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Home Video/DVD: Recommended June Releases

June 4

"L.I.E." (2001)

Eighty-two percent of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes liked this unsettling indie drama that has pederasty as one of its central themes. Howie (Paul Franklin Dano) is a troubled 14- or 15-year-old boy who lives near the Long Island Expressway (L.I.E.), where his mother was recently killed. He burglarizes houses with his best friend Gary (Billy Kay), and there is a homoerotic tension between the two boys. When Howie's father is jailed, Howie moves in with Big John (Brian Cox), a macho ex-Marine and pederast. What critics like best about this movie is that Big John and Howie are depicted as multidimensional characters rather than as caricatures. "L.I.E." is available on video/DVD in two versions: one is unrated by the MPAA, while the other is R-rated.

June 11

"Black Hawk Down" (2001)

Directed by Ridley Scott, this is a military action movie that stars Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, and Sam Shepard. The film tells the tale of an ill-fated 1993 U.S. humanitarian mission during which 18 Americans were killed. At the time, local warlords were battling each other in the African country of Somalia, where some 300,000 Somalis died of starvation. The U.S. involvement in the conflict was to facilitate the delivery of food shipments. American military forces mounted an operation in the city of Mogadishu to capture some of the inner circle of one of the warlords. U.S. soldiers were flown in by Black Hawk helicopters, but the Americans quickly found themselves outnumbered and outgunned. Two of the choppers were shot down, and the film uses exciting combat sequences to chronicle the attempt to rescue the Americans at the crash sites.

"Monster's Ball" (2001)

Halle Berry won a Best Actress Oscar for her work in this drama, in which Billy Bob Thornton turns in a fine performance as well. Thornton portrays Hank Grotowski, a Georgia prison guard whose duties include taking part in carrying out the execution of death row inmate Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs). Berry plays Lawrence's wife Leticia, and they have a fat little son Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun). Leticia is a waitress at a diner, where she meets Hank, but neither is aware of the other's connection with the condemned man. As the white Hank and the black Leticia become friends, begin a sexual relationship, and fall in love, the unlikely pair must grapple with a number of problems. "Monster's Ball" is emotionally powerful because it avoids dealing with this material in a politically correct manner, and 86 percent of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes liked the film.

June 25

"A Beautiful Mind" (2001)

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, this biopic stars Russell Crowe as the brilliant, but troubled, John Nash. The movie begins in the late 1940s with Nash as a young mathematician at Princeton, where he does some astonishing original work. He then takes a job at M.I.T. and meets and marries an attractive grad student (Jennifer Connelly). He is soon working on clandestine government projects under the direction of Parcher (Ed Harris) and becomes paranoid about the Soviets. He is also occasionally visited by a friend (Paul Bettany) and his young niece. However, Nash is suffering from mental illness, and his life eventually falls apart. He is treated by Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer), but recovery is difficult and takes many years.

"Gosford Park" (2001)

Robert Altman directed this outstanding film, which is at the level of his best work, including "M*A*S*H," "Nashville," "The Player," and "Short Cuts." Maggie Smith, Emily Watson, Alan Bates, Helen Mirren, Clive Owen, Derek Jacobi, and Kristin Scott Thomas are among the members of the large all-star ensemble cast. Set in 1932, the movie is about a gathering of a dozen aristocrats and their servants for a pheasant hunt at a fancy English country estate called Gosford Park, where someone is murdered. The film has aspects of an Agatha Christie mystery, but it's really a closely observed study of a fascinating social milieu, both above and below stairs. Eighty-six percent of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes liked "Gosford Park."

Related Home Video/DVD Features of Interest:

2002 Recommended Releases on Video and DVD

Recommended June 2002 Releases on Home Video/DVD