On Demand Weekly

Leave it to one of cinema's most controversial filmmakers to have a "Director's Statement." Maybe they all should.

MELANCHOLIA: A BEAUTIFUL MOVIE ABOUT THE END OF THE WORLD

It was like waking from a dream: my producer showed me a suggestion for a poster. “What is that?” I ask. ”It’s a film you’ve made!” she replies. ”I hope not,” I stammer. Trailers are shown ... stills ... it looks like shit. I’m shaken... more (click here)

- Lars von Trier, Copenhagen, April 13, 2011

Lars Von Trier / MELANCHOLIA (Magnolia Pictures)

Reviews...

MELANCHOLIA - DEMAND IT

BUCK - DEMAND IT

TRUST - RISK IT

HELLO LONESOME - DEMAND IT

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: SLEEPING BEAUTY (IFC Films).

SLEEPING BEAUTY - On Demand
By Amy Slotnick

Beautiful and broke, Lucy (Emily Browning) is a student looking for extra work to make ends meet. Like many before her, she finds the money made in sex work too great to resist. However, this work is atypical, even for a prostitute. The service she works for caters to a wealthy and senior clientele, white haired men who want to fondle her while she is drugged into a deep sleep. Penetration is forbidden, but abuse is not. When Lucy awakes, she remembers nothing, and it seems, at least initially, that she is able to avoid any emotional penetration as well.

The wide shots of Lucy’s slim, naked and limp body being groped by elderly men are soundless and long shots, making the dark urges being enacted seem even more disturbing. Lucy instinctively knows this is unhealthy for her, but her double life continues, while she wonders what is being done while she sleeps. It is the audience who knows more about the horrific details of her life than she does, and it is no fairy tale. We get glimpses of her life outside this job, but none of it is more fulfilling for her. She has a mysterious bond with an alcoholic she calls Birdman, but it is never clear what they mean to each other.

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: 4:44 LAST DAY ON EARTH (IFC Films).

4:44 THE LAST DAY ON EARTH
By Adam Schartoff

It’s the last day of life on the planet. You’ve only got a few hours left, what do you do with that time?

It’s a terrifying thought but a provocative one as well. On the heels of Lars von Trier’s MELANCHOLIA which explores that same question but on a more transcendental level, comes Abel Ferrara’s latest movie 4:44 LAST DAY ON EARTH. This movie, too, explores the question of what one might do with those precious last hours and provides the most outrageous answer of all... not much.

The film, staged almost like a one-set play, takes place almost entirely inside the Downtown NYC loft of couple former addict Cisco (a superb Willem Dafoe) and artist Tina (Natasha Lyonne). The In their remaining hours, the couple make love, Skype with family and friends, order in Chinese food, make love again, argue and forgive. While outside their window some desperate events are taking place, mostly it’s just business as usual; taxis driving passengers around, people walking the sidewalks, shops open for business.

It’s an intriguing idea and Ferrara shoots New York like New Yorkers see it.

Ferrara has generally been more concerned with more extreme vistas in past films.; most notably films like KING OF NEW YORK and BAD LIEUTENANT. But since GO GO TALES came out to less than an illustrious reception (wrongly so) a few years ago, Ferrara has toned down the volume and made a couple of feature length documentaries.