DVD & Blu-ray

Anyone who has been to Paris -- and I'm lucky enough to be able to say I have -- knows that the city has a special, almost ineffable allure. If one were going to design a city meant to appeal to the senses and the mind, Paris might be the place to begin and end. Like all great cities, Paris seems to have a life of its own, a bustle that you know will continue with or without you.

Look, can there be any remaining moviegoer who doesn't know what to expect from Michael Moore, the provocateur and self-annointed spokesman for the left? Moore's shtick has become so familiar that reviews of his movies -- his latest is Capitalism: A Love Story -- almost seem superfluous. Moore's supporters will laugh on cue; his detractors will comb the movie for factual inaccuracies, and another Moore "documentary'' will come and go, leaving little in its turbulent wake.

The 32nd annual Denver International Film Festival opened Thursday evening in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House downtown. The bejeweled bigwigs packed the house for a feel-good movie about incest, child abuse, teen pregnancy, poverty, hatred and homelessness.

Precious isn't about the brutality. It's about the spirit to overcome brutality.

Last week, I read a news article that reported that the U.S. economy had lost 169,000 jobs in November. As it turns out, this generally sobering bit of news was considered mildly positive because it represented 26,000 fewer job losses than had been recorded in the previous month. Now think about this: Someone had to tell those 169,000 jobholders that they were about to join the ranks of the unemployed. Up in the Air, director Jason Reitman's engaging new movie, focuses on a man who does just that. Ryan Bingham makes his living by telling others that they've lost theirs.

Paris is a (yet another) paean to the City of Lights.

Written and Directed by Cédric Klapisch, Paris is definitely not heavy, but it's light in all the right ways. It features well drawn characters, a sense of joie de vivre, and enough cross cutting between multiple story lines to remind us we're all in it together. There are no answers, no Crash -like climax, just a simple slice of life in the city.

Bobcat Goldthwait's directorial debut is a black comedy about high school life. And it's not just the students who live it, the teachers are just as shallow and obsessed. Even the father/son bond can't withstand the onslaught of hormones and pride.

Advocacy documentaries are on the rise. This year saw the release of Captialism, Food, Inc.and The Cove, just to mention a few. How much you'll enjoy these movies ends up depending on how sympathetic you already are to the message, although the better the documentary, the less that matters.

On July 2, 1937, aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, took off from the island of Lae in the Pacific Ocean and disappeared forever. Earhart's legend endures because of the mystery of her death, but Amelia Earhart -- Queen of the Air focuses on her life.

I first saw The 36 Chambers of Shaolin, reluctantly, at the insistence of a friend. I was pleasantly surprised, though, by the meticulous storytelling, the fantastic fitness of Gordon Liu, and the masterful choreography of the fight sequences.

"The balance of nature is restored," declares a goddess at the end of Ponyo, continuing the 2,500-year-old dramatic tradition of Deus ex Machina. Audiences should be forgiven if they needed a reminder that the balance of nature was in jeopardy. They probably thought they were watching a movie about a little boy looking for his mother and adopting a new sister. So yeah, that whole "balance of nature" thing... don't want to forget about that.

Director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich and Adaptation) may not be the most prolific of directors, but he's certainly among the more adventurous members of the breed. This time out, Jonze tackles a 1963 book by Maurice Sendak. In making a live-action version of Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, Jonze either sags or soars, but he deserves major credit for hitting notes that are unusual for a children's film.

It's getting more difficult to enjoy the end of the world -- at least at the movies. I really wanted to like 2012, the latest orgy of destruction from director Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day). I'm shamelessly partial to disaster movies and have a strong tolerance for the melodramatic plotting and portentous dialogue that usually keeps them from greatness.

"The balance of nature is restored," declares a goddess at the end of Ponyo, continuing the 2,500-year-old dramatic tradition of Deus ex Machina. Audiences should be forgiven if they needed a reminder that the balance of nature was in jeopardy. They probably thought they were watching a movie about a little boy looking for his mother and adopting a new sister.

Christine is a prostitute, but there's much more to her transactions than just sex and money. What she provides instead is the girlfriend experience: a pretty woman to take on a date, converse with, embrace, share some intimacy, and yes, maybe a little sex. In exchange, Christine gets a lot more money than your average hooker.