08:44 AM CST on Wednesday, March 15, 2006

By Boo Allen / Film Critic

Oscar finally arrives with Capote, released March 21, and Good Night, and Good Luck, released March 14..

In Capote, this brilliant work that garnered five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoff­man), Alabama native and well-known writer, is first seen at a trendy Manhattan cocktail party.

From there, director Bennett Miller (The Cruise) follows the script of his childhood friend Dan Futterman and explores Capote’s path to his ground-breaking book, In Cold Blood.

Bennett stays clear of Capote’s later alcohol-riddled life and concentrates on Capote’s obsession with the November 1959 slaughter of a Kansas farm family. Capote and his friend, Nell Harper Lee (Oscar nominee Catherine Keener), travel to the site, gathering information and making friends with the locals. Capote eventually gets caught up with the two killers and their fates, a relationship which lasted until their execution four years later. In an Oscar-winning performance, Hoff­man daringly attempts to capture Capote, with his acute mannerisms and his shrill, high-tone voice. Miller delivers a surely measured film with a series of character-revealing scenes of Capote as he falls further and further into his debilitating alcoholism. The director and his technical crew faithfully recreate the late 1950s, paying close attention to the small things as well as the big, making this one of the best movies of the last decade.

The DVD offers two commentaries, the first by Miller and Hoffman, with the actor confessing he had doubts about the project even after two weeks of filming. Miller and cinematographer Adam Kimmel offer the second commentary. An additional 36-minute featurette is broken into segments, the first, “Concept to shooting,” takes a look at the film’s genesis, with interviews with Miller, Hoffman and others. The second, “Defining a style,” goes more into the film’s overall look, from Kimmel’s cinematography to the costume and production designers who admit that they consciously avoided using the color red. Also, “Answered Prayers,” a seven-minute look at Truman Capote’s tragic life. In Dolby Digital 5.1 ($28.95).

 *

Good Night, and Good Luck (****) George Clooney co-wrote, directed and co-stars in this five-time Oscar nominated film about the 1953-54 battle waged between CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and Wis­consin Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Oscar-nominated cinematographer Robert Elswit’s black-and-white photography gives the film an aged, documentary-like look and feel.

On display is the celebrated historical showdown when Mur­row, with the assent of CBS Chairman William S. Paley (Frank Langella), took on McCarthy, using his own words against him. Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov (who plays Don Hewitt) do the same, that is, throw McCarthy’s own words back at him, using vintage newsreels of the senator. Oscar-nominated David Strathairn eerily captures Murrow, his craggy face and prominent jowls, as well as his perpetually gloomy look.

Clooney shows a fluid use of the camera and moves backstage, documenting the inter-office stratagems used in the conflict. What he has done best, however, is transfer to the screen the courage and convictions of a group of people who risked their lives and careers for their country to “speak truth to power.”

Rated PG, 93 minutes, also on DVD.

*

History of Violence (***) Canadian director David Cro­nenberg places an average family under the microscope to examine how violence can flow from father to son. After a long, slow opening scene ends in a shockingly violent act, the director quickly changes directions and introduces the small town, Stall family, Tom (Viggo Mortenson), his wife Edie (Maria Bello), and their two children. Cronenberg then sets up a possibility that rock solid Tom is not the man everyone thinks he is, but possibly a former mob hit man. It sounds preposterous, but somehow a disturbing mood and a series of tense situations are developed. Cronenberg and screenwriter Josh Olson showcase seedy environments, small towns, and shady characters who look plucked from the films noirs of the 1940s and ’50s. Cro­nenberg’s violence comes unexpectedly yet he knows when to fade into the background and keep quiet, making the shocks all the more effective.

Rated R, 97 minutes, also on single-disc DVD.

*

The Shaggy Dog (***) and The Shaggy D.A. (***) Arriving at the same time as the new Tim Allen comedy remake, these two Disney favorites appear for the first time on DVD. The original Dog featured several Mickey Mouse Club favorites, including Tommy Kirk as the teenager who changes into a slobbering sheepdog. In the first live-action comedy from the Disney studio, lovable bumbler Fred MacMurray joins kids Tim Considine, Kevin Corcoran and every boy’s fantasy, Annette Funicello, in her first movie role. The D.A. picks up years later when the boy has become a man (Dean Jones) who accidentally stumbles onto the magic ring that again turns him into the perplexed canine.

Both rated G. Dog runs 104 minutes and D.A., 92 minutes.

Both films contain abundant bonus materials, such as 10 extra minutes of film and two featurettes with D.A. Dog also includes the black-and-white version of the film as well as the color. A surprising number of cast members are still around to pitch in on the commentaries: Kirk, Considine, et al. on Dog and Joanne Worley, Dick Van Patten and Tim Conway on D.A.

Also on VHS and DVD: Chasing Ghosts, Cutter, Dear Wendy, Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, Sleep Cell, and Year of the Yao.

Also on DVD: Given to Him, Happy Hour, Irish Jam, Lost, and Thief Lord.