The Assassin (2015) — PICK
The Martian (2015) — PICK
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2015) — PICK
Two of my favorite films of 2015 debut on Blu-ray/DVD, along with one of Disney’s greatest masterpieces of all time.
Matt Damon stars in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, a thoroughly entertaining, intellectually engaging, barely-sci-fi survival story about an astronaut in a manned mission to Mars who, during an emergency, is left behind by his crew and believed dead. Damon plays to his strengths as a resourceful expert (a botanist, in this case) who always makes the smartest possible move and still isn’t sure it will save his life. The Martian is also an ode to the unrepeatable value of each human being.
The Assassin, from Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien (The Flight of the Red Balloon), is a very different tale about a singularly skilled loner, an art-house wuxia (Chinese martial-arts romance) film about a young girl (Shu Qi) trained from childhood in the art of killing by a ruthless Taoist nun who begins to have second thoughts about the deadly path appointed to her.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs! From the careful character animation (the fearsome Queen, such a powerful presence in only a handful of scenes; the lovely stylized naturalism of Snow White, semi-traced from a real actress’ performance) to countless clever touches (like the touch of real blush the ink-and-paint girls put on Snow’s cheeks), Snow White is dazzling from start to finish.
CAVEAT SPECTATOR: The Assassin: Stylized, sometimes deadly violence. Teens and up. The Martian: Depictions of bloody injuries; fleeting rear nudity; some cursing and crude language. Teens and up. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Some frightening sequences and images. Fine family viewing.