■ The Rise and Fall of The Clash
The Clash began as one of rock ’n’ roll’s great hopes and ended as a bloated caricature. Filled with archival footage and conflicting interviews with eyewitnesses, Danny Garcia’s documentary explores what went wrong. Different answers are offered: maybe it was the machinations of manager Bernie Rhodes or spokesman Kosmo Vinyl, the personality crisis between Mick Jones and Joe Strummer, the quandary of an anti-capitalist band making fistfuls of dollars, the failure of rhetoric—or all of the above?
■ Sophie’s Choice
Out as a Blu-ray/DVD with cast interviews as an extra, Sophie’s Choice (1982) is a gripping story of a naïve young Southern writer in 1947 New York. He falls in with the intriguing couple upstairs, the Polish Catholic refugee Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her high-strung Jewish boyfriend Nathan (Kevin Kline). Both are hiding secrets, including the choices Sophie made that enabled her to survive a Nazi death camp. Streep earned a well-deserved Oscar for her role.
■ Bastards
Rain washes an urban landscape, a sad-eyed man gazes into the night, a pensive woman wanders naked down the street as if looking for home; next scene: the yellow tape of a crime investigation. French director Claire Denis’ Bastards is an enigmatic, elliptical postmodern noir with a jigsaw-puzzle plot. At the center is retired sea captain Mario (Vincent Lindon), trying to keep a flame of honor burning in a dark world of sexual abuse and corruption.
