This is not to say you have to be a fan of Wolfe’s book to enjoy Magic Trip. Fans of Hunter S. Thompson‘s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and/or Terry Gilliam‘s film adaptation of it, the Grateful Dead, Allen Ginsberg, or Kesey himself will also get a lot of enjoyment out of it, along with anyone who appreciates wild, anarchic adventure. Narrated by Stanley Tucci, the film tells the story of Kesey (best known as the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and a group of friends who set off for the 1964 New York World’s Fair in a hand-painted school bus and then just kept going, traveling all around the country in an effort to expand the consciousness of the entire United States. Along the way, they threw parties with the likes of Thompson and Timothy Leary, and gave a then unknown band called the Warlocks (who later became the Grateful Dead) their start as an unofficial house band.

Kesey is an extraordinarily charismatic figure, a champion high school and college wrestler who turned his back on athletics in favor of writing and exploring the landscape of his mind. He first began experimenting with psychedelic drugs as a volunteer in a CIA-funded experiment, so it could be said that the U.S. government inadvertently sponsored the madness shown in this film. Another fascinating character is Neal Cassady, the Merry Pranksters’ bus driver, a wildly energetic figure who served as the model for Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac‘s revered 1957 novel On the Road, which was itself a source of inspiration for Kesey and the Pranksters’ trip. Gibney, who won an Oscar for his amazing 2007 documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, and first-time feature director Ellwood, took on the daunting task of crafting a 107-minute film out of the Pranksters’ days of footage, and they succeeded admirably. Magic Trip perfectly captures the unbridled spirit of a once-in-a-lifetime era, and offers a hell of a good ride to anyone who views it.

Hidden Netflix Gems is a new feature designed to help readers answer that burning question, “What should I watch tonight?” It will be updated every Saturday before the sun goes down.

* When I first heard about the project a week or so back, I was taken by the prospect of screenwriter Dustin Lance Black segueing from a biopic about the first openly gay U.S. politician in “Milk” to one about by far the most powerful closeted gay man in American history, J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover was the first director of the FBI starting in 1935 and, in a real blow to our democracy, intimidated several presidents into keeping him in the position until his death in 1972, a shocking 37 years later.

An already interesting project got even more interesting, however, a couple of days back when word got out that none other than Clint Eastwood, who will be joining the very smal club of octogenerian directors this May, might choose to helm it. (The Playlist broke the news on the 10th that Eastwood was “set” to direct; yesterday Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that he was merely “eying” the project.).

Taken together with “Invictus,” this would be the second time the right leaning but independent-minded Republican would be taking on subject matter that deals obliquely with a significant moral failure of American conservatism. Nearly all well-known conservatives tacitly supported both the racist and fascist pre-Mandela South African regime and Hoover’s uninterrupted reign.

In the case of “Invictus,” the idea of him doing it turned out to be more interesting than the film. However, for the man who embodied “get tough” law enforcement concepts as Dirty Harry to take on a law enforcement figure who enjoyed getting tough with anyone who dared to espouse politics he deemed radical — but not the mafia — that’s a horse of a potentially very different color. One to watch.

* The boss himself sent me a link to this intriguing New York Times item yesterday. It’s about a move to take the idea of the HSX a bit further and allow people to gamble on invest in movies for real by creating a film futures market — a concept I still have yet to fully understand, whether it involves pork bellies or  the next high concept comedy. As someone whose been known to place a small — and I do mean small — bet from time to time and believes himself to know something about moves, this has my interest even if regular readers of my box office previews know I get things invariably wrong.

At the same time, though safeguards are supposed to be in place to prevent anyone from trying a real-life version of the scam from “The Producers,” Steven Zeitchek and Mike Fleming‘s ethical concerns strike me as legit. Probably just as well for me if the thing never goes up. As a wise fortune cookie once told me, the best throw of the dice is to throw them away. Fat chance of me ever listening.

* I’m sorry, I don’t want to embed the new “Twilight” trailer here and you can’t make me!

* Paramount’s reputed new Insurge label is an idea I’ve been touting for years, but it apparently took “Paranormal Activity” to make it for-realsies, if it really does turn out to be real. According to Indiewire, the studio will back ten movies annually to the tune of $100,000 each. Personally, if I ran the studio, I’d simply cut every single film budget by 1/4 and make four times as many films on all levels, but this isn’t a bad start. Still, I don’t know why they can’t gamble on twenty films instead of ten and spend a whole $2 million on the idea — seeing as $2 million on a single film is still a beyond-tiny budget by Paramount’s usual standards. As far as I know, this idea is still unconfirmed. The website address given by Indiewire currently redirects you to the regular Parmount site and a not-funny trailer for “She’s Out of  My League.”

* While they’re at it, maybe Paramount could throw a hunded thou Martin Scorsese’s way. While briefly discussing mattters like his long-discussed Sinatra bio, he also says that  wants to make a couple of “low budget down and dirty street movies.”

* “When you came pulling in here, did you notice a sign out in front of my house that said Dead Smurf Storage? ...It ain’t there, ’cause storing dead smurfs ain’t my smurfing business…!”

* Oscar winning “Up” composer Michael Giacchino is sticking sort of close to Pixar, kind of, with his next gig, “John Carter of Mars” from director Andrew Stanton (“Wall-E“), who’s taking a break from animation-only filmmaking to take on the Edgar Rice Burroughs creation. (h/t The Playlist.)

* I think they should just go ahead and title this “Untitled Comedy.” Even with maybe 17 directors — or especially with, perhaps — they’ll have a hard time topping what “Kentucky Fried Movie” did with just one helmer in terms of sheer guffaws.

* David Cronenberg’s new theatrical adaptation almost brought us Col. Hans Landa as Sigmund Freud facing off against Lt. Archie Hickox as Carl Jung, but now it’ll be Cronenberg’s recent go-to leading man, aka Aragorn, facing off against Hickox instead. This should be by far the most studly filmic Freud we’ve had yet.

* Takeshi Kitano is all the rage in France. And he’s way funnier than Jerry Lewis, too.

* As if it hasn’t been clear before, this item confirms that, for a very long time, Armond White has taken the lowest possible path for a highbrow movie critic.

* So, we’ve had tons of body-switching fantasy-comedies over the decades, and hordes of comedies about the irresponsible Peter Pan type guys in conflict with their more responsible family-man best buddies. So, of course it’s time for a body switching Peter Pan/responsible-guy comedy with Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman. Actually, it just occurs to me, they’ve pretty much made this movie already. Last time it had more guns.

* Also come to think of it, I think we’ve already had a “Planet of the Apes” prequel.

* A Disney-style title change for Zack Snyder’s upcoming animated family film. Some stories just don’t have good titles.

* After the fiscal success and critical bashing of “Cop Out” and the Southwest Airlines mishegas, Kevin Smith shows his sensitive side to Steven  Zeitchik. But is he really trying to tell us he did a big studio movie to make less money? Really, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a filmmaker making a “one for them” movie for career or fiscal reasons. Many a great movie or book have basically been made for quick cash — though never only for that — and I think he perceived more of a dig from the A.O. Scott review than was really meant, accuracy aside.

* Bill Murray goes on Letterman and spills a little cold ectoplasm over “Ghostbusters 3.”

* Writer Dustin Lance Black took on the first openly gay politician to make his mark with “Milk,” and now he’s apparently about to do a film about without a doubt the most powerful closeted gay man in American political history, J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI. Pajiba has the scoop. The Playlist has some good background, but I didn’t find the humor in Harry Shearer and Tom Leopold’s radio-musical, “J. Edgar” all that “cheap,” well, maybe in a good way.

On an unrelated note, I’m  still trying to figure out a way to claim that I somehow imparted the Westal-bump to Black’s career with this interview back in 2003, but, nah.

* It’s just days until the Oscars, and here’s a look back at one broadcast that didn’t go so well.

* I’ve had more than one person ask me if, as a Jew — and a quite learned one for a Hebrew school drop-out — I had any special clues into just what the Coens had in mind with A Serious Man. I really don’t, not in a literal way, anyhow, though I loved the film. Writer Michael Tolkin, a far more observant and knowledgeable member of the Tribe than I, has an interesting theory about just what’s going on that turns my relatively realist reading of it completely tuchas backward, via Anne Thompson.

Also, the suddenly more geek-friendly critics group actually gave the most awards to “Inglourious Basterds” which picked up a cinematography award for the always superb Robert Richardson, a best screenplay nod for Quentin Tarantino and, of course, a Best Supporting Actor award and also a Best Breakthrough Performance award for Christoph Waltz’s movie-stealing work as the evil but magnetic “Jew hunter,” Colonel Hans Landa. Another unusual war film, “The Hurt Locker,” picked up the Best Director award for Kathryn Bigelow and, not at all surprising, “Up” won the award for best animation.

Meryl Streep won for Best Actress for “Julie and Julia” and Jeff Bridges won for the not yet released country music drama, “Crazy Heart.” Mo’Nique from “Precious” picked up the Best Supporting Actress award. “The Cove” won Best documentary. ComingSoon.net has the complete list of winners. It’s a pretty interesting group.

Just a bit earlier, the Los Angeles Film Critics, on the other hand, gave the top prize to “The Hurt Locker” (“Up in the Air” was the runner up) and Kathryn Bigelow took another Best Director prize for the thriller. Jeff Bridges, Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique once again got the Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress prizes respectively. The L.A. crickets took a different path entirely, however, on the Best Actress category and gave it to Yolande Moreau for the French-language biopic, “Séraphine.” (The runner up was Carey Mulligan, whose work in “An Education” has been generating a great deal of buzz.)

They also, interestingly, diverted from the New Yorkers in the area of animation, giving the top prize to “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” another succès d’estime for Wes Anderson. However, they followed the NYC reviewers in giving the nod to “The Cove” for Best Documentary. In a nod to genre, “District 9” got a “New Generation” award for writer-director Neill Blomkamp as well as a production design award. Eugene Hernandez of Indiewire has the complete list.

Oscar-buzz fans take note, critics’ awards are not super-reliable indicators of Academy Awards, which tend to be less genre-friendly but also more prone to award big commercial hits. On the other hand, I think it’s safe to say that Kathryn Bigelow, Jeff Bridges, Mo’Nique, Christoph Waltz, as well as “The Hurt Locker”, “Inglourious Basterds,” and perhaps “The Cove” got a big boost today. (The documentary category is notoriously fraught.) Also, I haven’t mentioned its awards, but the little seen black political comedy and festival hit, “In the Loop,” picked up awards from both groups and could, I imagine, get a very helpful nomination or two in possibly the writing and the newly expanded “Best Picture” category.

You see, when Blu-ray first hit the market, there weren’t very many titles to talk about other than the new releases that were already coming out on DVD. Now that the format is more popular with studios, however, my office has become overrun with high-def titles, and well, I just don’t have the time to cover every one in as much detail as I’d like. That doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be covered at all, however, and so I’ve created this column to help cleanse my conscience (and some office space) and keep you all in the know on some Blu-rays you might be looking forward to, as well as a few others you should add to your shopping list.

“Pinocchio” (Walt Disney)

One of my least favorite Disney classics after “Dumbo” and “Bambi,” “Pinocchio” is still a no-brainer when it comes to diehard collectors and fans of animated films. It’s been years since Disney last released this from their ominous vault and so they’ve not only put out a new DVD edition to celebrate the occassion, but a high-def version as well. As expected, the new digital restoration is incredible. The colors pop off the screen like they were freshly painted, and were it not for the fact that hand-drawn animation is virtually extinct, you’d swear this was made yesterday. The best part about the three-disc set, though, isn’t the new transfer or the fact that you get three different versions of the movie (Blu-ray, DVD and a digital copy), but the hours of bonus material that have been lovingly crammed onto the disc. You get all the usual stuff that you’d expect from a typical new release (audio commentary, making-of, deleted scenes), but somehow they just feel more special on a movie this old.

“Let the Right One In” (Magnolia)

Many have called it the best vampire movie ever made, and while that may very well be the case, “Let the Right One In” is so much more than your average monster flick. In fact, it’s just as much a coming-of-age tale about two lonely kids (one of which just happens to be a vampire) than a horror movie, and though Hollywood has already greenlit a remake, there’s no way it will be even remotely as good as the original. Both of the child actors deliver solid performances considering the adult nature of the material, but it’s the film’s disturbing yet poetic love story that makes the movie so memorable. The Blu-ray edition doesn’t feature any extras you won’t find on the DVD, but between the contrasting white snow and black night, it definitely looks better in HD.

“The French Connection” / “French Connection II” (20th Century Fox)

You don’t always get what you want, and sometimes, you just get it late, so while this twofer from 20th Century Fox actually came out a few weeks ago, there’s no way I was going to leave it off the list. There’s been a resurgence in Hollywood lately of gritty crime thrillers (heck, even the James Bond franchise has edged closer to that style), and there’s none quite as good as “The French Connection.” It’s ones of the godfathers of the genre and has gone on to influence not only other movies, but television shows (“The Wire”) and video games (“Grand Theft Auto IV”) as well. Anyone that’s seen the film can discuss the merits of Friedkin’s direction and the coolness of Gene Hackman, however, so is there really any point? I know it’s a classic and you know it’s a classic, so what are you waiting for? The film’s sequel isn’t quite as easy to love (and it doesn’t have nearly as many extras), but fans of the original have learned to embrace it over the years. Plus, you could probably find a pretty good deal selling the pair together, and that’s good enough for me.

Also Out This Week:

“Milk” (Focus Features)
“Role Models” (Universal)
“Synecdoche, New York” (Sony Pictures Classics)
“Transporter 3” (Lionsgate)