvisions.squarespace.com
The third chapter in the romantic saga of American man Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and French woman Celine (Julie Delpy) might be the best yet.
Following 1995’s Before Sunrise and 2004’s Before Sunset, director Richard Linklater returns to find his loquacious lovebirds (who first met on a train to Vienna before reuniting nine years later) are now married and on vacation in Greece. As ever, they have a lot to talk about, and their lengthy conversations on life, love and family continue to both charm and mesmerize. This time, however, the unspoken question isn’t will they get together, but will the pressures and disappointments unearthed during their discussion prove too much for their aging relationship.
Byzantium (October 29, Mongrel Media)
Pic credit: www.blu-ray.com
Vampiric mother-daughter duo Clara (Gemma Arteron) and Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan), on the run from a dark past, seek refuge in an English coastal town. The former promptly unleashes her powers of seduction on the owner (Daniel Mays) of a rundown hotel, which she intends to turn into a brothel.
The latter, meanwhile, befriends a lonely young man (Caleb Landry Jones), who becomes a confidante for her century-spanning tale. But as rumours spread and disappearances pile up, this lazy little burg might just prove to be Clara and Eleanor’s final resting place.
Feature Image: www.hamiltonmehta.com
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Matthew Currie
Author
A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...