November '25 Digital Week II

Streaming Releases of the Week 

Heaven 

(Lightyear)

With the untimely death of Diane Keaton, there was discussion about her legendary screen career, from her indelible collaborations with Woody Allen to her powerful performances in Reds and Shoot the Moon, among others. But Keaton was also an idiosyncratic filmmaker, and her first feature—this weirdly beguiling 1987 documentary—showed off her singular style in ways that were both affecting and head-shaking. This 75-minute exploration rounds up interview snippets with people who discuss their idea of an afterlife alongside dozens of carefully chosen clips from a wide array of movies including Metropolis and A Matter of Life and Death to create something uniquely, lightheartedly Keatonesque.

Sex Diva 

(Breaking Glass Pictures)

Writer-director Giulia Louise Steigerwalt smartly chronicles the fascinating career of Italian pornographer Riccardo Schicchi, who broke through in the ‘90s, helping to create celebrities of some of his female adult-film performers, including his wife Éva Henger and international superstars like Moana Pozzi, who died tragically of cancer at age 33. Steigerwalt’s film is amusing and dramatic, tongue-in-cheek and tragic, and has superb acting throughout, led by Pietro Castellito (Riccardo), Tesa Litvan (Éva) and Denise Capezza (Moana), with—as the calming influence of the Schicchi empire, Debora Attanasio—the magnificent Barbara Ronchi the emotional anchor of the story.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week 

Def Leppard—Diamond Star Heroes: Live From Sheffield 

(Mercury)

For a triumphant return to its hometown of Sheffield in northern England in 2023, Def Leppard played the local soccer stadium for a 90-minute concert before tens of thousands of loyal fans that mixed the group’s biggest hits with a few deeper cuts; highlights are the early tracks “Bringing on the Heartbreak” and “Switch 625.” Singer Joe Elliott can still hit most of the high notes, impressive at his age (63 in ’23), and the band is tight and focused. A bonus concert, at a Sheffield club a few nights earlier, is a 65-minute trek through some of the same hits and a couple different true-fan faves like “Let It Go” and “Wasted.” The UHD video and surround sound are first-rate.

Him 

(Universal)

In this crudely if occasionally effective horror flick, college football player Cameron Cade—after being attacked by an unknown assailant after a game—goes to train privately before the pro combine with veteran NFL QB Isaiah White, whose unconventional methods result in sex, murder and a ridiculously risible final blood-letting. Tyriq Withers is a persuasive, even sympathetic Cam, while Marlon Wayans brings gravitas to the young quarterback’s mentor. For 95 minutes, co-writer/director Justin Tipping hammers everything home so literally that it turns what could have been an enjoyably guilty pleasure into a visually striking mess. It does look terrific on UHD; extras include an alternate ending, deleted scene, and featurettes.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Burden of Dreams 

(Criterion)

Les Blank and Maureen Gosling’s perceptive 1982 documentary about the stupendous (and often stupid) lengths that director Werner Herzog went to making his rain forest epic Fitzcarraldo is far more focused than Herzog’s feature, another of the German filmmaker’s adventurous but stillborn studies of madness. A precursor to the making-of featurettes that populate so many home media releases, Blank and Lassiter’s chronicle catches many interesting filmmaking moments—and Herzog, always a charming figure, has himself made far more memorable documentaries than features. The film looks striking on Blu; extras comprise Blank’s, Gosling’s and Herzog’s insightful commentary, Blank’s amusing short Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980), deleted scenes and an archival Herzog interview. 

Pavarotti—The Lost Concert 

(Mercury/Universal)

In 1995, the great Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti gave a concert in Llangollen, a small town in Wales, 40 years after he won a vocal competition there, to keep a promise he made to return one day: the entire 75-minute concert, where he sang his greatest classical hits in front of tens of thousands, was recorded for posterity. His delight is evident from the start, and he’s in fine form throughout. The video looks decent and the sound is good; lone extra is a 52-minute documentary that follows Pavarotti on his journey to the concert, although some of it repeats performances we see in the actual show.

Rick and Morty—Complete 8th Season 

(Warner Bros)

The latest bonkers season begins with Morty and his sister Summer escaping the matrix into which their mad-scientist granddad Rick sent them after they took his phone charger—and that’s just the beginning of a series of dementedly witty episodes that features clones of the main characters that go off on further adventures. The superb voice cast and the offhandedly clever animation provide special comic (and cosmic) dimension to these eight episodes; lone extra is an inside the season featurette with creator Dan Harmon and others.

CD Releases of the Week

Leoš Janáček—The Makropulos Affair/The Diary of the One Who Disappeared 

(Somm)

Australian conductor Charles Mackerras (1925-2010) was an authority on the music of the Czech master Leoš Janáček (1854-1928), recording all of his major operas, especially in an unparalleled cycle for Decca Records back in the 1970s. One of Janáček’s towering masterpieces, The Makropulos Affair (better known as The Makropulos Case in America) had its London premiere in 1964 at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, under Mackerras’ meticulous direction, with Marie Collier an unforgettable-sounding heroine. Also on this two-disc set is a fine performance (from the BBC Studios in 1956) of the composer’s yearning song cycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared, sung in an English translation by tenor Richard Lewis and contralto Maureen Forrester, with Ernest Lush on piano.

Kurt Weill/Alan Jay Lerner—Love Life 

(Capriccio)

This delectable 1948 time-traveling musical was the only collaboration of two musical geniuses: Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner. The amazing thing is that the finished work is so cohesive and flows so entertainingly, considering the outsized talents (and, no doubt, egos) of both men. This excellent recording of a recent production of Opera North—located in Leeds, England—features wonderful singing, especially by the leads, Quirijin de Long and Stephanie Carley, along with the large supporting cast and chorus; while the orchestra, under conductor James Holmes, sounds wonderful throughout. Too bad this is an audio recording—a video of this staging would be unbeatable.

February '25 Digital Week III

In-Theater Release of the Week 

Parthenope 

(A24)

Italian director Paolo Sorrentino returns with an exploration of youthful beauty in the form of a beautiful young woman named after a Greek siren, who turns heads—among other things—in her hometown of Naples (aka Parthenope). Celeste Dalla Porta is exquisitely gorgeous; whether she can act is immaterial, since Parthenope is a symbol for whatever the men who ogle her—even her beloved brother and an old, obese priest—want her to be. If the shots of males leering were cut, the movie would probably be an hour shorter. Visually, Sorrentino and cinematographer Daria D’Antonio overload on sumptuousness, but dramatically and thematically it’s trifling. Sorrentino even brings in Gary Oldman to ham it up mercilessly as drunk novelist John Cheever, whose writings Parthenope happens to adore. Meshing religion and sex is Sorrentino’s prime subject, but even Dalla Porta’s great beauty palls after awhile, and the final shots of just-retired anthropology professor Parthenope (Stefania Sandrelli) watching a celebratory float go by make as little sense as the rest of this long perfume ad—even a 30-second commercial would have more depth.

Streaming Release of the Week

Nosferatu 

(Focus Features)

Writer-director Robert Eggers’ latest genre exercise is in many ways his most enervating yet—his unnecessary remake of the old and moldy Dracula/Nosferatu films is overloaded with hysterically overwrought performances; moody but hammy camerawork; more metaphorical packs of rats and shadows than one would expect even from a nervous student film; and a self-indulgent, slow pace that drags this flimsy tale to a torturous running time of 135 minutes. Even Willem Dafoe, often an amusing overacter, seems flustered by his ridiculous character and dialogue; poor Lily-Rose Depp looks elegant but remains relentlessly dour, while Nicholas Hoult is unable to fashion a real character out of disparate fragments. As for the vampire himself, Bill Skarsgård gives a performance that grows more risible as the film continues.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Last Summer 

(Janus Contemporaries)

French provocateur Catherine Breillat hadn’t made a film in about a decade following her stroke, but her long-awaited return doesn’t disappoint, as she adapts the Dutch film Queen of Hearts to dissect the relationship—initially antagonistic, then sexual, and finally emotional—of a 40ish wife and mother, Anna, and her teenage stepson, Théo. The always rigorous Breillat explores the psychological state of Anna—who is also, ironically, a respected lawyer—and, despite a few narrative misplays (a couple important sequences are elided), allows her to tell her truth, even when it’s based on a torrent of lies. As Théo, Samuel Kircher is simultaneously (and plausibly) a child and a young man, while Léa Drucker gives a towering performance of feminine sexual confidence as Anna, a woman who makes wrong decisions and doubles down on them. The film looks fine on Blu; lone extra is a Breillat interview.

Respighi—Maria Egiziaca 

(Dynamic)

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s 1931 theatrical triptych follows the prostitute Maria of Alexandria, whose sacrifice later earned her Catholic sainthood, in a dramatically tense account accompanied by some of Respighi’s loveliest music. Pier Luigi Pizzi’s 2024 Venice production centers on the fiery aliveness of soprano Francesca Dotto’s portrayal of Maria, who could have been merely symbolic but instead is a flawed, fully achieved protagonist. Respighi’s score sounds luminous performed by the Venice State Opera orchestra and chorus under the baton of Manlio Benzi. Hi-def video and audio are first-rate.

Strauss—Arabella 

(Naxos)

German master Richard Strauss’ 1933 operatic romance—his final work with longtime librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal—follows the title heroine, a noblewoman with no shortage of suitors, and her younger sister Zdenka (brought up as a boy to save the family money); the combination of Hofmannsthal’s wit and Strauss’ melodies makes this one of the great autumnal operas. Tobias Krazer’s 2023 Berlin State Opera staging mixes a lush Viennese setting with postmodern touches like film clips and casual contemporary wear for the leads. If the production is less than visually sparkling, musically it’s aces—as Arabella, Sara Jakubiak adds to her glowing portraits of complex heroines, while Elena Tsallagova (as Zdenka) provides superb support. Donald Runnicles conducts an effective reading of Strauss’ sumptuous score. The hi-def video and audio are topnotch.

4K/UHD Release of the Week

Constantine 

(Warner Bros)

In Francis Lawrence’s 2005 supernatural mess, Keanu Reeves sleepwalks through the title role, an exorcist of sorts who visits heaven and hell and who tries to save L.A. detective Angela, whose twin sister Isabel killed herself under suspicious circumstances. Lawrence conjures the look of dankness and gray foreboding that David Fincher did in 1995’s Seven, which was more plausibly and terrifying. Opposite the somnolent Reeves is Rachel Weisz, desperate to make Amanda more than a caricature but defeated by the material and Lawrence’s approach. The UHD images are flawless; extras include new interviews with Lawrence and Reeves as well as archival featurettes and commentaries.

CD Release of the Week 

Supertramp—Live in Paris ’79 

(Mercury/Universal)

On the heels of its biggest-selling album, Breakfast in America, prog-rock group Supertramp released a two-LP live set, Paris, documenting the extensive world tour. That 1980 album has just been reissued on two CDs that include the entire two-hour set with the band firing on all cylinders, from prog epics like “Crime of the Century,” “From Now On” and “Fool’s Overture” to classic cuts like “School,” “Ain’t Nobody But Me” and “Even in the Quietest Moments” and a wide selection of tracks from the then-current smash album: “The Logical Song,” “Goodbye Stranger,” “Take the Long Way Home” and even “Child of Vision.” What’s heard in this impeccably remixed concert is how tight the quintet was, from drummer Bob Siebenberg and bassist Dougie Thomson’s rhythm section to John Helliwell’s saxophone and the coleaders, keyboardist/singer Roger Davies and keyboardist/guitarist/singer Roger Hodgson.  

June '24 Digital Week IV

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week 

Last Summer 

(Sideshow/Janus)

French provocateur Catherine Breillat hasn’t made a film in nearly a decade following a stroke, but her long-awaited return doesn’t disappoint, as she adapts a Dutch film, Queen of Hearts, that dissects the relationship—first antagonistic, then sexual, finally emotional—of a 40ish wife, Anne, and her teenage stepson, Théo. Breillat, in her usual rigorous way, explores the psychological state of Anna—who also, ironically, is a respected lawyer—and, despite some narrative misplays (a few important scenes are elided), allows her to tell her truth, even when it’s based on a torrent of lies. As Théo, Samuel Kircher is simultaneously (and plausibly) a child and a man, while Léa Drucker gives a towering performance of feminine sexual confidence as Anna, a woman who makes a wrong decision and keeps making them.

Copa 71 

(Greenwich Entertainment)

Unearthing lost footage of the heretofore rarely known 1971 women’s world cup in Mexico, directors Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine have made an engrossing documentary exploring the cover-up of women’s issues on a global scale a half-century ago. Revisiting the found footage with several original players on the teams from Mexico, Denmark, France and England, the filmmakers also enlist U.S. soccer superstars Brandi Chastain and Alex Morgan, who provide the important context of being introduced to their sport’s trailblazers decades before they themselves were the faces of women’s soccer, which continues growing in popularity worldwide.

The Escort 

(Film Movement)

This ponderous and blackly comic 2023 exploration of Croatia’s seedy underbelly, the final film of director Lukas Nola before dying of cancer at age 58, in 2022, has some unsavory characters exploiting, double crossing, harassing, and blackmailing each other, as 40-year-old businessman Miro—after having sex and sharing cocaine with her—discovers dead escort Maja in his hotel bathroom, and things unsurprisingly spiral from there. Nola wanted to make a heavily satiric drama about the cynicism and corruption in his home country, but since everyone is appalling it ends up with loads of thickly laded-on dramatic irony alongside many metaphoric shots of birds and animals. Lena Medar as Maja in the early scenes and Hrvojka Begović as Miro’s wife Darija later on enliven the proceedings when they appear, at least.

The Small Back Room 

(Rialto)

This modest 1949 melodrama by the formidable filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger might not be as expansive and eye-catching as their other classics from this era—1947’s Black Narcissus and 1948’s The Red Shoes immediately preceded it—but it’s a superior psychological character study that also functions as an engrossing wartime melodrama. Leading to an exciting bomb-defusing climax, the film boasts excellent performances by David Farrar as the crippled hero Sammy and Kathleen Byron as Susan, the woman who believes in him. The 4K restoration looks tremendous.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week 

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare 

(Lionsgate)

Guy Ritchie’s talent for directing amusing if innocuous action flicks—such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and The Gentlemen—continues with this entertaining spy caper about British secret agents during WWII, based on real events. Ritchie will never be subtle, but for a movie like this—filled with espionage and big set pieces—that isn’t needed, and the cast is having great fun too: best are Henry Cavill as Gus March-Phillipps (purportedly Ian Fleming’s basis for James Bond) and Eiza Gonzalez, whose winning turn as Marjorie Stewart, the feistiest of femmes fatales, steals the picture. The film looks splendid in UHD; lone extra is a making-of featurette.

Monkey Man 

(Universal)

Dev Patel’s directorial debut is loud and clanky but never boring, even if it sometimes seems desperate to be exciting as we follow Patel as a nameless misfit who makes a little cash fighting in underground rings until he finds the opportunity for payback from the elites who destroyed his honor. The endless action set pieces are cleverly done but soon induce exhaustion over the course of two hours—still, it’s filmed with a real rage, and if you find yourself on Patel’s wavelength, you might get more out of its redemption narrative. The 4K image is eye-poppingly good, but there are no extras.

Purple Rain 

(Warner Bros)

There’s an unresolvable dichotomy in Prince’s 1984 film debut: whenever his superb music is heard or performed onstage, the movie soars into the stratosphere; but his acting (and everyone else’s) is so atrocious that whenever he speaks or tries to show emotion, you can’t help but burst out laughing at the histrionic ineptitude. But yes, those great songs—highlighted by the classic title track, featuring Prince’s most emotive guitar solo that approaches David Gilmour’s on “Comfortably Numb”—make one ignore the risible performances by Prince, Apollonia, Morris Day and the entire Revolution. Director Albert Magnoli earns more demerits for continuously cutting to the awestruck club audience whenever Prince is onstage. It all looks and—especially—sounds glorious in 4K; extras comprise a commentary by Magnoli, producer Robert Cavallo and cinematographer Donald E. Thorin; First Avenue: The Road to Pop Royalty featurette; and music videos for several Prince hits as well as songs by Morris Day and the Time and Apollonia. 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

American Fiction 

(Warner Bros)

Writer-director Cord Jefferson’s often savagely funny satire of how deeply racism is embedded in the American psyche, based on Percival Everett’s 2001 novel, Erasure, explores the many ramifications of frustrated author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison’s transparent attempt to write a banal novel that white publishers and audiences will lap up as “authentically Black”—and is disgusted when it actually takes off as a major literary phenomenon. Jefferson’s film also tenderly chronicles Monk’s mostly dysfunctional family, and these scenes, playing off the more sardonic authorial episodes, provide the dramatic heft. The magisterial acting comprises Jeffrey Wright’s towering portrayal of Ellison, Sterling K. Brown’s wounded brother Cliff, and a fantastic female quartet: Tracee Ellis Ross (Monk’s sister Lisa), Issa Rae (successful author Sintara Golden), Erika Alexander (Monk’s love interest Coralie) and the ageless Leslie Uggams (Monk’s family matriarch Agnes). Although there aren’t any extras, context is everything and an interview or commentary would be helpful. There’s a first-rate Blu-ray transfer.

The Boys in the Boat 

(Warner Bros)

In his latest directorial effort, George Clooney dramatizes how the underdog University of Washington rowing team and its coach overcame the odds to represent the U.S. in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Clooney has made a conventional, inspirational movie that tells an interesting story competently and without any surprises—it effectively builds to the gold-medal showdown against the Germans (with Hitler in attendance, of course). There’s a fine cast led by Joel Egerton as the coach to Courtney Henggeler as his supportive wife, while Alexander Desplat’s jaunty score sounds overly familiar—but also effective. There’s a quite good hi-def transfer, but in keeping with many new releases, nothing in the way of any extras.

Common-Law Wife/Jennie, Wife Child 

(Film Masters)

The vaults of obscure B movies have been opened, what’s been pouring out includes this pair of B&W cheapies that push the boundaries of lasciviousness as far as they could in the early ’60s (1963, to be exact). Common-Law Wife follows an old coot, unhappy with his current gal pal, wants to get together with Baby Doll, who is his young niece; not to be outdone, Jennie, Wife Child shows a young bride, bored with her older husband, get it on with an attractive young farmhand. Both movies are about what you’d expect, though the amateurishness is kind of endearing; the hi-def transfers are sharply defined. Extras are commentaries on both films and an hour-long doc, That’s Hicksploitation: The Origin of Southern Sinema.

Six in Paris 

(Icarus)

This 1965 omnibus film set in various Paris neighborhoods is a definite time-capsule that’s forgettable because none of the filmmakers makes his short memorable as both narrative and a locale. In fact, only Claude Chabrol’s final segment, La Muette—despite heavy-handed O. Henry irony—scores; it’s too bad that someone like Jean-Luc Godard whiffs. Nicely restored in hi-def, the film has a graininess that brings a sense of authenticity to the project; extras are short archival interviews with producer-actor Barbet Schroeder and directors Jean Rouch and Eric Rohmer.

The Underground Railroad 

(Criterion)

Barry Jenkins’ epic adaptation of Colin Whitehead’s colossal, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that transforms the titular railroad an actual train that transports enslaved people to freedom is straitjacketed by that potent metaphor that becomes less potent reality. Whereas in the book, the railroad remains in the reader’s mind (however real it is for the characters), that we can see it in Jenkins’ series turns allegory into blunt melodrama, however skillfully directed and forcefully acted by a huge cast. There are indelible moments that wonderfully visualize Whitehead’s prose, although at ten hours, the accumulation of hideous details becomes oppressive. Criterion’s hi-def transfer looks pristine, and the voluminous extras include commentaries by Jenkins, cinematographer James Laxton, and lead editor Joi McMillon; a new graphic-novel adaptation of an unfilmed chapter; The Gaze, a companion film by Jenkins; and deleted scenes.

Yuja Wang in Concert 

(C Major)

The fiendishly talented pianist Yuja Wang is as well-known for her fashion sense as she is for her extraordinary performances—indeed, she changes her form-fitting outfits twice during this 2022 Vienna recital. But none of that takes away from her ability to project curiosity and intelligence while playing several difficult pieces, from Scriabin and Kapustin to Beethoven and Ligeti—all done effortlessly but impressively. Both hi-def audio and video are first-rate.

DVD Release of the Week

Manifest—The Complete Series 

(Warner Bros)

In this tense drama series, passengers on a plane that took off in 2013 end up landing five years later, yet all aboard feel that it was only a few hours—from this intriguing Twilight Zone premise comes myriad plot strands both personal and professional, including deaths in families, new relationships and marriages, and other rude intrusions of life. Throughout these 62 episodes over four seasons, the intersections of the various subplots are laid bare, and if some of the segments become dramatic dead ends, there’s enough of interest here to make the long trip worthwhile—and there are fine performances by a large cast led by Melissa Roxburgh and Josh Dallas.

CD Releases of the Week 

Go, Lovely Rose—Songs of Roger Quilter 

(Chandos)

Songs for Peter Pears 

(Signum Classics)

British composer Roger Quilter (1877-1953) was a prolific creator of art songs, and this excellent disc is a fine introduction to his vocal stylings. Although his colorful tunes set to Shakespeare lead off this recital—the opening six songs are culled from various groupings, with all of his captivating Three Shakespeare Songs (1905-6), his first Bard settings, represented—the CD title, Go, Lovely Rose, comes from the lovely song that’s part of his 1922 settings, Five English Love Lyrics. Tenor James Gilchrist and piano Anna Tilbrook collaborate beautifully on this broad overview of a graceful melodist’s most skillful works.

British tenor Peter Pears (1910-86) was the inspiring muse of his professional and personal partner, the great Benjamin Britten, and while Britten’s masterly Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo—the very first vocal work he wrote expressly for Pears’ unique voice—is part of this exemplary disc, other composers are also represented, including Arthur Oldham, Geoffrey Bush and Richard Rodney Bennett, whose 10-minute “Tom O’Bedlam’s Song” is a remarkable vocal showcase. Two elegant cycles by the underrated Lennox Berkeley—better known as the father of composer Michael Berkeley—complete an exceptional introduction to vocal music written specifically for one of the finest 20th-century musical interpreters. Tenor Robin Tritschler, who gives these songs impassioned readings, is adroitly accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau, guitarist Sean Shire and cellist Peter Higham. 

May '24 Digital Week IV

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Kidnapped 

(Cohen Media)

The latest film by the world’s greatest living director, 84-year-old Italian master Marco Bellocchio, is yet another of his gripping and operatic dissections of historical subjects that touch on politics and religion—this time he tells the horrific but true story of a six-year-old Jewish boy torn from his parents’ grasp because a former Christian housekeeper said she baptized him when she thought he was dying as an infant. With his usual sweeping flair and acute observation, Bellocchio fills the screen with indelible images that not only cast a wide net on anti-Semitic mid-19th century Italian (read: Catholic) society but also the excruciating pain and loss felt by the Mortara family as their beloved son and brother remains just out of their reach. Bellocchio builds his film on two towering portrayals—by Barbara Ronchi as the boy’s mother and by Enea Sala as the young Edgardo, as strong a child performance I’ve ever seen. There’s also supremely well-chosen music by Rachmaninoff and Pärt to complement Fabio Massimo Capogrosso’s orchestral score. There’s also the haunting final split-screen of mother and son, as unforgettable an image as Bellocchio has ever shot.

Back to Black 

(Focus Features)

Sam Taylor-Johnson, who made the intriguing misfire Nowhere Boy about John Lennon’s teenage years, has now done the same with this biopic about Amy Winehouse, the talented British singer who was lost her battle to the demons of fame, alcohol and drugs at age 27 (joining the so-called “27 Club,” populated by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain). The by-the-numbers script by Matt Greenhalgh follows Amy from teen obscurity to stardom, while Taylor-Johnson’s generally competent direction focuses on her songs—yet it never adds up to much, and even the final, desperate scenes come off haphazardly. Lesley Manville (her nan), Eddie Marsan (her dad) and Jack O’Connell (her husband) acquit themselves well, but it’s Marisa Aleba who makes this rote portrait watchable with a thrilling performance that is less an impersonation that a deeply-felt immersion. 

Streaming/In-Theater Releases of the Week 

The Fall Guy—Extended Cut 

(Universal)

If you thought that pairing Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt—both Oscar nominated for their supporting performances in last summer’s Barbie and Oppenheimer—would be irresistible, then David Leitch’s overblown (particularly in the extended cut, an interminable 146 minutes) action comedy is here to dissuade you of that notion. There’s some fun early on, but the pointless action scenes pile up in mind-numbing fashion. Gosling is always game but Blunt seems out of her element (her best moment finds her singing karaoke to “Against All Odds,” quite a low bar) and the stunt men are unsurprisingly spectacular but it all adds up to very little, just a noisy misfire.

4K/UHD Release of the Week

American Sniper 

(Warner Bros)

In Clint Eastwood’s superficial 2014 portrait of U.S. navy seal Chris Kyle, jingoism and antiwar sentiment battle for supremacy, with the American war hero coming out on top, even though it only nods at dealing with the psychological toll suffered by those who were there. Bradley Cooper’s sympathetic portrayal of Kyle goes a long way toward redeeming it, as does Sienna Miller, who does wonders with the underwritten role of Taya, Kyle’s wife, making her as fierce and real as Kyle. Perhaps Eastwood noticed too: a closeup of Miller is the last thing we see before an epilogue comprising real footage from Kyle’s funeral. The film looks sharp and focused in UHD; extras include several making-of featurettes.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

The American Society of Magical Negroes 

(Focus)

This mild satire whose title says it all—there’s a club of Black people whose members’ sole function is to “rescue” needy whites—has its share of laughs but too few are incisive or notably uncomfortable; instead, it concentrates its energies on the sappily cute romance between Aren, the newest society member, and Lizzie, with whom he’s enamored. Writer-director Kobi Libii’s feature debut pulls his punches, and the result, while unfocused and unsatisfying, Justice Smith (Aren) and An-Li Bogan (Lizzie) make a charming couple. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer; extras include Libii’s commentary and a trio of featurettes.

Club Zero 

(Film Movement)

Austrian director Jessica Hausner serves up her latest provocation: at an exclusive private school, Miss Novak arrives to teach students about responsible eating, innocuously at first but soon it dominates their lives to the point that their family relationships are damaged and their very lives endangered. It’s too studied and obvious to be effective, since Hausner and cowriter Géraldine Bajard stack the deck immediately and with no insight, just shock value (a student eats her own vomit). The sleepy performances add to the flatness, with good actors like Sidse Babett Knudsen and Mia Wasikowska reduced to poses. Hausner’s clean, unfussy filmmaking works against her this time. The film has a crisp look on Blu-ray; extras are interviews with Hausner and Wasikowska as well as a Hausner master class at the Munich Film Festival.

Coup de Chance 

(MPI)

For his 50th film, Woody Allen returns to the blunt morality tales of Match Point and Solitary Man, this time set in Paris—and spoken in French (a language he doesn’t speak): a beautiful young wife runs into an old schoolmate and begins an affair, triggering her jealous husband’s radar, with fatal results. Woody foregoes the complexities of his masterpiece Crimes and Misdemeanors for a straightforward story with an O. Henry twist; it’s minor but satisfying, thanks to his economical directing, Vittorio Storaro’s glistening photography—which has a burnished glow on Blu-ray—and the fine performances, especially by the always winning Lou de Laâge as the wife.

Imaginary

(Lionsgate)

What begins as a credible psychological thriller about the ways lonely children conjure up imaginary friends soon devolves into predictably lunatic attempts at supernatural horror for which director-writer Jaff Wadlow and his two cowriters must shoulder the blame, relying on lazy jump scares and unscary creatures instead. The promising cast, particularly DeWanda Wise in the lead and Betty Buckley in a certifiably crazy part, is defeated by the material. The film looks good on Blu; extras comprise a commentary and on-set featurettes.

Siegfried 

Götterdämmerung 

(Naxos)

The final two operas in Richard Wagner’s epic Ring cycle, seen and heard in these 2021 Berlin State Opera stagings by director Stefan Herheim that gain in dramatic force as they go along, provide maximum musical strength. Although Siegfried has some bumpy narrative stretches, Götterdämmerung has more consistently glorious music, including the overwhelming Immolation Scene. Donald Runnicles ably conducts the huge orchestral forces, while the singers are superb: Clay Hilley’s Siegfried is impressive throughout his namesake opera, and Nina Stemme’s Brunnhilde carries the works’ emotional heft. There’s first-rate hi-def video and audio; Götterdämmerung extras include a making-of and interviews.

A Story of Floating Weeds/Floating Weeds 

(Criterion)

Yasujiro Ozu was considered the “most Japanese” director because his films most realistically displayed how ordinary people lived their lives, as opposed to, say, Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi. Ozu rarely strayed from creating small-scaled character studies, such as these two films, the intimate 1934 silent original and its wise 1959 color remake, in which a theater troupe’s visit to a small village causes relationships to be formed, torn apart and reassembled. As usual with Ozu, there’s ample wit and insight along with laughter and tears. Criterion has included the restored hi-def transfers for both films, which look excellent; extras are Japanese film expert Donald Richie’s commentary on the original and critic Roger Ebert’s commentary on the remake. 

We Go On 

(Lightyear)

In this 2016 supernatural thriller, directors Andy Milton and Jesse Holland try and make sense of the afterlife through their phobic protagonist who asks people for proof of life after death. But after narrowing it down to three candidates, he is soon dragged into the depths of a nightmare he’s never thought possible. It’s all hokum but it’s shot in well-chosen L.A. locations and features fine acting by Clark Freeman as the lead and Annette O’Toole as his naturally worried mother. The film looks decent on Blu; extras are three audio commentaries by cast and crew.

DVD Release of the Week

Amore Mio 

(Icarus)

As estranged sisters Lola and Margaux—who reunite after Lola’s husband unexpectedly dies and they take off on a trip with her young son Gaspard—Alysson Paradis and the always magnetic Élodie Bouchez are memorable in Guillaume Gouix’s absorbing character study. The sisters are diametrically opposite, of course, and they have to deal with feelings they have kept at bay for awhile, along with Lola’s grief compounded by guilt and Margaux’s attempts to forge a relationship with an 8-year-old nephew that she barely knows. But Gouix, with help from his resourceful performers (Viggo Ferreira-Redier is a sympathetic Gaspard), creates an emotional journey that doesn’t become maudlin.

CD Release of the Week 

Michael Tippett—A Child of Our Time

(Chandos)

British composer Michael Tippett (1905-98) was a pacifist who put his most closely held beliefs into his music, and this secular oratorio is one of most personal vocal works. Composed between 1939 and 1941 (he actually began work on it the day Britain declared war on Germany), A Child of Our Time was inspired by events in 1938 that led to Kristallnacht, the brutal Nazi response to the killing of an officer by a Jewish citizen—Tippett poured all his feelings about oppressed peoples worldwide into his libretto, and, to make sure that universality is also heard musically, several of the chorale sections are African-American spirituals. Although it can be unwieldy, the sheer emotion behind the work is always evident, as this stellar recording by the BBC Symphony orchestra and chorus, with soloists Pumeza Matshikiza, Sarah Connolly, Joshua Stewart and Ashley Riches, attests. Marshalling these forces with his usual acumen is conductor Andrew Davis, who died in April at age 80. This Child adds to both Tippett’s and Davis’ legacies.

November '23 Digital Week III

4K/UHD Releases of the Week 

The Expend4bles 

(Lionsgate)

The latest installment of this agreeably slight adventure series about a group of mercenaries who go out on all sorts of dangerous missions hits the usual action and narrative beats, as their leader (Sylvester Stallone, natch) is presumed dead and the others have to deal with that and track down terrorists looking to start a nuclear war. It’s explosive in all senses, and director Scott Waugh keeps things fast-moving for 100 minutes, although the best performance comes from Megan Fox’s tattoos. There’s a first-rate UHD transfer; extras include Waugh’s commentary and two making-of featurettes.

The Fugitive 

(Warner Bros)

The old TV series starring David Janssen was updated effectively in this 1993 blockbuster, which becomes quite exciting when it concentrates on the accused doctor’s escape from custody and attempts to track down his wife’s real murderer, all while he’s being frantically pursued by a federal marshal. Harrison Ford is his usual entertainingly stolid self as the hero, Tommy Lee Jones makes a formidable adversary and director Andrew Davis stages and paces the action beautifully, ensuring the film is a well-oiled thrill machine. The 4K transfer looks excellent; extras are an intro by Ford and Davis, commentary by Davis and Jones, and three making-of featurettes.

Oppenheimer 

(Universal)

Christopher Nolan’s take on Robert J. Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project is typically Nolanesque: very long, very loud, very overblown and very shallow. This three-hour behemoth is loaded down with visual and aural pyrotechnics from the start: I wouldn’t be surprised if Nolan’s noise is louder than actual atomic explosions. Ludwig Göransson’s ludicrously bombastic score is smeared over virtually every scene—I hope he got paid by the minute—including moments where ostensibly important dialogue can’t be heard. Cillian Murphy is properly intense but he’s overshadowed by Nolan’s self-importance. Aside from Robert Downey and Matt Damon, who make an impression despite Nolan’s singlemindedness, the starry cast is forgettable: Gary Oldman is a cartoonish Harry Truman, likewise Tom Conti as Albert Einstein; poor Florence Pugh, usually a formidable actress, is reduced to a nothing role comprising several gratuitous nude scenes. The film, of course, looks stunning in UHD; extras comprise the 70-minute The Story of Our Time: The Making of Oppenheimer, the NBC News documentary To End All War: Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb, and a Trinity anniversary panel discussion with Nolan and others. 

Saw X 

(Lionsgate)

There’s always an audience for torture, as the tenth installment of this franchise whose hook is “let’s torture people—innocent or deserving—in more creatively nasty ways” shows. John Kramer, torturer extraordinaire of previous Saws, is now a sad victim of a fake cancer-miracle cure and who—of course—returns the favor on those who scammed him. Of course, you already know whether this is for you; even so, there are a couple uniquely gross ways of torturing, and director Kevin Greutert even partly succeeds in making Tobin Bell’s Kramer kind of sympathetic. Now that’s an original achievement. The film looks pristine in 4K; extras include a commentary, deleted scenes, and making-of featurettes.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Le cérémonie 

(Criterion Collection)

One of his very best, Claude Chabrol’s 1995 melodrama is a cracklingly good study of manners, mania and murder as a cleaning lady is befriended by a local woman who prods her to target the family she works for. Chabrol’s precise direction moves things along slowly but surely, so that, by the final violent outburst, we are literally left shaken at its horrible, ironic logic. This taut chamber piece is enlivened by the spectacular acting of Sandrine Bonnaire, Isabelle Huppert, Jacqueline Bisset and Virginie Ledoyen as well as the felicitous music of Matthieu Cahbrol, the director’s son. Criterion’s excellent hi-def transfer makes Chabrol’s compositions look crisp and clear; extras include Chabrol’s select-scene commentary, intro by director Bong Joon Ho, making-of featurette, and archival interviews with Bonnaire, Huppert, Chabrol and co-writer Caroline Eliacheff.

South Park—The Streaming Wars 

(Paramount)

In the South Park duo’s latest “special” two-episode event, the town’s water supply is dwindling thanks to an evil corporation whose head honcho, ManBearPig, has separated it into streams. As usual, Trey Parker and Matt Stone combine astute satire with crude parody and cheap jokes (Cartman gets breast implants) into a stew only they can concoct: somehow, a metaphor for the proliferation of streaming services—including Paramount +, which shows South Park—emerges with eviscerating swipes. The episodes run about 100 minutes total, so it’s like getting four or five South Park episodes for the price of two, which is sort of a bargain.

In-Theater Release of the Week 

Down in Dallas Town

(First Run Features)

Sixty years on, the assassination of President Kennedy remains a singularly mortifying event in American history, and Alan Govenar’s documentary returns to the scene of the crime—Dealey Plaza in Dallas—to interview several people who were there that day to jog their still-vivid memories. Hearing them speak after so long is quite touching, and Govenar supplements this with plaza interviews that serendipitously occur on the same day as a nearby mass shooting, as U.S. and international visitors discuss gun control. Illuminatingly, Govenar features mournful songs written by bluesmen and others in response to the JFK tragedy, as he shows more recent footage of ongoing gun violence and homeless people that is quintessentially—and sorrowfully—American. 

CD Release of the Week

Ottorino Respighi—Orchestral Works 

(BIS)

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) was one of the most original musical voices of his day, combining romantic sensibilities with a love for the past that brought him fame and fortune with several beloved works, including his Roman trilogy, The Birds, Three Botticelli Pictures and his three suites of Ancient Airs and Dances, all of which are staples for any orchestra worth its salt. All of these works, of course, make up a big part of this 8-disc set of Respighi’s orchestral works, but even though the Sao Paolo Symphony Orchestra (Roman trilogy) and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liege (everything else) under conductor John Neschling give vigorous, well-oiled readings of them, the real gems are several works that are not nearly as well known. For example, there are Sinfonia drammatica, Brazilian Impressions, Church Windows and Il tramonto, in which Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci provides a dreamy, lovingly rendered account. Too bad there’s not more of his wonderfully offbeat operas other than the overture of Belfagor, but hoping it will spur listeners to further explore Respighi’s world, operatic and orchestral.