Jane Campion

CHICAGO – “Sleeping Beauty” is such a unique modern fairy tale that it will almost certainly turn off many of the viewers who choose to rent it. As the gorgeous Emily Browning looks longingly over her shoulder, half-naked from the cover of the DVD case, renters may think they’re in for an erotic thriller on a Saturday night.

CHICAGO – Jane Campion and Julie Taymor are two of the most fascinating directors in modern cinema. They are unafraid to take major gambles, and their audacity has occasionally caused their projects to derail. But on a good day, they are capable of achieving artistic transcendence on a grand scale, as evidenced in Campion’s 1993 masterwork, “The Piano,” and Taymor’s 2002 gem, “Frida.”

CHICAGO – “Excuse me, I don’t feel anything,” announces the young, saucer-eyed woman to her meditation instructor. In fact, she feels many things, though meditative tranquility is not among them. Whenever she closes her eyes, a series of nightmarish images emerge from the depths of her heightened paranoia. At the center of her fears is a dark force in the form of her sister, lovingly nicknamed, “Sweetie.”

CHICAGO – One of the most beautiful films of 2009 is only available in standard definition DVD with barely a special feature and a mediocre technical transfer. There are few recent releases that aggravate me as much as that of the great “Bright Star,” a spectacular film given unbelievably shoddy treatment by its studio.