Latest in DVDs feature in the September 2010 Issue of Explore TACA

Latest in DVDs

By Explore TACA

School of Rock
Jack Black, Sarah Silverman
Paramount Home Video

Dewey (Black), a wannabe rocker, needs to pay his rent. Rather than get a job, he poses as a substitute teacher at a posh prep school. But all he knows is rock, and, as luck (or the screenwriter) would have it, it turns out the kids in his class have musical talent. So Dewey sets out to make them rockers so he can use them to win a talent show in which first prize is a recording contract. This fairly simple premise is spread well (though a bit thin in places), thanks to a manic, funny performance by Black and unaffected, natural turns by the young rockers, who actually have some skills. Last fall’s surprise hit is an entertaining valentine to the rock that ruled before spreadsheets and slick marketing.

—Abel Delgado

House of Sand and Fog
Jennifer Connelly, Sir Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard, Shohreh Aghdashloo
UMVD/Dreamworks

A woman who was abandoned by her husband and is a recovering addict (Connelly) loses the house she inherits from her father due to an administrative error. An immigrant and former Iranian military officer (Kingsley) invests all his savings to buy the property at auction. And that’s when the bitter battle for the house begins to unfold between them. Without making concessions to childish melodrama or falling into dramatic Hollywood clichés, this exceptional film, based on the novel by Andre Dubus III, shows that it’s possible to take a moving story to the big screen without recurring to the hackneyed formula of “good versus evil”. In this case, the key is simply revealing the many nuances of human nature, and this gem, which garnered Oscar nominations for Kinglsey and Aghdashloo, does that beautifully.

—Jenny Acosta-Horta

Man on the Train
Jean Rochefort, Johnny Hallyday
Paramount Home Video

A mysterious passenger arrives by train at a small, sleepy town in the French countryside, where he has a chance encounter with a retired poetry professor. The stranger stays at the professor’s house, and the old man soon discovers that he’s come to the town to pull off a robbery. The man on the train’s edgy, criminal lifestyle has a fascinating effect on the old professor, who, in the twilight of an uneventful life, finds himself unexpectedly revitalized through the unlikely friendship that develops between them. Unattained dreams, unexplored paths and immutable destinies meet in the dynamic between these two strangers who, by exploring their own differences, encounter the possibility of changing their lives forever. Jean Rochefort, as the old professor Manesquier, offers an acting clinic with his subtle, powerful performance.

—Jenny Acosta-Horta

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