The DVD/Blu Ray Shed: January 10

Moneyball
Dir. Bennett Miller

Director Miller went from small scale (the great doc The Cruise and the similarly great capote) to high-profile with his version of what was originally going to be a Soderbergh project, an adaptation of Michael Lewis’ baseball recent-history Moneyball.

It arrived at TIFF this summer with a big heavy weight of expectations towed along behind it, starring as it did Misters Pitt, Seymour Hoffman and Jonah Hill gone serious and a script by heavyweights Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s Lisht, Gangs of New York) and Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, The Social Network). For the most part, Miller et al. delivered, turning Lewis’ math-heavy analysis of the statistical basis of underdogs kind-of-winning into an entertaining story of underdogs using obliquely-referred-to math to win a spiritual victory. Solid, and worth watching even (and maybe especially) if you have no interest in baseball.

Killer Elite

Also arriving at TIFF this summer for a gala premiere was director Gary McKendry’s feature directorial debut Killer Elite, although people had more… reserved expectations for it, seeing as it appeared to be a slightly serious Jason Statham action vehicle that also featured Robert De Niro beating people up (and not in a Capone with a bat way, in a punch-punch fist fight way).

 It didn’t look very good, even if it was based on a book by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, third cousin to Ralph and holder of the unofficial title “Greatest Living Explorer”. Turns out they were right to have doubts, because it is in fact a slightly serious Jason Statham action vehicle. 

Higher Ground
Dir. Vera Farmigia

Haven’t seen actress and now director Vera Farmigia’s debut Higher Ground as its woman-emerging-from-fundamentalist-Christianity kind of turned me off, but I realized as soon as it was gone from theatres that I’d been an idiot to not pay to support a woman making smart realist fare, so I’m going to watch it this week. Have you seen it? Let me know if it’s good!