Misfire

Aurora

Directed & written by Cristi Puiu
Starring Cristi Puiu
Opened June 29, 2011; released by Cinema Guild
IFC center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY
ifccenter.com

In 2005, Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu helped introduce the new Romanian film renaissance to North America. With its excruciatingly long takes of an the elderly protagonist dying by degrees in real time in Bucharest, Lazarescu established Puiu as a director of uncommon power and wit.

But the slow accumulation of ordinary events that gradually reveals the inner workings of brutish Bucharest society, which worked in spades in Lazarescu, doesn’t work at all in Puiu’s new film Aurora. For three hours, the antisocial protagonist (played by the taciturn director himself) goes about his menial business in real time, meeting but rarely connecting with other characters that include his former in-laws, his ex-wife’s notary, gun shop employees and his young daughter. An hour into the film, a murder is committed, and Puiu’s movie becomes quite risible after that, ending with an extended police station scene that seems a nod to the equally specious film Police Adjective by Puiu’s fellow Romanian Corneliu Porumboiu.

It is daring of Puiu to choose mundane subjects with which to develop his singular style. (There are apparently four more films on the way, all snippets of life in Bucharest.) His long takes, occasionally interrupted by startling cuts, can either mesmerize or put a viewer into a stupor: Lazarescu did the former, Aurora the latter. I’m still replaying images from Puiu’s first film in my mind, dealing as it did with a literal life-and-death situation. However, I’ve almost completely forgotten Aurora a mere 24 hours later: what was immediate, honest and grippingly real in the first film has become gimmicky and tendentious.

But Puiu is a talent worth watching who has a .500 batting average after two cinematic experiments. Let’s see where his next film leads him…and us.

Opposites Attract

Forestier and Gamblin in The Names of Love

The Names of Love
Directed by Michael Leclerc
With Jacques Gamblin and Sara Forestier
Released by Music Box Films

No one would accuse The Names of Love of subtlety. Michael Leclerc’s romantic comedy, which follows an unlikely couple trying to make a relationship work despite obvious differences, throws in everything including the kitchen sink (copious nudity, lots of political and racial humor, thudding obvious stereotypes, a handful of allusions to Woody Allen movies) in order to keep itself afloat. But it must be said that, since Leclerc has a light touch underneath the ham-handed obviousness, the movie works despite it all.

For that, Leclerc must thanks his lucky stars for his two stars, each of whom take a stock part and enliven it far past what it deserves. Sara Forestier (who won the Best Actress Cesar, the French Oscar equivalent, for this role) plays Baya Benmahmoud, a French-Algerian free spirit whose radical left-wing stances allow her to have no moral qualms about bedding down various right-wing men in order to bring them around to her side. Baya keeps her romantic life and her sexual-political life separate, until she meets Arthur Martin, a thoroughly ordinary centrist scientist who tracks down the causes of death in various animals. Jacques Gamblin plays Arthur.

Forestier and Gamblin not only make a terrifically engaging couple, they also underplay just enough to keep Baya and Arthur from falling into caricature: the liberal-whore-with-a-heart-of-gold and the stuffy-conservative-scientist are stock archetypes, but as Forestier and Gamblin play them, they very nearly become well-rounded, real people.

Leclerc has also learned his lessons well from Woody Allen, whose presides over the movie’s anarchic spirit. There are cleverly-wove family histories for both characters, as we see his parents and his own youth in black and white and hers in grainy, colored newsreel footage. This also mirrors their upbringing: his in Jewish France, hers in Arabic Algeria. In his narration, Arthur mentions that he can’t remember his father before he got old, so in every flashback, Arthur’s dad is an old man, which makes for some funny moments I n the courtship scenes.

Of course, being French, The Names of Love effortlessly interweaves politics into the very framework, and it is also the cause of some of the best humor in the entire film. In one scene, Baya is nearly inconsolable walking out of the voting booth because she voted for Jacques Chirac, who was obviously the less repellent choice against xenophobic nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen. Later on, she inadvertently votes for the current president, Nicolas Sarkozy, instead of her left-wing choice, Ségolène Royal. And perennial liberal bridesmaid Lionel Jospin (whom Arthur has voted for each time he’s won, as a kind of badge of honor) shows up at their apartment one evening, as a nod to Marshall McLuhan’s cameo in Annie Hall, which is also alluded to when Arthur tries to boil crabs with a different girlfriend.

Arthur’s Jewish guilt is such that when he realizes that he’s using his own awful family history of the Holocaust to get girls (they are fascinated by his stories), he stops doing it. That guilt also brings in younger Alberts, who discuss his latest failure with women in a way reminiscent of Woody and his younger self interacting in Annie Hall.

That Baya was sexually abused by her piano teacher as a young girl is used as running gag fodder, which ranges from unfunny (she can’t play any keyboard put in front of her since they rarely had lessons) to amusing (her parents channel-surf to avoid any mention of sexual abuse, and when they find a channel discussing war crimes, they are satisfied and leave it on since it’s much less reprehensible than the alternative.)

While Leclerc doesn’t have a consistent vision, comedic or otherwise, he does have a serviceable way with a gag, and there are amusing vignettes of Arthur’s parents happily using Beta videotapes and laserdiscs and stumping for nuclear power, losers all. At times, the themes of identity, nationalism and racism rise organically from what’s going on, particularly in the brief but powerful sequences of Arthur’s mother trying to reclaim her lost identity papers. At others, however, it’s forced, and this schizophrenia between a subtle satire and an obvious farce makes The Names of Love only intermittently satisfying, despite the great assistance of its leading players.

Philadelphia Freedom

Philadelphia Museum of Art

philamuseum.org

Opera Company of Philadelphia
operaphilly.com

Living in New York, I admit to a bias against other cities: why visit (fill in city name) to see theater/opera/art/architecture when we’ve got it all here? But one must go where the action is, and the U.S. premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s latest opera and an exhibition of artworks by Marc Chagall and others weren’t on the docket in Manhattan, so I hopped on a Boltbus (the best travel bargain for New Yorkers to go to nearby cities cheaply and quickly) and headed to Philadelphia.

First stop was the third largest art museum in the country, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which, in addition to a rich collection of Impressionists (even with the Impressionist-rich Barnes Foundation a few miles away…for now) and impressive American paintings, has other wonders galore. In the museum’s Perelman Building is the superb Paris Through the Window: Marc Chagall and His Circle through July 10.

Comprising paintings, drawings and sculptures, the exhibit discerningly puts the accomplishments of Chagall (whose seminal Paris Through the Window, above left, the crux of the exhibit, comes from Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum), Jacques Lipchitz, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine and others into the crucial cultural context of early 20th century Paris. The rich, primary colors of Chagall’s work has a playfulness that masks the tragic seriousness underneath, as his powerful Resurrection of Lazarus and emotional In the Night (an homage to his beloved wife) prove.

After a morning of art, I went to the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts for the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s final production this season: the U.S. premiere of Henze’s one-act Phaedra. Like his last U.S. premiere (Venus and Adonis, which I saw in Santa Fe in 2000), Phaedra is a hybrid, but whereas Venus was a dance-opera, this is an opera-oratorio. Clocking in at 75 minutes, Phaedra has the epic sweep of the myth it’s based on but also the conciseness and stripped-down drama of a master at the top of his form.

Although the music is easier on the orchestra than the singers (Corrado Rovaris conducted the formidable ensemble), the compelling vocal quartet was led by standout Tamara Mumford (above right), who as Phaedra showed off an incredibly sensual stage presence to go with a magnificent mezzo voice. In New York, we usually see her in supporting roles at the Met; she surely deserves a starring vehicle of her own here. The Kimmel Center’s intimate Perelman Theater was perfect for Robert B. Driver’s intelligent staging of Henze’s difficult, commanding work, whetting appetites for more Henze in Philadelphia next season, when his classic, lush-sounding Elegy for Young Lovers will be presented.

I’ll be back.

June '11 Digital Week IV

Blu-rays of the Week

Cedar Rapids (Fox)
Ed Helms is being positioned as a sensitive farceur a la Steve Carell, but based on the execrable The Hangover and this mild comedy, he’s in danger of falling into the trap of sameness and falling completely off the radar. The “fish out of water” story of a small-town insurance salesman who discovers the big, bad world at a business convention in swinging Wisconsin is barely enough for a feature, as the brief running time reveals. The cast, comprising John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and Sigourney Weaver alongside Helms, is game, but the feeble material holds them back. There’s an adequate Blu-ray transfer; extras include deleted scenes, gag reel, featurettes and interview segments.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (Fox)
A painless 95 minutes, this silly sequel to the original adaptation of Jeff Kinney’s famous children’s book has enough humor about the absurdities of being parents and kids that it will surely click with many families. There’s nothing here we haven’t seen spoofed before in the generational department, but the actors are certainly enjoying themselves, which helps pass the time. The Blu-ray transfer is decent; extras include a gag reel, deleted scenes, alternate ending and director/author commentary.

Hall Pass (Warners)
The Farrelly brothers, still motoring along, keep their raunchy comedy tradition going. This one has even less going for it than usual, as a strictly second-string cast comprises Owen Wilson, Jason Sudekis, Christina Applegate and Jenna Fischer. There are a few good laughs, but most of the humor is of the deliberate gross-out kind, especially in the seven-minute longer unrated cut, where we (and Wilson) are supposed to find the sight of a black man’s large penis and a white man’s small member shocking and hilarious. (It’s neither.) The Blu-ray transfer is quite good; extras consist of a four-minute deleted scene and two-minute gag reel.

Insignificance (Criterion)
Nicolas Roeg’s insignificant 1985 fantasy, based on Terry Johnson’s mediocre play, features unnamed stand-ins for Albert Einstein, Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe and Joe McCarthy duke it out in 1950s Manhattan. The plot gives Roeg the chance to show off his well-worn visual trickery, including slo-mo nuclear annihilation, but nothing really stays with you after viewing. The actors give their all, but if Michael Emil, Gary Busey and Tony Curtis are defeated by the weak material, Theresa Russell is luminous and touching as The Actress. As usual with Criterion, the Blu-ray image is far superior to any other home video version of the film so far; extras include new interviews with Roeg, producer Jeremy Thomas and editor Tony Lawson, vintage making-of featurette.

Kill the Irishman (Anchor Bay)
This fast-paced dramatization of Danny Greene, the real-life Irish crime boss in 1970s Cleveland, has enormous sympathy for a gangster who just happened to be taking on even nastier Italian gangsters. It helps that Jim Stevenson’s enormously charismatic presence becomes the focal point of the film. Even if this ground is oft-trodden, such an offbeat take on the mob scene is worth a look. Considerable support comes from Vincent d’Onofrio, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer and Linda Cardellini and Laura Ramsey as Danny’s women. Jonathan Lensleigh’s movie looks strikingly realistic on Blu-ray; the lone extra is an hour-long documentary, Danny Greene: The Rise and Fall of the Irishman, which gets insights from the people involved in Danny’s life story.

Kiss Me Deadly (Criterion)
Robert Aldrich’s dark film noir is a triumph of style over substance: it’s easy to see why Quentin Tarantino loves this film, which has ridiculous characters and an even more ludicrous storyline. But Aldrich’s tough-minded direction compels one to watch even as the implausibilities pile up higher and higher. The stiff and awkward acting mitigates against the movie succeeding dramatically, but damned if Aldrich doesn’t tighten the screws until the risible but awesomely explosive ending. The stark B&W photography is well-served by Criterion’s pristine Blu-ray transfer; extras include a commentary, documentary excerpts, altered ending and an appreciation by director Alex Cox.

Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…. Season 2 (MVD)
Season 2 of Elvis Costello’s Sundance Channel musical talk show is bookended by heavyweights: the first program finds Bono and the Edge engagingly discussing careers with Elvis and singing songs with and without him; the final two programs are given over to Bruce Springsteen, who does the same. In between, four episodes feature appearances by Sheryl Crow, Levon Helm, Nick Lowe, Lyle Lovett and Ray LaMontagne, who sing and talk with Elvis, and actress Mary Louise Parker, who interviews Elvis but does not sing. The shows look sharper than on TV, although it’s not necessary to put them on Blu-ray; extras include three bonus songs and a behind-the-scenes documentary.

Unknown (Warners)
Based on Taken and Unknown, Liam Neeson should avoid Europe. In Taken, his daughter was kidnapped in Paris; in Unknown, he loses his memory and finds his wife with another “husband” in Berlin. Stylish, action-packed and thoroughly illogical, Unknown is turn-off-the-brain entertainment, with a swaggering Neeson complemented by spunky Diane Kruger, smarmy Aidan Quinn, voluptuous January Jones and cadaverous Bruno Ganz. The movie’s images look excellent on Blu-ray; the meager extras are a four-minute Neeson profile and a four-minute behind-the-scenes featurette.

DVDs of the Week
American: The Bill Hicks Story (BBC)
Bill Hicks was a cult comedian whose career took off before he tragically died of cancer at age 32 in 1994. This heartfelt documentary shows excerpts from his standup act alongside a standard bio narrated by friends and family members. Though Hicks had an interesting outlook on the foibles of everyday life, his onstage persona owes a lot to Sam Kinison, who is never mentioned. Hours of fan-friendly extras include additional interviews and vintage clips.

Poison (Zeitgeist)
Todd Haynes’ first feature is an overheated, campily melodramatic triptych of stories that overlap routinely. Half-baked plotting, amateurish acting and Haynes’ ineptitude defeat whatever he’s trying to say; even neophyte Jean Genet did better with his lone film, an obvious influence. Haynes would go on to make Far from Heaven, I’m Not There and Mildred Pierce, all well-crafted dramas that show he learned something from making Poison. The 20th anniversary release includes interviews from last year’s Sundance Film festival and Haynes’ 1999 audio commentary.

CD of the Week
Herbert Howells: The Winchester Service (Hyperion)
British composer Herbert Howells (1892-1983) wrote much sacred choral music, and this valuable disc collects works he composed near the end of his life for choir and organ, solo organ, and a cappella choir. The standouts are the 10-minute title track and the 12-minute Te Deum 'St Mary Redcliffe' in which the Winchester Cathedral Choir soars angelically. Also noteworthy is Exultate Deo, a beautiful hymn to the beyond that stands as an 82-year-old composer’s remarkable religious anthem. It’s a testament to Howells’ talent that he found so much variety in a relatively narrow genre, and a testament to the choir (under leader Andrew Lumsden) and organist Simon Bell, who give all of these works such splendid readings.

Gritty Theater

Polonsky and Elder in One Arm

Tennessee Williams’ One Arm
Adapted for the stage and directed by Moises Kaufman
Starring Noah Bean, KC Comeaux, Claybourne Elder, Steven Hauck, Todd Lawson, Christopher McCann, Greg Pierotti, Larisa Polonsky
Opened June 9, 2011; closes July 2, 2011
The New Group/Tectonic Theatre Project
Acorn Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street
thenewgroup.org

It’s easy to see why One Arm remained an unproduced film script, even if it was written by none other than Tennessee Williams, based on his own short story about Ollie Olsen, a hustler who lost an arm to a car accident while in the navy (where he was a championship boxer). Set in the seediest areas of New Orleans and New York, One Arm doesn’t shy away from showing what happens to Ollie before and after killing a sleazeball who paid him $200 for a porn shoot with a young woman.

Ollie’s downbeat story, coupled with an unflinching look at his (mostly homosexual) exploits, makes for an uncomfortable 75 minutes in the theater. But in Moises Kaufman’s spellbinding staging, this depressing tale comes across powerfully, as a first-rate cast, creatively shabby lighting and sets and an admirably honest look at a group of shady characters make for an eminent co-production by the New Group and Kaufman's Tectonic Theatre Project.

Ollie is enacted with formidable forthrightness and an imposing physicality by Claybourne Elder, while the narrator (the play’s weakest link, unnecessarily imposing Williams’ voice onstage) is played by a wobbly Noah Bean. Other cast members impressively play various roles, led by a stellar Larisa Polonsky as the women in Ollie’s life: whether a French Quarter stripper, a naïve nurse, or his porn partner, Polonsky breathes a moving authenticity into each part.

Williams’ dialogue has a gritty poetry that perfectly mirrors Ollie’s increasingly desperate straits. Director Kaufman shrewdly makes the Acorn Theatre’s wide stage, which takes up the places Ollie lived and worked to the jail cell where he spends his final days, seem claustrophobic. What could have been a cloyingly obvious melodrama is transformed into a staggering Greek tragedy.

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian Interview

Foxy lady Bayrakdarian rehearses in her 'vixen' costume
The Cunning Little Vixen

An opera by Leos Janacek
Directed by Doug Fitch
Performed by the New York Philharmonic
Conducted by Alan Gilbert
June 22-25, 2011
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center
nyphil.org

The New York Philharmonic finished its first season under music director Alan Gilbert last June with Doug Fitch’s stunning, multi-media staging of Gyorgy Ligeti’s fantastical modern opera, Le Grand Macabre, in its New York premiere. In what may become an annual closing event, the Philharmonic has brought back Finch to stage Leos Janacek’s gorgeous opera about the cycles of life among the human and animal worlds, The Cunning Little Vixen, with the full forces of the orchestra performing Janacek’s superlative, singular score with a top cast, which will be led by Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian as the foxy female protagonist herself.

No stranger to this role--she has performed it, in the original Czech (these performances are in English), around the world, since understudying it in her hometown of Toronto for the Canadian Opera Company’s 1998 production--Bayrakdarian discussed how she approaches this unique character while on a break from rehearsals at Avery Fisher Hall.

Kevin Filipski: How familiar are you with Janacek’s Vixen?
Isabel Bayrakdarian: In 1998 in Toronto, I was the cover for the Vixen. I didn’t sing in the production but I did sing some of the rehearsals. I was a member of the COC (Canadian Opera Company) ensemble program for that season. There were a lot of tears the first time I learned to sing this opera because the Czech language is so difficult. But finally I realized that Janacek has written it with the idiom of his language in mind, and it’s wonderful to hear. Now that we’re singing it in English, we have to take liberties within the framework of each bar and modify it so that English accents are highlighted instead of the Czech. We’re making modifications to the standard translation because it has to be singable and current, since some of the lingo needs to be updated. Doing it in English takes a certain amount of changing gears in your mind, but I’ve done the most difficult part, which is the music. Structurally, it changes a little bit, you have to know just when to come in, so it’s a blessing that I’ve done the part many times. It’s a very tricky score, it constantly changes from playful, animalistic lightness to lush long lines.

KF: Talk about your preparation to play a singing fox onstage.
IB: It’s a very difficult role: how do you prepare to be an animal? It takes a certain amount of stamina and physical fitness to run around literally on all fours and sing. But it’s also strangely comforting, because you’re always close to the earth, and you gain strength from it: your center of gravity is as close to the ground as possible. Janacek had a very good three-dimensional idea of who the vixen is. It’s not always written in very long lines so that she must stand and sing all the time, and it’s not written in a chatty way to suggest that she’s always running around. It’s a nice balance as she develops from a youngster to a teenager with opinionated ideals of equality and feminism to a woman falling in love and becoming a mother.

KF: It’s amazing what Janacek was able to do with essentially a comic strip when he turned it into an opera.
IB: This is one of the few operas that children would enjoy it, but the human world is painted very correctly. And you know what? It doesn’t fare well when compared with the animal world, it’s so bleak and so real that you almost prefer to be in the animal world, as opposed to the human world where there are lots of regrets. Animals don’t regret, they always look forward. Nowhere in the score does it look to the past, it’s always to the future. Whereas you see in the human world so many regrets about unexpressed emotions and bitterness. It’s true in many ways, it’s better to be an animal.

KF: What’s unique about this staging?
IB: For starters, there’s an extension into the audience up to row M, which means I’m in the middle of the auditorium, a most unusual place for a singer! But it’s an ingenious way of bridging the audience-performer gap, making the audience part of the action so sometimes they have to look back to see what’s going on. It’s a good way to mirror what’s going on in the opera, where the human and animal worlds are intertwined and are changed by the actions in the other. When I sing in the middle of the audience, the energy will be very different than when I sing in front of them. There will also be lots of entrances and exits through the audience, which you can’t do in an opera house. It’s a very unique way of doing a very unique opera.

KF: Are you ready to sing more Janacek operas, most of which have central female characters (Jenufa, Katya Kabanova, The Makropulos Case)?
IB: I haven’t sung any other Janacek roles yet, but I started to become interested ever since I became a mom myself: I now want roles that are much more substantial, with a deeper dramatic scope that allows more exploration. Also, now I can read Czech very easily, so it will be faster learning these roles than in the past. The Czech words and music are welded together in Janacek’s operas, which have a darkness that is particularly Czech.

Stuck in a Web You Can't Get Out Of

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

With Reeve Carney, Jennifer Damiano, T.V. Carpio, Patrick Page
Book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge
Original direction by Julie Taymor; creative consultant: Philip Wm. McKinley
Choreography and aerial choreography by Daniel Ezralow
Previews began November 28, 2010; opened June 14, 2011
Foxwoods Theater, 213 West 42nd Street
spidermanonbroadway.com

Late in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the alternately stultifying and electrifying new musical, the nasty Green Goblin (played with irrepressible glee by Patrick Page) sits at a piano awaiting his showdown with the web-spinning superhero and begins singing “I’ll Take Manhattan,” a crazed send-up of Rodgers and Hart’s classic song.

The Green Goblin’s take on this pop standard is significant for two reasons. First, it’s one of the few times that this schizophrenic show, which bounces between seriously stupid psychology and serious comic-strip silliness, has a genuinely twisted sense of humor about itself (earlier, the Goblin makes mention of the show’s wildly inflated budget). Secondly, it reminds us that Bono and the Edge, whose songwriting credentials were long ago cemented by U2’s plethora of hits, have a long way to go before they’ll compose a Broadway score that can stand on its own, let alone be mentioned in the same breath as Rodgers and Hart (or even Elton John).

For a show that cost tens of millions and has so much baggage attached to it, Spider-Man at least flows, has a coherent if flimsy plot and some showstopping moments thanks to the talented stuntmen flying around the Foxwoods Theater. Nine stunt Spider-Men take bows at the curtain call, after these superhero surrogates finish flying, spinning upside down, leap-frogging and somersaulting all over the stage, trying to make a middling musical more exciting.

It works at times, in a Cirque de Soleil kind of way, and when George Tsypin’s set design--which, for the most part, comprises sliding panels--suddenly gives us a God’s eye view of the Chrysler building for the big finale, it’s apparent where some of the money went. But fired director Julie Taymor’s original concept overexplained the origin of Spiderman’s powers by introducing the eight-legged goddess Arachne, who now only appears in two numbers prodding Peter Parker to his destiny, “Behold and Wonder” and “Turn Off the Dark,” which are the show’s most eye-catching, as well as the most obvious of Taymor’s own creation.

That some of Taymor’s confused mysticism remains in a pared-down version cramps the show’s style severely: the first act begins very slowly, and the audience doesn’t even see some good old- fashioned flying--why else are we all here?--until just before intermission. (Although the number “Bouncing Off the Walls“ introduces us to Peter’s new powers with a taste of what is to come.)

If even more streamlining was done--by jettisoning the subplots with Peter’s uncle and aunt and girlfriend Mary Jane’s father, especially--and there was more playing up of the comic-book aspects of the story, which don’t really kick in until the Green Goblin gets going in Act II, then Spider-Man might be a less bumpy rollercoaster ride.

The clunky pacing, particularly in how the show often stops dead between songs, is another liability, while the real charms of leading man Reeve Carney and leading lady Jennifer Damiano (who should, if there’s any justice, become the diva of our musical stage for the next 20 years) are never fully exploited. Bono and the Edge’s mainly dirge-like score, which contains only one memorable tune (“Rise Above,” which sounds like a Joshua Tree outtake), seems to cry uncle when we hear tongue-in-cheek snippets of U2 hits “Beautiful Day” and “Vertigo.”

Neither the unsafe disaster it was nor a successful reclamation project, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark ends up as a forgettable musical but a memorable circus act.

June '11 Digital Week III

Blu-rays of the Week

Battle: Los Angeles (Sony)
The latest sci-fi film in which aliens arrive, bent on the world’s destruction, B: LA at least doesn’t bother with dime store psychology: the aliens show up, and the explosive fun begins. Breathlessly moving to its bang-up conclusion, Jonathan Liebesman’s movie doesn’t need subtlety from its actors, but Aaron Eckart tries to give it more weight. The special effects-laden action sequences come off best on Blu-ray; the extras comprise behind-the-scenes featurettes, interviews and storyboard comparisons.

Hair and New York New York (MGM)
These late ‘70s musicals were flops for directors coming off their biggest successes. Martin Scorsese had made Taxi Driver before his ambitious failure starring Robert DeNiro and Liza Minnelli, New York New York, in 1977; Milos Forman won the Oscar for One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest before making his extravagant version of the classic hippie musical, Hair, in 1979. What’s best are these films’ visual imaginativeness, which looks splendid on Blu-ray. Hair has no extras; NY, NY extras include Scorsese’s commentary/introduction, alternate/deleted scenes, two-part retrospective documentary, Minnelli interview, and scene commentary by cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs.

Just Go with It (Sony)
Another ordinary Adam Sandler vehicle, this bumpy remake of Cactus Flower has Sandler using Jennifer Aniston to help him reel in hottie Brooklyn Decker. A few laughs are scattered in the dross, but the movie too often settles for pointless scenes, like every one featuring a grossly overdone Nicole Kidman, stretching the running time beyond endurance. There's clever use of Police and Sting songs, and the parts shot in Hawaii look splendid on Blu-ray, but the comedy department never amounts too much. Extras include deleted scenes, blooper reel and on-set featurettes.

The Makioka Sisters (Criterion)
Kon Ichikawa’s 1983 quiet, contemplative chamber drama studies a quartet of sisters that have taken over the family kimono business before the outbreak of World War II. Not nearly as incisive as Ichikawa’s best films (due in part to a horribly dated synthesizer score), The Makioka Sisters still has its creator’s affection for his characters in spades. The gorgeous cinematography, in which the four seasons play a big role, remains highly effective on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, there are no extras on this major Criterion release.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (Warners)
Clint Eastwood’s 1976 western, which he directed and starred in, finds the star as a man seeking revenge against the Union soldiers who killed his family and destroyed his homestead. In many ways a standard western, the movie utilizes the Civil War to add tension to the hero tracking down the killers. While blatant, this effective drama showed that Eastwood’s directing career would continue. The Blu-ray image is luminous; extras comprise critic Richard Schickel commentary and three Eastwood featurettes.

Red Riding Hood (Warners)
With an eye toward her Twilight success, director Catherine Hardwicke tries jump-starting a new fantasy franchise by bringing werewolves into the fairy tale for good measure. Amanda Seyfried makes an appropriately wide-eyed title character, and Julie Christie, Virginia Madsen and Gary Oldman lend able support, but the CGI wolf is neither scary nor believable enough for the conceit to work. Grittily shot by Mandy Walker, the movie looks excellent on Blu-ray; extras include a gag reel, alternate scenes, music videos, audition tapes and director/performers commentary.

Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology (Warners)
Christopher Reeve revived the Man of Steel franchise in the first two Superman movies, but numbers three and four sullied everyone’s reputation. That quartet takes up most of this eight-disc set, which also includes Bryan Singer’s 2006 reboot with Brandon Routh; director Richard Donner’s “director’s cut” of the original, and his own cut of the sequel, which had been taken over by Richard Lester. The Reeve movies look superb on Blu-ray, considering their age: 30-35 years old. Extensive extras on a separate disc include full-length documentaries Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman and You Will Believe: the Cinematic Saga of Superman; vintage featurettes; TV specials; complete 1940s Max Fleischer cartoons; commentaries; and TV pilot.

36th Precinct (Palisades Tartan)
Director Olivier Marchal’s 2004 policier pits two of the biggest French stars, Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Auteil, against each other as police superintendents hoping to inherit the soon-vacated commissioner’s job. A nail-biter throughout, the movie has twists and turns that don’t always make sense, but the stars’ towering presence help smooth over rough spots. The movie has a solid Blu-ray transfer; extras include making-of featurettes and director interview.

DVDs of the Week
If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle (Film Movement)
Romania’s film renaissance continues with co-writer/director Florin Serban’s tough-minded portrait of an 18-year-old delinquent putting his life in order the only way he knows how: kidnapping a beautiful social worker. George Pistereanu and Ana Condeescu’s raw, emotional performances provide Serban’s film with the backbone it needs to give a sense of a nation trying to survive in an increasingly factitious 21st century. The lone extra is a 20-minute Dutch short, Kiss.

Vanishing of the Bees (True Mind)
With Queen of the Sun, this film makes a one-two punch exploring what’s happening to bees thanks to man’s messing with nature. Narrated by Ellen Page, George Langworthy and Maryam Henein’s documentary explores various theses about how bees are dying by the millions due to Colony Collapse Disorder. More clinical than Queen, which was a more poetic meditation on a horrible situation, Vanishing shows what happens and how it can be stopped. Brief extras include deleted scenes and an animated short.

CD of the Week
John Adams: Son of Chamber Symphony/String Quartet (Nonesuch)
John Adams, America’s premier living composer, returns with 2007’s Son of Chamber Symphony and 2008’s String Quartet, performed by International Contemporary Ensemble (conducted by Adams) and St. Lawrence String Quartet, respectively. Son of Chamber Symphony is a raucous, exhilarating work that shows how expressive Adams’ musical language has become since his original Chamber Symphony in 1992. The String Quartet is less formidable but is played with passionate precision by the St. Lawrence quartet.

Newest TV Shows on Disc

Ben Bailey Road Rage (e one)

Best known for hosting the voyeuristic Cash Cab program, comedian Ben Bailey takes his no-holds-barred style to the stage for his first stand-up special, where he riffs on everyday life, including his adventures as a TV host. Genuine laughs abound, but Bailey’s hulking persona is definitely an acquired taste.

The Big C, Season 1 (Sony)
The first season of Showtime’s new sitcom, about a 42-year-old teacher whose life is irrevocably changed when she discovers she has incurable cancer, takes its conceit (she tells no-one about the diagnosis, especially her family) to its illogical conclusion. Despite becoming increasingly annoying, The Big C has a big ace in the hole: Laura Linney, an actress incapable of a false note or any exaggerated showiness. Even as the writing and characterizations falter, the show is worth watching just for Linney. Extras: deleted scenes, outtakes, on-set featurette and interviews.

Black in Latin America (PBS Blu-ray)
Historian Henry Louis Gates follows up his groundbreaking Faces of America, which dug into the ancestry of several celebrities with often surprising results, with this equally fascinating four-part exploration of how Latin American cultures were developed through both European and African influences, with specific studies of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and Peru, all shot in superb hi-def.

Breaking Bad, Season 3 (Sony Blu-ray)
This acclaimed drama won Emmys for its stars, and it’s easy to see why: Bryan Cranston (Best Actor) and Aaron Paul (Best Supporting Actor) are dynamic as the teacher who becomes a meth cook for ready money and his antsy partner in crime. There’s also stellar support by Anna Gunn as Cranston’s estranged wife. The pair’s adventures become more precarious (and dangerous) as the series goes along; Blu-ray gives the show more immediacy, with excellent use of Albuquerque locations. Extras: uncensored episodes, audio commentaries, deleted scenes, gag reel, on-set featurettes, pod casts.

Burn Notice, Season 4 (Fox)
Counter-intelligence, convoluted plot twists and smoldering relationships mark the fourth season of Burn Notice, as spy extraordinaire Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) returns, along with his super-sexy ex (and current sidekick) Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar, looking more stunning each season: was Scent of a Woman really 20 years ago?). Extras: deleted scenes, featurettes, audio commentaries, gag reel.

Celebrity Bowling (S’more)
The three discs on this set collect vintage episodes of the L.A.-based game show that ran from 1971-1978, and featured then-popular celebs like Adrienne Barbeau, Angie Dickinson, William Shatner, Bob Newhart, Brenda Vaccaro, Loretta Swit, Nipsey Russell, and even Roy Rogers. Some of the bowlers have better senses of humor than others, and can take the ribbing they receive when their shots go astray (which is often).

Children’s Hospital, Volumes 1 & 2 (Warners)
If you’re wondering what happened to Rob Corddry, one of the most brilliantly fractured minds to ever come from The Daily Show, look no further than this acidic, absurdly funny sitcom about horny doctors and nurses working in a local children’s hospital. Not many shows can transition from the web to television, but this one pulls it off. Extras: deleted scenes, gag reel, music video, interviews.

Genius of Britain (Acorn Media)
This five-part British TV series comprises portraits of some of England’s most brilliant scientists discussing their personal heroes: among others, there are Stephen Hawking and Isaac Newton, Richard Dawkins and Alfred Russel Wallace, and David Attenborough and Joseph Banks. A bonus disc includes the 90-minute documentary, Stephen Hawking and the Theory of Everything.

The Glades, Season 1 (Fox)
Fish out of water stories have endless permutations, as this drama series shows: a Chicago detective moves to Florida hoping to leave behind 24-hour days filled with violent crimes, but soon finds himself swamped with murders in his new town of Palm Glades. Matt Passmore’s effortless charm helps makes this retread material enjoyable. Extras: deleted scenes, audio commentaries, gag reel and featurettes.

Haven, Season 1 (e one Blu-ray)
Perky actress Emily Rose stars as an FBI agent whose murder investigation takes her to the strange village of Haven, Maine, where she discovers that its inhabitants are people with all manner of supernatural and mysterious afflictions: she also discovers her own not-so-hidden past. Based on a Stephen King story, Haven is itself afflicted with Kingitis, or a terminal case of the cutes, but its top-notch on-location photography (which looks great on Blu-ray) and attractive cast make it a decent diversion. Extras: audio commentaries, making-of featurettes, video blogs and interviews.

Outback Pelicans and Salmon: Running the Gauntlet (PBS Blu-ray)
These PBS Nature specials combine spectacular hi-def photography with involving chronicles of how nature’s creatures must adapt or pay the consequences. Outback Pelicans studies the return every decade of pelicans to the dry Australian outback, while Salmon: Running the Gauntlet explores the salmon decline in the Pacific Northwest, where billions of fish once went on their annual run. Nature programs are perfect for Blu-ray viewing thanks to their awe-inspiring visuals.

Pretty Little Liars, Season 1 (Warners)
This teen mash-up of Desperate Housewives and I Know What You Did Last Summer follows four comely co-eds whose lives are turned upside down when they start receiving mysterious messages, which seem to be coming from their missing best friend. More often than not risible, but at least the actresses (Lucy Hale, Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell) are having fun, so some of that rubs off on the viewer. Extras: interviews, featurettes, deleted scenes.

Robin of Sherwood, Season 1 (Acorn Media Blu-ray)
This British series, which began in 1983, retells Robin Hood’s story with a fine cast: Michael Praed as Robin, Ray Winstone (later of Sexy Beast fame) as one of his ‘merry men,’ Nikolas Grace as the antagonistic Sheriff of Nottingham, and Judi Trott as Lady Marian. The location shooting was done on actual countryside locales and in authentic period castles, and is brought to especially vivid life on Blu-ray. Extras: commentaries making-of featurette, two documentaries, outtakes and foreign credit sequences.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Volume 6 (ABC Family)
Having detailed how Amy (well-played by Shailene Woodley) dealt with having a baby and how it affected her family (especially her mom, played by none other than Molly Ringwald), this popular ABC Family series followed school ‘slut’ Adrian after she becomes pregnant. Francia Raisa, a wonderfully expressive actress, makes Adrian’s travails worth watching.

William & Kate (Lifetime)
This Lifetime network movie was understandably overshadowed by the real thing, as its soap-opera approach to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s courtship and engagement is far less compelling than what was in the tabloids and on TV. Still, Nico Evers-Swindell and Camilla Luddington make a charming couple; the supporting cast, including Ben Cross, Serena Scott-Thomas and Victoria Tennant, adds credibility to the proceedings.

CD Review: Remastered "McCartney" and "McCartney II"

McCartney and McCartney II
(Hear Music)

Paul McCartney has never gotten enough credit for his experimental side, neither while in the Beatles nor during his four-decade-long solo career. But, as the newly released remastered and expanded editions of his 1970 solo debut McCartney and its follow-up, 1980’s McCartney II, unmistakably show, his experimentation is an ongoing feature of his music, along with his flawless melodic flair and penchant for the “silly love songs” that have made him millions of dollars, helped sell millions of records and earned him the derision of many.

In fact, McCartney was initially derided upon release as a half-baked effort that showcased one good song and some tantalizing fragments; when McCartney II came out ten years later, the nasty criticism was even more withering. Now, however, listening to this music in the context of McCartney’s eclectic solo career—which includes albums as disparate as the aptly-named Liverpool Sound Collage, his latest Fireman CD, Electric Arguments, and his classical oratorio Ecce cor Meum—one must conclude that, contrary to popular belief, McCartney is anything but a lazy and pampered superstar: rather, he’s a restless musician who has always done what he wants, commercial strictures be damned.

Both of these albums are homemade affairs, with Paul handling all the instruments and vocals and wife Linda chipping in the odd harmony. While “Maybe I’m Amazed” is the obvious stand-out track on McCartney (with that ringingly perfect guitar fill that would do George Harrison proud), the album also includes the scrappy rockers “Man We Was Lonely” and “Oo You,” lovely ballads “Junk” and “Every Night,” and bizarre, careening instrumentals “Momma Miss America” and the album’s percussive closer, “Kreen-Akrore.”

McCartney II follows the same blueprint. “Coming Up,” with its metaphorically rising bass figure, was a huge hit in America in its more fleshed-out live version, but Paul’s homemade original is far more memorable. “On the Way” is a gorgeous slow blues, “Waterfalls” one of Paul’s loveliest ballads, and “One of These Days” a haunting solo acoustic number. Goofy synthesizer loops abound in the truly weird “Temporary Secretary” and off-the-cuff “Darkroom,” along with the bouncy new-wavish instrumentals “Front Parlour” and “Frozen Jap.” And if “Summer’s Day Song” is merely an irresistible minor-key melody in search of a real song structure, “Bogey Music” and “Nobody Knows” are straight-ahead bashers that have their creator's tongue firmly in cheek.

As with last year’s Band on the Run re-release, McCartney and McCartney II—both of which have been given a lot of space to breathe in their newly remastered versions, even if their upgraded sound is not nearly as obviously superior as the 2009 Beatles re-releases were—contain the original album and a second disc of bonus tracks. McCartney’s seven extra tracks include two live versions of “Maybe I’m Amazed,” one from Glasgow in 1979, which is where the live versions of “Every Night” and “Hot as Sun” come from. A demo for the unfinished “Women Kind” and two snappy outtakes, “Suicide” and “Don’t Cry Baby,” round out an intriguing peek behind the curtain.

McCartney II's bonus tunes include two already-released songs, “Check My Machine” and “Secret Friend,” which, clocking in at nearly 6 and 11 minutes respectively, are among Paul’s most outré techno experiments, while “Bogey Wobble” and the medleys “Mr. H Atom/You Know I’ll Get You Baby” and “All You Horse Riders/Blue Sway” aren’t far behind in the offbeat department. Somewhat redundantly—since they've been featured on other discs over the years—the “Coming Up” and “Wonderful Christmastime” singles are also included.

Up next in Hear Music/Concord Music Group's McCartney reissues are Ram, the 1971 follow-up to McCartney that remains one of his best records; Venus and Mars and Speed of Sound, both solid examples of Paul and Wings as a hit-making machine; and the 1976 live set Wings Over America. Here’s hoping the upcoming reissues arrive at more regular intervals than what we've gotten so far.

June '11 Digital Week II

Blu-rays of the Week

AC/DC Let There Be Rock (Warners)
AC/DC never really took off commercially until 1980’s Back in Black album with vocalist Brian Johnson, but aficionados know that the band was already killer during Bon Scott’s reign. This concert film, shot in Paris during the band’s 1979 tour, shows a group at the top of its game, from Scott’s throaty growl to Angus Young’s killer riffs. AC/DC bludgeons its fans with “Whole Lotta Rosie,” “Girls Got Rhythm,“ “High Voltage” and “Highway to Hell.” The special-edition Blu-ray box includes the film in a stunning new hi-def transfer, complete with awesome multi-track sound; a commemorative book, a guitar pick, collector cards and a 32-page tribute book. Bonuses include an hour’s worth of interviews with the band’s fans like Billy Corgan and rock journalists.

Another Year (Sony)
Mike Leigh’s latest is filled with the warmth of his performers, although there’s much wheel-spinning in his portrait of quotidian British lives: scenes go on too long, in the hopes that Leigh and his actors break through to an illuminating insight. There’s a lot to admire in the performances of Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen as a husband and wife who are an oasis of serenity for the troubled souls who revolve around them. Too bad Lesley Manville, as their friend Mary, overacts mightily—at least until the final shots, when she faces down her own predicament without hamming. The Blu-ray image is first-rate; extras comprise a Leigh commentary and on-set featurettes and interviews.

Biutiful (Lionsgate)
At his best, Alejandro González Iñárritu creates powerful stories about people we care about. But when he falters, he wallows in a mire of obviousness. Both Iñárritus are present in Biutiful, which introduces Uxbal, a shady underground figure who helps illegal Chinese immigrants find menial jobs. When he discovers he has terminal cancer, he tries to reconcile his relationships with his children and estranged wife. Javier Bardem gives Uxbal an intensity and integrity lacking in the ham-handed script: the movie becomes risible when Uxbal starts seeing dead people, and its grimness becomes oppressive when a group of immigrants is found asphyxiated. The movie’s grittiness is well-served on Blu-ray; its extras include cast/crew interviews and director’s “flip notes,” Behind ‘Biutiful.’

The Company Men (Anchor Bay)
Writer-director John Wells’ timely take on the cratering U.S. economy zeroes in on several employees whose American dreams are ruined by the our country’s downsizing. A solid ensemble cast (Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Rosemarie DeWitt) buoys Wells’ uninspired script, giving it affecting emotional weight it otherwise lacks. Still, Wells’ heart is in the right place, and his is one of the few movies to show what happens to ordinary Americans. The Blu-ray transfer is excellent; extras include deleted scenes and alternate ending, Wells’ commentary and on-set interviews.

I Want Your Money (RG)
If you don’t know your facts or history, this cartoonish and clownishly put-together right-wing propaganda might fool you. But if you know that a) Ronald Reagan raised taxes, and b) the deficit went through the roof during the Reagan years, then Ray Griggs’ amateurish attempts to show how Reagan equaled ‘small government’ and Obama equals ‘socialism’ (along with anti-capitalist buddies like Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke) will be good for giggles but little else. The Blu-ray image’s clarity accentuates the one-dimensional animation where presidents and politicians are mercilessly (and unfunnily) lampooned; no extras.

The Man Who Would Be King (Warners)
John Huston’s rousing adventure yarn, based on Rudyard Kipling’s classic story, features Sean Connery and Michael Caine, giving terrific star turns as the Englishmen who attempt to take over and colonize the remote outpost of Kafiristan. Filled with great adventure and equally ample doses of good humor, this is one of Huston’s most unpretentious movies, and with the trio of Connery, Caine and Christopher Plummer (who ingeniously plays Kipling), it’s a must-see for everyone. On Blu-ray, the movie looks splendid, of course; the lone extra is a vintage on-set featurette, Call It Magic.

Marriage Italian Style, Sunflower, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow (Lorber)
A trio of collaborations by director Vittorio De Sica and stars Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni yielded two classic comedies (1963’s Yesterday Today and Tomorrow and 1964’s Marriage Italian Style) and a disastrous dramatic dud (1970’s Sunflower). Marriage and Yesterday show off the stars at their sophisticated and sexy best, while De Sica’s direction has an impossibly light touch; about Sunflower, however, the less said the better. All the movies are given top-notch hi-def transfers; Yesterday includes a bonus disc, Vittorio D., a superb 95-minute documentary on the director’s life and career that includes interviews with an awestruck Woody Allen and Ken Loach, among others.

Passion Play (Image)
A showdown between loser Mickey Rourke and gangster Bill Murray over winged femme fatale Megan Foxx might sound diverting, but writer-director Mitch Glazer’s drama takes itself so seriously that it becomes laughable after Foxx spreads her wings to embrace Rourke after a bout of lovemaking. Even Murray, trapped by the ludicrous script, doesn‘t bark out any one-line put-downs. Rourke looks more leathery than ever, particularly in the sharpness of hi-def, while Foxx has never looked more angelic, even if her wings are particularly foolish conceits. No extras.

DVDs of the Week
Bobbie Jo & the Outlaw, The Ceremony (MGM)
MGM’s “limited edition collection” brings long-forgotten movies to DVD, like these two titles: a ‘70s sexploitation yarn starring Wonder Woman and a routine ‘60s prison drama. The otherwise forgettable Bobbie Jo is the kind of movie you might skip over while channel-surfing late at night, but if you’re a Lynda Carter fan, it’s a must, since she memorably bears her breasts twice during sex scenes with Marjoe Gortner. The Ceremony has Sarah Miles, one of England’s most underrated actresses, but Laurence Harvey isn’t much of a triple-threat producer-director-actor on the evidence of this movie. Neither movie is restored, but no one will mind except diehard Wonder Woman fans.

CD of the Week
Dora Pejačević: Symphony (CPO)
I’d never even heard of this composer until this CD. Pejačević, a Croatian who grew up in Budapest in an artistic household (politician father and Countess mother), wrote firmly in the post-Romantic tradition of Strauss and Mahler. The works, performe in viscerally immediate versions by the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Orchestra (conducted by Ari Rasilainen), give a sense of her musical intelligence: the 47-minute, four-movement Symphony and 15-minute Phantasie Concertante for piano are hardly earthshaking but eminently worthy compositions that introduce listeners to another rarely-heard voice.