December '11 Digital Week V

Blu-rays of the Week

Apollo 18 (Anchor Bay/Weinstein Co)
This faux found-footage documentary apes predecessors like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity by setting up a decent premise of a secret, disastrous moon mission that discovers lunar horrors later covered up by authorities and doing little with it. Since the movie comprises “previously unseen” footage from 1974, the format is academy ratio, and it’s grainy and decidedly “un” hi-def, so Blu-ray isn’t that superior to watch. Extras include director/editor commentary, deleted/ alternate scenes and alternate endings, none of which are appreciably better or worse than the one that was chosen.

Archer: Season 2 (Fox)
This animated spy spoof, which follows the adventures of the world’s most dangerous spy and those with and against him, has a Ralph Bakshi tone to its visuals and its humor, so it’s obviously cartoonish in every sense. All 13 episodes of the show’s second season are included; the amusing voice actors include H. Jon Benjamin as Archer and Aisha Tyler as his sometime companion Lana Kane. Too bad this is merely a cartoon, for it would be great seeing Tyler doing her stuff in the flesh instead of mere voiceover; extras include several featurettes.

Capriccio (Decca)
In Richard Strauss’s final stage work, a regal Countess must choose between two men--a composer and a writer--making this the ultimate (and most memorably melodious) opera about the endless argument of words vs. music. Renee Fleming magically brings the Countess to life with her immaculate voice, the perfect Straussian instrument, while Andrew Davis conducts the Met Orchestra with precision if not a full sense of Strauss’s dramatic sweep. The Met Live in HD broadcast has an immaculate clarity on Blu-ray; soprano Joyce DiDonato briefly interviews Renee during her introduction.

Final Destination 5 (New Line)
In the fifth and probably cleverest of this unnecessary series, several teens find that, after surviving a fatal bridge collapse, an unknown force wants them dead. So they are picked off one by one in improbably amusing ways, until the final scene, which brings the series full circle…for those who cares. The multitude of gruesome deaths--especially one during Lasik eye surgery--are almost too vividly displayed in hi-def; extras include alternate death scenes, clips from all five movies’ killings and special effects featurettes.

Futurama: Volume 6 (Fox)
Unlike the season boxed sets for Matt Groening’s other, better hit show The Simpsons, Futurama’s volumes feature 13 unrelated--and typically uneven--episodes, all new to hi-def. This hit-or-miss compilation includes humorous shows with punning Groening titles like Ghosts in the Machines, All the President‘s Heads and Silence of the Clamps. The show’s visuals gain in color and texture on Bluray; extras include commentaries on all episodes, deleted scenes and featurettes.

Glee: The Concert (Fox)
I’ve never been a fan of Glee, which annoyingly elevates crap like Journey and Madonna to classic status. The recent tour by the show’s cast--singing in character for thousands of adoring, mostly young fans--is showcased in this 80-minute performance, with Broadway veteran Lea Michele the easy stand-out, singing Katy Perry (why?), a Streisand tune from Funny Girl and the show finale of Queen’s "Somebody to Love." Michele is far too talented to be stuck on Glee for long (one hopes). The concert looks OK on Blu-ray; extras include two unseen songs, extended performances and introductions by cast member Jane Lynch.

Going Places (Kino Lorber)
Bertrand Blier’s 1974 success de scandale stars a young Gerard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere as a pair of louts objectifying and degenerating woman all over France. Despite the rampant misogyny, it’s amazing how forceful the presences of Miou-Miou, Jeanne Moreau, Bridget Fossey and another young starlet, Isabelle Huppert, are: perhaps because they aren’t onscreen long, they don’t grate like the men do. Blier’s well-made, superbly shot (by Bruno Nuytten) and scored (by Stephanie Grappelli) journey is entertaining if you ignore the nasty ramifications. Visually, the Blu-ray is first-rate; no extras.

The Moon in the Gutter (Cinema Libre)
Jean-Jacques Beineix’s visually striking 1983 drama is the last word in moody atmospherics and confused storytelling. Gerard Depardieu, Nastassja Kinski and Victoria Abril are lost in a morose study of murder, rape, suicide and the impossibility of love. Beineix is a gifted stylist but, as Diva and Betty Blue demonstrate, he’s not much for plotting or credible characterization. Supposedly, the original four-hour version made more coherent psychological sense, but that’s not what we get here. The movie has a muted loveliness on Blu-ray; extras include Beineix’s debut Mr. Michel’s Dog and an interview.

DVDs of the Week
Brighton Rock (IFC)
Graham Greene’s classic crime novel, also a probing psychological study of good and evil, has been updated to 1964 by writer-director Rowan Joffe, which retains the sleazy Northern England atmosphere, and the acting--from Sam Riley (villain), Andrea Riseborough (innocent ingénue), Helen Mirren and John Hurt--is impeccable. But the story plays out uninvolvingly, remaining distant and aloof. Extras include a making-of featurette, on-set footage and cast/crew interviews.

Elusive Justice (PBS)
Jonathan Silvers’ incisive and absorbing documentary about the decades-long global manhunt of escaped Nazi war criminals by a loosely linked network of committed individuals shines a necessary light on the ongoing battle between good and evil. Actress Candice Bergen narrates this two-hour long film, which is not only one of the best programs to ever come out of the PBS stable of documentaries, but also another reminder of how important it is not to give up fighting the good fight.

A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy (Sony)
This silly sex fantasy by writers-directors Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck about a group of friends deciding to have an orgy “like they did in the 70s” has moments of comedic bliss, but the mostly coarse and derivative humor seems directly out of the current stable of Saturday Night Live performers-writers, of whom Jason Sudekis and Will Forte are here. Happily, the women--Leslie Bibb, Lake Bell and delectable Michele Borth--make it worth watching the promise of an orgy. Extras include writer/director/star commentary, deleted scenes, gag reel and How to Film an Orgy featurette.

CDs of the Week
Mariusz Kwiecien, Slavic Heroes (Harmonia Mundi)
Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien has headlined at places like the Metropolitan Opera, where he’s performed Mozart roles including Don Giovanni. For his first solo recital CD, Kwiecien has chosen a selection of arias from Russian, Polish and Czech operas, and the results are impressive. Accompanied by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under sympathetic conductor Lukasz Borowicz, the singer storms through arias both familiar (Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Mazeppa) and unfamiliar (a trio from Stanislaw Moniuszko’s operas), with the standout finale--from Karol Szymanowski’s masterpiece King Roger--a perfect fit for Kwiecien’s powerhouse but subtle voice.

December '11 Digital Week IV

Blu-rays of the Week

The Birth of a Nation and
Way Down East (Kino)
These D.W. Griffith classics are more historically than artistically admirable, especially 1915’s Nation, with its rampagingly racist view of the Ku Klux Klan; 1920’s East, by contrast, is a relatively sober melodrama. Griffith was a master of composition and editing, if not depth or complexity; his films are large-scale curios important beyond their shortcomings. Kino’s restored hi-def transfers (East comes courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art) are excellent if not as stunning as its Buster Keaton entries. Nation’s two discs of extras include a making-of and the full 1993 restoration; East includes a short ice-floe sequence from a 1903 film of Uncle Tom’s Cabin which inspired Griffith.

Blackthorn
(Magnolia)
A grizzled, bearded Sam Shepard plays a retired Butch Cassidy whiling away the remainder of his days in Bolivia in director Mateo Gil’s laidback western. Lovely photography that makes terrific use of the widescreen format is its calling card; despite Shepard’s authoritative presence, Butch comes across as a cipher, not good in a film ostensibly about him. The Blu-ray transfer is glorious; extras include interviews, featurettes and 22 minutes’ worth of deleted scenes.

Branded to Kill and
Tokyo Drifter (Criterion)
Seijun Suzuki’s remarkably brash thrillers are among the most entertaining of their time (1967 and 1966, respectively): these beguiling mash-ups of gangster movie, romance and musical--shot in splendid B&W and color--introduce a series of appealingly nutty characters whom Suzuki’s stylishness makes endlessly fascinating. The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray editions give these films a shocking visual jolt that’s unmatched; extras include new and vintage interviews with Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu and an interview with Branded star Joe Shishido.

Catch .44
(Anchor Bay)
I had a crushing sense of déjà vu while watching Aaron Harvey‘s second-rate thriller: its insistence on following various characters through story threads that collide with and converge on one another--some even die then return in flashbacks--is solely Quentin Tarantino’s fault, since he made it acceptable for anyone with a script and camera to make a slick but empty flick. Though the actors can do little with their stereotypes, Bruce Willis, Nikki Reed and Forrest Whitaker look like they’re having fun, and Malin Akerman--bless her--very nearly makes the heroine sympathetic. The film looks quite good on Blu-ray; lone extra is a Harvey commentary.

Colombiana
(Sony)
If there’s any justice in Hollywood--which, as we know, there isn’t--Zoe Saldana would be a superstar: she’s a compelling, charismatic actress who can do drama, comedy, action, whatever. Instead we’re stuck with the likes of overrated, one trick ponies Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johannsen, Kate Hudson and Kristen Bell. Rant over: Saldana makes this forgettable action flick fly furiously, even making us feel for a young woman--trained as an assassin after her parents are brutally murdered--who’s calmly killing dozens of people. The Blu-ray image is first-rate; extras include several featurettes.

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame(Vivendi)
Director Tsui Hark’s incomprehensible costume fantasy-drama has its share of amazing visuals, but the story’s incoherence and the characters’ distance from the viewer--even the title sleuth and his princess--keeps this ultra-stylish diversion at arm’s length. On Blu-ray, the movie literally blasts off the screen, and for many fans of this type of movie, that will definitely be enough: all others have been warned. Extras include on-set featurettes.

Dolphin Tale
(Warners)
This heartfelt, inspirational story chronicles an injured dolphin’s battle to survive without a tail and the two young children who are there to help. Sentimental and syrupy for sure--but when it’s done so guilelessly, the result is a sweet family film without many annoying diversionary tactics. On Blu-ray, the movie looks best in the many underwater sequences; extras include a deleted scene, gag reel and behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Intruder
(Synapse)
Not all vintage splatter movies are classics: case in point is1989’s Intruder, which is only partly intentionally inept. Despite a willing cast, director Scott Spiegel just doesn’t have fellow director Sam Raimi’s style and pacing, and the movie degenerates into repetitious and boring gore scenes once the killer has established himself in the local grocery store. Even the cheesy special effects aren’t especially memorable. The movie looks as good as it’s going to look on hi-def; extras comprise new cast and crew interviews, screen tests and bonus scenes.

Margin Call
(Lionsgate)
This tense look at the 2008 financial meltdown through the eyes of traders and bosses--all trying to figure out how to weather what they know will be a damaging storm once the bottom drops out--arrives courtesy of debut writer-director J. C. Chandor, who obviously knows the milieu (his dad worked for an investment firm). The characters, from the firm’s CEO to the young trader who deciphers complex numbers to arrive at the foregone (and ominous) conclusion, are enacted with precision and even sympathy by Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, Stanley Tucci and Zachary Quinto. The movie looks sharp on Blu-ray; extras include deleted scenes with commentary, director/producer commentary and on-set featurettes.

Seven Chances
(Kino)
This inspired and classic piece of Buster Keaton lunacy crams more awesome hilarity and stuntwork into 52 minutes than movies twice as long. As always, Keaton builds the rollicking humor to a thrilling crescendo, in this case a most dazzling chase scene as Keaton tries to outrace rolling rocks and boulders in an exciting finale. Another in Kino’s superb series of hi-def Keaton releases, Seven Chances looks clean and spotless; extras include a Three Stooges short based on this movie’s plot, a 1904 short that inspired Keaton’s final chase and a location featurette.

Stars and Stripes Forever
(Fox)
Named after John Philip Sousa’s most famous march--inspired titling, that!--this standard 1952 biopic is a nice if undistinguished overview of the “march king’s” career from his army band to his composing “Stars and Stripes Forever” after the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War. Clifton Webb is a stiff Sousa, but Ruth Hussey (wife), Robert Wagner (protégée) and Debra Paget (protégé’s wife) enliven things a little, as does lots of Sousa’s irresistible music. The restored film has a vibrancy on Blu-ray that helps elevate the lagging dramatics; extras include featurettes on the film and Sousa’s music.

DVDs of the Week
Burke & Hare
(IFC)
John Landis’ first feature since 1998’s double disaster of Susan’s Plan and Blues Brothers 2000 is another crude comic effort that’s doubly disheartening since it’s based on a true story of grave robbers who must keep a fresh supply of cadavers for a dissecting doctor. A top-notch British cast is led by Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Ilsa Fischer and Tom Wilkinson, and an appropriately dark Sweeney Todd mood envelopes the proceedings, but Landis’ farcical instincts fail him: a firmer, subtler guiding hand is needed. Extras include interviews, outtakes and deleted scenes.

The Overcoat
(Raro Video)
Alberto Lattuada’s 1952 adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s short story is one of the underrated Italian director’s best films. Famed for collaborating on Fellini’s debut feature Variety Lights, Lattuada had a sardonic comic sense all his own that’s found in spades in this satire of bureaucracy and fascism centered around a beautifully modulated performance by Renato Rascel as a lowly clerk who longs for a new overcoat…and unfortunately gets what he wished for. The film has gotten a sparkling restoration; extras are commentary by two Italian film historians, an interview with director Angelo Pasquini and deleted scenes.

CD of the Week
Natasha Paremski, Brahms/Kahane/Prokofiev
(Arioso Classics)
This scintillating 25-year-old Russian pianist--who won the 2010 Young Artist of the Year award from the Classical Recording Foundation--daringly pairs three composers on her debut recital disc: Johannes Brahms, Sergei Prokofiev and Gabriel Kahane, whose 2009 Piano Sonata was commissioned for Paremski, who makes short work of its imposing passages. She plays Brahms’ Piano Sonata No. 2 with warmth and sensitivity, and Prokofiev’s technically and emotionally demanding Piano Sonata No. 7 finds her in her element, thrillingly tracking the composer’s unique blend of playfulness and tragedy.

Tough Broads on Film

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Directed by David Fincher

Opened December 20, 2011

The Iron Lady

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd

Opens December 30, 2011 in NYC and LA

Two steely women--one real, one fake--are hitting our holiday screens: Margaret Thatcher, first female prime minister of Great Britain and Lizbeth Salander, computer hacker extraordinaire.

Salander has become one of recent fiction’s most recognizable characters thanks to Stieg Larsson’s trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Interestingly, Dragon Tattoo’s original Swedish title, Men Who Hate Women, shows that Larsson’s interest lay as much in the society that shunned Salander and embraced misogyny as the young woman herself: putting Salander front and center was a shrewd move by the trilogy’s English-language publishers.

The three Swedish films released here last year, which stuck fairly closely to Larsson’s convoluted and coincidence-heavy plots, featured the star-making presence of Noomi Rapace, the Spanish-Swedish actress whose indelible portrayal were the films’ raison d’etre. Rapace’s intensity brought Larsson’s tales of misogynistic murderers into clear focus, especially in her scenes with Michael Nyqvist, who played crusading liberal journalist Mikael Blomkvist, whom Salander teams with professionally and personally.

In the new American remake, written by Steven Zaillian--who unnecessarily changes plot twists without making them any clearer or more plausible--and directed by David Fincher with a slickness missing from Niels Arden Oplev’s grittier original, there’s a problem in the casting. 007’s Daniel Craig is more Bond than Blomkvist, less frumpy than chiseled and less flummoxed than calm; still, he’s a resourceful enough actor to overcome these challenges, and he also finds the dark humor in Blomkvist’s troubles.

Rooney Mara, inexplicably getting raves and Oscar talk, is a pixyish Salander who looks like a teenage boy, one reason why she and Craig completely miss out on the strange sexual connection cemented by Rapace and Nyqvist’s chemistry in the other film. This is particularly surprising because Fincher and Zaillian have played up Salander as a sex object in this version: Salander’s tattoos and piercings are slobbered over, as is Mara’s naked body (the actress has no problem with the ample nudity that most likely scared off better-known American actresses), even in the brutal rape scene that’s the heart of the story and which Fincher shoots for blatant shock value, which betrays Larsson’s meaning.

In an eclectic international cast that finds Europeans, Canadians and Americans playing Swedes with headbutting accents, Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright and Stellan Skarsgard stand out. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s music has sharp-edged moments (notably in the rendition of Led Zep’s “The Immigrant Song” over the opening credits) but too insistently signals oncoming dread, killing its effectiveness. Larsson’s elaborate plotting means that 15-20 minutes of exposition (particularly during Skarsgard’s lengthy explanations to a drugged and beaten Craig) should have been jettisoned.

Despite these missteps, Fincher’s visual imaginativeness--like his gliding, Kubrickian tracking shots that transform frozen wintry landscapes into lifeless yet ghost-ridden settings a la The Shining--coupled with Jeff Cronenweth’s glistening cinematography and Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall’s virtuoso editing make this Tattoo a qualified success.

An unqualified success is Meryl Streep’s tour de force as Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, a Cliff Notes summary of the prime minister’s career as the most polarizing politician of her time. Abi Morgan’s script borrows the central gimmick from A Beautiful Mind--in which another character stands in for its protagonist’s mental illness--to visualize Thatcher’s late-life dementia.

The gimmick works as far as it goes, allowing the filmmakers to move back and forth from Thatcher’s early days as a budding Conservative Party candidate and her heyday as prime minister during an economic crisis and the Falklands War to her late career failure, when she was voted down as the party’s (and nation’s) leader. Lloyd and Morgan juggle these strands with skill and even feeling for their protagonist--who more precisely was an antagonist who presided over the nastiest social program cuts in British history, and whose rah-rah response to the Argentine Falklands invasion preceded Reagan and two Bushes’ patriotic conflicts by several years--but their star gives it forceful, purposeful life.

Although Alexandra Roach is strong as young Margaret and Jim Broadbent brings his immense likeability to Thatcher’s husband Dennis, it’s Streep’s show all the way. Not only does she have Thatcher’s physical attributes down (the slightly open lips, the granite-like stare), but her accent is--at least to these ears--flawless. Even when Streep has the chance to engage in her self-indulgences (utilizing several gestures or eye dartings when one would suffice), she overcomes the urge: the harrowing close-ups, particularly of Thatcher as an elderly woman, who’s beaten down, tired and lonely, give intimate glimpses at the character she’s playing, not simply showing off her formidable technique.

Recently, a DVD set of three BBC films about Thatcher presented a trio of remarkable portrayals from Andrea Riseborough (upstart politician), Patricia Hodge (wartime Maggie) and the incredibly subtle Lindsay Duncan (fall from grace). Although The Iron Lady merely summarizes those three films’ narrative arcs, it grips and grabs us thanks to Streep’s undisputed--and unsurprising--brilliance.

Broadway Musical Roundup: Cloudy Connick & Other Mishaps

Bonnie and Clyde

Starring Laura Osnes, Jeremy Jordan
Book by Ivan Menchell; lyrics by Don Black
Music by Frank Wildhorn; directed by Jeff Calhoun
Previews began November 4, 2011; opened December 1; closes December 30
Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street, New York, NY
bonnieandlcydebroadway.com

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
Starring Harry Connick, Jr., David Turner, Jessie Mueller
Book by Peter Parnell; lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Burton Lane; directed by Michael Mayer
Previews began November 12, 2011; opened December 11
St. James Theatre, 246 West 44th Street, New York, NY
onacleardaybroadway.com

Lysistrata Jones
Starring Patti Murin, Josh Segarra, Jason Tam, Lindsay Nicole Chambers, Liz Mikel
Book by Douglas Carter Beane; music and lyrics by Lewis Flinn
Directed and choreographed by Dan Knetchges
Previews began November 12, 2011; opened December 14
Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 West 48th Street, New York, NY
lysistratajones.com

Any month that begins with the crushingly banal off-Broadway musical Once is already in trouble, but December has further given us a trio of Broadway musicals that have little to recommend them: Bonnie and Clyde has already posted its closing notice, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever dims the wattage of Harry Connick J.’s star power and Lysistrata Jones hopes to attract a younger crowd by dumbing itself down far below anything else around.

Osnes and Jordan in Bonnie and Clyde (photo by Nathan Johnson)
Bonnie and Clyde, a confused mixture of hero worship and tragic romance, is obviously inspired by the 1967 movie, which--thanks to the resourcefulness of director Arthur Penn, screenwriters David Newman and Robert Benton and stars Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway--managed to make murderous criminal behavior simultaneously appealing and appalling. The musical, however, has been brought to turgid life by Ivan Menchell, author of the perfunctory book; Don Black, writer of the sophomoric lyrics; and Frank Wildhorn, whose songs are pale country, gospel and pop imitations.

On a set that looks like the interior of a barn with wooden scrims opening and closing to reveal various action, Bonnie and Clyde is presented as true love, and we are encouraged to feel for these sexy couple of killers when they are riddled with bullets in a police ambush. Jeremy Jordan’s Clyde has a rakish charm, while the Bonnie of Laura Osnes--one of the best young leading ladies in musical theater, as Grease, South Pacific and Anything Goes proved--is even more enthralling, but both performers deserve better than this warmed-over material.

Mueller, Connick in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (photo by Paul Kolnik)
Also deserving better is Harry Connick, Jr., the unfortunate star of the misbegotten revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. In the Broadway original, the redoubtable Barbara Harris played a woman with ESP whose previous lives became the focus of her psychiatrist, who fell in love with her 18th century alter ego.

In this foolishly misguided update, Connick plays that psychiatrist, who instead falls in love with a gay florist's past life: a 40s torch singer. Instead of a tour de force performance for the leading lady--Harris played both roles in the original (as Barbra Streisand did in the 1970 movie)--there are roles for the florist and singer whom Connick’s characters falls for. While it allows for clever touches--a pas de trois in which the trio dances together, the show’s high point--it mostly drags, as no one is allowed any breathing room, glued as they are to the inscrutable plot.

Michael Mayer’s directing misfires as much as the show’s new conception, while Joanna M. Hunter’s drab choreography, Christine Jones’ cookie-cutter sets and Catherine Zuber’s pastel costumes try desperately--and fail--to perk things up. Burton Lane’s music and Alan Jay Lerner’s lyrics--supplemented by songs from their movie musical, Royal Wedding--are tuneful but rarely take flight, and the cast flounders. David Turner’s fey florist has scattered amusing moments and Jessie Mueller’s reincarnated singer has a powerhouse voice but little personality. Connick, stiff and tentative, is supposed to be mourning a dead wife, but instead seems to be regretting his decision to sign on for this train wreck.

The cast of Lysistrata Jones (photo by Joan Marcus)
But this month’s musical nadir is Lysistrata Jones, a juvenile, hopelessly silly updating of Aristophanes’ classic play about the women of Athens who withhold sex from their men until they end their warring ways.

In this unnecessary new version, Athens University cheerleaders decided to “give up giving it up” to the boys on the basketball team until they win a game. What might have worked as a middlingly funny Saturday Night Live skit has been stretched out to a monumentally inconsequential two-plus hours, complete with allusions to Aristophanes’ original and the past 30-plus years of pop culture from Toni Basil’s “Mickey” to Marvin the Martian and Kitty Dukakis to Newt Gingrich, shoehorned in without rhyme or reason.

Douglas Carter Beane’s book is crammed with jokes and puns that are rarely up to the level of his last comic musical, the mediocre Xanadu; this show’s best laugh comes when one of the gals carries a bag from The Ho Depot. Lewis Flinn’s songs nod to pop styles from boy bands like N’Sync to Rent without ever creating a decently hummable tune. The energetic young cast is pretty nondescript, even leading lady Patti Murin, who cannot make Lysistrata anything less than irritating. Where’s Xanadu’s Kerry Butler when you need her?

December '11 Digital Week III

Blu-rays of the Week

City of Life and Death
(Kino Lorber)
Atrocities committed by the Japanese occupiers during 1937’s Rape of Nanking, recreated in director Lu Chuan’s startlingly matter-of-fact docudrama, are given a horrible immediacy. Shot in exquisite black and white--which looks extremely impressive on Blu-ray--the film, which only rarely falls into sentimentality, is a tough, unblinking study of inhumanity…and humanity. The lone extra is The Making of Life and Death, an absorbing, nearly two-hour documentary chronicling how director Lu Chuan created such an emotional experience.

Colin Quinn: Long Story Short
(VSC)
Comic Quinn’s one-man Broadway show is a funny world history overview that, in a mere 75 minutes, chronicles a long line of bad guys from ancient times to Jersey Shore. Slickly directed by Jerry Seinfeld, the performance epitomizes Quinn’s gruff comedic outlook that takes equal shots at Julius Caesar and Snooki, with everyone in between. The hi-def image is sharp; extras include Quinn and Seinfeld’s commentary and a short making-of.

Die Liebe der Danae and
La Traviata (Arthaus Musik)
Two of opera’s most demanding title roles are on display. Verdi’s La Traviata is enacted by the wondrous Swedish soprano Marlis Petersen, who brings appropriate dramatic color to this pinpoint sharp 2011 staging from Graz, Austria. German soprano Manuela Uhl, tackling the torturous title role of Strauss’ Die Liebe der Danae, has a shimmering tone in this fantastical new staging from Berlin. The visuals and audio for both operas are spectacular; each contains a short backstage bonus featurette.

Fright Night
(Dreamworks)
For those for whom the Twilight series is too sappy, this tongue-in-cheek scarefest stars Colin Farrell as the new neighbor next door who happens to be a vampire. It’s as dopey as it sounds, even with some cleverness early as the teens figure out what’s going on while adults stay blissfully ignorant until it’s too late. Still, despite lots of blood and would-be stylishness, the movie has nothing on vintage splatter movies of the late 70s/early 80s. There’s a first-rate Blu-ray image throughout; extras include deleted/extended scenes, bloopers, music video and featurettes.

Meet Me in St. Louis
(Warners)
Judy Garland shines in this timeless tale of family ties, directed by her future husband Vicente Minnelli with a light touch he rarely was capable of. Although considered a holiday film--hence its mid-December Blu-ray release--it takes place during all four seasons; a wonderful song list comprises the title song, “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which has become a seasonal perennial. The original’s dazzling colors have been recaptured on Blu-ray; Warner’s typically stuffed hi-def release features a 40-page book, a CD sampler with Garland’s four soundtrack tunes, Liza Minnelli intro and audio commentary.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins
(Fox)
A mugging Jim Carrey stars in this plodding, occasionally amusing fantasy based on a charming 1938 children’s book about a businessman whose present of six penguins sends his life in an upper-crust Park Avenue apartment into upheaval. The penguins--real but looking digitized--are adorable and there’s nice use of Manhattan locations like Tavern on the Green and Central Park, but too much Carrey cutesiness makes for predictable comedy. The movie looks good in hi-def; extras include an animated short, gag reel, deleted scenes and making-of featurettes.

Portlandia: Season One
(MVD)
Another entry in the “not as clever as it think it is” category, this series shows a bunch of stereotyped green liberals in Portland: too bad creators Fred Armisten and Carrie Brownstein are too wooden to portray so many different characters. There are fun cameos by Aimee Mann, Sarah MacLachlan and Gus van Sant, and there are passing funny glances at tree-huggers but not enough to sustain each episode. The show looks decent on Blu-ray; extras include bloopers, extended/deleted scenes, and Armisten and Brownstein’s commentary.

Rapt and The Robber
(Kino Lorber)
These thrillers come from opposite angles: Lucas Belvaux’s Rapt follows the kidnapping of a Parisian millionaire who must adjust to life after he’s freed, while Benjamin Heisenberg’s The Robber follows a just-released prisoner who returns to bank heists with ultimately tragic results. Both films have moments of excitement, but there are large plot holes, especially in The Robber, where the Viennese police are the most inept organization ever. Both films look terrific on Blu-ray; unfortunately, there are no extras.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
(Fox)
This fancy reboot of the Apes franchise is an unhappy dud, despite earnest performances by James Franco as the human hero and Frieda Pinto as his beautiful sidekick. The problem is that the apes were more real with simple makeup in the original five films: now, even with amazing trickery and wizardly special effects, we get digitized but fake-looking apes, despite Andy Serkis’ effective emoting. The script is ridiculously overwrought, and the digital effects--which this film abounds in--look unreal on Blu-ray, thanks to its improved sharpness and clarity. Extras include director/writers’ audio commentary, 11 deleted scenes and features about the film’s making, effects and music.

The Rocketeer
(Disney)
Joe Johnston’s action-adventure flopped in theaters in 1990, and this 20th anniversary release shows that it has not improved with age. Bill Campbell has zero charisma as the hero, Jennifer Connelly is merely a gorgeous decoration, the insipid story involves Nazis amongst Hollywood’s elite, and the jet-pack effects are not much to write home about. The movie looks a little too soft on Blu-ray; interestingly--and unfortunately--there are no extras on what should have been a special edition.

The Simpsons: Season 14
(Fox)
The 22 episodes from the 2002-3 season are an incredibly uneven lot, starting with the annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode, which careens wildly from black-comic hilarity to wincingly awful jokes. There’s the usual plethora of guest voices, too (including musicians Tom Petty, Tony Bennett, Blink 182 and even Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), which always helps. The show looks far better on Blu-ray than it does in syndicated reruns, of course; the creators’ commentary on each episode is a must-listen, and other extras include 300th episode featurette, Matt Groening intro, deleted scenes and bonus “Treehouse” episodes.

Tanner Hall
(Anchor Bay)
This is an ungainly, sometimes unpleasant hybrid of school-shenanigan comedy and coming-of-age tale that’s neither fish nor fowl--it tries to be farcical, then gently satirical, then serious, and ends up being not much of anything. A decent cast is highlighted by Amy Sedaris’ too-brief appearance. The movie looks OK on Blu-ray; the lone extra is a commentary by writers-directors Francesca Gregorini and Tatiana von Furstenberg..

DVDs of the Week
The Black Power Mix Tape 1967-1975
(IFC)
This fascinating compendium of footage shot by Swedish television journalist crews during the Black Power movement of the late 60s/early 70s has been meticulously constructed by writer-director Goran Hugo Olsson, displaying a powerful dramatic and narrative arc that references many of the era’s famous events, from Martin Luther King’s murder to the Attica prison riots. The valuable testimonies of people from Stokely Carmichael to Angela Davis are included in this historically important document; extras include interviews with Davis, Shirley Chisholm and others, and featurettes.

Daddy Longlegs
(Zeitgeist)
This alternately fascinating and stultifying study of a divorced dad with two young boys whose staggering immaturity is supposedly mitigated by his unique way of looking at the world has moments of insight, but not enough to watch him for 95 minutes. Ronald Bronstein is excellent as the father, but after awhile he begins to feel inauthentic, despite the fact that he’s based on writers-directors Josh and Benny Safdie’s own dad. Extras include deleted scenes, a making-of featurette and a rehearsal test film.

Steve Jobs: One Last Thing
(PBS)
This 60-minute PBS special about the late Apple founder takes the measure of the man as a visionary, colleague and competitor, not skimping on his less attractive side, such as his feud with Bill Gates (who comes off fairly well here) and petty egotism when it came to movie studio Pixar’s success. But there is also a sense of admiration and awe for Jobs, who transformed the computer age into familiar and useable for everyone, for better or worse. It would have interesting to hear more about his indebtedness to the Beatles beyond simply him quoting a McCartney lyric while sharing a stage with Gates, though.

CDs of the Week
Diana Damrau, Liszt Songs and
Veronique Gens, Tragediennes 3
(Virgin Classics)
These tremendous singers give impressive vocal performances: German soprano Damrau sings German and Italian songs of Franz Liszt with expressiveness and intelligence, while French soprano Gens--on her third disc of tragic opera heroines--skillfully uses her dramatic range in excerpts from French operas from the 18th century (Mehul, Gluck) and 19th century (Berlioz, Meyerbeer), with some rarities thrown in for good measure, like Saint-Saens’ Henry VIII and Verdi’s French-language version of Don Carlos.

Rautavaara, Music for Children’s Choir
(Ondine)
One of the two great living Finnish composers--Aulis Sallinen is the other--Einojuhani Rautavaara has written substantive works in genres ranging from opera to chamber music, so that it’s no surprise that he’s also a master at works for children’s choir as well. Included in this superb release are an imposing one-act opera, Marjatta, The Lowly Maiden; an electrifying Children’s Mass; and several shorter but far from shallow pieces like Suite de Lorca, based on texts by Garcia Lorca. Singing beautifully throughout is the Tapiola Choir, accompanied by conductor Pasi Hyokki and the Tapiola Youth Symphony Orchestra in the Mass.