Disc Reviews

Despite Stephen King’s place in modern literary history, Hollywood continues to be hit-or-miss at successfully adapting King’s work for the big screen and television. Personally The Mist is one of my favorite films based off of King’s work, but one can never forget The Shawshank Redemption. Unfortunately, though, there are many more duds than there are successes when it comes to adapting “the Master of Horror’s” work.  Big Driver is the most current work to be brought to the screen. While it may not hold up to some of his more “classic” films, i.e.: Misery, Stand By Me, or Carrie, it is a relief to say it fares better than many of the duds that have been produced.

Maria Bello takes on the lead as Tess Thorne, a mystery book writer who seems to appeal mostly to retired housewives.  It’s a career that has brought Tess plenty of success, and in a way to reach out and meet some of her fans she goes on a book tour. Bello eases into this role nicely as the quirky mystery writer, talking to her pet cat and characters from her book that follow her around. She even goes so far as to strike up a conversation with her Tom Tom device.  It is crucial that the viewer likes Tess early on, because it doesn’t take long before things go horribly wrong for her.

Who Killed Alex Spourdalakis sounds like a murder mystery. The cover of the DVD says, “Ignorance, negligence, indifference”. The documentary was produced by the Autism Media Channel, and the cover also says, “Autism and the US healthcare system”. The implication is that things are not going well for the growing number of parents of autistic children. In March of 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that the rate of autism had risen to 1 out of 68 births in the United States, and that was nearly double from ten years prior. That sounds like a major problem, and that doesn't even get to the heart of exactly how tragic that really is. Death rates are high for children with autism, and that too tends to get swept under the rug. The problems of dealing with an autistic child are unimaginable to those who live a normal life.

Alex Spourdalakis had two extremely devoted caregivers who would literally do anything to relieve the problems that he dealt with. He was a normal, happy baby until 18 months. Dorothy, Alex's mother, and Yolanda Agata Skrodzka, Alex's godmother, doted on him every moment when he started to show problems, often never leaving his bedside when he wound up in various hospitals. The story that movie tells is a heartbreaking tragedy of an arrogant and misguided healthcare system, not able to accept the changing state of autism in America. Dorothy and Yolanda trusted the doctors as Alex went through numerous changes, assuming the doctors knew best. Over time, it became clear that the doctors mostly didn't know what they were doing. Eventually, at age 14, Alex died.

I give James Franco a lot of credit. He works very hard for a big-shot Hollywood actor. He is ambitious in ways that no one from his generation even comes close to being. He's fearless in his choices and will do practically anything that sparks his creative muse. He is constantly working on film projects, making sure that he includes big-budget blockbusters, but his real passion is a string of micro-budget experiments. He just starred on Broadway in Of Mice And Men. He has won Golden Globes, and he has been nominated for Oscars. He also pursued simultaneous degrees at numerous institutions. While pursuing his acting career he graduated from UCLA with a GPA of 3.5/4.0. He moved to New York City and pursued course work at Columbia University, completing his MFA in writing. He also attended New York University Tisch School of the Arts in filmmaking, Brooklyn College for fiction writing, an MFA for poetry at North Carolina's Warren Williams College, Rhode Island School of design for art, and PhD studies in English at Yale. Many people consider this an insane amount of hubris. I have to believe he is serious, but I don't see how he does it. He does lots more than that besides. He has directed movies like Child of God, and plans are in the works for much more. I'm just trying to set the scene for the movie The Color of Time.

The Color of Time, also known as Tar, is an experimental film portrait of the Pulitzer and National Book Award winning poet, C.K. Williams. It grew out of a course on turning poetry into film that Franco was teaching at NYU, so the film was actually directed by 11 graduate film students. Their work is presented as a unified whole instead of separate segments, and they all seem to have been influenced by Terrence Malick. I guess the film’s cohesiveness can be attributed to the two editors, but it does have the feel of a Malick film. The footage has that dreamy, somewhat fuzzy flow through time and space. The years flow back and forth on each other, and the poet is played by four actors at different ages including Franco, and C.K. Williams is also seen from time to time reading his poetry. It also stars Mila Kunis, Jessica Chastain, Zach Braff, and Bruce Campbell.

Art And Craft is a documentary about an off-kilter mind. That is not necessarily a bad thing. To have an off-kilter mind, that is. Many great geniuses and many great artists have had off-kilter minds, like Van Gogh and Kafka and others too numerous to mention. Art And Craft is about a man who painted many of the great works of art. The only problem is his paintings are nearly exact copies of the originals by famous artists. Mark Landis is one of the most prolific art forgers of the last 30 years. The other thing that should be noted is that he gives all the art away to museums as original works of the great masters. Mark is a Truman Capote sound-alike and lookalike who is on various mental health medications because he has been diagnosed with various mental conditions including schizophrenia and catatonia. His journey through life is unique, remarkable and somewhat lonely. He spent a year in a mental institution when he was 18. He was devoted to his mother for the rest of his life, but she died. His painting was a way to gain approval from his mother and pay tribute to his father, but he frequently betrays the fact that his mother knew it was all a sham. Mark reveals himself to have been a mischievous child. But Mark is a slave to his obsessions and continues his painting projects with a meticulous perfectionism, but he's also fairly cavalier with his work, often tossing it carelessly around his cluttered apartment.

Art And Craft is also the story of Matt Lenninger, who was a relentless pursuer of Mark's exploits. Matt is Javert to Mark's Jean Val Jean. Aaron Cowan is a third character who is also pursuing Mark but with a different motivation.

"Who are the Mythbusters?" 

You know who the Mythbusters are, don't you? They've been a staple on the Discovery Channel for over 12 years now. Yes, this 10th year anniversary release is a little late, but a welcome title all the same. If you really don't know who the Mythbusters are by now, I can't think of a better way to get acquainted than to pick up 50 of their best episodes in one collection. The episodes were hand-picked by the 'Busters themselves. You want to know more? Who you gonna call? Upcomingdiscs, that's who, because we've got the goods right here.

His uncle played Christian music, and he sang bass in a chorus for some years. His father gave him a guitar and started him on lessons at age five. With all of that background, it seems no surprise that Trace Adkins became a hit on the country music scene. It was obvious to everyone but him. Instead he looked to sports and a chance to be a lineman for Louisiana Tech until he blew out his knee. When the doc told him he had no chance at a football career, did he turn to that music? Nope. It was off working on an oil rig that he took to, bad knee and all. Fortunately for his fans, a chance call from a producer and a demand from his  new wife that they move away from where the first wife lived all conspired to land the future legend in Nashville where it all came together.

That was roughly 20 years ago, and now Eagle Rock has provided us with a rather intimate concert setting. The show took place at the Paramount Theater in New York. It's a small venue, but that only adds to the intimacy of the concert. There's not a lot of flash here. Adkins doesn't do a lot of the energetic things many artists do on stage. The focus is almost entirely on the music, and this is the kind of place where the combination of music-first and small venue combine for a treat for the fans.