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. 

June '23 Digital Week III

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week 

Revoir Paris 

(Music Box Films)

Alice Winocour’s latest psychological study of individuals under duress (following Augustine, Disorder and Mustang) alternates between being perceptive and merely cursory as it follows Mia, a Russian translator who survives a horrific mass shooting in a Parisian café and tries to deal with its disastrous emotional and physical aftermath. As Mia, Virginie Efira won the best actress Cesar for her devastating performance, which goes a long way toward making Winocour’s hit-or-miss drama seem more penetrating than it is.

Barbie Nation—An Authorized Tour 

(Bernal Beach Films) 

In anticipation of this summer’s Barbie movie by the overrated Greta Gerwig that stars Margot Robbie (whose 2022 appearances were in the huge bombs Amsterdam and Babylon), Susan Stern’s 1998 documentary exploring the history and legacy of the famous doll returns. It clocks in at less than an hour, yet Stern brings up many facets—sexism, misogyny, empowerment—and includes interesting takes from Ruth Handler and her husband, Elliot, who founded Mattel, and others who have collected, enjoyed or hated the doll over the decades. 

Loren and Rose 

(Wise Lars LLC)

Similar to a sit-down chatfest like My Dinner with Andre, Russell Brown’s three-act film follows Rose, a former star hoping to plot her comeback, and Loren, an up-and-coming director hoping to help her out. In a series of conversations framed by a device out of Citizen Kane, the pair discusses the movie industry, her long career and other issues, none of which are given much depth but at least are colored by the presence of the still glamorous Jacqueline Bisset. Kelly Blatz comes off less well opposite Bisset in this engaging but slight 90 minutes.

Make Me Famous 

(Red Splat) 

The New York art scene of the 1980s is given a thorough run-through by director Brian Vincent in his documentary about artist Edward Brezinski, who ran in the same downtown circles as Basquiat and Keith Haring but who never achieved their public and critical renown, dying forgotten in Cannes, France, in 2007. Vincent dissects Brezinski’s life and career through an array of chatty subjects, including art historians, gallery owners, photographers and fellow painters, along with much valuable archival footage that puts Brezinski’s work and legacy into perspective.

Umberto Eco—A Library of the World 

(Cinema Guild) 

Umberto Eco was a polymath, author, intellectual, and philosopher whose library—which contains thousands of volumes in several languages and on a myriad of subjects—may be his greatest and lasting posthumous legacy, according to director Davide Ferrario’s fascinating documentary. Through archival interviews with Eco and discussions with family members, associates and close friends, Ferrario presents a complex portrait of a multifaceted individual whose rigorous intelligence, pointed humor and best-selling novels mark him as a giant of the 20th century.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week

Evil Dead Rise 

(Warner Bros) 

This exceptionally icky reboot of another horror franchise is base and unimaginative: a malevolent spirit causes people to mercilessly butcher others and then reincarnates to continue the butchering. If that sounds appealing—I know some will sign up for it immediately—then go for it; too bad that writer-director Lee Cronin only finds a few different ways to keep blood spurting and gore flowing (and does it flow, opening with a young woman being scalped and ending with a wood chipper vaporizing a multi-headed monster) and the 90 minutes seems mercilessly padded. On UHD, the color is vividly present; no extras, which seems a recent trend for new releases.

National Lampoon’s Vacation 

(Warner Bros)

This genial 1983 comedy is a very bumpy ride, with mainly cheap and obvious laughs and crude sexism: we see Beverly d’Angelo nude in the shower for no reason and Christie Brinkley’s available/unavailable supermodel entices Chevy Chase to skinny dip in a hotel pool. Harold Ramis’ slapdash directing and John Hughes’ sloppy script don’t help, while Chase sleepwalks through the laconic persona that serves him much better in Fletch. At least it has Lindsey Buckingham’s hummable “Holiday Road” and small but fun parts for John Candy, Brian Doyle-Murray and Imogene Coca. The film looks sharp in 4K; lone extra is an audio commentary. 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Horowitz in Moscow 

(C Major)

When superstar pianist Vladimir Horowitz, at age 82, returned to his native Russia for the first time in six decades in 1986, cameras followed him while meeting with people he hadn’t seen in years and performing an emotional recital in Moscow. This absorbing documentary intercuts moments of intimacy between the pianist and others with his penetrating performances of pieces by Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Schubert and Schumann. The film looks fine if a little ragged on Blu, with decent audio. 

Like Water for Chocolate 

(Opus Arte)

This new ballet, scored by Joby Talbot and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon (and based on the beloved novel by Laura Esquivel, which spawned the hit 1992 movie adaptation) was filmed at last year’s world premiere staging in London’s Royal Opera House. The Royal Ballet’s principal dancers—especially the incandescent Francesca Hayward as the heroine Tita—are unimpeachable, as is Wheeldon’s expressive choreography. Talbot’s conventional music is led by the terrific conductor Alondra de la Perra, who teams with the orchestra to give it more warmth. The hi-def video and audio are first-rate; extras are interviews with the principals.

DVD Release of the Week

Matter Out of Place 

(Icarus Films) 

In his latest provocative visual essay, Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter chronicles how our planet has pretty much become a gigantic garbage dump, and travels to various places—Switzerland, Albania, Nepal, Maldives, Austria, Greece and Nevada’s “Burning Man”—to record how our massive amounts of trash have reached all corners of the earth, even far-flung areas, and the sheer struggle it is to try and get it under control. Exceptionally beautiful, as all of Geyrhalter’s films are, it’s also extremely unsettling to watch as our only home is overtaken by refuse—even under the sea.

January '23 Digital Week I

4K/UHD Releases of the Week 

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 

(Criterion Collection)

One of Terry Gilliam’s most extravagantly satisfying films, this 1989 fantasy adventure about the mythical teller of tall tales is the acme of the director’s prodigious visual imagination; indeed, there are set pieces here that have to be seen to be believed, like Robin Williams’ disembodied head as the king of the moon. John Neville is a perfectly bemused Baron, a young Sarah Polley was never more authentic than as his 8-year-old sidekick, and cameos from Eric idle, Sting, Valentina Cortese and Uma Thurman keep pace with the staggering sets, costumes, photography and Gilliam’s prodigious inventiveness. The UHD transfer is first-rate; extras include Gilliam and cowriter/actor Charles McKeon’s commentary; an hour-long documentary on the film’s making; deleted scenes with Gilliam commentary; storyboards; special effects footage narrated by Gilliam; a video essay on the history of Munchausen; an 1991 episode of The South Bank Show about Gilliam; and Flight, a 1974 animated short by Gilliam.

Black Adam 

(Warner Bros)

As Black Adam—a character introduced to comic books in 1945—Dwayne Johnson dives into a strangely discomfiting character who is trying to rehabilitate his own reputation from its distant supervillain past. Although there’s a nagging tonal inconsistency between seriousness, hero worship and goofy comedy, Johnson acquits himself well and he’s surrounded by pros like Pierce Brosnan and Sarah Shahi. The film’s eye-popping visuals look spectacular in UHD; extras comprise several making-of featurettes.

Prey for the Devil 

(Lionsgate)

This lackluster horror flick takes its cues from The Exorcist and, more recently, The Conjuring series, but doesn’t add anything original of its own; in fact, director Daniel Stamm is content with  jump scares and other cheap thrills obscure the fact that there’s little going on here. It’s too bad, because exploring possession in relation to mental illness (which is hinted at) might have yielded something more intense, especially with a fine performance by Jacqueline Byers as a young nun with a haunted backstory. The 4K/UHD image looks sharp; extras are Byers’ and Stamm’s commentary, nearly an hour’s worth of on-set featurettes and interviews, a Zoom script run-through by the cast and a discussion between a real exorcist and psychologist.

In-Theater Releases of the Week

No Bears 

(Janus Films)

In his latest courageous provocation—provocative at least in the eyes of Iranian authorities, who imprisoned him after he finished the film—director Jafar Panahi has made a typically playful and intelligent dissection of just what the role of cinema is in Iran’s unyielding theocracy. Panahi plays a version of himself trying to make a movie remotely—he can’t leave Iran and is seen on a laptop directing his cast and crew in a different location—and he also finds himself in political hot water with local authorities after he loans his camera for a local couple’s pre-marriage ceremony and takes a couple of snapshots himself. Panahi has an uncanny ability to make everything seem inevitable and every line of dialogue sound natural and improvised, but the rigorousness of his technique is seen in the devastating—but typically low-key—ending, as the director questions his own ability to create something lasting, something that can affect people’s lives for the better. 

The Super 8 Years 

(Kino Lorber)

Looking back at the home movies shot between the years 1972 and 1981, writer Annie Ernaux (who won the Nobel Prize for literature last year) narrates this elegaic documentary she and her son, David Ernaux-Briot, made, succinctly exploring how their family life—for Ernaux, her then-husband Philippe and her sons—ended up butting heads with the artistic, political and social atmosphere she and Philippe were then part of. The film conjures up the messiness of memory, which the graininess of these often stunning 8mm film images visually underline.

Turn Every Page 

(Sony Pictures Classics)

Two of the most important literary figures of the past 50 years—author Robert Caro and editor Robert Gottlieb—are profiled in this first-rate documentary by Gottlieb’s daughter, Lizzie Gottlieb, who intelligently tells the story of their relationship through the books they’ve collaborated on (Caro’s groundbreaking Robert Moses biography and massive five-volume LBJ bio, which has seen only four so far). Director Gottlieb had to convince both men—especially the notoriously reticent Caro—to let her talk to them on camera, where they both come across as brilliantly intuitive subjects. Even though this runs less than two hours, much of more of both men—in the form of a multi-hour bingeable series—would make for further illuminating viewing.

Blu-ray Release of the Week 

Camilla Nylund Sings Masterpieces from the Great American Songbook 

(Naxos)

Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund puts her own stamp on classic American songs from Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Kurt Weill and others in this beautifully intimate performance—that includes members of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop—of these famous tunes in stylish arrangements. Although Nylund sounds wonderful throughout, her renditions of Gershwin’s “The Man I Love” and Weill’s “September Song” are perfection, along with the musicians’ backing. There’s first-rate hi-def video and audio.

DVD Release of the Week

The Staircase 

(HBO)

Based on the real-life trial at which Michael Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife Kathleen in 2001 (she was found in a bloody mess at the bottom of a staircase—he said she fell and he found her), this engrossing multipart miniseries is aided greatly by topnotch performances. Colin Firth finds subtle shadings in Michael’s façade, Toni Collette is a sympathetic Kathleen and Michael Stuhlberg is believably blustery as Michael’s lawyer. Although eight-plus hours is a bit much, a lot works splendidly, including the various stories about how Kathleen might have died. Extras include several “behind the episode” featurettes.

November '22 Digital Week I

4K/UHD Release of the Week 

Top Gun—Maverick 

(Paramount)

This incredibly belated sequel does the bare minimum—rah-rah jingoism, exciting fighter-pilot sequences—but director Joseph Kosinski doesn’t bother to go any further, as the interchangeable scenes in flight school among Maverick’s students show. The original movie was nothing special but at least had an interesting rivalry between Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer (who appears briefly here). And poor Jennifer Connolly, nearly always a refreshing presence in any movie, can do little with her contrived romance with Cruise, who cruises by only on movie-star wattage. There’s a first-rate UHD transfer; the Blu-ray disc includes 80 minutes of on-set featurettes and interviews.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Fuoco Sacro 

(Naxos)

Jan Schmidt-Garre’s riveting documentary looks at three intense classical/opera singers: Albania’s Ermonela Jaho, Canada’s Barbara Hannigan and Lithuania’s Asmik Grigorian. With access to these remarkable women for rehearsals and warmup exercises before singing, respectively, Tchaikovsky, Satie and Puccini, Schmidt-Garre has made an insightful portrait of committed artistry (“Fuoco Sacro” means “sacred fire”). Hi-def video and audio are first-rate; extras are extended scenes of their warmups, along with musicmaking.

The Good Boss 

(Cohen Media)

In Fernando Leon de Aránoa’s aggressively second-rate satire, Javier Bardem skillfully portrays of the head of a company manufacturing scales who will do anything to ensure he wins another award for his wall, whether shaming and firing longtime loyal employees or screwing the new intern who happens to be the daughter of longtime friends. As Aránoa’s script moves along its predictable trajectory, Bardem anchors the movie as a three-dimensional character and not simply the cardboard villain he’s written as. There’s a superior hi-def transfer; extras are two interviews with Bardem and Aránoa.

The Last Romantic Lover 

(Cult Epics) 

Softcore purveyor Just Jaeckin made elegant features like this 1978 entry about the editor-in-chief of a women’s magazine hosting a “last romantic lover” contest who falls for the winner, the lion tamer of a rural circus company. Of course, Jaeckin is greatly helped by his lead actress, the breathtaking Dayle Haddon, who speaks French and English fluently and makes the editor a tantalizing bundle of independence, professionalism and charm. Some of it’s risible, like the circus vs. sophisticated subject, while suave actor Fernando Rey is wasted as the lion tamer’s father, but it’s still highly watchable. There’s a good hi-def transfer; extras are an audio commentary, new interviews with Jaeckin and Haddon and footage from a Jaeckin tribute. 

Titans—Complete 3rd Season 

(Warner Bros/HBO)

In the latest season of this HBO Max series about young superheroes, Robin returns to Gotham as a dangerous adversary after a particularly nasty end, and the other titans must regroup to stop him—he’s now known as Red Hood. The capable and energetic young cast helps put this over despite its inherent silliness. All 13 episodes of the third season—the fourth is on the way—are included on three discs; extras comprise several featurettes and interviews.

La Traviata 

(Dynamic)

American soprano Nadine Sierra dazzlingly demonstrates why lustrous singing, accomplished acting and winning charm make her one of this generation’s few triple-threat opera performers as Violetta, the consumptive tragic heroine in Giuseppe Verdi’s classic romance, here seen in Florence, Italy, in fall 2021. Davide Livermore directs a stylish modern-dress version of the opera, but it’s the musicmaking (Zubin Mehta leads the orchestra and chorus) and performances, with Sierra’s overwhelming dramatic and sonic presence, that makes this a satisfying production.

Two Films by Patrice Leconte 

 (Cohen Film Collection)

French director Patrice Leconte has made stylish studies of strangely compelling and unbalanced relationships for decades, and while the films in this set—2001’s Felix and Lola and 2002’s Love Street—are not up to his best, like Monsieur Hire or The Hairdresser’s Husband, they are as elegantly made as ever. Philippe Torreton and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Felix and Lola and Laetitia Casta, Patrick Timsit and Vincent Elbaz in Love Street make Leconte’s assiduously oddish characters palatable even through the overall weirdness. Both films look great on Blu-ray; each has a commentary by reviewer Wade Major.

DVD Release of the Week

Ray Donovan—Complete Series/Ray Donovan: The Movie

(Paramount/CBS)

For seven seasons, Liev Schreiber passionately played Ray Donovan, the fixer who can save any politician or celebrity, but whose family life’s a mess that he’s not able to handle. This set collects all 82 episodes of the Showtime drama series, along with the superfluous two-hour Ray Donovan: The Movie, which premiered earlier this year. Along with Schreiber’s best performance, there’s fine acting by Jon Voigt along with an array of guest stars throughout the show’s run. The comprehensive 29-disc set also includes more than two hours’ worth of special features.

CD Releases of the Week 

Sehnsucht—Berg and Mahler 

(Alpha-Classics)

The German term “Sehnsucht,” referring to longing and nostalgia, informs this 2020 lockdown recording, performed in an empty Rotterdam concert hall. The music, unsurprisingly, follows suit: melancholy songs by Austrian Alban Berg, tenderly sung by the exciting Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan (see review of Fuoco sacro, above) and up-and-coming Dutch baritone Raoul Steffani. Hannigan returns to sing the angelic child’s song in the final movement of Gustav Mahler’s lovely Symphony No. 4, a musical linchpin of the Viennese fin de siècle era. Conductor Rolf Verbeek leads the Camerata RCO ensemble on this affecting disc. 

Valentin Silvestrov—Maidan 

(ECM New Series)

Ukrainian composer Vaklentin Silvestrov wrote Maidan 2014 as, he says, “a musical response to the events on the Maidan in 2014 in Kyiv.” Those events—wave after wave of demonstrations throughout Ukraine—were the source for the haunting a cappella four-part cycle with texts from both liturgical passages and Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchencko’s relevant verses. This poignant musical statement is complemented by a trio of other unaccompanied choral works, all arrestingly sung by the Kyiv Chamber Choir, under the guidance of conductor Mykola Hobdych. 

September '22 Digital Week III

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week 

The Good House 

(Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions) 

Not many actresses are as able to navigate the tricky, even treacherous emotional terrain of Hildy Good, an alcoholic real estate agent with a messy professional and personal life, as Sigourney Weaver, who explores every nuance—even finding some that probably didn’t exist in Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky’s direction or their and Thomas Bezucha’s script. Weaver even makes the problematic bits (like directly addressing the camera) work like a charm; her winning presence makes this equally toughminded and soggy character study a bit of a must-see. She is joined by her long-ago (Dave and The Ice Storm) costar Kevin Kline, who like Weaver is unafraid to display physical and emotional nakedness onscreen. 

The Enforcer 

(Screen Media)

Despite Antonio Banderas’ best efforts, which are typically middling to begin with, Richard Hughes’ improbable drama about the brutal enforcer for the vicious head of the local underworld organization (Kate Bosworth, playing gleefully against type) who suddenly develops a conscience and tries rescuing a teenage girl from sexual exploitation—reminding him of his own young daughter—itself exploits its sexually charged scenario. The blonde Bosworth, here in a black wig, is a hoot as the nasty crime boss, but little else here is very satisfying, unfortunately.

The Last Band on Stage 

(Gravitas Ventures)

The Windy City’s own Joe Mantegna is the perfect narrator for this enjoyable trip through rock band Chicago’s storied history; director Peter Curtis Pardini focuses on the group’s fraught last couple of years after performing a final concert in Las Vegas before COVID shut everything down for more than a year. We see Chicago’s members either adjusting or not to life at home, not making music, not being on the road, and how they eventually get back in physical and mental shape to perform: first on Zoom, then finally at a real concert venue in the Midwest in the summer of 2021. 

Life Is Cheap…But Toilet Paper Is Expensive 

(Arbelos Films)

In Wayne Wang’s disappointingly hit-or-miss black comedy, a man arrives in Hong Kong from san Francisco bearing a suitcase that gangsters have handcuffed to him so he won’t lose it before getting it to another mobster, all while assorted others swirl around him, displaying outlandish and antisocial behavior in explicit visualization of the tongue-in-cheek title. Wang’s 1989 feature has its admirers, and it’s certainly a spirited effort, but it’s loose and ragged, only coming into focus occasionally through the excess violence and crude humor.

Railway Children 

(Blue Fox Entertainment)

The original Railway Children, released in 1970, starred a then-teenage Jenny Agutter as one of the title kids: fast forward to 2022, and Agutter returns as the grandmother of a village family taking in city kids during the bombings of the UK in WWII. Morgan Matthews’ sequel passes nicely enough; it’s too bad, though, that it mainly stays on the surface, rarely delving into the pathos involved for youngsters at such a fraught moment in their lives. Happily, the acting, led by Agutter and various young performers, is superb, which gives the dramatics more urgency.

Ten Tricks 

(Cinedigm)

Richard Pagano’s silly but amusingly adult roundelay introduces a middle-aged madam hoping to have a baby and several of her workers—both female and male—who are dealing with their customers, both successfully and unsuccessfully. Although an ungainly mix of smuttiness, alternatingly stilted and interesting dialogue and even an occasional insight, it gains a measure of stature from the performances, like the outstanding Brittany Ishibashi as one of the call girls and, as the madam, the touchingly vulnerable Lea Thompson—who, nearly four decades after her debut, remains an appealing presence onscreen.

4K/UHD/Blu-ray Release of the Week 

The Lost Boys 

(Warner Bros)

Joel Schumacher’s horror comedy about young vampires terrorizing the fictional California town of Santa Carla is drenched in the year 1987 (the summer it was released), as the guys and gals’ big hair, the synth-laden score and smattering of pop songs by the likes of INXS, Echo and the Bunnyman and Foreigner’s Lou Gramm threaten to overwhelm its genuine smarts and funny/icky vibe. The cast is top-notch: Dianne Wiest, Edward Herrmann and Bernard Hughes as the elders complement the dynamic young cast of Keifer Sutherland, Jason Patric, the Coreys Haim and Feldman and Jami Gertz. The striking visuals look spectacular on UHD, which includes Schumacher’s commentary, while other extras—retrospective featurettes and interviews, deleted scenes, and Gramm’s video for his tune “Lost in the Shadows”—are on the Blu-ray disc.

Blu-ray Release of the Week

Leonard Bernstein Boxed Set 

(C Major)

This five Blu-ray set contains several of Leonard Bernstein’s European concerts from the last years of his life (he died in 1990 at age 72)—the earliest is from 1976, of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, while the rest are from the ‘80s and early 1990, when he led the Vienna Philharmonic in Jean Sibelius’ seventh symphony. These are typically idiosyncratic Bernstein performances, as he remains a whirlwind on the podium, even jumping up and down to punctuate the final notes of the Berlioz, but they’re all worth watching from at least an historical perspective. The fifth disc is a lovely tribute to the composer-conductor, Bernstein at 100, a 2018 concert at Tanglewood’s summer festival in western Massachusetts’ bucolic Berkshires, where the highlights are soprano Nadine Sierra as soloist in Bernstein’s “Kaddish” symphony and mezzo Isabel Leonard singing Maria in excerpts from his West Side Story score. There’s fine hi-def video and audio.

DVD Release of the Week 

Pissarro—Father of Impressionism 

(Seventh Art Productions)

Although not as well-known as other contemporaries such as Renoir and Monet, Camille Pissarro gets a lot of love in this 90-minute documentary about his life and art, as experts from the art world discuss and dissect his importance and legacy. The film follows the straight line of others in the valuable Exhibition on Screen series through narration of his life and glimpses at his art as we hear about how he was thought of by his fellow Impressionists, who named him—unsurprisingly—“the father of impressionism.” 

CD Release of the Week

Valentin Silvestrov—Requiem for Larissa 

(BR Klassik)

84-year-old Valentin Silvestrov’s music earned added currency this year, as Ukraine’s most important living composer fled to Berlin with his daughter and granddaughter when Putin’s Russian forces invaded. But as this new recording of his very personal Requiem for Larissa demonstrates, it’s a work that will remain relevant for its shining excellence and gripping dramatics. Composed between 1997 and 1999, after the sudden death of Silvestrov’s beloved wife, Larissa, this Requiem is quite simply profoundly shattering to listen to. Performed brilliantly by the Munich Radio Orchestra, Choir of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and soloists, all led by conductor Andres Mustonen, this large, formidable, slow-moving cycle of grief is given a greatly sympathetic airing.