Blu-rays of the Week
Inescapable
(IFC)
Ruba Nadda’s tidy thriller
follows a father returning to Damascus—which he left a quarter century earlier
for a new life in Toronto—to find his missing adult daughter, aided by a Canadian
embassy rep who knows her (there’s a good moment when they have to identify a
body and the emissary says it’s not her because the corpse doesn’t have a
tattoo “where a father can’t see it”). Alexander Siddig is strong as the
distraught dad and Marisa Tomei terrific as the Syrian woman he left behind in
this well-paced drama. The Blu-ray image is stellar; extras comprise Nadda’s
commentary, deleted scenes and interviews.
(PBS)
This, the sixth series of
crime-solving by the indomitable detective and his colleagues, consists of
three episodes, “Down Among the Fearful,” “The Ramblin’ Boy” and “Intelligent
Design,” all good Masterpiece Mystery
fodder based on Colin Dexter’s Inspector
Morse novels. A suitably deadpan Kevin Whately is the no-nonsense title
character, and he’s ably supported by Laurence Fox, Rebecca Front and Clare
Holman, among many others. The Blu-ray image looks very good; no extras.
North Face
(Music Box)
This compelling 2008 adventure follows
the brave and loyal Germans who, in 1936, try to become the first to scale the Alps’
most dangerous rock face: the Eiger. Director Philipp Stolzl understands that
facts and good actors are needed to make a superior docudrama, and he confronts
the Nazi era’s thorny politics with neither condescension nor jingoism. The superb
cast features Toni Kurz and Andi Hinterstoisser as the climbers and Johanna
Wokalek as their long-time friend and photographer. The Blu-ray image looks
great; extras include deleted scenes and featurettes.
(Opus Arte)
Mozart’s sublime comic opera
works wonderfully, even in director Michael Grandage’s needless update at last
summer’s Glyndebourne Festival in England. With a top-notch vocal cast acting
up a storm—best is the always delightful American soprano Isabel Leonard as
teenage boy Cherubino—and splendid conducting by Robin Ticciati, this Figaro flies by, despite Grandage’s silly
staging. Blu-ray image and sound sparkle; extras are backstage featurettes.
Pusher and The Rambler
(Anchor Bay)
Pusher, Luis Prieto’s uninspired remake of the gritty movies by
Nicolas Winding Refn hits the same buttons but Refn’s inventive direction is missed:
Richard Coyle never convinces as the desperate drug dealer, and the supporting
cast raises fewer hopes. Still, it’s Citizen
Kane compared to The Rambler,
Calvin Lee Reeder’s nonsensical would-be thriller that exists only to show off
lots of gore, with copy-cat exploding heads lifted from Scanners and Dermot Mulroney looking confused throughout. The
Blu-ray transfers are first-rate; Pusher extras
comprise cast/crew Q&As and a making-of featurette.
(Anchor Bay/Weinstein Co)
What begins as a convoluted
psychological thriller soon descends into unhinged horror in a tired attempt to
get viewers to jump out of their seats at the slightest provocation, courtesy
writer Michael Cooney and directors Mårlind and Stein. That this was made five
years ago, released in England, had a title change and was dumped on video says
it all. Poor Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers probably prefer to forget
this, as will anyone who watches it. The Blu-ray image is decent.
Die Soldaten
(Unitel Classica)
Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s unstageable
opera—I saw it in Manhattan in 2008 and agree heartily—is dramatically diffuse
and musically unwieldy, but its sheer audaciousness keeps one interested. (The
composer killed himself in 1970 at age 52.) This 2012 Salzburg staging, on a
long narrow stage with a lot happening at once, is muted since the camera can
only show one thing at a time. Still, it’s handsomely designed and performed
(American soprano Laura Aikin is especially forceful as the heroine Marie), and
should be seen once in a lifetime. Blu-ray image and sound are fantastic.
Constitution USA
(PBS)
Peter Segal’s four-part series sees
him traveling the country to talk to constitutional scholars, judges, lawyers
and laymen for their viewpoints on what makes the Constitution great—and less so—after
225 years. With an eye on the unbridgeable divide now in Washington (the do-nothing
Congress, a stuck-in-mud Presidency and an ideologically divided Supreme
Court—these programs provide a common-sense approach to both root causes and
possible solutions.
Falcon
(Acorn)
Set in Seville but starring a
cast of British actors, this diverting detective series is distinguished by picturesque
Spanish locations, including the famous bull ring in Seville. The performances
by a uniformly excellent ensemble are led by Marton Csokas’s hard-bitten but
appealing Falcon, Emilia Fox’s sensual ex-wife and, in the first episode, Hayley
Atwell’s luscious widow. The plots are a bit too violent and sadistic (the
first victim’s eyelids being cut off is only the beginning), but fans probably
won’t mind.
(Warner Archive)
Jerry Lewis’ 1965 comedy is a
tour de force of sorts, since writer-producer-director Lewis plays five uncles
of a young girl, one of whom she has to choose as her new guardian. The problem—as
with most Lewis films—is that he is in such single-minded service to gags that,
when they don’t work—which is often, since they are so long and drawn out that
when they finally arrive, they are DOA—the movie just stops dead. If you love
Jerry, you’ll love this; but if you don’t, it won’t change your mind.
Jupiter’s Darling
(Warner Archive)
If you ever wanted to see Esther
Williams—the beautiful swimming actress who died last month at 91—swim around a
pool filled with ancient Roman statues, then George Sidney’s otherwise routine 1955
epic is for you. Williams and Howard Keel (as Hannibal) aren’t a very romantic
pair, but Marge and Gower Champion compensate with dazzling dances, and
Williams is as gorgeous as ever. The widescreen transfer looks OK, but if it
was restored, the colors would be as dazzling as Williams’ underwater routines.
Ailyn Perez—Poeme d’un jour
(Opus Arte)
This is my first time listening
to young American soprano Ailyn Perez, and her engaging style and unfussy
forthrightness is a pleasure to hear on this disc of French and Spanish songs
about loves lost and found. In addition to familiar works like Manuel de Falla’s
Seven Popular Spanish Songs and
Gabriel Faure’s exquisite set of three songs which gives her CD its title,
Perez also gives Reynaldo Hahn’s gorgeous melodies
a spin, along with another Spaniard not heard nearly enough, Joaquin Turina. It’s
all accompanied sensitively by pianist Iain Burnside.
Rautavaara—Missa a cappella
(Ondine)
Now a spry 84, Finland’s
Einojuhani Rautavaara should be on any intelligent music fan’s short list of
Greatest Living Composer, his oeuvre comprising music that runs the gamut from
chamber works to operas: several of his brilliant choral compositions are heard
on this wonderful sounding CD. The Latvian Radio Choir, under its leader
Sigvara Klava, performs with pious grace several Rautavaara works for
unaccompanied choir, including the Missa
a cappella, one of his towering works in that underappreciated genre. The
shorter pieces on display might not have the Missa’s majesty, but anyone interested in great choir writing and
singing should pick up this disc.
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