THE DVD SHELF: Guinness Collection, "Hobson' Choice," "Synecdoche, New York," "Pinocchio," "HSM3"
By Steven Suskin
22 Mar 2009
If it's something different you want, I got the film right here. Director/author Charlie Kaufman's
Synecdoche, New York [Sony] is as complex and fascinatingly maddening as the title might suggest. I could explain that title, a play on the upstate town of Schenectady where the action begins, but it would take a couple of wordy sentences. Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a stage director in the midst of a new-style
Death of a Salesman when we meet him. His life and his health are a mess, and then let's just say everything goes from worse to awry.
By the second hour, Cotard is directing a slice-of-life drama set in a city built within a warehouse within a warehouse within a warehouse; by the time we finish, Dianne Weist is playing Hoffman and Hoffman (what's left of him) is playing his ex-wife's cleaning lady. I could explain that, but it would take a couple of wordy paragraphs. And don't worry about this spoiling the movie for you; by the time you get there, you will be so deeply in a maze that you will surely have forgotten anything I wrote.
"Synecdoche" is brilliant, I suppose, but also frustrating; it makes Kaufman's hauntingly memorable "Being John Malkovich" seem positively simplistic. As for acting, Mr. Hoffman gives an absolutely wrenching performance. I can't say that I enjoyed "Synecdoche, New York"; I found it riveting yet uncomfortable, which I suppose was Kaufman's intention. Memorable, that's for sure.
*
Arriving moments before my deadline were two Disney DVDs of distinct interest. Rather than wait till next month to cover them, let me add a few quick words. Walt's own
Pinocchio is familiar enough to readers of this column. At long last, this 1940 film which immediately followed the 1937 "Snow White" both in chronology and, arguably, entertainment value has been given the treatment it deserves. The review copy contained the two-disc Blu-Ray release along with a DVD of the feature only. [Note to self: time to get a Blu-ray player. . . .] The DVD looks so good that one can only imagine how the Blu-Ray came out. The bonuses sound extra-special, including a "making of" piece, games, and story boards of deleted scenes and the alternate ending. All this plus Jiminy Cricket singing Leigh Harline and Ned Washington's Oscar-winner "When You Wish upon a Star" plus "Give a Little Whistle."
And then there's High School Musical 3: Senior Year, which takes the now-superstar cast through well, senior year. The third entry in the franchise is bigger and better than the first two, at least technically so; the others were TV movies, but this is a full-scale, big budget feature (with receipts north of $90 million, thank you very much). Those that loved the first two DVDs will no doubt appreciate #3 even more; those who didn't will be even less lenient. But this franchise is a major cultural phenomenon, and I suppose a whole generation will come of age with Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay and Ryan as common denominators. (Way too common?) At any rate, don't overlook director/choreographer/producer Kenny Ortega, whose ball of wax the whole thing is and who deserves every bit of success for getting said generation to concentrate on something really important, namely the annual school musical. Disney, which knows the habits and desires of its customers, has outfitted HSM3 with all sorts of bonuses, several of which are on Blu-Ray only.
(Steven Suskin is author of "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations" as well as "Second Act Trouble," "Show Tunes" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com)
