DVD+Digital Picks

Pick of the Week

Traffic: Blu-ray Edition

Drama; rated R for pervasive drug content, strong language, violence and some sexuality; Blu-ray reissue.

The Gist: Director Steven Soderbergh's exploration of the illegal drug trade gets a gorgeous Blu-ray upgrade.

The Lowdown: In the spirit of full disclosure, "Traffic" is one of my favorite films from one of my favorite directors, and I've been waiting on this Blu-ray release with film geek fervor.

An adaptation of a British TV miniseries, "Traffic" is almost foolishly ambitious. It delves into the insanely complex matter of illegal drugs from multiple perspectives - the cops, the drug runners, the addicts, the politicians - and attempts to tease some sort of sense out of it all.

Director Soderbergh famously employed a color-template solution to keep the film's interwoven stories visually distinguishable. The drug-runner scenes in Mexico have a sepia glow; the D.C. public policy story has a cool blue sheen; the family sequences in California are lush with greens.

The extras on this Criterion reissue dig deep into the film-making strategies employed. Interactive featurettes specify the detailed work that went into the editing and film processing. The movie has also been restored to its 1.78:1 aspect ratio, with audio and video digital transfer to high-def specs, supervised by Soderbergh.

The Extras: Three interactive featurettes, 25 deleted scenes, three audio commentary tracks, additional raw footage from multiple angles, trailers and TV spots, and an essay from the New York Times' ace critic Manohla Dargis.

The Bottom Line: If you haven't seen "Traffic," you can get it cheaper on DVD or digital download. If you love it as much as I did, consider springing for this Blu-ray upgrade.

Double Secret Bonus Tip: "Traffic" won 2001 Oscars for Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Benicio Del Toro), Best Film Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Ides of March

Political thriller; rated R for pervasive language; available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download

The Gist: Junior campaign manager Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) navigates the corrupt world of presidential politics as he tries to get his Democratic candidate boss (George Clooney) into the Oval Office.

The Lowdown: Directed and co-written by Clooney, "The Ides of March" is a tense political thriller with a dark view of American politics - at least on the presidential campaign level. Gosling, as the naive but ambitious campaign underling, proves to be a quick study in the land of epic double-crosses, learning from perfectly cast political veterans like Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Some movies make you laugh, some make you cry, and some just make you mad. "Ides" falls into the last category, but that's on purpose. Beneath the drama, thriller and loss-of-innocence elements - which are many and fine - Clooney's film is designed to provoke outrage about the American political process. Anyone playing the presidential campaign game, "Ides" suggests, must be viciously cynical to have a chance at competing. Hypocrisy is a given, and idealism is a terminal weakness. No one comes out of this particular movie looking very heroic.

To its credit, "Ides" is never overt about this message, but it's the film's thesis nevertheless. It's pleasant to watch a movie made this well, but I don't know that it tells us anything we don't already know.

The Extras: Four featurettes and a commentary track from Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov.

The Bottom Line: A well-crafted political thriller.

Double Secret Bonus Tip: Local-girl-done-good Evan Rachel Wood - her dad runs Raleigh's Theatre in the Park - continues her Hollywood ascent with another great performance.