DVD REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

This thumb's for you

The coming-of-age movie ``Thumbsucker,'' which made its debut at last year's Sundance Film Festival, has modest aims but succeeds big time within that. It stars Lou Pucci as the teenage Justin who has the problem implied by the title. His dad, Jack (Vincent D'Onofrio), is befuddled and unhappy about it but is still, in his heart, loving. Mom Audry (Tilda Swinton) is patient but lost at times in her own problems of growth. His oddly assured holistic orthodontist Perry (drolly played by Keanu Reeves) tries to cure Justin with hypnosis but, after some trouble, the teen trades that ``cure'' for the Ritalin recommended by his school counselors. The drug turns him into a scholar and a star of the debate team coached by Mr. Geary (Vince Vaughn in a small gem of a performance). But when the buzz wears off, Justin tries a more mellow drug - marijuana - while experiencing adolescent lust.

What we see, though, is that everybody sucks on his or her thumb for comfort - whether it's Audrey's fixation on hunky TV star Matt Schramm (Benjamin Bratt in a funny cameo) or Jack's coulda-woulda football career that had been cut short by injury. Director Mike Mills - a onetime graphic artist - neatly walks the tightrope between farce and pathos and delivers an engaging, well-acted teen-angst film that defies the genre's limited formula.

``Flightplan'' stars Jodie Foster in one of those is-she-or-isn't-she-crazy scenarios. Foster plays the recently widowed Kyle Pratt, who's taking her husband's body back to New York City on a plane he helped design. When her 6-year-old daughter, Julia (Marlene Lawston), disappears, Kyle causes an uproar as she sets in motion a frantic search for the girl. The problem? No one had seen Julia get on the plane, and when word comes that she died with her father, everyone, including the pilot (Sean Bean) and an air marshal (Peter Sarsgaard), assume Kyle is having a breakdown.

There is more to this mystery, of course. The first half of ``Flightplan'' is decently told as a Hitchcock-style thriller, but the second half is messy and includes some nasty post-9/11 moments as its morphs into an action flick. But by then you're already sucked in.

References to scatology, incest and bestiality are what you can expect from ``The Aristocrats,'' a documentary by Penn Jillette (the talker of the Penn and Teller magic duo) and Paul Provenza, who directs. The premise of the film is to explore a (mediocre) joke that goes back to vaudeville times known as the Aristocrats, which comedians usually tell among themselves, competing to see who can concoct the longest and dirtiest version of it.

Some of the film is an interesting sort of ``Broadway Danny Rose'' look at the behind-the-scenes psyches of comedians. Among those involved are Jason Alexander, Drew Carey, George Carlin, Phyllis Diller, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Idle, Eddie Izzard, Kevin Pollak, Paul Reiser, Don Rickles, Chris Rock, Bob Saget, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart and Robin Williams.

Many critics found this film hilarious, and indeed there are amusing moments and insights into what makes something funny. But I found it too inside show biz and silly at times. (Admittedly, I may lack a real sense of humor.)

Freud once joked that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but as the different comedians unfurl their various blue versions of the joke, the shock falls away quickly, and I found myself wondering what was behind their choices of particular taboos to include and what it said about them. Comedy is often about childish rebellion; revenge against a grown-up, controlled world - and that's what being celebrated here. But it's still kids being naughty kids and grinning about it, which, as any baby-sitter can tell you, is wearing after a while.

Roman Polanski's ``Oliver Twist'' is a strange mixture. For Polanski - who lost his mother at Auschwitz, becoming an orphan himself and forced to hide from the Nazis - the Charles Dickens novel must have struck a chord. Written by Ronald Harwood, Polanski's ``Twist'' strips down the entanglements of the Victorian tale and gets to the heart of the story.

Barney Clark plays the title orphan, who - like Polanski - finds himself menaced or imperiled at every turn, eventually finding himself ensnarled in the world of master thief Fagin (Ben Kingsley) and his No. 1 apprentice, the Artful Dodger (Harry Eden). Interestingly, Polanski omits references to Fagin being a Jew, though the physical look of Kingsley's character reflects Dickens' description. (The actor, however, gives Fagin his humanity.)

There has always been a distancing in the director's cinema. (You wonder if that's from a helplessness Polanski felt as a child during World War II.) In ``The Pianist,'' the hero is almost a passive figure watching his own destiny unfold. It worked well there, but that disconnect gives ``Oliver Twist'' a flatness at times. But, for the most part, Polanski has taken a great book and given it a new life on screen.

The remake of John Carpenter mildly entertaining 1980 ``The Fog,'' starring ``Smallville's'' Tom Welling and ``Lost'' alum Maggie Grace, is like a clone of a clone. It was produced by Carpenter, whose early career consisted of making B-movie homages to classic Hollywood movies (``Assault on Precinct 13,'' a takeoff on Howard Hawk's ``Rio Bravo''). The story of ``The Fog,'' which has echoes of Hitchcock's ``The Birds,'' remains pretty much the same as Carpenter's original - a small coastal town is menaced by a ghostly presence. The reason? Well, that's the mystery, but not as big a mystery as why this film, directed by Rupert Wainwright, even needed to be remade. Oh yeah - young, fresh blood and cineplex dollars.

``Thumbsucker'' (Columbia; $26.96)

``Flightplan'' (Buena Vista; $29.99)

``The Aristocrats'' (Velosity/ThinkFilm; $29.99)

``Oliver Twist'' (Columbia; $28.95)

``The Fog'' (Columbia; $29.95)

`The Virgin Spring,' 'Repo Man,' 'Educating Rita'

Ingmar Bergman's 1960 Oscar-winning best foreign film ``The Virgin Spring'' tackles the subjects of vengeance and forgiveness. Taken from a 14th-century ballad, it tells the story of a young girl who is brutally raped and killed by herdsmen, who later seek shelter at the home of her parents, Tore and Mareta (Max von Sydow and Birgitta Valberg). When Tore learns of their identities, he decides to exact revenge, which conflicts with his Christian beliefs, creating a crisis of conscience. But ``The Virgin Spring'' is also a powerful examination of guilt and how it - wrongly or rightly - drives us. The film was the first on which Bergman used the great cinematographer Sven Nykvist, and Wes Craven's 1972 cult horror classic ``Last House on the Left'' lifted the plot line minus the religious aspects and added more blood.

Speaking of cult classics, the 1984 ``Repo Man'' is out in a special edition. Director Alex Cox is among those who provide commentary on the digitally remastered disc. ``Repo Man,'' which tells the story of a disaffected punk, Otto (Emilio Estevez), who falls in with a group of shady characters led by amphetamine-driven Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), who make a living repossessing cars, has a lively anarchic spirit and a thin, patched-together plot. But as Bud says, ``A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations'' - and some pretty funny ones, too.

The 1983 ``Educating Rita'' features a couple of marvelous performances from Michael Caine and Julie Walters in a sweet little movie about an alcoholic English professor and a married hairdresser who is hoping to improve her lot in life by enrolling in a university. As you might guess, by the end of Lewis Gilbert's film, based on a two-person play by Willy Russell, both characters learn something about life and themselves. But the film isn't as predictable as you might guess, and Caine's and Walters' performances - both Oscar-nominated - lift the story.

``The Virgin Spring'' (Criterion Collection; $39.95)

``Repo Man'' (Universal; $19.99)

``Educating Rita (Columbia; $14.95)

'Dallas'

Season four of the prime-time soap ``Dallas'' began with unraveling the mystery of who shot J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), which was the question audiences pondered throughout the previous summer of 1980. (By the way, the Iranian hostage crisis was also going on, not to mention a presidential election but ``Who shot J.R.?'' was the buzz.)

It took four episodes to find out who left the Texas oilman in critical condition. Nearly 80 percent of all TV viewers at the time tuned in to find out who pulled the trigger. (We're not telling, but the person who played the role's initials are M.C.) J.R., of course recovered for many more seasons.

``Dallas - The Complete Fourth Season'' (Warner; $39.98)

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) LOU PUCCI in ``Thumbsucker''

(2) JODI FOSTER in ``Flightplan''