Ryder, Winona

Little Women (Collector's Edition)

Winona Ryder (in an Oscar-nominated role) and Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon (1995 Best Actress Dead Man Walking) star in this "affectionate superbly acted" (Los Angeles Times) family favorite.With her husband off at war Marmee (Sarandon) is left alone to raise their four daughters her "little women." There is the spirited Jo (Winona Ryder) conservative Meg (Trini Alvarado - Paulie) fragile Beth (Claire Danes - William Shakespeare s Romeo & Juliet) and romantic Amy (played at different ages by Kirsten Dunst [Wag The Dog] and Samantha Mathis [Broken Arrow]).As the years pass the sisters share some of the most cherished and painful memories of self-discovery as Marmee and Aunt March (Mary Wickes - The Man Who Came To Dinner) guide them through issues of independence romance and virtue.Gabriel Byrne (End Of Days) Eric Stoltz (TV s Chicago Hope) and Christian Bale (The Portrait Of A Lady) co-star in this "handcrafted valentine" (Newsweek) of a film.System Requirements:Starring: Winona Ryder John Neville Mary Wickes Claire Danes Susan Sarandon Kirsten Dunst Gabriel Byrne Trini Alvarado Samantha Mathis Christian Bale and Eric Stoltz. Directed By: Gillian Armstrong. Running Time: 118 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Columbia TriStar Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 043396050440 Manufacturer No: 05044

The flaws are easily forgiven in this beautiful version of Louisa May Alcott's novel. A stirring look at life in New England during the Civil War, Little Women is a triumph for all involved. We follow one family as they split into the world, ending up with the most independent, the outspoken Jo (Winona Ryder). This time around, the dramatics and conclusions fall into place a little too well, instead of finding life's little accidents along the way. Everyone now looks a bit too cute and oh, so nice. As the matron, Marmee, Susan Sarandon kicks the film into a modern tone, creating a movie alive with a great feminine sprit. Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire) has another showy role. The young ensemble cast cannot be faulted, with Ryder beginning the movie in a role akin to light comedy and crescendoing to a triumphant end worthy of an Oscar. --Doug Thomas

Edward Scissorhands (Widescreen Anniversary Edition)

Adventures of a creature left unfinished by his inventor. Instead of hands, he has sharp shears of metal.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 3-JUN-2003
Media Type: DVD

Edward Scissorhands achieves the nearly impossible feat of capturing the delicate flavor of a fable or fairy tale in a live-action movie. The story follows a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp), who was created by an inventor (Vincent Price, in one of his last roles) who died before he could give the poor creature a pair of human hands. Edward lives alone in a ruined Gothic castle that just happens to be perched above a pastel-colored suburb inhabited by breadwinning husbands and frustrated housewives straight out of the 1950s. One day, Peg (Dianne Wiest), the local Avon lady, comes calling. Finding Edward alone, she kindly invites him to come home with her, where she hopes to help him with his pasty complexion and those nasty nicks he's given himself with his razor-sharp fingers. Soon Edward's skill with topiary sculpture and hair design make him popular in the neighborhood--but the mood turns just as swiftly against the outsider when he starts to feel his own desires, particularly for Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder). Most of director Tim Burton's movies (such as Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman) are visual spectacles with elements of fantasy, but Edward Scissorhands is more tender and personal than the others. Edward's wild black hair is much like Burton's, suggesting that the character represents the director's own feelings of estrangement and co-option. Johnny Depp, making his first successful leap from TV to film, captures Edward's childlike vulnerability even while his physical posture evokes horror icons like the vampire in Nosferatu and the sleepwalker in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Classic horror films, at their heart, feel a deep sympathy for the monsters they portray; simply and affectingly, Edward Scissorhands lays that heart bare. --Bret Fetzer

Edward Scissorhands achieves the nearly impossible feat of capturing the delicate flavor of a fable or fairy tale in a live-action movie. The story follows a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp), who was created by an inventor (Vincent Price, in one of his last roles) who died before he could give the poor creature a pair of human hands. Edward lives alone in a ruined Gothic castle that just happens to be perched above a pastel-colored suburb inhabited by breadwinning husbands and frustrated housewives straight out of the 1950s. One day, Peg (Dianne Wiest), the local Avon lady, comes calling. Finding Edward alone, she kindly invites him to come home with her, where she hopes to help him with his pasty complexion and those nasty nicks he's given himself with his razor-sharp fingers. Soon Edward's skill with topiary sculpture and hair design make him popular in the neighborhood--but the mood turns just as swiftly against the outsider when he starts to feel his own desires, particularly for Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder). Most of director Tim Burton's movies (such as Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman) are visual spectacles with elements of fantasy, but Edward Scissorhands is more tender and personal than the others. Edward's wild black hair is much like Burton's, suggesting that the character represents the director's own feelings of estrangement and co-option. Johnny Depp, making his first successful leap from TV to film, captures Edward's childlike vulnerability even while his physical posture evokes horror icons like the vampire in Nosferatu and the sleepwalker in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Classic horror films, at their heart, feel a deep sympathy for the monsters they portray; simply and affectingly, Edward Scissorhands lays that heart bare. --Bret Fetzer

The Crucible

The Salem witch hunts are given a new and nasty perspective when a vengeful teenage girl uses superstition and repression to her advantage, creating a killing machine that becomes a force unto itself. Pulsating with seductive energy, this provocative drama is as visually arresting as it is intellectually engrossing. Arthur Miller based his classic 1953 play on the actual Salem witch trials of 1692, creating what has since become a durable fixture of school drama courses. It may look like a historical drama, but Miller also meant the work as a parable for the misery created by the McCarthy anti-Communist hearings of the 1950s. This searing version of his drama delves into matters of conscience with concise accuracy and emotional honesty. Three passionate cheers for Miller, director Nicholas Hytner, and costars Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. --Rochelle O'Gorman

The Salem witch trials of 1692 are brought vividly to life in this compelling adaptation of Arthur Miller's play, directed by Nicholas Hytner ("The Madness of King George"). A group of teenage girls meet in the woods at midnight for a secret love-conjuring ceremony. While the other girls attempt to cast love spells, Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) wishes for the death of her former lover's (Daniel Day-Lewis) wife. When their ceremony is witnessed by the town minister, the girls suddenly find themselves accused of witchcraft. Soon the entire village is consumed by cries of witchcraft, and as the hysteria grows, blameless victims are torn from their homes, leading to a devastating climax.

Sex and Death 101

SEX AND DEATH 101 (DVD MOVIE)

Girl, Interrupted

After a botched suicide attempt Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) checks herself into a renowned psychiatric hospital where she meets a group of troubled young women including the charming sociopath Lisa (Angela Jolie) and soon realizes she ll have to fight for her sanity -- and her freedom.System Requirements:Starring: Whoopi Goldberg Angelina Jolie Jared Leto Vanessa Redgrave and Winona Ryder. Directed By: James Mangold. Running Time: 127 mins. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright: 2000 Columbia Tri Star Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396047464

Based on Susanna Kaysen's acclaimed journal-memoir, Girl, Interrupted bears inevitable resemblance to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and pale comparison to that earlier classic is impossible to avoid. The mental institution settings of both films guarantee a certain degree of déjà vu and at least one Oscar winner (in this case, Angelina Jolie), since playing a loony is any actor's dream gig. Unfortunately, director James Mangold seems to have misplaced the depth and delicacy of his underrated debut, Heavy, despite a great deal of earnest effort by everyone involved. It's easy to see why Winona Ryder chose to star in (and executive-produce) this nearly worthy adaptation of Kaysen's book, since it's a strong vehicle for female casting and potent drama. Mangold certainly got the former; whether he succeeded with the latter is not so clear.

To be sure, Ryder conveys the confusion and chaos that signified Kaysen's life during nearly 18 months of voluntary institutionalization beginning in 1967. But the film seems too eager to embrace the cliché that the "crazies" of the Claymoore women's ward are saner than the war-torn world outside, and lack of narrative focus gives way to semipredictable character study. Susanna (Ryder) is labeled with "borderline personality disorder," a diagnosis as ambiguous as her own emotions, and while Jolie chews the scenery as the resident bad-girl sociopath, Ryder effectively conveys an odyssey from vulnerable fear to self-awareness and, finally, to healing. The ensemble cast is uniformly superb, making this drama well worthwhile, even as it treads familiar territory. If it ultimately lacks dramatic impact, Girl, Interrupted makes it painfully clear that the boundaries of dysfunction are hazy in a world where everyone's crazy once in a while. --Jeff Shannon

The Age of Innocence

Martin Scorsese does not sound like the logical choice to direct an adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel about manners and morals in New York society in the 1870s. But these are mean streets, too, and the psychological violence inflicted between characters is at least as damaging as the physical violence perpetrated by Scorsese's usual gangsters. At the center of the tale is Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), a somewhat diffident young man engaged to marry the very respectable May Welland (Winona Ryder). But Archer is distracted by May's cousin, the Countess Olenska (a radiant Michelle Pfeiffer), recently returned from Europe. As a married woman seeking a divorce, the countess is an embarrassment to all of New York society. But Archer is fascinated by her quick intelligence and worldly ways. Scorsese closely observes the tiny details of this world and this impossible situation; this is a movie in which the shift of someone's eyes can be as significant as the firing of a gun. The director's sense of color has never been keener, and his work with the actors is subtle. That's Joanne Woodward narrating, telling us only as much as we need to know--which is one reason why the climax comes as such a surprise.--Robert Horton

Heathers (THX Version)

This dark comedy from 1989 was a good showcase for Winona Ryder, playing a high school girl brought into a clique of bitchy classmates (all named Heather), and Christian Slater, doing his early Jack Nicholson thing. While Ryder's character mulls over the consequences of giving up one set of friends for another, her association with a new boy (Slater) in school turns out to have deadly consequences. Director Michael Lehmann turned this unusual film into something more than another teen-death flick. There is real wit and sharp satire afoot, and the very fusion of horror and comedy is provocative in itself. Heathers remains a kind of benchmark in contemporary cinema for bringing surreal intelligence into Hollywood films. --Tom Keogh

Welcome to Westerburg High, where Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) is beginning to tire of her membership in the powerful yet cruel clique of 'Heathers' When Veronica falls for the mysterious new kid Jason Dean (Christian Slater), their dislike for the Heathers quickly escalates into a savage cycle of murder, suicide and Slushies. Now that her teenage angst has a body count, are Veronica and JD headed for the prom...or hell?

Shannen Doherty co-stars in one of the greatest black comedies of all time, newly remastered and better than ever! What's your damage? This is HEATHERS like you've never seen or heard it before!

Includes a 4 Page Collector's Booklet

A Scanner Darkly

Set in a not-too-distant future where America has lost its "war" on drugs Fred an undercover cop is one of many people hooked on the popular drug Substance D which causes its users to develop split personalities. Fred is obsessed with taking down Bob a notorious drug dealer but due to his Substance D addiction he does not know that he is also Bob. Based on a classic novel by Philip K. Dick. Starring Keanu Reeves ("Constantine" "The Matrix" trilogy) Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Winona Ryder ("Girl Interupted" "Mr. Deeds") Academy Award and Emmy-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Robert Downey Jr. ("Good Night And Good Luck" "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang") and Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominee and Emmy-winner Woody Harrelson ("North Country" "The People vs. Larry Flynt"). Directed by Academy Award-nominee Richard Linklater ("Before Sunset" "Dazed and Confused"). Filmed in live-action and then animated using the same critically acclaimed process that Linklater used in his previous film "Waking Life."Running Time: 100 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY UPC: 012569594173 Manufacturer No: 59417

How well you respond to Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly depends on how much you know about the life and work of celebrated science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. While it qualifies as a faithful adaptation of Dick's semiautobiographical 1977 novel about the perils of drug abuse, Big Brother-like surveillance and rampant paranoia in a very near future ("seven years from now"), this is still very much a Linklater film, and those two qualities don't always connect effectively. The creepy potency of Dick's premise remains: The drug war's been lost, citizens are kept under rigid surveillance by holographic scanning recorders, and a schizoid addict named Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is facing an identity crisis he's not even aware of: Due to his voluminous intake of the highly addictive psychotropic drug Substance D, Arctor's brain has been split in two, each hemisphere functioning separately. So he doesn't know that he's also Agent Fred, an undercover agent assigned to infiltrate Arctor's circle of friends (played by Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Rory Cochrane, and Robert Downey, Jr.) to track down the secret source of Substance D. As he wears a "scramble suit" that constantly shifts identities and renders Agent Fred/Arctor into "the ultimate everyman," Dick's drug-addled antihero must come to grips with a society where, as the movie's tag-line makes clear, "everything is not going to be OK."

While it's virtually guaranteed to achieve some kind of cult status, A Scanner Darkly lacks the paranoid intensity of Dick's novel, and Linklater's established penchant for loose and loopy dialogue doesn't always work here, with an emphasis on drug-culture humor instead of the panicked anxiety that Dick's novel conveys. As for the use of "interpolated rotoscoping"--the technique used to apply shifting, highly stylized animation over conventional live-action footage--it's purely a matter of personal preference. The film's look is appropriate to Dick's dark, cautionary story about the high price of addiction, but it also robs performances of nuance and turns the seriousness of Dick's story into... well, a cartoon. Opinions will differ, but A Scanner Darkly is definitely worth a look--or two, if the mind-rattling plot doesn't sink in the first time around. --Jeff Shannon

Reality Bites (10th Anniversary Edition)

Ben Stiller's directorial debut was this sporadically successful twentysomething comedy that tries too hard to codify the generational experience of its young adult characters. Winona Ryder plays a still-unformed woman struggling with career and relationship issues, Janeane Garofalo portrays her best friend, and Ethan Hawke and Stiller play the two lovers pursuing her. The story is as also about generation-X confusion over how to get by in a hand-me-down world with not much to get excited about, a world filled with a pop culture currency of bad music and poetry slams. The film's chief strength is its appealing cast, which is bolstered by appearances from David Spade, Renee Zellweger, Kevin Pollak, Jeanne Triplehorn, and Stiller's mother, Anne Meara. --Tom Keogh

Lucas

A surprisingly engaging story of puppy love and friendship in a teen setting, this film focuses on the title character (Corey Haim), who is nerdy but winningly outgoing. He falls madly for a new girl in town (Kerri Green); since school is out for the summer, he becomes her only friend--until she meets his hunky pal (Charlie Sheen). Meanwhile, Lucas ignores the romantic yearnings of another female pal (Winona Ryder, in her screen debut). Written and directed by David Seltzer, this one is a charmer with substance, featuring strong, open performances by its young cast. It's also fascinating to watch today, more than a decade later, and consider what became of these performers: while Ryder grew to be one of Hollywood's brightest lights, Haim descended into substance abuse, as did Sheen, whose predilection for call girls also made him a talk-show punch line. --Marshall Fine

At 14 years old, Lukas is a bit too small for his age, and far too smart for his high school classmates. He's more interested in symphonies and science fairs than food fights and football. But when Lucas finds himself falling in love with a cheerleader, who only has eyes for the school's top jock, he grows desperate for her attention, Even if it means risking his pride and his neck at the big game.