October '25 Digital Week II

4K/UHD Releases of the Week 

F1—the Movie 

(Warner Bros)

Brad Pitt’s laconic charm is on display throughout this overlong commercial for Formula 1 racing: for two and a half hours, director Joseph Kosinski takes us on a relentlessly formulaic journey through several races, each of which writer Ehren Kruger tries his damnedest to make singular rather than repetitive. Kosinski and Kruger fail, for the most part, while the off-track scenes of Pitt as retired daredevil driver Sonny (who comes out of retirement), Damson Idris as young hotshot driver Joshua, Javier Bardem as team owner Ruben (who talks Sonny into returning) and Kerry Condon as Kate, the brains of the outfit (who—of course—falls for Sonny against her better judgment) are pretty ordinary. It’s shot and paced efficiently and slickly, and if you’re a fan of cars flying around a track at 200 miles an hour, then your—um—mileage may vary. The film has a sharply detailed 4K transfer; extras comprise several making-of featurettes.

Message in a Bottle 

(Mercury Studios)

Set to 27 Police and solo songs by Sting, this story of the global refugee crisis is told through the mesmerizing movement of Kate Prince’s dance company, ZooNation—and, as jukebox shows go, it’s closer to Twyla Tharp’s take on Billy Joel’s catalog, Movin’ Out, than to the Abba megahit, Mamma Mia. Prince and dramaturg Lolita Chakrabarti have fashioned a narrative of sorts from which to hang Sting’s words and music, which have mostly been extensively rearranged and rerecorded. Whatever one thinks of how Prince and music supervisor and arranger Alex Lacamoire manipulate Sting’s tunes to fit the contrived narrative—sometimes a disservice to the songs, other times a disservice to the story—the dancing of Prince’s company, which specializes in effortlessly combining contemporary and hip-hop styles, is breathtaking. The UHD video and surround-sound audio are tremendous; also included is a Blu-ray of the performance. 

A Nightmare on Elm Street—7-Film Collection 

(Warner Bros)

Wes Craven’s 1983 horror entry has gained stature over the past four decades despite being simply a crudely effective horror film about a teenage girl’s nightmares getting intruded on by the now-legendary Freddy Krueger, who enters the real world and starts a killing spree. No one expected six sequels and spinoffs over the next 11 years, but that is what we got—most are even more forgettable, but each has its moments of dream-like lunacy, whether it’s the cleverly bizarre murders or the sixth installment’s desperate use of 3-D for the finale (yes, 3-D glasses are included in this set). All seven films have an impressive hi-def look; the many extras include commentaries, interviews, featurettes, music videos and alternate endings.

In-Theater Release of the Week

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 

(Icarus Films/Film Forum)

From the director of 2011’s The Black Power Mixtape, Sweden’s Göran Hugo Olsson, comes another imposingly thorough archival collage that, if nothing else, becomes a valuable historical document of the Israel-Palestine conflict through the unique lens of Swedish journalists in the region. Olsson has assembled footage, shown in this 3-1/2 hour film in mostly chronological order, from Sweden’s state television network SVT’s wide-ranging coverage of the always charged relationship between Israelis and Palestinians that display both the misunderstandings and missteps that have trailed that region and its people for so long. Whether Olsson agrees with what is being presented and how is not the focus; there is no editorializing (which some might perceive as a copout). Instead, it’s an absorbing chronicle of what viewers in Sweden saw on their TV sets over a period of three decades from a network whose stated mission was impartiality in news coverage. It’s a long way from “We report. You decide.”

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

The Bad Guys 2 

(Universal)

This intermittently amusing sequel to the hit 2022 animated adventure again follows a squad of reformed crooks (Wolf, Shark, Piranha, Tarantula and Snake) who have further misadventures. Director Pierre Perifel hits on some colorful visual inventiveness that mirrors the first film while Yoni Brenner and Etan Cohen’s script has ricocheting one-liners that at times hit their intended targets. What propels it all is the exuberant voice cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Anthony Ramos, Craig Robinson and Awkwafina as the bad guys and Zazie Beetz, Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne and Maria Bakalova as the bad girls. There’s a bright Blu-ray image; extras include a new short, Little Lies and Alibis; deleted scenes; making-of featurettes and interviews.

Peter Gabriel—Taking the Pulse 

(Mercury Studios)

In 2010, Peter Gabriel released an album, Scratch My Back, his cover versions of favorite songs with orchestral accompaniment—on the ensuing tour (which I saw at Radio City Music Hall), Gabriel played those covers as well as his own songs performed with the New Blood Orchestra. This concert from that tour, filmed in Verona, Italy, at the venerable outdoor amphitheater Arena di Verona, comprises only Gabriel’s songs and is all the better for it. Hearing classics “San Jacinto,” “Red Rain” and “Darkness” backed by the power of a full orchestra (led by conductor Ben Foster) is a rare privilege. The highlights are “Blood of Eden” and “Don’t Give Up,” duets with vocalist Ane Brun, who impressively takes the Sinead O’Connor and Kate Bush parts. The hi-def video looks fine, and the surround-sound audio is fantastic.

When Fall Is Coming 

(Music Box Films)

Prolific French director François Ozon’s latest follows the travails of retired grandmother Michelle, who’s been banned from seeing her grandson Lucas after he has an accident while visiting her rural home—but when her daughter Valérie is suddenly gone from the picture, she must deal with that unexpected absence from their lives. There’s a welcome matter-of-factness to Ozon’s storytelling, but it’s too one-note when a fateful twist upends everyone and everything. On the positive side, Ozon gets uncluttered performances from his cast, led by Hélène Vincent (Michelle), Ludivine Seignier (Valérie) and Josiane Balasko (Michelle’s friend and neighbor Marie-Claude).

DVD Release of the Week

Peanuts—Ultimate TV Specials Collection 

(Warner Bros)

What better way to celebrate the immortal Charlie Brown and his pals and commemorate their creator Charles Schulz’s genius than with this comprehensive collection of 40 Peanuts television specials, from A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)—still the greatest animated TV special of them all—to the most recent, Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown (2011). If you have other favorites, they’re probably here, like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973); along with all 40 specials on five discs, there’s also a collectible 28-page booklet.

CD Release of the Week 

Walton/Britten/Tippett—Works for Piano and Orchestra 

(BIS)

Vibrant works for piano and orchestra by three prominent 20th-century British composers make up this luminous-sounding disc with the exceptional pianist Clare Hammond as soloist. First is William Walton’s Sinfonia Concertante, a sprightly 1927 work that Walton revised in 1943; Hammond beautifully performs the revision, which makes clear this is less a concerto than a symphonic work with a prominent piano part. Benjamin Britten’s 1940 Diversions was originally written for piano left-hand for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I. Hammond and the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by George Bass get the tricky balance between the soloist and the orchestral players exactly right. Finally, there’s Michael Tippett’s 1953 concerto, one of the composer’s most exuberant works: again Hammond and the orchestra perform with passion, alternating between power and finesse throughout.

September '25 Digital Week II

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Bang Bang 

(Vertigo Releasing)

Tim Blake Nelson’s ferocious portrayal of Bernard “Bang Bang” Rozyski, a washed-up boxer beset by personal foibles and tragedies—his twin brother was brain-damaged after a fight years ago—who has redemption and revenge on his mind in director Vincent Grashaw and writer Will Janowitz’s gritty but ragged character study. Although the relationships (with his daughter, grandson, etc.) don’t always parse plausibly, the acting of Nelson, Nina Arianda (estranged daughter Jen), Andrew Liner (teenage grandson Justin), Glenn Plummer (former ring foe turned politician Darnell) and others is compelling enough to keep one watching.

Dreams 

(Strand Releasing)

The other films in director-writer Dag Johan Haugerud’s trilogy about nontraditional sexual relationships were better in theory than execution, but this final entry is an intelligent depiction of the confusion of high school student Johanne, whose crush on Johanna, her French teacher, is the trigger for a knotty study of morality and agency when Johanne writes a book about en evening in Joahanna’s apartment when Johanne was a minor. Unlike Sex and Love, Dreams has an urgency thanks to a  lively script that’s populated by authentically believable people like Johanne (Ella Øverbye), her mother Kristin (Ane Dahl Torp) and grandmother Karin (Anne Marit Jacobsen) as well as Johanna (Selome Emnetu), who is given space to breathe as an individual. The exemplary acting is led by Øverbye, whose Johanne is wondrously alive and complex.

Naked Ambition 

(Music Box Films)

She looked like a pinup (and was, actually, winning several beauty pageants), but photographer Bunny Yeager had a fascinating career arc that is only touched upon by Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch’s documentary, which dutifully follows her pathbreaking trajectory amid interviews with friends, family members and colleagues alongside copious archival footage and, of course, photographs. At a fleet 73 minutes, the portrait seems more superficial than it should—after all, Yeager made Bettie Page famous in the ‘50s with her nude photographs of her for Playboy—but if you don’t know Yeager’s story, then this is a decent primer.

Triumph of the Heart 

(Outsider Pictures)

The tragic true story of Maximillian Kolbe, a Polish Catholic priest whom the Nazis put in Auschwitz, where he tended to his fellow prisoners’ spiritual needs before taking the place of another who was sentenced to the gas chamber, was the basis of a shattering 1991 dramatization by the great Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, Life for Life. In this new biopic by writer-director Anthony D’Ambrosio, the sad but uplifting story is retold effectively, although the director’s wallowing in the camp misery mutes some of the power of the martyred Kolbe’s story. (The priest was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982). Still, this story needs telling, and with the inexplicable unavailability of the Zanussi film, D’Ambrosio’s version is an adequate replacement.

Streaming Release of the Week 

Hidden Face 

(Well Go USA)

In this fervid remake of a sordid 2011 thriller by Colombian director Andrés Baiz, the lives of three people—a charismatic young conductor; his wife, the orchestra’s cellist, who goes missing; and a younger woman, who soon takes her spot in the orchestra and the conductor’s bed—are tracked by writer-director Kim Dae-woo. Unfortunately, after an hour confidently setting up the various relationships and the characters’ secrets, he lets the second hour badly get away from him, as the plotting gets more cartoonish. Still, the strong acting from the central trio and an erotic atmosphere keep this watchable right up until the doozy of a denouement. 

DVD Release of the Week

Spenser: For Hire—The Complete Series 

(Warner Bros)

This popular nighttime drama was centered on crime novelist Robert B. Parker’s iconic renegade detective, the mononymously named Spenser, and followed Robert Urich’s earlier television hits—SWAT and Vegas—to last three seasons (1985-87) on ABC. Urich’s charismatic presence was perfect for this Boston-based private detective who marched to his own drum. Alongside Urich and the Beantown setting, the series’ 65 episodes also included a terrific supporting cast led by Avery Brooks, Ron McLarty, Richard Jaeckel, Barbara Stock, and Carolyn McCormick.

CD Release of the Week 

Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady

(Chandos)

One of the all-time classic musicals, My Fair Lady set Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion—a still-relevant exploration of class and gender differences—to equally memorable music, as Lerner and Loewe’s sharp and witty songs bump up against Shaw’s brilliant characters, the low-class Eliza Doolittle and the arrogant Professor Henry Higgins, whose showdown is hilarious, dramatic and thrilling. In this excellent recording—the latest in Chandos’ traversal of legendary Broadway musicals—Scarlett Strallen makes a feisty, powerhouse-voiced Eliza, and she’s matched perfectly by Jamie Parker’s droll Higgins. Eliza’s transformation from guttersnipe to princess is handled beautifully by Strallen, and the sumptuous music is given a wonderful spin by the Sinfonia of London under the sure baton of conductor John Wilson.

June '25 Digital Week I

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Ghost Trail 

(Music Box Films)

French writer-director Jonathan Millet makes his feature debut with this tense, intelligent slow-burn thriller about a Syrian refugee in France who one day notices a man who looks like the person who tortured him in the infamous Sednaya Prison in Damascus. Hamid (a remarkable portrayal by Adam Messa) works as a construction worker in Strasbourg, but once he sees his adversary, he is obsessed with plans for revenge—how that plays out, and how it affects his life and those around him, is dramatized with finesse by Millet, who demonstrates his sympathy for migrants and others marginalized by society without becoming strident.

Ron Delsener Presents 

(Abramorama)

Anyone who went to rock concerts in the New York City area since the late ’60s has probably noticed “Ron Delsener Presents” on the ticket—and this entertaining documentary, directed by Sting’s son Jake Sumner follows Delsener’s storied career as a concert promoter, from his early days working on the Beatles’ 1964 appearance in Forest Hills, through concerts at the Fillmore and the Palladium until today: he was 85 and still going strong when this was filmed a few years ago, attending shows and keeping up with whatever he could. Sumner not only speaks with Delsener, his wife and children—and shows copious archival footage from many iconic concerts—but also colleagues and an array of stars who touchingly remember his guiding hand, from Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel to Patti Smith and Paul Simon.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII 

(Sony Music)

Pink Floyd’s 1972 performance at the ancient Roman amphitheater in Pompeii (sans audience) is folded into Adrian Maben’s documentary that’s an artifact of its time, with the Pompeii concert footage supplemented by interviews with Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright as well as glimpses of them at Abbey Road recording Dark Side of the Moon. There’s a surfeit of crude, cliched visuals (split screens, front projection, superimposition, slow-motion) that haven’t aged well—but the film anticipates the MTV video era and remains an eye- (and ear-) opening document of the band right before becoming rock royalty. The Blu-ray release includes the 85-minute film and the 62-minute concert separately; the hi-def video looks good and the superb audio remixed by Steven Wilson is available in Dolby Stereo, 5.1 TrueHD Surround and ATMOS.

Ann Wilson and Tripsitter—Live in Concert 

(Mercury/Universal)

In this 2023 concert, Heart lead vocalist Ann Wilson leads her solo band Tripsitter—with which she released an album, Another Door—through a deftly-balanced set of solo songs, well-chosen covers and classic Heart tunes, including the vigorous opener, “Crazy on You,” the band’s first hit. The 16-song set shows that Wilson, even in her mid ’70s, still sings impressively and with little vocal strain. Heart’s brooding, mystical “Mistral Wind” and John Lennon’s biting “Isolation” let her alternate between lung-shredding power and exquisite delicacy. Of course, Led Zeppelin, one of Ann and Nancy Wilson’s biggest influences, is never far away: Ann pairs the Heart hit “Alone” with “Going to California,” while a powerhouse “Immigrant Song” is Ann at her vocal best. The hi-def video and the audio are excellent, although only a stereo mix is included.

Prokofiev—War and Peace 

(Bayerische Staatsoper)

Sergei Prokofiev’s operatic masterpiece distills the essence of Leo Tolstoy’s massive novel about the 1812 war between Napoleon and Russia into an expressive, emotional 3-1/2-hour music drama. Director and set designer of this 2023 Munich production, Dmitri Tcherniakov, nods to the present conflict between invading Russian forces and defending Ukrainian patriots, but that layer doesn’t detract from the powerful musical storytelling at the heart of Prokofiev’s work. Vladimir Jurowski deftly conducts the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and choruses, while the lead roles of Prince Andrei, Natasha and Pierre are strongly embodied by Andrei Zhilikhovsky, Olga Kulchynska and Arsen Soghomonyan. There’s first-rate hi-def video and audio; extras are an interview with Tcherniakov and Jurowski as well as a short featurette.

DVD Release of the Week

The Drew Carey Show—The Complete Series 

(Warner Bros)

Standup comic Drew Carey’s eponymous sitcom ran for nine seasons, from 1995 to 2004, giving audiences an alternative version of his real-life persona as an everyman working a menial job in middle America (in this case, Cleveland). Carey and the large cast—including Christa Miller, Kathy Kinney, Craig Ferguson and Ryan Stiles—project a warm appeal that underlines the mild jokes audiences could identify with. All 200-plus episodes are included (excepting four “special” episodes), with some music cues different from the original broadcasts; lone extra is the featurette Life Inside the Cubicle.

October '24 Digital Week III

In-Theater Release of the Week 

Conclave 

(Focus Features)

Based on Robert Harris’ page-turning thriller about the political and moral machinations among a group of cardinals coming together to elect a new pope after the incumbent dies mysteriously, Edward Berger’s adaptation is hampered by its structure—lots of voting and arguing in the Sistine Chapel or the cardinals’ private rooms for much of its two-hour length—but Harris’ wit and ability to enliven routine situations is much in evidence. It helps, of course, when there’s a starry cast like this one: Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, and Stanley Tucci have enormous fun playing various liberal or conservative, pious or impious cardinals—it’s too bad Isabella Rossellini can’t do much with the lone female speaking role. Berger directs a little too close to the vest; a less literal director might have made this cracklingly good, not merely diverting. 

4K/UHD Releases of the Week

Cheeky 

(Cult Epics)

The latest UHD rescue of Italian director Tinto Brass’ not-quite-hardcore but titillating sex comedies is his 2000 entry, rating among Brass’ most enjoyable, again relying on a lovely young lass with refreshing screen presence to shoulder the load, so to speak. He came up aces with Yuliya Mayarchuk, a Ukrainian model-actress who plays the uninhibited Carla, who’s trying to placate her jealous boyfriend about her many sexual adventures; although Brass pours on the heavyhanded sexual symbolism, whenever Mayarchuk is onscreen—either clothed or (most often) nude—her natural freshness is impossible to ignore. There’s a first-rate UHD transfer; a Blu-ray disc also includes the film, the lone 4K extra is a commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Nathaniel Thompson, while the Blu-ray extras are the commentary, new interview with cinematographer Massimo Di Venanzo, isolated score by Pino Donaggio, and Backstage with Tinto Brass (2000).

Twisters 

(Universal)

The original Twister was a silly but watchable disaster thriller that made tons of money—so it’s surprising that it took nearly three decades to come up with a sequel, which is basically the same story: tornado chasers vs. Mother Nature, with nature winning most of the time. Director Lee Isaac Chung follows the original’s Jan de Bont by combining lousy dialogue, cardboard characters and truly impressive—if overdone—special effects. Of course, technology has improved since 1996, so these killer tornados are even more startling, but the acting of Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos can be charitably called competent. On UHD, the detailed images are quite eye-popping; extras include deleted scenes, gag reel, several featurettes and Chung’s commentary.

Streaming Release of the Week

Taboo—Family Secrets 

(Breaking Glass Pictures)

Deborah Twiss wrote and directed this attempt at eroticism as stepmom Amanda and grown stepson Tyler can’t keep their hands off each other, all while her husband/his father Lukas has no interest in her and his younger sister Jillie (whom Amanda also raised) can spot their frolicking a mile away. Twiss herself is a quite winning Amanda, but she saddled herself with a mediocre script, her own routine direction and a trio of inadequate performances by her costars, adding up to less than the sum of its parts. 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

About Dry Grasses 

(Janus Contemporaries)

The monumental films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan—lengthy (often clocking in at over three hours) and verbose (consisting almost entirely of long conversations)—are serious, absorbing explorations of the human condition. His humane new film, novelistic in scope, centers on Samet (played with credible weariness by Deniz Celiloğlu), an art teacher at a small village elementary school hoping to land a better job in Istanbul; he and another teacher are accused of inappropriate behavior by two female students, including one Samet thought of as a protégé. Ceylan and cinematographers Kürşat Üresin and Cevahir Şahin work marvels with expansive wintry exteriors and cramped interiors—when the film switches to spring at the end of the school year, the colors burst into vivid life as Samet ties up loose ends before leaving for the city, including a tentative truce with his accuser, who seems more mature in their final encounter than she was earlier. A transcendent image of the girl’s dark eyes staring into the camera, her hair dusted with snowflakes is a distillation of this remarkable film—deeply mysterious and ambiguous but exquisitely human. The Blu-ray image looks tremendously detailed; lone extra is a Ceylan interview.

Exhuma 

(Well Go USA)

Writer-director Jang Jae-hyun’s unnerving horror film is a strangely compelling ghost story of a reawakened family curse that involves grave digging and exorcisms. Although it’s way too long at 135 minutes—after the 90-minute mark, the repetition starts to become damaging to the plot—it’s been made with assurance and style, and it’s acted most convincingly by a large cast; it’s not surprising that this culturally-specific feature became one of the biggest box-office hits in South Korean film history. The hi-def transfer is transfixing; lone extra is a making-of featurette.

Pandora’s Box 

(Criterion)

Louise Brooks became a legend of the silver screen in a trio of films, Miss Europe (1930), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) and Pandora’s Box (1928), the latter two by German director G.W. Pabst, who knew how to utilize Brooks’ unique Americanness—here, she plays Lulu, who leads men to their ruin before she faces her own moral and mortal downfall. Pabst wisely keeps the focus on his actress, who is irresistible to the camera, which is what keeps this moralizing drama relevant. Criterion’s Blu-ray includes a vastly improved restored transfer and several extras: four musical scores, by Gillian Anderson, Dimitar Pentchev, Peer Raben, and Stéphan Oliva; commentary by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane; Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu, a 1998 documentary by Hugh Munro Neely; Lulu in Berlin, a rare 1971 interview with actor Louise Brooks, by Richard Leacock and Susan Steinberg Woll; and interviews with Leacock and Michael Pabst, the director’s son.

Veep—Complete Series 

(Warner Bros/HBO)

Although Julia Louis-Dreyfus won several Emmy awards for best actress in a comedy series as Selina Meyer, the VP who becomes president over the course of the show’s seven seasons, she always was the weakest link of a sublime comedic cast who propped her up: everyone from Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky and Reid Scott to Matt Walsh, Timothy Simons and Gary Cole are true perfection. Created by Armando Iannucci, Veep has the same flavor of rancid ineptitude in our political systems as his brilliant British series The Thick of It All and the priceless film satires In the Loop and The Death of Stalin, but Veep spun its wheels too often and limped to the finish line. The show’s 65 episodes look pristine on Blu; extras include several featurettes and interviews.

DVD Release of the Week 

The Gilded Age—Complete 2nd Season 

(Warner Bros/HBO)

The second season of Julian Fellowes’ series about haves and have-nots in late 19th century Manhattan pretty much follows the script of the first, with the privileged upper crust trying to fend off a “take over” by upstart Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), whose husband George (Morgan Spector) is among the city’s newly minted robber barons. This season’s 10 episodes are again dominated by alluring costumes and sets, and only Christine Baranaki, as the sarcastic Agnes, ultimate defender of the status quo, transcends by-the-numbers plotting and characterizations. Too bad that several able New York theater performers—in addition to Coon and Spector, there’s Debra Monk, Cynthia Nixon, Michael Cerveris, Donna Murphy, Kristine Nielsen and Kelli O’Hara—are underwhelming. Extras are on-set featurettes and interviews.

CD Release of the Week

Schnittke—Film Music, Vol. 6: Little Tragedies 

(Capriccio)

Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-98) was as eclectic as they come—he called it polystylism—and the latest release in Capriccio’s valuable series of his film scores shows his wide-ranging musical interests in spades. For Mikhail Schweitzer’s multipart television miniseries Little Tragedies (1979), based on tragic works by the beloved Russian writer Alexander Pushkin, Schnittke wrote music of varied, and expert, mimicry—from polkas to waltzes to Mozart. These short pieces probably work more effectively alongside the series' episodes (although Jurowski has also recorded music that Schweitzer didn’t use); throughout, Schnittke is never less than original, even in his homages. This superb recording by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Vladimir Jurowski includes vocal soloists Svetlana Mamresheva and Martha Jurowski in heartfelt songs from The Stone Guest and A Feast in Time of Plague, respectively, while piano soloist Elisaveta Blumina shines in numbers from Mozart and Salieri that allude to both of these composers. 

October '24 Digital Week II

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week 

The Apprentice 

(Briarcliff Entertainment)

If you’re expecting this to be a risible takedown of Donald Trump—after all, the poster tagline is “An American Horror Story”—think again: director Ali Abbasi and writer Gabriel Sherman have, with some success, made an amusingly and terrifyingly entertaining ride through the beginnings of Trump World, when Donald hitched his wagon to the revolting Roy Cohn, eventually outfoxing the master himself. There’s an authentic ’70s “NYC is dying” vibe whenever the material degenerates to mere melodrama or rom-com parody, but front and center are three on-target performances. Maria Bakalova is a razor-sharp Ivana, Sebastian Stan a surprisingly sympathetic Donald and Jeremy Strong an outsized, wonderfully villainous Cohn.

Omni Loop 

(Magnolia)

Mary-Louise Parker is her usual delightful self in this otherwise aggressively dull sci-fi fantasy by writer-director Bernardo Britto, who steals brazenly from Groundhog Day to create a silly story of a dying scientist with a black hole in her chest who hopes that time travel with cure her. (No—seriously.) Parker and Ayo Edebiri (who’s so good in The Bear) have terrific chemistry, and Harris Yulin contributes a fun bit as an ornery old professor, but the movie spins its wheels in a desperate attempt to find Meaning, when simply lowercase coherence would be enough.

4K/UHD Release of the Week 

A Nightmare on Elm Street 

(Warner Bros)

Wes Craven’s 1983 horror entry has gained stature over the past four decades despite being mainly a crudely effective horror film about a teenage girl’s nightmares getting intruded on by the now-legendary Freddy Krueger, who enters the real world and starts a killing spree. Craven directs with a sledgehammer, but it works for the most part, particularly the ending, which makes up for many other shortcomings (mainly the script and acting). Both the theatrical and uncut versions look excellent in UHD; extras are two commentaries, interviews, three featurettes and alternate endings.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Maxxxine 

(Lionsgate)

Writer-director Ti West and actress Mia Goth reunite for another go-round, this time following porn actress Maxine (from their 2022 collaboration X) looking for legitimate stardom as the lead in a Hollywood horror flick, circa 1985. There’s an intriguing if contrived premise here, yet the problem is that West and Goth are so busy trying to evoke a specific era that there’s rarely room for anything original—it’s a jumble of nods to VCRs, pornos and slasher flicks, with amusing overacting by Kevin Bacon, Michelle Monaghan, Lily Collins, Elizabeth Debicki and Goth herself. There’s a fine hi-def transfer; extras include three featurettes and a West Q&A.

Meeting the Beatles in India 

(Unobstructed View)

Canadian director Paul Saltzman retraces his steps back to 1968 India, when he there at the same time as the Beatles during their legendary stay with the Maharishi—he took a series of intimate photographs of them that were forgotten for decades until his daughter discovered them, leading to this documentary about the importance of that earthshaking visit musically and in the world of meditation. Saltzman interviews several individuals related to India (Patti Boyd) or meditation (David Lynch), and it comes across as self-indulgent, real Beatles fanatics (like me) will eat it up. The film looks quite good in hi-def; extras include nearly an hour of extra footage. 

The West Wing—Complete Series 

(Warner Bros)

When Aaron Sorkin was on, there was no better dialogue writer in TV, the movies and theater in the 1990s (remembering that his breakthrough play, A Few Good Men, opened on Broadway in 1989), as the first four seasons of this beloved series about a liberal White House filled with progressive idealism demonstrates. Sorkin left after the fourth season, and the final three seasons get less interesting, even if Sorkin’s sanctimony is toned down—luckily, the complete series set has been packaged so that Sorkin’s seasons and the other three are in separate boxes. The buzzy cast is led by Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford and Rob Lowe. The series, whose 154 episodes are included on 28 discs, looks good in hi-def; extras include interviews, deleted scenes, making-of featurettes and commentaries.

Blu-ray/CD Release of the Week 

Def Leppard—One Night Only: Live at the Leadmill 

(Mercury Studios)

British rockers Def Leppard return to their stomping grounds for a 2023 benefit concert at the Leadmill nightclub in Sheffield, where they began more than 45 years earlier, for a raucous hour-plus set surprisingly heavy on earlier tunes—especially from their 1981 release High ’n’ Dry—alongside their anthemic MTV-era hits. This version of the band still has four members from its late-’80s heyday, led by vocalist Joe Elliott, still in fine voice; vets Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen make up the blistering two-guitar attack. Best songs of the night are the pair of slow burners, “Too Late for Love” and “Bringing on the Heartbreak.” The entire concert is included on CD as well; the hi-def video and audio are topnotch.

DVD Release of the Week

Curb Your Enthusiasm—Complete Series 

(Warner Bros/HBO)

After 12 seasons over a quarter-century, Larry David’s irascible alter ego finally rode off into the sunset, always getting into as much trouble as he possibly can—nearly always self-inflicted, of course, but David was always self-aware enough not to care. For me, at least, a little of David’s clever but narrow observational comedy goes a long way, so most viewers’ comic mileage will obviously vary widely. Still, there are many priceless moments throughout: the ultimate highlight for me will always be the first episode of the penultimate season 11, when Larry ruins Albert Brooks’ “living funeral” by discovering that Brooks has been (oh horror of horrors!) an unrepentant COVID hoarder of hand sanitizer and toilet paper. The 24-disc set includes all 120 episodes; the many extras include a gag reel, interviews and featurettes.

CD Releases of the Week 

Braunfels—Jeanne d’Arc: Scenes from the Life of Saint Joan 

(Capriccio)

German composer Walter Braunfels (1882-1954) is best known for his playful opera The Birds (1913-19), based on ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes’ play—along with other music by the half-Jewish Braunfels, it caused enough of a stir that the Nazis banned it. This opera, composed in 1938-43, is an often gripping account of Joan of Arc: war hero, convicted heretic burned at the stake, and eventual Roman Catholic saint. The most memorable writing is for the chorus, especially in the final scenes of Joan’s death, while other sequences of Joan with the men she leads to battle and those who condemn her for heresy, are intelligently but conventionally written. This excellent recording is from a 2013 Salzburg production, with Juliane Banse as a strong Joan, the Salzburg Bach Chorus is in impressive form and Manfred Honeck conducts the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in a fine reading of Braunfels’ serious, sober score.

Woolf/Vavrek—Jacqueline 

(Pentatone)

British cellist Jacqueline du Pre was legendary for her intensely emotional performances until multiple sclerosis cut her down in her prime—she died at age 42, in 1987. In Canadian-American composer Luna Pearl Woolf’s 2020 chamber opera, du Pre is represented by two performers, a soprano and a cellist, both embodying fractured aspects of Jacqueline’s life and artistry in an effective conceit captured by Royce Vavrek’s libretto. In this captivating recording, soprano Marnie Breckenridge sings with honesty and intimacy, while Matt Haimovitz’s cello equals her in musical strength, making for quite a powerful duet. The main problem is that an audio recording presents only half the opera, as it were; video would allow us to see as well as hear the fascinating intertwining of singer and musician.

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.