DVD Corner

“Arrested Development: Season Three”: Well-developed lunacy backed by some of the best writing on television. So, naturally, the show was canceled in this third and final season. Still, what a season. It’s the dysfunction, the eccentricity and the general cluelessness of the Bluth family that allowed this series to achieve its fresh blast of comedy. The irony begins with the series’ title – nothing about this show’s development is arrested. Throughout, formula is repeatedly tossed to the pavement in favor of taking chances, and then taking more, until you sense the wheels are about to come off, which they don’t. That’s a testament to the first-rate direction, the writing and the cast, which includes Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi, Jeffrey Tambor, Tony Hale and Jessica Walter. Grade: A-

“Bob Newhart Show: Season 4”: It’s the genius of Bob Newhart’s reactions – his blank, questioning expressions, his passive-aggressive outbursts, the sense that the world is having its way with him (and not the other way around) – that are the gift of Newhart’s comedy. Here, in this fourth season of the show, Newhart’s psychologist, Dr. Robert Hartley, takes group therapy to new lows and highs thanks to his troubled cast of characters – Bill Daily, Peter Bonerz, the towering Marcia Wallace, a host of others. As Hartley’s wife, Suzanne Pleshette strikes the balance, keeping the series – and Hartley – as down to earth as possible; she’s his foil, as necessary to the show as Newhart himself. Grade: A

“Conviction: Complete Series”: Conviction? Sure, but too much of it, frankly, which was the show’s downfall. Everybody in this canceled legal drama seems as if they came to the set after drinking a case of Red Bull. Intense doesn’t begin to describe what these assistant district attorneys bring to the courtroom – and to the bedroom, which is where so many of them end up so often. The show’s hive of characters tend to overwhelm the nest, with viewers getting stung as a result. Grade: C

“Desperate Housewives: Complete Second Season”: If it were just desperation that drove the women of Wisteria Lane, “Desperate Housewives” would have been just another soap opera and not the hit ABC television show it became. What makes this Emmy Award-winning show one of the more satisfying pop-culture enfant terribles is how its desperation manifests itself – onscreen and off. Here, we get repeat doses of blackmail, backbiting, infidelity, suicide, sex, gossip and relentless status-seeking. Not as saucy as the first season, but still cheap fun. Grade: B+

“Friends with Money”: Focuses on four female friends at different stages in their lives – three have grown into money while one is nearly destitute. The dynamics of their relationships are observed by writer-director Nicole Holofcener, though never judged by her – she leaves that up to the women. Nobody here is especially happy, which on paper makes the movie sound a like a downer but which, in reality, turns out to be part of its charm. The film has a satisfying edge, dialogue that cuts, rage that burns, with performances by Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Francis McDormand, Joan Cusack that are amiably askew. Rated R. Grade: B

“Kinky Boots”: Follows a towering, torch-song-singing drag queen named Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor) whose influence on a struggling English shoe manufacturer puts the Hush Puppy, so to speak, on all things conservative. Joel Edgerton is Charlie Price, the young man struggling to save his dead father’s respected (and bankrupt) shoe manufacturing plant. Charlie hails from Northamptonshire, which is exactly the sort of uptight, repressed blue-collar town favored in so many of today’s popular British comedies. Since tolerance, understanding and a whole lot of loosening up are what these movies court, Charlie finds in his desperation that Lola is an inspiration. He hires her to design a line of outrageous boots, a bold move that creates its share of tension among the grim factory workers – and then a kind of release. Based on the true story of the real Kinky Boot Factory in Northamptonshire, England, “Kinky Boots” steams and sighs, thanks mostly to its terrific performance by the dewy-lipped Ejiofor. The actor plays Lola as perhaps the most family-friendly drag queen ever – she barely has a whiff of sexuality, which is a cop-out. Still, she does have presence, there is fun to be had in her thirst for a good performance in great shoes, and by the end of the movie, when she’s doing the catwalk down a Milan runway, well, just try not enjoying the show. Rated PG-13. Grade: B+

“United 93”: Toward the end of “United 93,” the director, Paul Greengrass, delivers one of several masterstrokes, layering the hushed prayers of Christianity and Islam over each other until the cabin on that doomed Sept. 11, 2001 flight becomes a divided worship house roaring through the heavens. The experience of hearing Greengrass’ growing cacophony of “God” and “Allah” becomes almost otherworldly – a quiet chant. Moments are undeniably melodic, as if the two religions, for an odd instant, create an unlikely kind of music, with the conviction of every soul on that plane joining a chorus to which they likely never thought they’d be a part. Like so much of this heartbreaking, beautifully handled film, you sit transfixed, knowing the tragic fate of the men and women hijacked by the four terrorists on United Flight 93, but not necessarily knowing what they went through during the final moments of their lives. That’s still true – we won’t ever know. But by stitching together the telephone calls made by those passengers to their loved ones as the events unfolded – as well as the documented accounts of those in the military and air traffic control towers – the movie gives us a believable, realistic idea that is never sensationalized. What Greengrass has created is haunting and unshakable, the medium at its full potential. Grade: A