A Korean seaside resort, Rudy Giuliani's New York, a ping pong tournament, and a grocery in Provence are among the unlikely places this week's recommended DVDs can transport you to: Hong Sang-soo’s Woman on the Beach, Jonathan Levine's The Wackness, Eric Guirado's The Grocer's Son, and Jessica Hu's comedy Ping Pong Playa.
1. Woman on the Beach
New Yorker Video
Set in an off-season seaside resort, Hong Sang-soo’s Woman on the Beach follows the fortunes of an egotistical movie director with his girlfriends, vindictive sushi chefs, swollen muscles, and an abandoned dog. The quiet, unpredicable film is ineffable, hilarious, and true. The New Yorker Video release of Woman on the Beach includes an interview with Hong by Filmbrain Andrew Grant.
2. The Wackness
Sony Pictures
It's the summer of 1994 in Josh Levine's The Wackness, a surprisingly tender coming of age film about a teenage drug dealer in Mayor Giuliani's New York. Josh Peck stars as our hapless hero, Ben Kingsley portrays his dope smoking therapist, Mary-Kate Olsen spins through Central Park as a trust fund hippie -- but it's rising star Olivia Thirlby who steals the film as Luke Shapiro's distant object of desire.
3. The Grocer's Son
Film Movement
Film Movement, an independent DVD distributor that doubles as DVD-of-the-month club, releases Eric Guirado's The Grocer's Son. The award-winning French drama tells the story of Antoine, who is forced to leave Paris and return to his family home in Provence to take over his ailing father's grocery.
4. Ping Pong Playa
Image Entertainment
We were surprised when acclaimed filmmaker Jessica Yu followed up her documentary In the Realms of the Unreal, about artist Henry Darger, with a comedy about ping pong. Ping Pong Playa is charming coming-of-age tale of a young man whose pipe-dream of being a basketball superstar is sidelined when he takes his brother's place in a big ping pong tournament. More from Aaron Hillis.
