Streaming/In-Theater Releases of the Week

In writer-director Marco Perego’s sketchy melodrama, Shipp, a rookie border agent with a conscience, must deal with the cynical Dobbins for a partner; a girlfriend, Yadira, who may be undocumented; and an undocumented Mexican woman, Esmee, who is trying to protect a young child. Perego tries to be even-handed in his study of these flawed characters, but his vision is no deeper than that of a driver looking through his windshield in the pouring rain without wipers on.

 

 

The director’s wife, Zoe Saldaña, gives a committed performance as Esmee, Grant Hedlund is a persuasive Shipp and Adria Arjona is an impassioned Yadira, but they are performing in a vacuum, since the film is so thin dramatically and politically that it suggests a first draft.

 

 

 

Blackout 

If you haven’t had your fill of werewolf movies yet, along comes writer-director Larry Fessenden with his typically astringent take on the nocturnal creature feature, as an artist in a small town thinks that he may be the one who is behind several recent overnight maulings.

 

 

Fessenden keeps a sense of humor about his material, along with a smattering of social commentary, but there’s little here that we haven’t seen before—An American Werewolf in London anticipated the jokey but gory genre more than 40 years ago—yet it does have its occasional successfully tense moments.

 

 

 

Food, Inc. 2 

In 2008’s Food, Inc., director Robert Kenner teamed up with investigative authors Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser to tell a cautionary tale of how Big Agriculture has made it nearly impossible to eat healthfully. Nearly two decades later, the sequel has arrived to tell an even more alarmist story that encompasses the disasters of the recent pandemic, notably that Big Ag corporations carved out exceptions to the many COVID restrictions to keep their factories going—at the cost of sick workers, among other things.

 

 

As Kenner, codirector Melissa Robledo, Pollan and Schlosser show, this is not a left-right issue, but one that affects all of us, and they allow several individuals (including U.S. senator Cory Booker) to discuss new and innovative ways of food production that might lead toward more food sustainability.

 

 

 

Irena’s Vow 

The astonishing true story of Irena Gut Opdyke, a Polish Catholic nurse who was able to hide 13 Jews in the house of a prominent Nazi for whom she worked, is vividly dramatized in Louise Archambault’s feature from a script by Dan Gordon, based on his own play that played briefly Broadway in 2009.

 

 

Like the play, Gordon’s script is too melodramatic, even saccharine at times, but the humane, believable Irena of Canadian actress Sophie Nélisse rescues this low-key study of an ordinary person who almost backs into becoming a heroine. 

 

 

 

Resistance—They Fought Back 

This deeply felt documentary chronicles several instances of successful Jewish resistance against the barbarism of the murderous Nazis throughout Europe that counteracts the prevailing narrative that the Jews were just meek victims. Directors Paula Apsell and Kirk Wolfinger adroitly mix testimony from survivors and their descendants alongside discussion of historians to underline the heroic actions of so many.

 

 

With narration and other voices by Corey Stoll, Maggie Siff and Lisa Loeb, among others, this necessary portrait illuminates how goodness was able to, at times, overcome evil. 

 

 

 

4K/UHD Releases of the Week 

When her boyfriend Johnny dies on the operating table at the hands of neglectful Dr. Wendell Simpson, vengeful young Jessica kidnaps Wendell and subjects him to torture of the physical and emotional kind, which morphs into a twisted sexual relationship. Italian director Lucio Fulci’s 1986 drama is often risible but always watchable, as he’s unafraid to get down and dirty with his characters—whether it’s the opening music-studio salvo between Jessica and Johnny as he plays his horn or the increasingly creepy interactions between Jessica and Wendell.

 

 

There’s also the stunningly erotic presence of Blanca Marsillach, the Romanian actress who plays Jessica persuasively. The film looks quite good in 4K as well as on Blu-ray; extras include interviews with Fulci, Marsallich and costars Brett Halsey and Corinne Clery as well as an alternate opening.

 

 

 

The Great Alligator 

Not many would bring up this 1979 monster movie as one of the better rip-offs that arrived in the wake of Jaws, but Sergio Martino’s waterlogged thriller is demented enough to keep one watching, despite the silly dialogue and acting—especially by poor Barbara Bach, who looks properly embarrassed throughout.

 

 

The plot—an island god, seeking vengeance, takes the shape of a supergator to take down the natives and tourists at a tropical resort—is also ridiculous but keeps one interested for a relatively brief 90 minutes. The UHD transfer is good enough, as is the Blu-ray; extras include several interviews with cast and crew, including Martino, and English and Italian audio tracks are included.

 

 

 

Rambo—Last Blood 

If this is truly the final go-round for John Rambo, as this 2019’s title surely promises, then we’ve had worse before—I gave up after the awful third entry—and this, the fifth go-round, has Rambo going after the drug cartel criminals who have kidnaped and forced into sexual slavery the granddaughter of the woman who comanages his horse ranch.

 

 

Director Adrian Grünberg knows that Rambo’s—and Sylvester Stallone’s—bread and butter is action, the more violent the better, and this entry checks all the boxes, from the xenophobic treatment of Mexicans to some creative ways of taking out Rambo’s enemies when they attack him at home for a satisfying if predictable conclusion to the series. The UHD transfer is sparkling; extras are a substantial production diary and musical score featurette.

 

 

 

Just weeks after listening to Baiba Skride tackle the youthful Violin Concerto by English composer Benjamin Britten (1913-76), I got to hear another formidable take on that masterpiece, this time in an excellent recording by soloist Isabelle Faust, who easily dispatches the technical demands of this masterly workout for her instrument. Jakub Hrůša intelligently conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

 

 

Rounding out the disc are a few enticing chamber works by Britten that predate his concerto, including the world premiere recording of Two Pieces for violin, viola and piano, nicely played by Faust, her violist brother Boris, and pianist Alexander Melnikov. 

 

 

 

Paul Moravec—The Shining 

Despite being based on Stephen King’s original 1977 novel—which Mark Campbell’s libretto follows fairly faithfully—Paul Moravec’s opera must deal with the proverbial elephant in the room: Stanley Kubrick’s chilling 1980 film classic that jettisoned much of King’s book and remains The Shining of choice for me. That long shadow includes Kubrick’s music choices: his innovative and original use of works by 20th-century modernists Bartók, Ligeti and Penderecki are are one of the main reasons why the film remains disturbing and indelible. Moravec has gone in a different direction; the rumblings of menace always bubble under the surface of his score but often hold back the terrors that beset the Torrance family once father Jack becomes haunted by the Overlook Hotel’s ghosts.

 

 

Though it still effectively tells the tale, especially in its quieter moments like the touching finale, this adaptation falls short of the incendiary and baroque visual and musical explosion Kubrick created. Gerard Schwartz ably conducts the Kansas City Symphony and Lyric Opera of Kansas City Chorus, while the main roles are well taken by Edward Parks (Jack), Kelly Kaduce (Wendy), Tristan Hallett (Danny) and, best of all, Aubrey Allicock (Hallorann).