September '18 Digital Week IV

Blu-rays of the Week 

Andrei Rublev 

(Criterion)

Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1966 biographical epic about the medieval Russian icon painter is a mesmerizing classic crammed with sweeping visuals and intimate moments that paint an indelible picture of an artist and culture more than half a millennium old. In this typically thorough Criterion package, both Tarkovsky’s 183-minute preferred cut and original 205-minute version, titled The Passion According to Andrei, are included, the former looking particularly impressive in restored hi-def; voluminous extras include commentaries, featurettes and Tarkovsky’s student thesis film, 1961’s The Steamroller and the Violin.

Art of the Prank 

(Relight)

Joey Skaggs might be unknown to the general public, but he’s become infamous for his many media hoaxes over several decades, which are recounted with equal parts whimsy and seriousness in director Andrea Marini’s sympathetic portrait of a man who may well be the creator of “fake news.” The movie centers around his latest public prank, which is better discovered when you watch the film, to show that media manipulation might be the easiest thing in the world (as a certain White House occupant proves every day). There’s a fine hi-def transfer; extras are interviews and featurettes.

The Big Bang Theory—Complete 11th Season 

(Warner Bros)

For the big hit comedy series’ latest season, the plots and jokes may seem recycled, but the cast—Kalie Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Mayim Bialik, and Kunal Nayyar, for starters—is still hitting on all comic cylinders in these 24 episodes. On Blu-ray, the show looks good; among the extras, which include featurettes and a gag reel, there’s a touching remembrance of and memorial to Stephen Hawking, a fan of the show who appeared several times before his death earlier this year.

Big Wednesday 

(Warner Archive)

John Milius’ 1978 memoir was supposed to be a huge nostalgic blockbuster, a la American Graffiti: even Steven Spielberg, no less, thought that it was going to be a smash hit. Instead, it tanked, as critics and audiences considered it another mindless surfing flick. At two hours, it has a lot on its plate, but the acting by Jan Michael Vincent, Gary Busey and William Katt is painfully uneven, the script by Milius and Dennis Aaberg is scattershot, and Milius’ directing is so bludgeoning that the Big Moments all become little ones. The Blu-ray at least has an excellent hi-def transfer.

Exorcist II—The Heretic 

(Scream Factory)

Upon its release, John Boorman’s 1977 sequel to the biggest horror film of all time was savaged by critics and ignored by audiences; 41 years later, the movie hasn’t improved—Richard Burton overacts, Louise Fletcher and Linda Blair underact, and a horde of locusts outacts everyone—but what surrounds it is far more interesting, thanks to Scream Factory’s extras. There are glistening hi-def transfers of Boorman’s original, messy 117-minute cut and the even more incoherent 102-minute version; informative commentaries by Boorman and “Special Project Consultant” Scott Michael Bosco; and Linda Blair’s discussion of what went wrong in a short but in-depth interview.

Lucifer—Complete 3rd Season 

(Warner Archive)

In the latest season showing how the prince of darkness infiltrated 21st century American life, Lucifer continues his professional relationship with the LAPD, especially detective Chloe Decker, who helped rid the world of his dastardly Mom (who returns as murdered lawyer Charlotte Roberts). The 26 episodes are light-hearted and—unsurprisingly—silly, which is mitigated by the charm of leads Tom Ellis and Ellen German, and entertaining support from the likes of Lesley-Ann Brandt and D. B. Woodside. There’s a sharp hi-def transfer; extras include deleted scenes, two featurettes and a gag reel.

Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in Concert—Encore 

(Time Life)

This set collects the induction ceremonies from 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, which were highlighted by massive outpourings of emotional support from audiences and musicians for Genesis (2010) and especially Rush (2013), when uber-fans Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins not only inducted the band but played its prog-rock classic “Overture” from 2112. Best of the induction speeches are Elton John’s heartfelt one for Leon Russell (2011) and the late Chris Cornell’s for Heart (2013); Alice in Chains leader Jerry Cantrell even jammed on rousing versions of “Crazy on You” and “Barracuda” with the Wilson sisters. Hi-def video and audio are first-rate.

Siberia 

(Lionsgate)

Keanu Reeves seems content to make barely-released action films that let him travel to Europe and work with nubile young actresses; his latest in this vein casts him as an American diamond merchant in Russia—who speaks fluent Russian—who gets involved with organized crime and travels to Siberia after his partner disappears. As lukewarm thrillers go, it’s watchable, and Reeves has real chemistry with Romanian actress Ana Ularu, who plays the beautiful (and available) woman who (of course) falls for and helps him. There’s a superb hi-def transfer; lone extra is a making-of featurette.

DVDs of the Week 

Damsel 

(Lionsgate)

Brothers David and Nathan Zellner’s western has a deliberately misleading title because nothing is as it seems in this evocative, occasionally grisly exploration of what it means to be a hero or villain in a dangerous world. Robert Pattison gives a strong performance as a man traversing rugged landscapes to, he thinks, rescue the love of his life (Mia Wasikowska) from her husband, which is only the beginning of a surprising journey helped by Adam Stone’s splendid photography and fine acting all around.

Nana 

(First Run)

In this first-person documentary, Serena Dykman introduces her grandmother Maryla Michalowski-Dyamant, a Polish Jew whose heartrending accounts of barely surviving the Nazis are shown through valuable clips of interviews and Q&As she gave throughout her post-war life in France. Dykman is a novice director, but emotions never overwhelm her: she worships her grandmother as an unsung heroine, but has still made a lucid, tender and fascinating tribute that fully encapsulates the phrase “never forget.”

CD of the Week 

Ralph Vaughan Williams—A Sea Symphony 

(Hyperion)

Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of our most colossally underrated composers, especially in regards to his symphonies, of which he completed nine between 1903 and 1958. The first, A Sea Symphony, is a massive structure, more than an hour long and, based as it is on Walt Whitman poems, filled with choral and solo singing throughout its four movements. This recording, by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under conductor Martyn Brabbins, with soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn and baritone Marcus Farnsworth, catches the work’s majestic sweep and irresistible forward motion. Also included is Darest thou now, o soul, a short Whitman setting the composer wrote in 1925, some 20 years after the symphony.

September '18 Digital Week III

Blu-rays of the Week 

Cold Water 

(Criterion)

French director Olivier Assayas’s 1994 breakthrough was this cutting, insightful exploration of disaffected youth, circa 1972; part of a series of films about young people, Cold Water goes far beyond that, and not only is it Assayas’s triumph—his use of period songs far betters Scorcese’s—but also that of his leading lady, Virginie Ledoyen, who was a then 17-year-old stunner bringing the director’s vision to vivid life. The film looks sharp on Blu; extras are new interviews with Assayas and cinematographer Denis Lenoir, and a vintage TV interview with Assayas, Ledoyen and actor Cyprien Fouquet.

The Looming Tower 

(Warner Bros)

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.

This riveting multi-part Hulu limited series, based on Lawrence Wright’s brilliant book, recounts the events, mishaps and unlucky breaks that allowed the Sept. 11th attacks to happen while the FBI and CIA spent too much time squabbling. Superbly directed, concisely written and filled with nuanced performances by Jeff Daniels, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlberg, Tahar Rahim and Bill Camp, this is essential viewing, even—or especially—if you know what inevitably happens. The hi-def transfer looks immaculate; extras comprise several featurettes and audio commentaries.

The Miniaturist 

(PBS Masterpiece)

From a novel by Jessie Burton that a mash-up of The Girl with a Pearl Earring (17th century Holland setting) and The Draughtsman’s Contract (an artist unmasks a family’s dark, hidden secrets), this three-part mini-series is an intermittently absorbing 2-1/2 hour-long costume drama encompassing homosexuality, interracial relationships, malicious patriarchy and—finally if most implausibly—21st century feminism. It’s well-done and extremely well-acted by a cast led by Anya Taylor-Joy and Romola Garai, but the underwhelming plot makes it a chore to watch at times. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer; lone extra is a 45-minute behind the scenes featurette.

The Naked and the Dead 

(Warner Archive)

Based on Norman Mailer’s first novel about soldiers battling the enemy and one another in World War II, this 1958 adaptation has solid directing by Raoul Walsh and a fine ensemble cast that includes Cliff Robertson, Joey Bishop, Aldo Ray, Raymond Massey and Richard Jaeckel. But since the script has little bite and the men are given typically melodramatic problems, this ends up as a good-looking but defanged war film. Warner Archive’s Blu-ray makes Joseph LaShelle’s color cinematography look sumptuous.

Ocean's 8 

(Warner Bros)

In this breezy gender-reversed Oceans 11, eight women plan a daring heist during the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Fashion Gala, which allows for some tongue-in-cheek overlapping between the characters in the movie and the actresses who play them, notably fashion mavens like Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Rhianna. The movie itself is so wispy as to be forgotten right after watching it, but it’s still enjoyable despite the shortcomings. The film has a superior hi-def transfer; extras include 2 brief deleted scenes, interviews and featurettes.

Supergirl—Complete 3rd Season 

(Warner Bros)

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.

In the latest season of adventures for the 20-something cousin of Superman, Kara Zor-El has difficulty keeping her alter ego (Daily Planet reporter Kara Danvers) and real identity separated, as she also deals with losing Mon-El twice and the appearance of a new nemesis called Reign. The fetching performance of Melissa Benoist gives this juvenile series its main attraction, now that actress Laura Benanti—who had played Kara’s mom, Alura, with spirited urgency—is gone. Still, the season’s 23 episodes fly by, and the hi-def transfer is superb. Extras are four DC Comics crossover episodes, excerpts from DC TV’s Comic-Con Panels San Diego 2017, featurettes Inside the Crossover: Crisis on Earth-X and She Will Reign!, a gag reel and deleted scenes. 

CD of the Week 

Leonard Bernstein—Wonderful Town 

(LSO Live)

Celebrating Leonard Bernstein’s centenary, the London Symphony Orchestra under conductor Sir Simon Rattle gives the Bernstein/Adolph Green/Betty Comden Broadway musical a whirl, providing effervescent orchestral accompaniment to some of Bernstein’s most playful melodies. The cast, especially Danielle de Niese and Alysha Umphress as the Ohio sisters trying to make it in the big city, has sass in spades; highlights include de Niese’s “A Little Bit in Love,” Umphress’s “Conga” and Nathan Gunn’s “A Quiet Girl.”

September '18 Digital Week II

Blu-rays of the Week 

Tag 

(Warner Bros)

With Ed Helms in the lead, this mainly inane comedy about grown men acting like children (based on a true story) tries to equal the vapidity of Helms's biggest hit, The Hangover; indeed, there are several moments that reach that movie’s embarrassingly crude lows. But however often it scrapes the bottom of the comedic barrel, it has just enough energy from a game cast that throws itself into the lunacy with aplomb, especially Jeremy Renner’s proto-Bourne character; the exaggerated use of slo-mo gets the most laughs. The film looks pristine on Blu; extras comprise a featurette, deleted scenes and gag reel.

Found Footage 3D 

(Shudder)

Do we need yet another found-footage horror flick? Well, maybe: this one is as unnecessarily crude, dully-acted and predictable as the others—with the added bonus of it being in gimmicky 3D, if anyone still wants to watch with those stupid glasses on—but at least it injects some self-referential humor into the proceedings. It doesn’t always work, but it remains halfway entertaining even while it clumsily falls apart, which is something, I guess. The hi-def transfer is excellent; extras include deleted scenes, etc.

Hereditary 

(Lionsgate)

One of the most imbecile horror movies I’ve ever seen, writer-director Ari Aster’s risible drama is as ridiculously silly as they come, with the kitchen sink thrown in for good measure. Not only does he steal brazenly from The Shining’s visuals and music (the opening shot, among others, is a direct Kubrick rip-off, and the score by Colin Stetson is nothing but an empty lift from Penderecki and Ligeti), but he has none of Kubrick’s artistry or originality. Poor Toni Collette’s performance is pitched so high that she makes Nicholson’s Shining work look positively understated. And the bizarrely insane ending must be seen to be disbelieved, coming after two hours of complete nonsense. The hi-def transfer is first-rate; extras are deleted scenes and a featurette.

The Last Hunt 

(Warner Archive)

Shot on the actual locations in South Dakota—scenic Custer State Park and foreboding Badlands National Monument (now National Park)—Richard Brooks’ familiar but efficient 1956 western follows hunters shooting down magnificent bison during the area’s annual bison cull (which is actually shown in the film). Stewart Granger is fine as the hunter whose last hunt this is, but the drama of the puny humans is secondary to the majesty of the locales and the animals themselves in living color. The hi-def transfer is transfixing.

Supernatural—Complete 13th Season 

(Warner Bros)

(Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.)

It’s rare that a non-Law and Order or Shonda Rhimes drama lasts on network television as long as this lighthearted fantasy that spells out its wide-ranging dimensions in its very title, but after 13 years—and with its 14th season upcoming this fall—Supernatural still churns out not very original but watchable tales of two brothers battling various antagonistic creatures. You would have thought that Sam and Dean had already gone up against every supernatural being around, but this latest season will set you straight. There’s a fine hi-def transfer; extras are deleted scenes, commentaries, featurettes and a gag reel.

DVDs of the Week

The Escape 

(IFC)

Gemma Arterton gives a touching and subtle performance as a harried wife who decides to leave her husband and son behind and head to Paris, where she meets (natch) the ultimate alluring foreigner, allowing her to contemplate emotional and sexual freedom. Director-writer Dominic Savage telegraphs everything without arriving at any insight into his heroine’s behavior, except that she’s sick of it all. But Arterton provides the needed subtext through a simple brief look or the mere raising of an eyebrow whenever her director can’t do so.

Laugh-In—Complete Final Season 

(Time-Life)

The sixth and final season of one of the goofiest but politically astute variety shows to grace the small screen came in 1972-3 when Nixon’s White House fortunes were taking a turn for the worse, and this set captures all 24 episodes led by ringmasters Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. Among the guests for this last ride include Steve Allen, Jack Benny, Carol Burnett, Johnny Carson, Howard Cosell, Sammy Davis Jr., Angie Dickinson, Phyllis Diller, Jack Klugman, Rich Little, Don Rickles and Sally Struthers—but there’s no Tricky Dick saying “sock it to me,” and the regular cast itself received a makeover into obscurity: I’ll bet you don’t know who Patti Deutsch, Jud Strunk, Willie Tyler & Lester or Sarah Kennedy are.

That Summer 

(Sundance Selects)

Here’s a more celebrated found-footage movie than the 3D one above, put together by director Göran Hugo Olsson from film shot in 1972 at the Beale’s East Hampton compound by famed photographer Peter Beard and others (including one of the Maysles brothers, who returned to make Grey Gardens a few years later). Mother and daughter Big Edie and Little Edie Beale became celebrities despite—or perhaps because of—their living in a garbage- and cat-strewn home, and there’s a profound sense of sadness that underlies what we watch, especially since we know what happened to both women. Beard and Lee Radziwill (Jackie Kennedy’s sister and Big Edie’s niece) narrate.

CD of the Week 

Anne Akiko Meyers—Mirror in Mirror 
(Avie)
For her latest and arguably most personal album yet, violin virtuoso Anne Akiko Meyers plays music inspired or commissioned by her, including John Corigliano’s lovely Lullaby for Natalie (for the violinist’s first child) and two works by Jakob Ciupinski, which hauntingly combine electronic and acoustic instrumentation. (Elsewhere, Ciupinski’s electronics slightly detract from Meyers’ impassioned performance of Ravel’s Tzigane.) Front and center throughout is Meyers’ violin, capable of a seemingly unlimited palette of direct emotion and masterly technique that takes even the most minimalist of these pieces (like Philip Glass’s Metamorphosis II or Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Speigel, whose English translation gives the album its evocative title) into the musical stratosphere.

September '18 Digital Week I

Blu-rays of the Week 

American Animals 

(Lionsgate)

Brutal and brusque, Bart Layton’s crime drama has enough topsy-turviness to keep one watching, even if it ultimately doesn’t achieve the greatness it could have. Still, seeing the real perpetrators of a botched robbery (of a priceless John James Audubon Birds of America volume, of all things) have their say adds a layer of urgency and immediacy to the story of a bunch of goofs bungling their way to seven years in prison. An offbeat soundtrack of songs like the Doors’ “Peace Frog,” Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” and Ace Frehley’s “New York Groove” also helps. There’s a sparkling hi-def transfer; extras include deleted scenes, featurettes and a director/cast commentary.

Beast 

(Lionsgate)

I know not to expect much in the way of subtlety from such a bluntly titled movie, but I had hopes for writer-director Michael Pearce’s irascible black drama about a young woman infatuated with a bad boy who might be a killer. But with so many risible plot twists throughout its 105 minutes, after awhile it becomes a cloying, unholy mess of clichés, ridiculously literal visual metaphors and some of the corniest dialogue you will never hope to hear again. Jessie Buckley is a real find, but I hope to see her in something that allows her to do more than act in primary colors. There’s a superior hi-def transfer; lone extra is a making-of featurette.

The Flash—Complete 4th Season 

(Warner Bros)

(Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.)

In the latest season of the further adventures of the world’s fastest superhero, Barry Allen (aka the Flash) relies on his family and closest associates to assist in his on-going battles against the usual evildoers and other assorted bad guys. These 26 fast-paced episodes look terrific in hi-def; extras include a gag reel, deleted scenes, several featurettes and four crossover episodes with other DC super hero series: Arrow, Supergirl and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Godard Mon Amour 

(Cohen Media Group)

Michel Hazanavicius’ amusingly slight ode to Jean-Luc Godard’s feistiness, circa 1968, around the time he decided to go in the direction of a series of increasingly didactic and politically left-wing films, has a fine performance by Louis Garrel as Godard and a far more incisive one by Stacy Martin as his then-girlfriend, young actress Anne Wiazemsky (on whose memoir this is based). Godard Mon Amour—which at least deserves the subtler humor of its original title, Le Redoubtable—is fun for Godard aficionados, less so for the uninitiated. There’s an excellent Blu-ray transfer; lone extra is a conversation with Hazanavicius and Martin.

Home from the Hill 

(Warner Archive)

Robert Mitchum dominates this 1960 adaptation of William Humphrey’s novel about an unrepentant womanizer, his harried wife and two grown sons, one hers and the one another woman’s from an earlier relationship of his. Vicente Minnelli directs in broad strokes, which makes the plot’s soap–operaish aspects more obvious and even risible, but the 150-minute running time lets us get a handle on these characters, and if Eleanor Parker (wife), Richard Hamilton and George Peppard (sons) and a delightful Luana Patten (both sons’ girl) don’t have much chance to make a mark, Mitchum’s credible cragginess remains front and center. Warner Archive’s hi-def transfer looks pristine.

Memories of Underdevelopment 

(Criterion)

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s classic of Cuban cinema was released in 1968, but didn’t make its mark here until its release five years later with its story of a Cuban intellectual sifting through an idle life of casual sex and empty political gestures after the rest of his family flees to Miami in the wake of Castro’s revolution. Brilliantly directed by Alea—who uses documentary techniques to great effect—this is among Criterion’s top recent resurrections, from its top-notch hi-def transfer to the extras, comprising interviews and a 2008 documentary about Alea’s career, Titon: From Havana to “Guantanamera.” 

Never So Few 

(Warner Archive)

Shot on location in Burma (now Myanmar) and Thailand, this tough-minded but diffuse World War II drama stars Frank Sinatra as a commanding troop leader dealing with bloody guerrilla warfare that his superiors don’t understand. Director John Sturges does well with the action sequences and tense moments between battles where the men wonder what’s yet to come, but a romantic subplot involving Sinatra and Gina Lollobrigida (in one of her few English-language starring roles) detracts from, rather than adds to, the overall portrait. The Cinemascope film looks splendid on Blu.

Tucker—The Man and His Dream 

(Lionsgate)

In Francis Coppola’s stillborn 1988 biopic about Preston Tucker, an auto innovator who went up against Detroit’s Big Three with the Tucker Torpedo in the late ‘40s, Jeff Bridges must swim upstream against a tide of clichés, visual gimmickry and everything else Coppola tries to sustain interest in a story that really shouldn’t rely on it. In a life or death struggle over who dominates the movie, unfortunately Coppola wins. The film looks quite good on Blu; extras include a Coppola commentary and intro, deleted scenes and vintage making-of.

Woman Walks Ahead 

(Lionsgate)

Susannah White’s absorbing historical drama follows Catherine Weldon, a widowed painter from New York who in 1892 traveled across the country to paint the great Sitting Bull. Even if its historical veracity is questionable, the film is filled with gorgeous western vistas and an estimable cast led by Jessica Chastain’s forcefully bull-headed heroine and Michael Greyeyes’s humane, gentle Sitting Bull. There’s also fine support from Sam Rockwell, Bill Camp and Ciaran Hinds as the men who help—or hinder—Weldon in her seemingly quixotic quest. On Blu-ray, the film looks great; extras are deleted scenes, making-of featurette and White’s commentary.