DVD World Report

While Paper Heart was far from a big film (it opened in fewer than a hundred theaters), the amount of talent that was included in its production was quite staggering. Anyone who has followed the Judd Apatow films will no doubt recognize the lead in the film, Charlyne Yi, as one of the stoner friends from Knocked Up. And there are quite a bit of Apatow alumni in this one as here, although the majority are quick cameos and nothing more. Still, the film earned some praise at Sundance and with Michael Cera front and center on the cover, it’s likely that it’ll at least gain a wider audience on DVD and Blu-ray, although those going in expecting the usual types of films he is associated with may be a bit put off.

Synopsis
Charlyne Yi does not believe in love. Or so she says. Well, at the very least, she doesn’t believe in fairy-tale love or the Hollywood mythology of love, and her own experiences have turned her into yet another modern-day skeptic. Follow Charlyne across America as she and her good friend (and director) Nicholas Jasenovec search for answers and advice about love, by talking with friends and strangers, scientists, bikers, romance novelists, and children. They each offer diverse views on modern romance, as well as various answers to the age-old question: does true love really exist? Charlyne’s pursuit to discover the nature of love takes on a fresh new urgency when she meets a boy after her own heart: Michael Cera. As their relationship develops on camera, her pursuit risks losing the person she finds closest to her heart. Combining elements of documentary and traditional storytelling, reality and fantasy, Paper Heart brings a fresh perspective to the modern romance and redefines the classic love story.

There’s a lot of confusion when it comes to this movie. The cover states that is a “documentary”, but scratches that word out and writes “story” above it. Technically that is exactly what this is, as the films half fiction and half non-fiction. The Cera/Yi bits are all staged and made up, but the interviews with married (and non-married) couples are all real and are really what help make the film so enjoyable. It’s a quirky mix and almost deceiving in its setup, but in the end I realized I’d had a smile on my face for almost the entire length of the film, so obviously it did something right.

Truth be told there isn’t much to this movie. Yi goes around the US interviewing people (and briefly to Paris…which occupies a scant five minutes, if that, of the movie) about their relationships. It starts out rather depressingly with an interview with a divorced man, but the remainder of the film is all one-on-ones with married couples or individuals who have been together for years. It’s a very interesting film as it offers up a wide array of ideas on what exactly “love” is. It’s all kind of obvious resolutions, however; nothing really feels like an atom bomb being dropped on you, but it’s just a nice, short and entertaining documentary/film.

And…really, that’s all there is to say about this one. It’s a short film (eighty-eight minutes) and it’s pretty self-explanatory. Yi is hilarious to watch on screen as she frequently laughs in a way that’s both infections and adorable and pretty much everyone that pops up on screen is fun to watch. The segment with Yi on the playground with the kids is hilarious to watch as well and the little paper cut out vignettes are entertaining as well. In all it’s a very sweet and simple film; it will unlikely bowl you over with ideas its presents, but it’s Recommended all the same.

The DVD
Anchor Bay packs Paper Heart into a standard Eco Amaray DVD case with a slipcover on the outside with slick printed text and ink on Cera and Yi on the cover. Other than that it’s a pretty standard cover and one that will likely make you question why it was even included (help the environment by using Eco cases but then kill some more trees with superfluous paper…confusing!). The disc itself is a simple affair with an easy to navigate menu and a solid video and audio transfer. It’s all on-location video so it’s pretty sketchy at times in terms of clarity and grain, but overall it’s a solid mixture nonetheless. The DD5.1 mix is focused in the front channels with a few random bits making their way into the surrounds.

Extras are varied and plentiful and actually end up running longer than the film itself. Included:

Paper Heart Uncut (7:28)
The Making Of (10:46)
Live Musical Performances by Charlyne Yi (6:31)
“Heaven” Music Video by Charlyne Yi & Michael Cera (1:43)
Love Interviews with the Comedians (26:09)
Deleted Scenes (31:23)
Theatrical Trailer (2:03)

Most of the material is just stuff that was shot and never included, which is fine—a lot of this wouldn’t work in the final product anyway. The “Love Interviews” are kind of annoying as each one is prefaced by an intro with Yi and actor Jake Johnson…which ends up being the same intro repeated over and over again for most of them. Occasionally the dialogue’s different, but it rarely is. In any case overall selection is pretty solid and if you enjoyed the movie you’ll likely enjoy where most of these extras as well.

Overall a Recommended release. I’m not sure if you’ll watch it over and over again, but it’s a sweet little film nonetheless.

Paper Heart is now available on DVD.

Imagine having an eye for art so keen that you know who and what is going to be a future artist that is “going” somewhere. Such is (often, at least) the cast of Herb and Dorothy Vogel, a married couple in New York who have amassed a large collection of modern/postmodern art that is all contained within their one bedroom New York apartment. Although they’re from modest working backgrounds, the Vogel’s had purchased pieces from the likes of Warhol and Tuttle, just to name a few, over the years. And just to be clear on the modest backgrounds: Herb was a postal worker and Dorothy was a librarian.

Synopsis
HERB & DOROTHY tells the extraordinary story of a postal clerk and a librarian who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, the Vogel’s quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb’s salary to purchase art they liked, they collected guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limitations, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists, including Andy Warhol, Julian Schnabel, Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner. HERB & DOROTHY provides a unique chronicle of the world of contemporary art from two unlikely collectors, whose shared passion and discipline defies stereotypes and redefines what it means to be a patron of the arts.

Although I’ve no real opinion on the topic of art, it doesn’t really matter when it comes to this film. While the topic of art is, of course, one of the topics of the documentary, the main focus is on the Vogel’s and the incredibly impressive collection that they have amassed. The quality and caliber of art that they’ve collected over the years is really just almost breathtaking and it’s that quality of art that has made them so renowned among the art community. Once they were married in 1960, Dorothy and Herb began collecting pieces of art from unknown artists and the two slowly began to fill up their apartment with small but impressive works of art.

What I got most out of the film was not so much that they had an eye for art, but more that this whole hobby of theirs was just something that they genuinely and truly loved doing together. Rarely were they ever apart and it was always their love of art that kept them close together. Many individuals go through life looking for just one iota of a connection that these two have and it’s truly nice to watch them attend events together in this documentary.

While there are plenty of interviews with major art talent today, the documentary is also littered with vintage footage of old art exhibits and events’, giving the art and history buffs something to drool over in case the main topic of Dorothy and Herb bore them somehow. As I mentioned previously I really don’t have an opinion on the matter of art in general (although I do wonder how piles of laundry and/or scrap metal statues sell for thousands), but there is still plenty to enjoy in this documentary.

The documentary itself is of a fair lengthy (just a few minutes shy of an hour and a half), but it’s rarely something you feel that drags on or wears out its welcome. In all it’s a really interesting look at how two relatively mid-level-income individuals can support and purchase pieces from artists that later become some of the most well known and revered artists of the past few decades. It’s their love for one another and art that drive this piece and Overall a Recommended documentary to be sure.

The DVD
docuramafilms brings Herb & Dorothy to DVD in a standard amaray DVD case. Nothing overly special about the presentation of the documentary here—no fancy exterior cardboard slipcase and the cover itself looks like a rather laid back BBC special documentary release more than anything. Video and audio is a solid presentation overall and about what you’d expect from a documentary with vintage footage spliced into it. Overall a solid visual and audio presentation.

Extras are limited but include:

Deleted Scenes
Festival Appearances
Theatrical Premiere
Theatrical Trailers

There’s some good stuff in here, especially the “Premiere” featurette which, while not overly lengthy, was a nice look at all who turned out to check out this film. Overall a Recommended package for art enthusiasts, but the general public will probably be satisfied with a Rental.

Herb & Dorothy arrives on DVD on December 15th.

The year was 1992. The setting was New York City and the time of year was a snow laden Christmas. It saw the return of Macaulay Culkin as the precocious Kevin McCallister and how his family once again forgot (well…this time they just lost him) him for their annual Christmas vacation. As unlikely as the premise and scenario is, the film went on to enjoy a healthy box office life and it only further bolstered the career of the then unstoppable Culkin. For all intents and purposes the film was a giant cash-in on the first film and had a remarkable amount of product placement…but Fox at least had enough sense to stop at this second film. Until 1997 at least when they made a direct-to-video third film. And again in 2002.

Synopsis
Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is back! But this time he’s in New York City with enough cash and credit cards to turn the Big Apple into his own playground! But Kevin won’t be alone for long. The notorious Wet Bandits, Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), still smarting from their last encounter with Kevin, are bound for New York too, plotting a huge holiday heist. Kevin’s ready to welcome them with a battery of booby traps the bumbling bandits will never forget!

As far as sequels go this film really is a pretty superfluous outing. It’s not even remotely as believable as the first film…yet at the same time I couldn’t help but love it. As a kid at least; as an adult my reaction is a great deal different, but still…there’s so much here to enjoy purely for nostalgia reasons that even when my adult brain starts to kick in and say “hey wait a minute…”my kid side chimes up and says “Hey shut up! I’m trying to watch the movie!”

I can remember watching this film quite a great deal more than the original…and the main reason for that was because we owned this on VHS. Buying a film on VHS when I was a kid was a ritual in our house and it had to be something that was genuinely something worthwhile and would get many repeat viewings. We owned a number of the Disney animated films and a few live action outings…but it was Home Alone 2 that made the most impact on my young mind that I must have begged for it enough to the point that we actually had to own it.

Honestly I can’t even remember watching it all that often as a kid, maybe once a year (it was a Christmas-time movie, after all, and it just felt strange to watch it at any other period). But I can recall the enchantment and excitement I would feel while watching it. Checking into a big hotel room that w as all my own and raiding a refrigerator that was filled with the most delicious looking cookies and sweets and even just wandering around New York City seemed like a fantastic time and dream for a kid to wrap himself up in.

Of course now it is all a bit ridiculous, but with the added likes of Tim Curry, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, I can’t help but enjoy this film even now. While I would be lying if I said that the film isn’t as awesome as my younger self remembers it, that’s the case with almost all films I watched as a kid—if I enjoyed it then, chances are I won’t enjoy it nearly as much now (and the opposite is true as well, I’ve found). What makes the film still work is just the believability of Culkin’s character, who is an incredible smart-aleck and yet believably still child like.

I will say that the brick throwing scene still makes me laugh my head off though. Stern and Pecsi really did make quite a comedic pair in the series—I’m glad Stern opted not to return for the fourth film when it was made. In any case, Home Alone 2 is only going to work now if you were a fan of it when you were a kid or if you’re under the age of ten. I’m still entertained by it, but it really did work better back in 1992 than it did now…which adds to its charm in a certain way, I suppose.

The Blu-ray
I had wondered if Fox would release this title on Blu-ray or not. It seemed like they should’ve just put it on the same disc as the first film, seeing as the extras list for this film is basically zilcho. But at least they finally released it—the previous DVD release was severely dated and sported quite an atrocious transfer. As is the disc arrives in a standard Elite Eco Blu-ray case without any inserts or anything fancy. Menu system is relatively easy to navigate, if a bit dull simply because of the lack of options to choose from.

Video arrives in the form of an AVC encoded 1080p 1.85:1 transfer and considering this transfer is going on seventeen (!) years, I have to say it looks quite nice. It’s retained a film like quality and while compression still causes the transfer to get a bit murky at times, overall it’s a very nice transfer. Some grain here and there, but it only adds to the overall appearance of the film. Audio arrives in a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that seems a bit overkill for such a movie…until the hijinks ensues. John Williams score also blasts through quite well, as does the environmental sound effects. Overall I was really impressed by how strong this sound mix is…I suppose Fox had the option of presenting a solid A/V presentation or providing extras and they chose the former. I’m conflicted if I should be too upset about that, seeing as this is a Blu-ray release after all.

And the extras? Yeah a handful of Trailers for Home Alone 1, 2, & 3 and that’s it.

Overall only pick this up if you’re looking to toss out the old DVD copy. Recommended in that case, but a Rental is required if you’ve never seen it first as it really probably wouldn’t bring in any new viewers.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is now available on Blu-ray.

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