Joey's DVD Picks of the Week (3/29/2011)

This week on DVD, there's no shortage of options for the movie buyer, with a couple of high quality choices. In fact, one of my 5 favorite films of 2010 is out today...making the top choice a little bit of a simple decision. There's a wide variety of flicks to choose from, so it's a nice step up from some of the smaller weeks we've had in the past. My decision for the PICK OF THE WEEK is a clear one if you know what my top 10 looked like. If you didn't just know that it's one of the most visually interesting films of 2010. It's:

Black Swan

Darren Aronofsky created another borderline masterpiece with this ballerina thriller that's much more than it appears. It's got noir elements, body horror elements, and just an incredible sense of atmosphere. A great mind fuck and a great companion piece to his last film The Wrestler, Aronofsky again gets a brilliant lead performance, this time from Natalie Portman, who took home the Best Actress Oscar. The entire cast is tremendous, especially Mila Kunis, and the film was among the best in terms of cinematography and score. There really was no weak point to the flick, and it was a completely immersive experience. Definitely pick this one up, as it's one of the best releases we've had on DVD in a long time.

-Also out getting a recommendation from me is Fair Game and Tangled. The former is the retelling of the Valerie Plame scandal. Sean Penn and Naomi Watts do strong work here, and Doug Liman shows great maturity as a filmmaker. It wasn't an amazing film, but it's a very strong drama and well worth checking out if you haven't already. The latter is an animated retelling of Rapunzel. It's not Disney's best work, but it's a step up from what they've been doing in the last few years (though obviously not on Pixar's level). If it's your type of thing, pick it up and enjoy, as it's definitely a pleasing movie.

-The rest of the releases this week are mostly ones that I can't comment on. I did see two of them, the based on a true story suspense drama All Good Things, which isn't bad but somewhat wastes strong performances by Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling, and another based on a true story...the British drama Made in Dagenham. It wasn't bad either, but definitely left me wanting more. The rest of the releases I haven't seen, but they include the action flick Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, the IMAX documentary Hubble, the conservative environmental documentary Cool It, and the Hilary Swank direct to DVD feature The Resident. I can't speak to any of their quality, but if you have an interest, give them a shot and report back!

-My Vintage pick is, in honor of this week's release of Source Code, Duncan Jones' first feature. It's Moon, and I found it to be one of the best sci-fi films in a long time. It also featured an Oscar worthy performance from Sam Rockwell. It's really quite brilliant, and I can't recommend it enough. If you missed it when it came out, now's the time to correct that!

-What will you be watching on DVD this week?