David Bowie – The Calm Before the Storm

We all know him now as the great chameleon of rock and roll, able to change musical styles and genres as easily as he changes outfits on stage. One year he’s Ziggy Stardust leading the Spiders from Mars, and a few albums later he’s The Thin White Duke “throwing darts in lover’s eyes.” Being so musical flexible didn’t come easy for Bowie, it’s something he worked very hard on, and very publically, with the recording of this first three albums -- the self titled David Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory. This fascinating documentary takes audiences for an in depth journey through the albums using a combination of interviews with  the musicians who helped Bowie create them and the rock critics who were there when they were first released into the world, some who heralded their arrival with praise and some with disdain. It’s a nice mix of opinions, and there are plenty of clips of the man behind all these masks to make their stories come alive. The only thing missing, as it often is in these kinds of music biographies, is an interview with Bowie to put everybody’s opinion in place.

Jim Gaffigan: Mr. Universe

A well known character actor on the big and small screen, Gaffigan started as a stand-up comic and still makes the simple act of standing in front of a room full of people with nothing but a microphone and making them laugh themselves silly the backbone of his career. And why not? As this very funny performance proves, he’s really good at it. His latest set has him covering topics ranging from his joy at eating at McDonald’s to his experiences going to the gym to life on the road compared to life at home. The situations are familiar, but the way Gaffigan thinks about them is original and funny. The title may refer to the comedians lack of physical health, but it’s equally appropriate in describing his universal style of comedy. The jokes are intelligent and will give you plenty to think about when the show is over, if that’s what you want from your stand-up performers. Or you can just listen, laugh then hope you friends haven’t heard it (yet) when you retell the joke the next day.

Quadrophenia

You don’t have to be familiar with the British cultural history of Mods vs. Rockers to identify with the youth in revolt portrayed in this powerful film from director Franc Roddam (The Bride). You don’t even need to know much about the 1973 album by The Who which the story is loosely based on. You may, however, want to turn on the subtitle because the accents of the actors are pretty thick for those not familiar with 1970s British youth slang. The film tells the story of Jimmy (Phil Daniels), an angry young man/Mod who spends his days popping pills and riding around on his tricked-out scooter looking for something –anything – to vent his pent up frustration on. He’s not alone in his needs; in fact, the ultimate battle of Mods vs. Rockers is about to take place at the seaside resort of Brighton and Jimmie plans to be there and be part of history. Roddam fills the screen with energy, and does a good job of blending The Who music (and The Who’s attitude) into a lot of the big scenes. It’s the mesmerizing performance of Daniels that gives the film its edge, though, and ultimately makes it a heartbreaking study of youth in revolt.

Megacities

It’s one of those facts you probably don’t think about: There are more than 20 metropolises in the world that are home to more than 10 million inhabitants. Some of them are ultra-modern technological wonders, like Tokyo, and some are overcrowded slums, like Dhaka in Bangladesh. BBC journalist and host Andrew Marr isn’t content to sit behind a desk and report on the pros and cons of life in a modern Megacity; he knows the only way to get the real story is to get out of the office and go live in the city he’s reporting on. Not just visit, mind you, but live. The result is one of the best travel programs you can see because it takes you beyond the tourist attractions and the obvious to give you a true sense of what it is like to live in the Grande dame of Megacities, London, or survive in one of the most dangerous cities on the planet, Mexico City, Mexico. Keep the 12-page viewer’s guide handy, because Marr’s the kind of journalist who tells a story that not only informs, but inspires you to learn more.

Greatest Video Hits by Queen

More than just about any other pop group you can think of, the best way to know the band Queen and its music is to listen/watch their videos. It’s not really about the visual style of the videos, because most of them are set in a ‘live’ setting with the band lip-synching to their songs. It’s more about the complexity of the sound the four musicians make, something they were never really able to capture in concert or on a concert DVD. This two-disc set probably has more Queen songs than the casual fan will ever want to listen to, so they can use the tracking button on their remote to skip around and watch the hits — Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites The Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, etc. The real fans – or those inspired to learn more about the band’s music than what they heard on the radio – can spend time exploring the lesser known songs (at least to a US audience) on the second disc of the set. Not all of them work, but if there is one thing you learn from a set like this it’s that even when Queen flopped musically, they did it with style.

Moss

When he learns of his father’s death, Hae-guk (Park Hae-il, War of the Arrows) travels to pay his respects even if he wasn’t very close to the man when he was alive. From the minute he enters his father’s remote village, Hae-guk starts getting the feeling the people who knew his father better than he did don’t want to talk about what happened or what the man was like when he was alive. Truth be told, they don’t really want the son there to begin with, but Hae-guk is a stubborn young man who is determined to find out why people are acting so weird and what happened to his dad. Directed by Kang Woo-suk (Public Enemy), the mystery of Moss unfolds at a leisurely, almost annoyingly slow pace, or it does for at least for the first hour or so. The interaction between Hae-guk and the villagers, especially the Chief (Jung Jae-young, The Divine Weapon) is stilted and formal to the point of frustration, so it’s important not to try and outguess the plot as it slowly paces itself out. There’s a method to Kang’s hypnotic pacing; like the slow crawl to the top of the rails on a roller coaster, he’s setting you up for a wild thrill ride in the film’s final 90 minutes that doesn’t disappoint.

Ergo Proxy: The Complete Series

Set in a future where robots and man live in a strange symbiotic relationship, this fascinating series tells the story of Re-l Mayer, a female detective from the Civilian Intelligence Office whose investigation into a series of grisly murders leads her to uncover a government plot that could destroy the world. Anime fans will find the plot to Ergo Proxy familiar…at least in the beginning. Like all great mysteries, the story being told here is multi-layered and the creators do a fantastic job of peeling back those layers in surprising, sometimes shocking ways: Seemingly secondary characters you don’t pay attention to suddenly become the focal point of the investigation. Visually, the story is just as strong, both in terms of the stylistic rendering of the characters – human and robot — and the haunting atmosphere of the world they inhabit. The tension never lets up over the 23 episodes, leading you to an ending that is totally satisfying.