HIDDEN GEMS on CD and DVD
If you enjoy wandering off the beaten path, you’ve come to the right place. Every season, there’s a handful of DVD’s and CD’s, movies and music that, for various reasons, don’t receive the fanboy fizz or critical attention they deserve. These underdogs come in all sizes and shapes from no-budget indies to expensive studio movies, from hidden gems to long-forgotten classics. Here’s, a quick look at some fantastic CD’s and DVD’s that, by and large, slipped under the radar.
Pacific Ocean Blue: Legacy Edition by Dennis Wilson
Finally re-released on CD after years as a collector’s item, Wilson’s lone solo album sounds like it was written and recorded on a long, hot summer night. Funky horns, a gospel choir, and Wilson’s sandpaper vocals compete for attention on songs about broken romances, flowing rivers, and footloose Friday nights. The 2-CD set, which is fattened up with bonus cuts from the late Beach Boy’s never-released second album, is loose, lively, and more than a little heartbreaking
(2008, Sony Legacy, $29)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
With unsparing directness, Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu unreels the story of Otila (Anamaria Marinca), a university student who helps a friend (Laura Vasiliu) secure an illegal abortion. During the course of the film, Otila struggles to book a hotel room, mollify her nosy boyfriend, and pay off a back-alley abortionist (Vlad Ivanov) who ranks as one of the scummiest characters in film history. “4 Months” will wipe you out.
(2007, Genius, unrated, $28)
Night Falls Over Kortedala by Jens Lekman
On his second CD, Sweden’s Lekman hopscotches from Bacharach-esque pop to beat-heavy disco to Motown-soaked soul with astonishing ease. “Shirin” celebrates the hair-cutting skills of an Iraqi beautician, “Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo” serves up details of a dead-end job, and “A Postcard to Nina” is the best song ever written about a guy falling for a lesbian. Lekman, 26, is a rare find: a guy who has something to say – and says it beautifully.
(2007, Secretly Canadian, $15
Blast Of Silence
Arguably the bleakest film ever to be set during Christmastime, this grubby little thriller tags along with a cold-hearted hitman (writer/director Allen Baron) as he travels to Manhattan to take out a mid-level mafia boss. The jazzy score, ratty New York locations, and hard-boiled narration (read by an uncredited Lionel Stander) help make this low-rent gangster flick a mobbed-up classic.
