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I had high hopes for these extras. A long shot was that somehow we'd get Dylan's reaction to the film. If not that, then clips of the Million Dollar Bashers or any of the other great musicians in the studio in the "Making the Soundtrack" entry. At the very least, Cate Blanchett talking about her uncanny transformation into psychedelic-era Dylan.
Then again, movie extras aren't exactly journalistic enterprises, so through two discs, we get some deleted scenes that add little, a whole mess of words from director Todd Haynes about how he conceived this film (all of which he talked about to advance it) and sound bites from a few of the actors who play Dylan.
Yes, actors. As you may know, Dylan's elusive self is pieced together here by six actors: young black boy Marcus Carl Franklin as the precocious Woody Guthrie imitator; Christian Bale as the earnest protest singer; Heath Ledger as the domesticated chauvinist; Ben Wishaw as the surrealist poet; Cate Blanchett as the androgynous '60s rocker; and Richard Gere as a middle-aged Billy the Kid in slow-moving cowboy scenes.
Not only are there six "Dylans" unveiled in non-linear fashion, there are at least six different cinematic styles, referencing Peckinpah, Fellini, Godard and Scorsese. Blanchett is the most compelling piece of the puzzle, embodying the psychedelic, amphetamine "Highway 61" Dylan.
Dylan fans, accustomed to this brand of absurdity from the man himself, will find a lot to like in "I'm Not There" and should appreciate not only Haynes' ambitious concept but his careful handling of the music. Sublime, of course.
On the other hand, if you don't know Dylan from Donovan, you might be bored, baffled or both.
-- Scott Mervis, Post-Gazette Weekend Mag editor
An unlikely cross between "Jaws" and "Saved," this 90-minute coming of age horror/would-be comedy should be a lot more fun than it is given the outrageous subject matter.
High school abstinence advocate Dawn (Jess Weixler), who grew up in the shadow of a nuclear power plant, gets assistance in maintaining her purity from her unusual reproductive organs, which come with their own security system: teeth.
It's not an altogether new concept -- the mythological vagina dentata had a cultural history pre-dating this film -- but "Teeth" was an opportunity to bring the notion into popular culture in a fun, if necessarily emasculating, way. Instead, writer-director Mitchell Lichtenstein manages to create a flaccid movie that moves from one sensational, horrific scene of penile decapitation to another. And then it just sort of stops, the film equivalent of coitus interruptus.
Extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, a commentary track featuring Lichtenstein, deleted scenes and theatrical trailer.
-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor
In the PBS miniseries "African American Lives 2" (Paramount Home Entertainment; $24.99), Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and a team of experts manage to uncover the heritages of several prominent American blacks going backward from the early 20th century to the 17th-century African slave trade. For the latter part, they rely on DNA testing.
The show is a historical "This Is Your Life" for renowned actors Don Cheadle and Morgan Freeman, singer Tina Turner, writer Maya Angelou, comedian Chris Rock, gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee and radio talk show host Tom Joyner (no relation). There is also a segment featuring Bliss Broyard, daughter of the late Anatole Broyard, The New York Times book critic who was mulatto but passed for white all his adult life.
Mixing mystery and history, narrator Gates makes pilgrimages to old cemeteries, homesteads and courthouses across the country to gather much of the information now obscured by time and visceral race prejudice. The series aired in February.
Well-done and inspiring, the only thing "African American Lives 2" lacks is a how-to segment. Any black viewer will yearn to dig up his or her own roots after watching.
-- Monessa Tinsley, Post-Gazette staff writer
A two-time Oscar winner -- hailed for roles that radiate strength -- should never be required to sing into a TV remote while dressed in a man's white shirt, boxers and suspenders. Even if she is trying to staunch her grief with Judy Garland and Bette Davis movies in an apartment littered with takeout food containers and burning candles.
That is precisely what Hilary Swank has to do in "P.S. I Love You," an unusual romantic comedy in which the most intriguing character is dead for much of the movie. That would be Gerard Butler, and he has never been sexier or more appealing than in the film's flashbacks.
In this adaptation of Cecelia Ahern's novel, he is the Irish-born Gerry, co-owner of a limousine service. He and his wife, Holly (Swank), live in New York, where he is ready to start a family, but she is not. Her carefully calibrated plans turn to ashes when Gerry dies. Most of the film is spent following Holly's attempt to find a way back from despair -- through Gerry's advice, delivered from the grave in the form of letters ending, "P.S. I love you."
"P.S.," directed by Richard LaGravenese, should reduce you to a puddle, wring you out and dispatch you with a desire to not waste a precious second of life. It didn't, at least for me.
The DVD extras include an interview with Ahern, five deleted scenes, a featurette on the game Snaps and a James Blunt music video.
P.S.: I still didn't love the movie.
-- Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette movie editor
"Delirious"
"First Sunday"
"Over Her Dead Body"
• "The Hottie & the Nottie": Joel David Moore, Paris Hilton and Christine Lakin star in this romantic comedy about a man who moves back to L.A. to find his first crush, only to discover he needs to find a date for her not-so-attractive roomie.
• Also, "The 2007 Academy Award-Nominated Short Films" and the Ricki Lake-Abby Epstein documentary "The Business of Being Born."
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