Sacha Baron Cohen’s outrageous, Oscar-nominated road trip Borat is out this week on DVD, loaded with special features. If you're in the mood for something more serious, you can dig into Richard Linklater's overlooked exposé Fast Food Nation -- or enjoy twisted horror films from Germany and Japan.
1. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kaz...
The backlash has come and gone, and when you watch Borat now, it's still hilarious, but Sacha Baron Cohen's satire grows even knottier. Some jokes are such self-reflexive boomerangs that it may take a couple of times before you can be sure who the target was. You'll also notice that some of Cohen’s victims actually hold on to their dignity rather well. Special features on the DVD include Kazakh "Bay Watch" spoof, a "best of" deleted scenes compilation and a Rodeo News report.
2. Fast Food Nation
Richard Linklater’s dramatic adaptation of Eric Schlosser’s muckraking bestseller plays like Traffic with hamburgers instead of cocaine. Fast Food Nation is as earnest as any film by John Sayles, though his approach to story-telling feels less rigid, more off-the-cuff. The outstanding ensemble cast includes Greg Kinnear, Ethan Hawke, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Kris Kristofferson, Luis Guzman, Patricia Arquette, Ashley Johnson, and Avril Lavigne.3. Requiem
Based on a true story, the harrowing events portrayed in Hans-Christian Schmid's Requiem also inspired the U.S. film The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Sandra Hüller gives an astonishing performance as the young woman whose nervous breakdown is treated as possession and is put through an exorcism to drive out the demons.4. Strange Circus
Twisted horror from Japan: beautiful Mitsuko is forced to play in her parents sex games. Director Sion Sono (Suicide Club) explores the shifting line between fiction and reality.
