Jurgen screamed twice during Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage, a smart, spooky shocker from Spain. If that's not scary enough, try Fine Dead Girls, a lesbian horror flick from Croatia. Also out this week on DVD: U.S. independents Hannah Takes The Stairs and The Savages, plus the music documentary Wetlands Preserved.
1. The Orphanage
From Spain comes an incredibly spooky ghost story by first-time director Juan Antonio Bayona. The Orphanage, produced by Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) was the country's entry for the Foreign Film Oscar. Belén Rueda and Fernando Cayo play a couple who move into an old mansion with their adopted son -- whose imaginary friends may be all too real...
2. The Savages
Nursing homes, loss of memory, bowel control, the death of a parent: patently unfunny stuff. Oscar nominated writer and director Tamara Jenkins had a tough job turning it into the irreverent comedy The Savages. Laura Linney received an Oscar nomination for ther stellar turn as acerbic sister Wendy.
3. Hannah Takes The Stairs
The third film by young independent director Joe Swanberg opens with Hannah (Greta Gerwig) naked in the shower and ends with Hannah naked in the bathtub. Both times, she has company. A smart girl, pretty, with short blond hair, interesting birthmarks, and hipster glasses, the young college graduate is a genuine heart breaker--albeit an unlikely one.
4. Wetlands Preserved
From 1989 to 2001, the Wetlands Preserve flourished just off of New York's Houston Street. Founded by a Deadhead, the club attracted rising bands in the burgeoning "jam bands" scene, along with ska and hip-hop acts, while maintaining an activism center that held "eco-saloons" and launched inventive street theater protests. Dean Budnick's Wetlands Preserved is a heartfelt tribute to a joyous anomaly in New York's nightlife scene that eventually surrendered to Tribeca's increasing gentrification in the days following September 11.
5. Fine Dead Girls
A winner of the Best Croatian Film Award, the provocative film Fine Dead Girls has been named one of the best Croatian movies of the last decade. Iva and Marija, a lesbian couple, rent an apartment in a seemingly quiet building in Zagreb, but what initially appears as a safe love haven quickly turns into a nightmare. Behind every door is a story of suffering and betrayal, a vivid echo of Croatia’s recent past as the country slowly emerges from years of ethnic violence during the Balkan war.
