July '12 Digital Week IV

Blu-rays of the Week

Brake

(IFC)

An admittedly ingenious story device—Secret Service agent trapped in a car trunk must figure out a D.C. terrorist plot before bombs burst in air—is ruined by a twist stolen from the very first Twilight Zone episode. Then, as if admitting to the theft, writer Timothy Mannion unveils another dastardly twist, which falls flat. Since nearly the entire 90-minute movie takes place in an enclosed box, Stephen Dorff must be commended for his controlled hysterics and apparent lack of claustrophobia. Director Gabe Torres cleverly keeps viewers from suffocating; on Blu-ray, the movie’s visuals look sharp. Extras are a Torres commentary, music video and making-of featurette.

Endeavour

(PBS)

Famed British detective Inspector Morse had to begin somewhere, and Endeavour shows where, as the green but aggressive rookie tackles the case of a teenage schoolgirl gone missing near Oxford. With assorted characters that have something to hide—including a former opera singer, whom the young Morse adores, whose husband may have been mixed up with the unfortunate girl—Endeavour is a worthy addition to the Masterpiece Mystery family. Solid acting by Sean Lewis, Roger Allam and Flora Hemingway complements a satisfying script; the hi-def transfer is excellent.

Get the Gringo

(Fox)

If Mel Gibson is really looking to rehabilitate his image, he should pick better scripts than this one by Apocalypto co-writer Adrian Grunberg, also making his directing debut. Favoritism is one thing, but this idiotic adventure about an American jailed in Mexico who must save himself and others before bad guys get them balances flavorful dialogue with ridiculously thin characters. Gibson gets by on his natural charisma, but the others are close to offensive caricature (although with that title, it’s not surprising). The movie has a good Blu-ray transfer; extras include a making-of featurette and music video.

The Last of England

(Kino)

Derek Jarman’s angry screed against his country being destroyed from within by Thatcher’s conservative government has lost none of its visceral power since its 1987 release and contains indelible visuals, especially those featuring then-muse Tilda Swinton, only a blip on Hollywood’s radar back then. Still, Jarman’s ranting rarely coheres into something tangible, as it does far more strongly in his next film, the AIDS paean, The Garden. In this fine hi-def transfer, England etches a specific time and place.

On the Inside

(Anchor Bay)

Writer-director D.W. Brown’s unconvincing prison drama fails in its attempt to create a sympathetic character in a killer sentenced to a psych ward with men crazier and more psychopathic than he. And while Nick Stahl makes a fairly credible protagonist, both Dash Mihok and Pruitt Taylor Vince are too obvious as his prison foils, and the always appealing Olivia Wilde is totally wasted in a silly “romantic” role. The movie does have a top-notch hi-def transfer, however.

Peter Gabriel: Secret World Live

(Eagle Vision)

This film of Peter Gabriel’s 1994 tour supporting his Us CD finally gets the spectacular hi-def treatment. The upgraded DTS-HD sound is impressively enveloping: every nuance of Gabriel’s vocals and his ace backing band’s playing clearly heard. The 16mm film has also gotten a thorough visual restoration. Of course, the concert’s a knockout musically, and Peter’s duets with backing vocalist (and soon to be hitmaker) Paula Cole on “Come Talk to Me,” “Blood of Eden” and “Don’t Give Up” are among his most impassioned. Extras include “Red Rain” (why isn’t it part of the film?), a Gabriel interview, behind-the-scenes footage and “Rhythm of the Heat” from his 2010 orchestral tour.

Queen & Country

(PBS)

Trevor McDonald’s four programs about how the British see their queen in her Diamond Jubilee Year and, by extension, the institution of the monarchy itself, is a fascinating cultural history lesson. The quartet—London: Royal City, Royal Visit, The Queen’s Possessions and Traveler—is narrated by McDonald, who interviews people ranging from one of the queen’s photographers to a “Beefeater” (queen’s guard). The show was shot in splendid hi-definition, which includes glimpses of the picturesque Channel Islands, where inhabitants think of themselves as part of but separate from their country.

They Made Me a Fugitive

(Kino)

Alberto Cavalcanti—then known simply as Cavalcanti (take that, Sting and Madonna)—directed this bleak film noir in 1947, and it remains amazingly modern. Amid the usual noirish trappings, Trevor Howard superbly plays a war veteran hardened by work in the criminal underworld. Otto Heller’s marvelous black and white photography has so many shades of gray, reminding us that nothing’s either black or white in this sordid world; the movie looks terrific on Blu-ray.

DVDs of the Week

Black Butterflies

(Tribeca Film)

Deserved winner of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival’s Best Actress award, the Netherlands’ Carice van Houten fearlessly portrays South African poet Ingrid Jonker, an unforgettable performance that overshadows the rest of Paula van der Oest’s biopic. Some good, intense sequences visualize Jonker’s tortured psychology, but too often Butterflies falls into the melodramatic trap of similar screen biographies. But Houten is so shattering that it rarely matters. Extras include van der Oest and van Houten interviews.

Extraterrestrial

(e one)

In Nacho Vigalondo’s smart sci-fi thriller-cum-romantic comedy, a lovely young woman, her boyfriend, a one-night-stand and a nosy neighbor wonder whether any of the others is one of “them”: aliens that have landed on earth. The tongue-in-cheek humor makes up for lazy exposition as each person’s suspicions don’t pan out. The performances (notably by knockout Michelle Jenner) keep Vigalondo’s intriguing but one-note concept amusing for 90 minutes. Extras include three Vigalondo shorts and a making-of featurette.

Finding Your Roots

(PBS)

Henry Louis Gates Jr’s genealogy series continues with episodes that enlighten celebrities of their lineage—with surprises such as when married couple Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick learn that they are ninth cousins. Others interviewed are musicians Harry Connick and Branford Marsalis, actors Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and politicians Condoleezza Rice and Cory Booker. Gates’ chronicles are historically relevant and engaging to watch as famous people become emotional while discovering their ancestors.

Missing and Scandal

(ABC)

These new ABC drama series revolve around immensely likeable leading ladies: Missing stars Ashley Judd as a former CIA agent who takes it upon herself to find her kidnaped son in Europe, while Revenge stars Kerry Washington as head of a crisis management agency that uses its expertise to hush up possible scandals in Washington D.C. While both shows unabashedly traffic in implausibilities, good writing, acting and a quick pace compensate. Extras are interviews and behind the scenes snapshots; Missing also includes deleted scenes.

Never Stand Still: Dancing at Jacob’s Pillow

(First Run)

This remarkable documentary presents the history of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, one of the Berkshire’s summer jewels. For 80 years, renowned choreographers and performers descend upon Jacob’s Pillow to perform cutting-edge, controversial, thought-provoking modern and classical dance works. Narrated by choreographer Bill T. Jones, Ron Honsa’s film includes interviews with Suzanne Farrell and Mark Morris, and succinctly summarizes the place’s historical and artistic importance. Extras include a brief Merce Cunningham interview and additional performance snippets.

Patagonia Rising

(First Run)

Brian Lilla’s urgent expose of a massive dam project threatening Chile’s Patagonia region is cinematic advocacy at its most revelatory. The project, comprising five dams along two rivers, purports to help millions receive needed electricity, but experts insist it will destroy one of the world’s most fragile eco-systems, and that alternative forms of energy are preferable. Lilla methodically covers both sides, even though it’s obvious where he sits. The project’s PR mouthpiece comes off slick and rehearsed, but more troubling are sincere but naive comments from people who live in Santiago, who feel the dams are needed for their well-being (needless to say, most are young adults).

Pianist Natasha Paremski Interview

Fearless 25-year-old pianist Natasha Paremski moved to America when she was eight years old, but she insists that it wasn’t because she was an amazing keyboard prodigy. Instead, it was due to a combination of factors: her father, a computer scientist, had the opportunity to work in California’s Silicon Valley; and their native Russia was in the throes of many difficulties following the fall of Communism, and so was an easy place to leave.

Paremski’s thrilling playing is featured on her recent CD that finds her performing Brahms, Gabriel Kahane and Sergei Prokofiev, the Russian composer to whom she finds herself drawn again and again. Prokofiev’s masterly Piano Sonata No. 7—which Paremski brilliantly plays on her CD—is also on the program of her July 30 recital at La Poisson Rouge, now the go-to place for “cool” classical concerts in Manhattan’s West Village.

In addition to Prokofiev, Paremski will also play a new piece by jazz pianist Fred Hersch, Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, along with more familiar works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Chopin. Joining her for the concert opener, Astor Piazzolla’s Grand Tango, is her good friend, violinist Philippe Quint.

Paremski recently spoke about her passion for Prokofiev, the other music she’s playing at her recital and how she sees her role as a classical artist.

Kevin Filipski: Your performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7 is so scintillating; is it the centerpiece of your performance at La Poisson Rouge?

Natasha Paremski: Unfortunately, I won’t be doing the whole thing. Lame as it may seem, I’ll play only one movement. It’s difficult to decide which one to play, because the 3^rd movement is flashy and crazy, but the 2^nd movement is the core of the piece, it summarizes the whole piece beautifully. It’s such incredible and human writing—it’s harrowing, like one of those dreams you have where you’re running away desperately. It’s a really painful movement, so frightening to hear. You come face to face with death, it’s so beautiful and poignant.

KF: Most experts see Prokofiev and Shostakovich as the two poles of 20^th century Russian music. How do you see them?

NP: For me, I hesitate to view Shostakovich as an example of ‘Russian’ music. A lot of people do that with him, he is seen as such a martyr. He was oppressed, blah blah blah—they were all oppressed. Prokofiev for me sums up the Russian spirit more than Shostakovich, whose music is a reflection of what was going on—as opposed to Prokofiev. Music is at the core of the tragedies of that time, with people being taken away during the night, and Prokofiev’s music is almost a diary of that time as opposed to reacting to it. With Prokofiev, we see what’s happening—this is the truth. It’s a raw chronicle of the time.

KF: Talk about the new work by Fred Hersch you’ll be premiering.

NP: At the heart of the recital is the New York premiere of Fred Hersch’s Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, which he wrote for me. It actually took him a long time to write because his health was deteriorating: it was very scary, when he started approaching the work, his health took a turn for the worse and he fell into a coma. It’s a miracle he’s still alive, but thanks to fate he woke up and now he’s performing a full jazz concert career, which is another miracle. He plays better now than he did before. He’s a rather prolific jazz pianist and I look up to him, so for me it was a no-brainer to commission this piece from him. He decided to write variations based on a Tchaikovsky theme because we both have Russian heritage which connects us, along with Tchaikovsky’s music. It’s a really cool set of variations that has a traditional classical flavor, a strong Bach influence, a tango, ragtime, and explores a lot of different characters. In his playing and composing, he has a vast color palette, and he explores that in his variations.

KF: What other works are on the program?

NP: I didn’t want to start with Fred Hersch’s Variations, but instead warming up to them:  and what could be better to start with than Piazzolla? I didn’t want to do an all-solo recital this time, it’s so much fun to play with friends, so I asked Philippe Quint, an amazing violinist, if he wanted to do a piece with me. It’s an arrangement for violin and piano of Piazzolla’s Grand Tango, originally written for cello. It leads into the Variations, then we’re going to an arrangement of Eugene Onegin’s Lensky aria, then the Prokofiev sonata, then—so it’s not all Russian music—I’ll do some Brahms and Chopin.

KF: You love playing classical music. What’s your view of the artist’s role in these days of iPods, streaming and YouTube?

NP: As I see it, our duty as musicians is to chase away the fear that people have of classical music—that it’s too cerebral or whatever. But to me, it’s simply gorgeous music that moves anyone who hears it, and you can’t allow yourself to let fear come between you and the music. My responsibility is to show people that it’s approachable. 

Pianist Natasha Paremski

July 30, 2012

(Le) Poisson Rouge

158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY

lepoissonrouge.com

Travel and Art: Museums, from Massachusetts to Manhattan

Even though Manhattan’s museums are open all summer, for art-saturated New Yorkers, the hot and sticky season is an excuse for an opportunity to travel and…well, see more art. Just a few hours north of the city, the Berkshires and western Massachusetts contain world-class theater, dance, music and art. Even if one has visited the area for years, there are always places that one has never gotten to before.

Frelinghuysen House and Studio

There’s the Frelinghuysen Morris House and Studio, which is next door in Lenox to the Tanglewood Music Festival, a mainstay of many Berkshire summer visits. There’s also, near Amherst, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, and the Springfield Museums, located in a town best known for the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Frelinghuysen Morris House and Studio is named after American abstract artists Suzy Frelinghuysen and George L.K. Morris, who lived and worked there together until his death in 1975. (Suzy continued to live there until her death in 1988; the place is currently curated by her nephew, Kinney.) The imposing building comprises the Studio, constructed in 1930 in the Bauhaus style by architect George Sanderson, and the attached house, designed by another architect, John Butler Swan, in 1941. The subtle clash of exterior styles is compelling—but pales next to the interior, a shrine to the partners’ works and their collection.

Even though interesting Picassos, Braques, Legers, Grises and even Matisses hang on the walls, it’s Frelinghuysen’s and Morris’s art that dominates the house from the moment you walk up and see Morris’ colorful fresco outside. In the foyer, a winding staircase has another Morris fresco on the wall behind it: throughout the house, the artists complement each other beautifully, his bold murals on the living room walls contrast with her subtle works in the dining room. Even if a trip to Tanglewood is not in the offing, it’s worth going to Lenox just for this enduring historic and artistic power house.

Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

Off Interstate 91 near Amherst, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art opened in 2002 to immortalize the children’s book artist and author (from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Baby Bear Baby Bear, What Do You See?). Adjacent to Hampshire College, the Carle is a wonderful depository of artworks and hands-on fun for children and adults of all ages. In addition to an exhibit of Carle’s book Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, Said the Sloth—which was completed the year the museum opened—there’s another dedicated to author Ezra Jack Keats, whose revolutionary The Snowy Day opened the eyes of children’s book publishers to realistic depictions of black characters in 1962.

Four large, bright abstract panels by Carle—painted in red, blue, yellow and green, respectively—dominate the walls of the museum’s large foyer, and seem to yell “welcome!” to everyone who enters.

Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden

Further south on Interstate 91, the town of Springfield has more to offer than just the Basketball Hall of Fame:  the Springfield Museums complex encompasses a quadrangle that contains the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden, which has whimsically delightful statuary of the Lorax, Horton, the Cat in the Hat, and Seuss himself by his stepdaughter Lark Gray Dimond-Cates.

In addition to the Springfield Science Museum, the Wood Museum of Springfield History and the Smith Art Museum, there’s also the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, which, in addition to its decent European (Gauguin, Picasso, Monet) and American (Cassatt, Homer, Sargent) collection, currently boasts two impressive Tiffany exhibits. Even if you think you’ve already overdosed on Tiffany’s lamps and stained glass, these are “don’t miss” exhibits, especially the seven recently discovered “Book of Revelation” windows, worth a visit by themselves.

Back in Manhattan, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s latest blockbuster fashion show—Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations—might be impossibly gimmicky (a fake “conversation” between the notoriously reclusive and singular designers, directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Judy Davis as Schiaparelli and the real Prada), but so many glorious examples of their designs, especially those Schiaparelli did with famous 20^th century artists like Dali and Cocteau, that there’s no reason to skip it. A smaller but equally compelling show, Bellini, Titian, Lotto— North Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, comprises a nice selection of paintings otherwise unseen in New York.

Gustav Klimt

Across the street from the Met, the venerable Neue Galerie has its own “blockbuster” show, Gustav Klimt: 150^th Anniversary Celebration, starring the Galerie’s own immaculate Klimt paintings like the scintillating Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Surrounding those works are drawings and vintage photographs of Klimt in his private life. Even with other Austrian and German masters like Beckmann, Schiele and Dix in adjoining rooms, Klimt remains front and center at the Neue Galerie.

Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio
92 Hawthorne Street
Lenox, Mass.
frelinghuysen.org

Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
125 West Bay Road
Amherst, Mass.
carlemuseum.org

Springfield Museums
21 Edwards Street
Springfield, Mass.
springfieldmuseums.org

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY
metmuseum.org
Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations
Through August 19, 2012
Bellini, Titian, and Lotto—North Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo
Through September 3, 2012

Neue Galerie
1048 Fifth Avenue (at 86^th Street)
New York, NY
neuegalerie.org
Gustav Klimt: 150th Anniversary Celebration
Through August 27, 2012

July '12 Digital Week III

Blu-rays of the Week

American Reunion

(Universal)

The fourth go-round for the American Pie teens find them at their 13^th high school reunion, when horny hell breaks loose again, despite their being older and (supposedly) wiser. It’s surprisingly easy to take, since the performers are comfortable in their characters’ skins as they embarrass themselves again. Add to that a real find in Ali Cobrin as a horny 18-year-old whom Jason Biggs’ character once babysat, and the stage is set for more goofy but harmless lunacy. The Blu-ray image looks fine; extras include commentaries, featurettes, interviews, deleted and extended scenes and a gag reel.

Dirty Pretty Things

(Echo Bridge)

Stephen Frears’ engrossing 2002 thriller follows illegal immigrants working at a London hotel who find themselves caught up in a bizarre body-parts-for-sale scheme. With persuasive performances by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Audrey Tautou and Sophie Okonedo and a skillful script by Steven Knight, Frears’ best film since The Snapper and The Grifters slowly but surely crawls under your skin. The Blu-ray image is good, not great; extras are a Frears commentary and a making-of featurette.

Down by Law

(Criterion)

After his no-budget 1984 breakthrough Stranger than Paradise, Jim Jarmusch two years later made this deadpan romp about small-timers breaking out of a Louisiana jail together: Roberto Bengini, Tom Waits and John Lurie are an unlikely trio, and even the sumptuous visual palette (thanks to Robby Müller’s B&W photography) can’t liven the comedic deadness. The Criterion Collection impressively brings the film back to life with its hi-def transfer; extras include Jarmusch and Muller interviews, outtakes, Cannes Festival footage, Jarmusch Q&A and phone conversations between Jarmusch and stars.

The Fairy

(Kino)

The Belgian trio of Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy wrote, directed and star in this intermittently amusing tribute to classic cinematic comedians like Chaplin, Keaton and Tati, the latter of whose fingerprints are all over this self-conscious, near-silent farce with physical comedy galore. There are a few glorious visual moments, but the trio—despite its lithe onscreen gracefulness—never approaches the true masters. The hi-def image is superb.

Friends with Kids

(Lionsgate)

Jennifer Westfeldt wrote and directed this busily innocuous time-waster about couples who mate, fight, split up and (sometimes) make up with an increasingly large brood of children growing up around them. As in most contemporary comedies, every character is improbably with-it and witty; but Westfeldt writes occasionally zingy dialogue, and directs Megan Fox in her least mannequin-like performance. Otherwise, this is typical rom-com fare that looks quite good on Blu-ray; extras include a commentary, making-of featurette, bloopers and deleted scenes.

Sanctuary—The Complete 4^th Season

(e one)

For its fourth season, the creators of Sanctuary decide to up the dramatic quotient as the heroic scientific crew (and even the real Bigfoot) goes into emergency assist mode for the monsters it’s trying to keep safe, ending with a two-part fight for survival at season’s end. Essentially ludicrous, but the program gets by on the chemistry of its actors and bizarre monster make-up. The whole thing looks particularly splendid on Blu-ray; extras include featurettes, interviews, audio commentaries, deleted scenes and a blooper reel.

Singin’ in the Rain

(Warners)

Gene Kelly’s 1952 musical is a joy from start to finish: no one’s been able to equal Kelly’s extraordinarily cinematic choreography—with the exception of Bob Fosse—and Kelly’s co-stars Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds are unmatched, even by their director’s exacting standards. Warners has pulled out all the stops for its 60^th anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition: this classic looks luminous on Blu-ray; extras include a new documentary, vintage documentaries, a deleted musical number and an audio commentary; along with goodies like an umbrella (!), 48-page hardcover commemorative book and lobby card facsimiles.

The Turin Horse

(Cinema Guild)

Bela Tarr once made interesting pictures about Hungarian life under the Communist regime, but after discovering Profundity with his exasperating seven-hour Satantango, he became the Hungarian David Lean (whose best films were the early, shorter ones). Tarr’s supposedly last feature is another glacially paced, magnificently photographed non-story about the titular horse from a Nietzsche anecdote and its owners; if Tarr mesmerizes you, then by all means see it. Fred Kelemen’s B&W photography shimmers on Blu-ray; extras include critic Jonathan Rosenbaum’s commentary, Tarr’s 1978 short, Hotel Magnezit; Berlin Film Festival press conference; and a Tarr interview.

Under the Tuscan Sun

(Disney)

In this chipper 2003 adaptation of Frances Maysle’s memoir, Diane Lane gives an un-self-conscious, winning portrayal of an American divorcee who rebuilds her life in beautiful Italy—and, at the end, falls in love: but not with whom you think. The main draws are Lane’s innate dazzlingness—when she breaks into a smile, she becomes even more so—and the rolling Tuscan hill towns, all receiving an upgrade to hi-def. Extras include featurettes, interviews and director-writer Audrey Wells’ commentary.

DVDs of the Week

The Code and This Is Civilization

(Athena)

These impressive British TV documentaries display a remarkable ability to make dense subjects into something informative and endlessly fascinating. The Code, narrated with engaging authority by Marcus du Sautoy, unravels the mathematical and numerical patterns that allow the world to function as it does, with evidence ranging from cicadas and serial killers to Chartres Cathedral and Grand Central Station. This Is Civilization, an equally erudite but approachable dissection of art through the centuries, from the Greek, Roman and Muslim worlds to painters David, Goya and Picasso, is hosted by Matthew Collings. Civilization extras comprise a trio of shorts.

Don Quichotte

(Naïve)

Belgian bass-baritone Jose Van Dam culminated his towering 50-year career by singing one of literature’s great characters in French composer Jules Massenet’s 1910 opera based on Cervantes’ classic novel. Laurent Pelly’s centenary production, while it has ludicrous modern touches, keeps Don upfront, and van Dam responds with a physically and emotionally authentic portrayal of a daunting role. Marc Minkowski conducts Van Dam’s operatic swan song with extraordinary sensitivity; an hour-long documentary about the production is the lone extra.

Johnny Carson: King of Late Night

(PBS)

This excellent American Masters program profiles the long-running late-night king who ruled the airwaves for 30-plus years as host of The Tonight Show. Aside from being a valuable bio of the notoriously reclusive Carson—along with surprising information about his selflessness and altruism—the show is filled with innumerable delightful anecdotes about the master from many of his disciples and acolytes (Letterman, Leno, Conan, Kimmel, Shandling, Rivers, Rickles). Extras include a featurette about narrator Kevin Spacey and additional interviews.

Leverage—The Complete 4^th Season

(Fox)

Tim Hutton and his intrepid crew of Robin Hoods on the trail of “real” bad guys entertain several dangerous cases during the season, which opens with a near-death experience while tracking down crooked businessmen who are off mountain climbing. Alongside Hutton is a solid supporting cast led by Gina Bellman, and the scenarios continue to be clever without condescension. Along with all 18 episodes, there are audio commentaries on every episode, deleted scenes, making-of featurettes and a gag reel.

Muddy Waters and the Rolling Stones—Live at the Checkerboard Lounge, Chicago 1981

(Eagle Rock Entertainment)

On a night off during their 1981 U.S. tour, the Stones go to hear Muddy Waters at his Chicago club: after a few great tunes to start things off, the master invites the students to the stage for amazing jams like “Hoochie Coochie Man, “Mannish Boy” and “Got My Mojo Working.” Other guests include Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, but Waters remains front and center, even with Mick, Keith and Ron Wood (and touring keyboardist Ian Stewart) crowding the cramped stage. This legendary one-night-only show finally gets a legitimate release, at long last. An accompanying CD has most of the songs, but the DVD contains the entire performance in a new surround sound mix by Bob Clearmountain.

Off-Broadway: New Musical "Dogfight"

Mendez and Klena in Dogfight (photo: Joan Marcus)

Dogfight

Starring Annaleigh Ashford, Nick Blaemire, Derek Klena, Lindsay Mendez, Josh Segarra

Music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul; book by Peter Duchan

Choreographed by Christopher Gattelli; directed by Joe Mantello

Previews began June 27, 2012; opened July 16; closes August 19

Second Stage Theatre, 307 West 43^rd Street, New York, NY

2st.com

Based on a 1991 movie starring the late River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, the new musical Dogfight starts sordidly and ends romantically, its title referring to a contest by a group of Marines on leave before shipping out from San Francisco to Japan on their way to Vietnam, conveniently on Nov. 21, 1963, the day before JFK’s murder: whoever brings the ugliest local girl to their party wins the monetary prize.

Our hero, Eddie Birdlace, a nice Buffalo boy, meets Rose Fenny, a chubby waitress at her mom’s diner, and asks her to the party. Even though he easily trades profanities and insults with his buddies, he has a soft side: twice he has qualms about bringing Rose to the contest, but ends up doing so anyway. After they lose (to another Marine who paid a hooker with horrible teeth to be his date), Rose discovers the horrible truth, slaps Eddie and storms off.

Eddie can’t shake his feelings for the dowdy Rose and makes it up to her: they go on a date which starts inauspiciously at a fancy restaurant when Eddie threatens a snippy maitre’d/waiter, but they soon find their footing and fall for each other. (that she improbably bursts out with a string of profanities while ordering delights him no end.) After a romantic night in Rose’s room—where she, a kind of budding Joni Mitchell, plays him a new song of hers on the guitar—he ships off to Vietnam and real slaughter, where he loses his closest friends, Bernstein and Bolan. They were “The Three B’s,” memorialized on his arm in the form of a tattoo.

After returning to the States physically and emotionally crippled—and spat at by an uncaring public—Eddie searches out Rose, whom he never contacted after tearing up her address in embarrassment when Bolan discovers it, which leads to a bittersweet ending.

Dogfight honestly earns its emotions through Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s songs, which are never less than decent and, in a couple instances (notably Rose’s solos “Nothing Short of Wonderful” and “Before It’s Over”), quite nicely turned. Derek Klena (Eddie) and especially Lindsay Mendez (Rose) are sweetly believable in the leads: while Klena subtly balances the tough marine and tender young man, Mendez thoughtfully portrays inner beauty triumphing over an ordinary exterior.

Joe Mantello directs persuasively—except for a woefully misconceived, overdone Vietnam sequence—and Christopher Gattelli’s choreography is muted but effective. If Peter Duchan’s book can’t square the men’s abhorrently sexist behavior with the budding romance that develops, that was also a problem with the movie, where Phoenix and Taylor made a convincing pair. Despite such built-in flaws, Klena and Mendez make Dogfight worth seeing.

July '12 Digital Week II

Blu-rays of the Week

Chariots of Fire

(Warner Brothers)

The surprise 1981 Best Picture Oscar winner—beating out Warren Beatty’s romantic epic Reds—is, despite its pedigree (British, respectable, conventional), surprisingly upbeat if historically problematic. Despite director Hugh Hudson pouring on slow motion, crowd-pleasing sequences and Vangelis’ dated electronic score, the movie holds up well enough. The muted hi-def image looks comparable to the original theatrical release; extras include a Hudson commentary and interview, screen tests, deleted scenes, featurettes including interviews with Hudson, producer David Puttnam, writer Colin Welland and photographer David Watkin, and a CD sampler of four Vangelis tunes.

Duran Duran: A Diamond in the Mind

(Eagle Vision)

The synth-pop British hitmakjers reunited last year (nostalgia being what it is, who doesn’t nowadays?), as witness this savvy performance in front of an energetic, mostly female crowd. Simon LeBon and two of the three Taylor brothers are joined by assorted backup musicians and singers for a romp through their three-decade career, with an obvious leaning toward the early smash hits (“Rio,” “The Reflex,” “Hungry Like the Wolf”) that longtime fans will enjoy. The hi-def cameras provide crisp visuals; extras include two bonus songs (including “Is There Something I Should Know”) and band member interviews.

The Flowers of War

(Lionsgate)

The well-documented atrocities against the Chinese when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1936 have been dramatized in several movies; unfortunately, acclaimed veteran director Zhang Timou comes a cropper with his shallow take on such a tricky subject. As a Westerner posing as a priest who tries to save an improbable group of courtesans and young students, Christian Bale looks confused and embarrassed, while Zhang—whose technical control remains unabated—allows sentimentality to seep in at every turn. On Blu-ray, Zhang’s splendid compositions leave the weak script behind; the lone extra is a behind the scenes featurette.

4:44 Last Days on Earth

(IFC)

Abel Ferrara’s latest unhinged rant explores the final hours for Manhattan residents as the countdown to Armageddon begins. There are interesting moments—particularly when protagonist Willem Dafoe screams from a rooftop at people still wandering the streets—but Ferrara never develops anything coherently. The relationship between Dafoe and a wooden Shanyn Leigh as his wife never gives us any reason to care about the impending demise of such non-entities. The Blu-ray image is first-rate.

The Horse Whisperer

(Touchstone)

In 1998, Nicholas Evans’ novel was made into a pictorially lovely, dramatically distaff drama by director/star Robert Redford, who smartly cast Kristin Scott Thomas to play the mother of a teenager (Scarlett Johansson) whose accident while on her beloved horse is the catalyst for nearly three hours of intermittently powerful drama. The movie looks much better than on DVD, but there’s a softness to some scenes—particularly shots of the expansive Montana visitas—that mute the exquisite visuals; extras include three very brief interviews with Redford and real “horse whisperer” Buck Brannaman.

Margaret

(Fox)

Kenneth Lonergan made this illuminating study of a Manhattan teenager who witnesses a gruesome bus accident back in 2005; it sat on the shelf until edited by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker down to 2-½ hours. Like You Can Count on Me, Lonergan’s excellent 2000 debut, this movie is less concerned with plot than character and dialogue; its textures are of real-life people interacting in ways completely antithetical to typical Hollywood movies. Crammed with scenes of the girl at school, at home or dealing with the accident’s aftermath, Margaret has unyielding empathy for its characters. Anna Paquin (teen) and J. Smith-Cameron (mom) are great; Lonergan, Josh Hamilton, Matthew Broderick, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon and Allison Janney provide smart support. The movie looks excellent on Blu-ray; the lone extra is the original, 186-minute cut on DVD: it’s an entirely different movie than the released version, though whether it’s better—it has the same strengths and weaknesses in greater abundance—will be debated for awhile.

The Saphead

(Kino)

A Buster Keaton silent feature that he did not direct (Herbert Blache did the honors)—based on a play, The New Henrietta, by Victor Mapes and Winchell Smith—this is not as memorable as his many comedic classics already out on Blu-ray, though there are enough moments for Keaton fans to savor. The 1920 color-tinted movie looks fairly worn, but on Blu-ray it’s the best it will look—along with an alternate version that comprises alternate takes and camera angles. Other extras are a featurette comparing the two versions and a 1962 audio recording Keaton regaling a party with youthful songs and memories.

Shark Divers

(Mill Creek)

This quartet of programs, featuring breathtaking underwater footage, shows the lives of several kinds of sharks (and manta rays!), and how humans—especially scientists and tourists in search of more dangerous escapades—try to co-exist with them. The four episodes—Shark Divers, Shark Business, Whale Sharks: Gentle Giants and Giants of San Benedicto—have spectacular hi-def camerawork in spades; there are no extras, but who cares when there are over three hours of stunning journeys to go on?

Twins of Evil

(Synapse)

This delightfully twisted 1971 Hammer horror flick, with Peter Cushing as the leader of pious witch hunters who meet his match when a local count transforms one of his sexyl twin nieces into a vampire, is a real hoot. Blood and breasts are equally on display, and the finale is ludicrously over the top, even for such a flamboyant film. With its dark shadows and red gore, the movie looks quite good in hi-def, with film-like grain; extras include The Flesh and the Fury, a thorough 85-minute documentary of the film’s history; The Props that Hammer Built, a 25-minute featurette; and a deleted scene.

DVDs of the Week

Jesus Henry Christ

(e one)

If quirkiness were all, then writer-director Dennis Lee’s exploration of a boy’s search for his real father would be a triumph. But quirkiness aside, Lee’s movie is skin-crawlingly obnoxious, as this most bizarre of bizarre families comes off uninteresting and dull after so many similar movies and TV sitcoms: why can’t we see normal people for a change? If everyone’s offbeat, then no one is offbeat; Michael Sheen, Toni Collette and Jason Spevack (as the boy) can’t change that. Extras include interviews with Lee and his cast.

Making Plans for Lena

(Kimstim/Zeitgeist)

Christoph Honore’s bland family relations drama pales next to better French films on the subject, with Olivier Assayas’ Summer Hours and Arnaud Desplechin’s flawed but interesting A Christmas Tale the most recent. Unlike bull’s-eye acting in Summer (Juliette Binoche) and Christmas (Catherine Deneuve), Honore is stuck with Chiara Mastroianni, movie royalty—daughter of Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni—but a mediocre actress who can’t breathe life into a multi-dimensional heroine juggling young kids, annoying brother and sister, new boyfriend, former husband and overbearing parents.

Paraiso

(New Yorker)

The final film in writer-director Leon Ichaso’s Cuban trilogy—following El Super and Bitter Sugar—is his personal take on a rarely mentioned issue: how newly arrived Cuban immigrants see their American “promised land” if the promises of a better life don’t happen. What begins as an inchoate character study morphs into a romance and finally into a strange kind of thriller, its heartfelt honesty trumping loose ends in plotting and characterization. Extras include an Ichaso interview, Benjamin Bratt introduction and Ichaso’s short about poet Justo Rodriguez Santos, J.R.S.

Seven Minutes in Heaven

(Film Movement)

Omri Givon’s provocative Jerusalem-set drama follows a survivor a year after a terrorist bombing on a bus which killed her boyfriend: she can’t remember what led to the tragedy, but therapy and an anonymous gift help her make sense of what happened and her future. Givon artfully shows the wounds, both physical and psychic, on a survivor of such an attack and, in Reymonde Amsellem’s beautifully modulated performance, brings this woman to life. The lone extra is a Brazilian short, Grandmothers.

CD of the Week

Jeffrey Khaner: Czech Flute Music

(Avie)

For this well-programmed CD of music from the former Czechoslovakia, talented American flutist Jeffrey Khaner plays pieces by three towering 19^th and 20^th century masters and a contemporary Czech composer. First is Erwin Schulhoff’s jazz-inflected 1927 Sonana, followed by Jindrich Feld’s melodic but distinctly modern-sounding Sonata (from 1957). Bohuslav Martinu’s Sonata No. 1, written in America in 1945, is expressive and lilting, the composer at his considerable best; finally, there’s a reworking of Antonin Dvorak’s 1893 Violin Sonatina transcribed for flute. Khaner performs with flair, suppleness and musical sense; pianist Charles Abramovic provides sturdy support.