The Ones Below
In his debut feature film, British writer-director-Shakespearean David Farr spins a story out of anxieties, starting with the eternal unease that accompanies pregnancy for many women and adding fear of neighbors in a society where no one is sure of anyone else. Tension sparks, recedes and slowly remounts between the upstairs couple, ostensibly happy over their new baby (Clémence Poésy, Stephen Campbell Moore) and their oddly off-kilter desperate-to-conceive downstairs neighbors (Laura Birn, David Morrissey).
Lee Scratch Perry’s Vision of Paradise
Lee Scratch Perry is the ultimate insider outside of reggae. He was around from the music’s inception, produced Bob Marley and pioneered dub, yet conjures up sound and vision like no other reggae artist. Trailing his subject with a camera, German director Volker Schaner documents Perry’s eccentricities in this quirky film. Mostly, Perry is allowed to hold forth, spinning Rasta rhymes about Haile Selassie, the Babylon, Africa and his quest to launch a “spiritual revolution against evil.”
Humpback Whales
It must have been impressive on IMAX but it still looks good on flat screens at home. Narrated by Ewan McGregor, Humpback Whales is a tribute to the graceful 40-ton, 50-foot behemoths that glide through the sea, singing their eerie songs while migrating thousands of miles. The good news is that whaling bans have resulted in a comeback for the endangered species, yet some nations still hunt the beasts; others die from accidental collisions with ships.
“The Carol Burnett Show: The Lost Episodes”
The latest release from the Carol Burnett archive is a deluxe 22-DVD box set. At the compilation’s heart are every episode from the first five seasons of her weekly variety show from the late 1960s and early ’70s. Burnett was a gifted comedian capable of playing everyone from a Girl Scout to an octogenarian and packed her program with such current stars as Bing Crosby, Phyllis Diller, Bob Newhart, Joan Rivers and Don Rickles.
