EDITOR’S NOTE: DVDs reviewed in this column will be available in stores the week of July 7.
“Bad Words” (R) — Guy Trillby (Jason Bateman, also the director) is unabashedly profane, sexist, racist, mean and also kind of funny. Thanks to a loophole, he’s entered in a spelling bee where he competes with grade-school children, while an oddball journalist (Katherine Hahn) looks on in wonder. A boy becomes fascinated by the miscreant, whose barbarism doesn’t bother him.
This is Bateman’s first time directing, and he’s given himself quite a role. Bateman has the whole nice-guy charm about him, but here he really embraces the inner jerk. If you can’t handle a character whose primary behavior is cursing in front of children, then you can skip this one.
“Le Week-End” (R) — Is there anything a jaunt to Paris can’t fix? How about the mold on a resentful marriage that’s been growing for almost 30 years?
A sweet, older English couple, Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan), revisit Paris, the site of their honeymoon years ago. They have quiet moments, tender moments and a lot of bickering in some nice restaurants. The film is not the cutest or most lighthearted look at long-term marriage, but you end up connecting to the folks on-screen.
Broadbent and Duncan have the chemistry that makes you believe there really is 30 years of emotional clutter between them.
Jeff Goldblum steals the show as the comic relief with multiple dimensions.
“Maidentrip” (NR) — At age 14, Laura Dekker set out to be the youngest person to sail around the world alone. She documented the trip with a handheld camera, which supplies much of the footage for this feature-length documentary about her trip and growing up at sea.
The film largely focuses on the trip itself, the growth that Laura went through, and the independence and introspection that it built.
The documentary also spends some time with the struggles that started before she even shoved off — the family issues that led her to take on such a trip, and how Dutch authorities were not keen to let a teenager go alone into the open ocean.
“The Raid 2” (R) — In 2012, “The Raid: Redemption” delivered a flying elbow smash to the martial-arts genre.
A Jakarta cop took on a high-rise building full of vicious goons in an all-out brawl for survival. This sequel follows our same hero (Iko Uwais) as he goes undercover with a brutal crime ring.
The movie has more plot points than its predecessor, but doesn’t cut back on the expertly executed violence.