THE UNFORESEEN (New Yorker) Laura Dunn’s film tells the story of an oasis within an oasis — a limestone aquifer in the middle of Austin, Texas, that served in the 1970s as a sort of ground zero for the city’s famously left-leaning constituency. The real estate developers looking to raze the area were rebuffed, time and again, until the election of a certain smirking Texas governor in the mid-1990s left the back door wide open. One of the least-seen of the recent spate of North American eco-screeds (it never played theatrically in Toronto, save for a closing night slot at the Planet in Focus Festival), The Unforeseen is almost certainly the best of the lot.
Dunn’s subject is nothing less than the slow paving-over of idealism, but her ability to balance sociological acuity, emotional generosity, structural ingenuity and conceptual rigour (particularly in an extended metaphor linking urban sprawl to cancer cells) elevates the film far above mere melancholy. This is what top-shelf political filmmaking looks like in 2008. Extras: commentary track with director Laura Dunn, cinematographer Lee Daniel and other crew members; trailers; essay by film critic Dennis Lim.
Also out this week
THE FOOT FIST WAY (Paramount) Before he was ubiquitous, Danny McBride (Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder) was merely sort of annoying in this mean-spirited, Will Ferrell–approved indie about a dunderheaded dojo martinet trying to teach kids better living through kicking. Extras: commentary, bloopers, alternate ending and 20 (count ’em!) deleted scenes.
LEATHERHEADS (Universal) George Clooney warmed up for an actual Coen brothers movie by making his own ersatz version of same — unfortunately, most of the comparisons were to The Hudsucker Proxy. Extras: commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes.
PATHOLOGY (MGM) “From the writers of Crank” should be enough to compel any sane person to check this one out, but in case you need more: it’s about attractive medical students who commit elaborate murders so as to challenge each others’ mad forensics skillz. And Alyssa Milano is in it! Extras: commentary, featurettes, music video, “extended autopsy scene.”
SEX AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE (Alliance) SATC:TM was the year’s most critic-proof movie, so why even bother with a snarky comment? Extras: commentary, interviews, additional scenes and something called “Fergie in the Studio.”
Out Sept 30
Chapter 27, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Taxi to the Darkside and a little-seen Robert Downey Jr. film called Iron Man.