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Reviews
February '16 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 11 February 2016 01:47
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
A Ballerina's Tale
(Sundance Selects)
Misty Copeland, who made history as the first black ballerina named principal dancer at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, is the subject of Nelson George's documentary that follows her before and after her massive success, placing her in the context of other trendsetting black women in the arts.
What's missing in this brief, 85-minute movie is a sense of the mixed-race Copeland's personal life; her photogenic looks and wondrous talent and charisma notwithstanding, this should have been a more thorough portrait. It looks good on Blu; extras are three deleted scenes.
(MVD)
Originally in 3-D, Ferdinando Baldi's loose-limbed 1980 spaghetti western chronicles a bank robbing groom's vengeance after his bride is kidnapped at the altar. In true 3-D fashion, from the clever opening credits on, everything from snakes and coins to weapons shoot out toward the viewer, so those who have the proper home equipment can enjoy it as it was originally intended.
And it’s nice to see Spanish actress Victoria Abril, who later became a star in Pedro Almodovar's silly films, at her youthful best as the bride. The hi-def transfer is quite good.
The Emigrants and The New Land
(Criterion)
When Swedish director Jan Troell made his dual masterpieces about a Swedish couple moving to America to begin a new life in the mid-19th century, he was at the very pinnacle of a brilliant career that still continues, even though his films are rarely seen now.
But these classic epics from 1971 and 1972—shot through with Troell's artistry, humanity and compassion, along with the greatest performances ever by the incredible Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann—are ripe for rediscovery, and it's great that the Criterion Collection (so soon after releasing his masterly debut feature Here Is Your Life) has finally released these magnificent films in shiny new hi-def transfers. Extras include an appreciation from critic John Simon, new interviews with Troell and Ullmann and a superlative making-of documentary.
(Cinedigm)
Writer-director Raul Garcia's animated omnibus film, which comprises five classic Edgar Allan Poe stories (The Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valedemar) is a mixed bag, but it does contain some gems amidst the dross.
Both Masque and Pendulum combine heart-pounding suspense with frightful and creative animation; having some of the best horror actors provide the suitable voices, notably Christopher Lee and Bela Lugosi, is also an inspired touch. The animation looks terrific on Blu; extras are Garcia's commentary and two featurettes.
From Dusk till Dawn—Complete 2nd Season
(eOne)
The second season of this bizarre horror-comedy series is, as usual with Robert Rodriguez projects, too much of a good thing: there's some trashy fun to be had as criminals and bizarre snake-like creatures butt heads (and other things) at the strip club called the Titty Twister, but then there are the meandering stretches where the series instantly becomes less interesting to watch.
Still, whenever interest flags, there’s always the sizzling Eiza González as the Queen vampire (she was played by Selma Hayek in the original movie). The hi-def transfer is stellar; extras are featurettes, commentaries and a Comic-con Q&A.
(71st Street Music)
Subtitled A Celebration of the Electric Guitar, Robert Radler's quick jaunt through the six-stringed instrument’s history and legacy, musicians both famous (like B.B. King, Slash, Jerry Cantrell and Nancy Wilson) and obscure (everyday people and billionaire CEOs like Southwest Airlines head honcho Gary Kelly) extol the virtues of their favorite axes.
The 85-minute doc also includes clips of guitar players in action, along with glimpses of some very famous and beloved guitars, from Les Pauls to Gibsons. The movie looks fine on Blu; extras comprise additional interviews and featurettes.
Zombie Fight Club
(Scream Factory)
What you see is what you get in this exceedingly violent and misogynist—if not misanthropic—thriller that pillages the undead genre in order to provide 90 minutes of non-stop mayhem: despite some effective fight sequences staged by writer-director Joe Chien, much of the time the whole thing careens desperately out of control.
Still, those in the mood for its ultra-committed weirdness can look no further. The movie looks first-rate on Blu; lone extra is a stunt featurette.
A French Village—1941: Season 2
(MHz)
It's 1941, the second year of the Nazi occupation of France, and as the power dynamics between the Germans and the locals grow more unbalanced by the day, this superbly realized and supremely binge-worthy French series takes the pulse of an entire village under the German thumb: the sundry political, social, economic, cultural, personal and sexual power plays going on behind (and at times in front of) closed doors.
With an exemplary cast from top to bottom—led by Audrey Fleurot's remarkably vivid portrait of the village mayor's sultry wife, who decides (seemingly on a whim) to take a German lover and so sets her sights on the local commander—this season’s 12 episodes fly by so quickly, you’ll be impatient for Season 3 to show up. Extras comprise historical featurettes.
Noah's Ark
(Cinedigm)
The Biblical story of Noah and the flood is reduced to a 90-minute intergenerational family squabble, as Noah (a far too serious David Threlfall) and his wife (the unfortunate Joanne Whalley) try to get the ark built while their sons attempt to talk them out of it and get the old man committed.
The acting is more wooden than what they’re building, while the drama remains mostly inert: so much so that we don't even see the most dramatic scenes in the whole fable, the animals boarding the ark and the actual flood.
An Evening with Daniele Gatti at Carnegie Hall
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 05 February 2016 17:30
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Daniele Gatti
Another terrific experience at Carnegie Hall this month was had by those with the good fortune to attend the mesmeric performance by the magnificent Orchestre National de France under the sterling direction of Daniele Gatti on the evening of Thursday, January 28th. I heard these musicians with this conductor once before in an extraordinary concert at Avery Fischer Hall a few years ago and my high expectations for this event proved entirely justified.
The program opened with a previously unscheduled, although most welcome, addition (performed in memory of the recently deceased Kurt Masur, who led this ensemble for several years): a beautiful rendition of the heavenly Prelude to Act III of Richard Wagner's sublime masterpiece, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Equally thrilling was the gripping account that followed of another supreme monument of the Classical repertory, Claude Debussy's ethereal Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.
Virtuoso violinist Julian Rachlin then took the stage for an arresting performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s challenging and eccentric Violin Concerto No. 1. The soloist was seemingly undaunted by the difficulties of this work and, consequent upon an enthusiastic ovation, then dazzled with a mesmerizing encore, the “Ballade” movement from Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata for solo violin in D Minor, Op. 27, No. 3.
The second half of the program amazingly surpassed the first, with the strongest account of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s magisterial Symphony No. 5 that I’ve ever heard on the concert stage. The applause was rapturous and the evening was brought to an exquisite close with a splendid encore: a gorgeous rendition of Gabriel Fauré’s lovely Prélude from Pelléas et Mélisande. I eagerly await their next appearance in New York.
Vienna by Way of Philadelphia at Carnegie Hall
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 04 February 2016 22:05
- Written by Jack Angstreich
On the evening of Thursday, January 14th at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, I attended a wonderful Viennese-themed concert given by the outstanding Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who is perhaps the most exciting young, Classical music conductor working today — and indeed the most entertaining, if only for the comically overt enthusiasm he displays at the podium.
This was the first of two programs given by this ensemble at Carnegie Hall this month — the second, on the evening of Tuesday, January 26th, is reviewed below.
The event began with a beautiful account of Johann Strauss, Jr.’s delightful and ever-popular “Tales from the Vienna Woods” Waltz, a work not heard in the concert hall here as often as one might like. The twenty-year-old Canadian pianist, Jan Lisiecki, then took the stage for a brilliant rendition of Ludwig van Beethoven’s masterful Piano Concerto No. 4, the performance of which could scarcely have been bettered despite this work’s ubiquity on New York concert stages. An enthusiastic ovation elicited a sterling encore, Robert Schumann’s perennially sublime Träumerei from Kinderszenen.The superb first half of the program was matched by the second, which opened with a stirring reading of Gustav Mahler’s engrossing transcription for string orchestra of Beethoven’s great String Quartet No. 11, the “Serioso”, a highlight of the evening if only for the work’s rarity. This was followed by the closing piece, the Carnegie Hall premiere of Austrian composer H. K. Gruber’s ingenious 1981 Charivari, subtitled “an Austrian Journal for Orchestra”, an exhilaratingly delirious parody of Johann Strauss, Jr.’s “Perpetuum mobile” polka, performed with aplomb here by the ensemble under Nézet-Séguin’s confident direction.
As the applause continued, this adorable conductor invited the audience to stay and hear Strauss’s delightful original as an encore, which unsurprisingly was exquisitely played — as the polka finished, Nézet-Séguin turned to the audience and, with a rising intonation, said, “And life goes on . . .”, concluding an evening that can only be described with superlatives.
The program on the 26th was also extraordinary, opening with an unsurpassably elegant reading, notable for its sensitivity to tempo, of Franz Joseph Haydn’s late masterpiece, the Symphony No. 103, the “Drumroll”, with the eponymous drumroll at the work's start launched, in an another jocularcoup de théâtre, before the conductor had a chance to turn around to face the orchestra.
Amusingly, in the midst of the applause consequent upon the work's conclusion, the timpanist repeated his drumroll, at Nézét-Séguin's prompting.
The second half of the evening was even more impressive, devoted to an awesome exposition of the Robert Haas 1878-1880 version of Anton Bruckner’s majestic Symphony No. 4, the “Romantic” — the orchestral texture characteristically lucid in the conductor's meticulous reading.
At the evening's end, Nézét-Séguin was recalled to the stage four times during an exultant ovation and deservedly so, given the supreme musicianship on offer.
February '16 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 03 February 2016 04:07
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Bridge of Spies
(Touchstone)
In Steven Spielberg's draggy 2-1/2 hour Cold War drama, Tom Hanks gives an aw-shucks performance as James Donovan, the Brooklyn lawyer who defends a Russian spy and negotiates the release of U2 airplane pilot Gary Powers during a particularly fraught period in U.S.-Russian relations.
Although Janusz Kaminski's sepia-tinged photography is masterly as always, Spielberg rarely brings immediacy or tautness to his story; he's too busy forcing present-day parallels in front of the camera. Memorable portrayals by Mark Rylance as the spy and Amy Ryan as Donovan's wife further compromise matters, since they out-act Hanks at every turn. The hi-def transfer is excellent; extras comprise four featurettes.
Burnt
(Anchor Bay)
John Wells' slight but entertaining drama about a hotshot chef who flamed out in Paris and rebuilds his career in London benefits greatly from the chemistry between Bradley Cooper as the chef and always underrated Sienna Miller as his reluctant British protégée.
Although too cute by half and consisting of scenes that could have been excised—notably a subplot about our hero and some thugs—the result is a pleasant time-filler. The movie looks fine on Blu; extras include Wells' commentary, deleted scenes, featurette and cast and director Q&A.
Earth's Natural Wonders—Living on the Edge
(PBS)
For its entire length, this fascinating three-hour mini-series visits some of the most awe-inspiring and spectacular places on earth, like Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Everest, the Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls, and explores how their inhabitants (both human and animal) find themselves adapting to the often extreme and unforgiving conditions.
From the ocean reefs to the Amazon, from killer bees to man-eating tigers, these programs show off splendid high-definition footage to provide extraordinary views of several amazing locations.
Kansas City Confidential
(The Film Detective)
Phil Karlson's tough-minded 1952 black and white B-movie (which has been raved about by no less a self-involved movie buff as Quentin Tarantino) tracks the fall-out of a daring armored car heist: an innocent driver looks to avenge himself against those who accused him of being in on the theft.
The movie's fast pace as its follows its protagonist to hard-won redemption would work for Karlson's '70s career renaissance with Walking Tall. There's a decent if unspectacular hi-def transfer.
Our Brand Is Crisis
(Warner Bros)
How political operatives work behind the scenes for their candidates, where winning is everything and losing completely unacceptable, is demonstrated in this intriguing but ultimately self-serving dramatization based on a 2005 documentary about a South American election. Director David Gordon Green never strikes the right balance between satire and seriousness, as witness such meaningless moments as a bus chase through hilly roads and a drunken bar scene.
Sandra Bullock seems adrift as Calamity Jane, the professional who helps elect a corrupt politician, and Green's final attempt to inject a moral feels desperate. The movie has a first-class hi-def transfer; lone extra is a Bullock featurette.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs—Disney Signature Edition
(Disney)
Walt Disney's first full-length animated classic, made in 1937, was released on Blu-ray in 2009 in a Diamond edition with a superb hi-def transfer and a plethora of extras; this new Walt Disney Signature series release is unnecessary for anyone with the Diamond disc, but those who don’t have it should pick this up.
Some featurettes here weren't included on the Diamond set, while several others from the original aren't included here. At least the first-rate transfer remains.
DVDs of the Week
Breathe
(Film Movement)
The viciousness of teenage existence is scarifyingly brought to life by director Melanie Laurent in this unsettling adaptation of a book by Anne-Sophie Brasme about two teenagers—wallflower Charlie and boisterous Sarah—who befriend each other, followed by rampant jealousies that change their relationship for good.
Laurent follows the girls' shifting dynamics straightforwardly, while the exemplary acting of Josephine Japy and Lou de Laage points the way toward the predictable but still shattering denouement. Extras are interviews with Laurent, Japy and de Laage, and short film Bonne Esperance by French director Kaspar Schiltknecht.
Night Will Fall
(Warner Archive)
The liberation of WWII concentration camps left those who were there marked for life, not only the soldiers but the camera crews and filmmakers who documented these inhumane monuments to Nazi evil.
Andre Singer's powerful documentary, recounting the making of one such film by Alfred Hitchcock—which wasn't finished for various reasons until 2014—includes emotional testimony from witnesses about the atrocities they saw 70 years earlier. Extras comprise an interview with historian Rainer Schulze; a Soviet propaganda film about the liberation of Auschwitz; and Death Mills, an American film about the camps co-directed by Billy Wilder.
CD of the Week
Barbara Hannigan—Let Me Tell You
(BR Klassik)
Written for luminous Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan, Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen collaborated with librettist Paul Griffiths on this expressive if diffuse 30-minute vocal piece from the viewpoint of Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
The words come from the play, although arranged to have a different meaning, and if Abrahamsen's colorful score ultimately lacks depth, Hannigan's brilliant artistry compensates, bringing the character to vividly wise life.
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