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August '14 Digital Week IV

Blu-rays of the Week

All That Jazz 

(Criterion Collection)
Bob Fosse's penultimate film, this 1979 autobiographical musical drama might have "borrowed" from Fellini's confessional 8-1/2, but it's still as frank, honest and ugly a self-portrait of the artist as a middle-aged egomaniac as there's ever been. Fosse's agile direction and choreography, Alan Heim's clever editing, Giuseppe Rotunno's sparkling photography and the flawless acting—led by Roy Scheider's remarkable performance as Joe Gideon, i.e., Bob Fosse—make this an indelible feel-bad show-biz confessional.
 
Criterion's hi-def transfer is immaculate; voluminous extras include commentaries, featurettes, and interviews vintage and new (the latter with Ann Reinking and Erzsebet Foldi, who danced an unforgettable duet).
 
Bears 
(Disney)
The latest Disneynature adventure takes the measure of America's most fearsome land animal, the Alaskan brown bear, without showing much of its fierceness; still, it's far from a toothless dramatization, despite being turned into a heartwarming tale of a protective mother and her cubs in dangerous climes.
 
Of course, since it's shot on stunning Alaska locations with hi-def cameras, this is a must-watch for lovers of nature and animals—whether lovable or lethal—although the John C. Reilly narration is so cringeworthy one might want to watch on mute. Extras include featurettes and a music video.
 
 
 
Blended 
(Warners)
Since no one expected anything from a third Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore collaboration (after The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates), on its own small terms, this does what it sets out to do: tell a bunch of sophomoric jokes and provide lame sight gags while getting sentimental about family as single parents Adam and Drew eventually get together.
 
Of course, it's at least 20 minutes too long—Sandler should never be allowed to make a movie over 90 minutes—but Barrymore is game, best demonstrated in the gag reel where she unleashes a (bleeped) potty mouth. The hi-def transfer is first-rate; other extras include deleted scenes and featurettes.
 
Out of the Past 
(Warner Archive)
This terse, nasty 1949 film noirabout a bizarre triangle comprising a private detective, the man who hired him and the man's girlfriend was superbly directed by Jacques Tourneur (it was remade as the execrable Against All Odds in 1984, memorable only for Phil Collins' affecting title song).
 
Tourneur's precise direction and lively performances by Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas cement its reputation as one of its genre's essentials. The Blu-ray transfer is excellent; lone extra is film noir expert James Ursini's commentary.
 
 
 
 
Queen Margot 
(Cohen Media)
In Patrice Chereau's epically-scaled adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' novel about 16th century France's religious wars, Isabelle Adjani gives one of her greatest performances—a notch below her work in The Story of Adele H. and Camille Claudel—in the title role.
 
Chereau's lush production is further elevated by sublime portrayals by Daniel Auteil, Jean-Hughes Anglade, Pascal Greggory and Vincent Perez, which give this costumer purpose and gravity rarely associated with the genre. The grainy hi-def transfer is true to Chereau's aesthetic; lone extra is Richard Pena's commentary.
 
The Quiet Ones 
(Lionsgate)
Based on a (supposed) true story, director John Pogue's horror movie about a crazed doctor, his students and the possessed patient whom they try and "cure" is notable for its finale, which provides a fiery wrapup to an otherwise routine entry.
 
Persuasive performances also help, but there's a nagging sense of deja vu to the plot, the characters and the entire movie. The Blu-ray transfer looks good; extras are outtakes, deleted scenes, featurettes and commentary.
 
 
 
 
 
DVDs of the Week
Almost Human/Golden Boy 
(Warner Archive)
Revolution—Complete Final Season 
(Warners)
Two short-lived cop dramas didn't survive their infancy, but Warner Archive has brought them back for their fans: the gritty modern-day Golden Boy and futuristic Almost Human (created by J.J. Abrams) have their moments of interest, but not enough to carry any but the most unfinicky viewers through all of the episodes in each series.
 
The second and final season of Revolution continues to explore its post-apocalyptic, post-technology world, which comprises opposing factions: fascist para-military groups and freedom fighters, or bad guys vs. good guys. Almost extras include a Comic-con panel, outtakes and deleted scenes; Revolution extras include featurettes, deleted scenes and a gag reel.
 
Californication—Complete Final Season 
(CBS/Showtime)
Portlandia—Complete 4th Season 
(VSC)
Californication stumbled out of the starting blocks seven seasons ago, but it finishes strongly, mainly due to David Duchovny's ability to be annoying and charming simultaneously, while his invaluable costar Evan Handler provides sterling support along with Natasha McElhone, Madeleine Martin and Madeline Zima. 
 
Portlandia, which Fred Armisten and Carrie Brownstein have somehow stretched into a fourth season, remains scattershot at best, but when they hit on something worth satirizing, like Ecoterrrosts (with Olivia Wilde as the gal who always wants to disrobe for a cause) or Gay Pride parades (with Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme making a silly cameo), the show can be fleetingly amusing.
 
 
Frankie and Alice 
(Lionsgate)
Halle Berry's tour de force performance notwithstanding, this true story about a stripper with multiple personalities that include a racist white woman has been turned into a clunky melodrama by the uninspired director Geoffrey Sax.
 
Berry does give a fiercely unhinged and daring portrayal and Stellan Skarsgard is solid as her psychiatrist; but the screenplay was stitched together by six writers, and it shows. The lone extra is a short making-of featurette.
 
Ghost Bird 
(Matson Films)
Scott Crocker's fascinating documentary examines a little-known subject—the possible reemergence of the extinct Ivory-bill woodpecker, supposedly sighted in Arkansas in 2004—but also casts a wider net, if you will, that touches on not only the faith and hope of some birders but also small town America, academia and the media.
 
Through interviews and a lot of news footage and other footage, Crocker has crafted a succinct and carefully considered account of our ever-changing relationship with the natural world. Extras include several deleted scenes. 
 
 
 
 
A Promise
Young and Beautiful 
(IFC)
Based on Stefan Zweig's novel, A Promiseis handsomely mounted by director Patrice Leconte, while a trio of terrific actors—Alan Rickman, Richard Madden and especially the amazing Rebecca Hall—provide this elegant but stuffy menage a trois with a human center.
 
Francois Ozon's Young and Beautiful, about a teenager turned successful prostitute, may be little more than a high-class French male fantasy (even although Ozon's gay), but it doesn't shirk from its heroine's difficulties, while Marine Vacth's incredible performance matches last year's breakthrough, Adele Exarchopoulos in Blue Is The Warmest Color.

August '14 Digital Week III

Blu-rays of the Week
Aerial America—Southeast Collection 
(Smithsonian Channel)
The latest release in this invaluable travel series comprises journeys through the states of Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi: a swath of the South that contains some of America's most photogenic landscapes and man-made structures. 
 
From Florida's orange groves and Alabama's cotton fields to the glittering cities of Charleston, Atlanta and Birmingham and historic Fort Sumter and St. Augustine, it's enthralling to witness so much of this land of ours, once again captured in stunning hi-definition. 
 
Bitten—Complete 1st Season 
(e one)
In a twist on the "sexy vampire" genre of so many recent movies and TV shows, this drama series has a werewolf protagonist: and not just any werewolf, but a sexy blonde werewolf. As played by bright, perky Laura Vandervoort as the conflicted creature, Elena is not interesting enough, with or without her "pack" of like beings, to summon up much erotic or dramatic tension, despite the actress's charms. 
 
The hi-def transfer is excellent; extras comprise Vanervoort's commentary, deleted scenes and behind the scenes featurette.
 
 
 
 
Fading Gigolo 

(Millennium)

Writer-director-star John Turturro bungles his latest, unsure of his material: is it a farce about an elderly bookshop owner (Woody Allen) pimping his employee (Turturro) to the likes of Sharon Stone and Sofia Vergara (who probably don’t need such a service); is it an unlikely romance between Turturro and a lovely Hassidic widow (Vanessa Paradis), or is it a revenge picture about a Hassidic cop (Live Schreiber) preserving the widow’s honor? 
 
The tone is inconsistent throughout; and, aside from Allen’s sterling comic presence, the acting is as variable as the ultimately forgettable film. On Blu-ray, it all pleasantly shimmers; extras are Turturro’s commentary and deleted scenes that include priceless Woody improvs.
 
Favorites of the Moon 
(Cohen Media)
Neither as biting as Luis Bunuel nor as whimsical as Jacques Tati, Georgian director Otar Iosseliani's 1984 absurdist parable is a slight if occasionally diverting shaggy-dog tale that takes pot shots at a bourgeois that treats art, commerce and romance without much conviction. 
 
There's nothing particularly wrong with Iosseliani's brand of absurdism, but it's not nearly as provocative or amusing as its director assumes. The Blu-ray transfer is adequate; lone extra is Philip Lopate's disjointed commentary.
 
 
 
 
 
Manakamana 
(Cinema Guild)
This hypnotic film is less a straight documentary than a purely visual experience par excellence that simply records the reactions of various passengers on a cable car ride high above Nepal's mountains on their way to an ancient Hindu temple. 
 
That directors Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez never vary their visual attack might induce claustrophobia or boredom in some viewers, but their cinematic high-wire act is exhilarating to watch. The movie looks spectacular on Blu-ray; extras are directors' commentary and three additional cable car rides.
 
DVDs of the Week
Bicycling with Moliere 
(Strand)
Sometimes there's great pleasure to be had by simply watching performers practice their craft with elegance, as in this blissful comic drama about two actors rehearsing Moliere's The Misanthrope: Lambert Wilson and Fabrice Luchini (co-writer with director Philippe DeGuay) give a master acting class, both as the narcissistic performers they play and the characters in Moliere's classic verse comedy. 
 
Although the subplot about a divorcing Italian neighbor (an enchanting Maya Sansa) is not entirely necessary, the trio is so good together onscreen that it's fun to follow their melodramatic menage a trois through its predictable twists and turns.
 
 
Last Tango in Halifax—Complete Season 2 
(BBC)
For the second season of this drolly sentimental study of old lovers who find each other anew a half-century later, Alan and Celia (Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid) discover that, after getting married in secrecy, they must deal with many hurt feelings and others' problems—alongside their own, of course. 
 
Jacobi and Reid make a wonderfully beguiling couple, while a terrific supporting cast helps make this serious but still funny series a worthwhile diversion.
 
My Boy Jack 
(BBC)
This powerful true story about how Rudyard Kipling's teenage son's joining the British army during World War I affected the famous author, his American wife Caroline and loving daughter Elsie is brought to vivid life by director Brian Kirk and writer-actor David Haig in this 2007 television film. 
 
Amid the precise period details is a quartet of fine performances that make this feel-bad drama strongly hit home: Haig's Kipling, Kim Cattrall's Caroline, Carey Mulligan's Elsie and Daniel Radcliffe's Jack. Extras include Haig, Radcliffe and Cattrall interviews, deleted scenes and 50-minute program The Pity of War.
 
 
 
Only Lovers Left Alive 
(Sony)
Jim Jarmusch's foray into the vampire genre is undeniably stylish, with lush visuals underlining his story of a most romantic undead couple searching for a blood supply that's quickly drying up, putting their immortality in jeopardy; Jarmusch's film falls apart since the stylishness can't cover up the mediocrity of the script, the ludicrousness of the premise, or the mere posing of his actors. 
 
Tom Hiddleston and the ubiquitous (and obvious) Tilda Swinton just wander through the film, making it a nice-looking but deathly dull tour of vampirism, similar to a fashion magazine layout. Extras include a making-of featurette and deleted scenes.
 
Summer in February 
(Cinedigm)
This real-life romantic tragedy encompasses a love triangle among painter Alfred "A.J." Munnings, his best friend Gibson Evans and the woman both loved, Florence Carter-Wood. 
 
While its trajectory toward the final, fatal event is telegraphed from the start, it has excellent portrayals by Dominic Cooper (A.J.), Dan Stevens (Gibson) and especially Emily Browning (Florence). Decently directed and written by Christopher Menaul, this weepy romance earns its tears mainly due to the fact that it's true. Lone extra is a Stevens interview.

August '14 Digital Week II

Blu-rays of the Week
The Bankers of God—The Calvi Affair 
(Raro)
The corrupt intertwining of organized crime, the Catholic Church and the Italian financial system are recreated in this 1992 film, directed with flair if little subtlety by Giuseppe Ferrara, which shows how bank president Roberto Calvi took the fall for a scandal that touched the far reaches of the powerful Vatican Bank and the government itself.
 
Rutger Hauer, Giancarlo Giannini, Omero Antonutti and Pamela Villoresi head a top international cast in a tautly structured drama that, if it isn't exactly illuminating, is edge-of-the-seat exciting. The Blu-ray transfer looks decent; extras include Black Friers Connection featurette.
 
Breathe In 
(Cohen Media)
For their exploration of a near-taboo coupling—a married 40-ish father and a high school exchange student who attends senior classes with his daughter—director-cowriter Drake Doremus deserves credit for restraint; but since his 95-minute drama isn't interested in chronicling a strictly sexual relationship, some may find its gradual revealing of their intimate relationship slow and unrewarding.
 
Still, despite the lack of sexual fireworks, this is an intriguing character study with a strong cast: Guy Pearce (dad), Felicity Jones (student), Mackenzie Davis (daughter) and especially Amy Ryan (mom) provide credible character arcs throughout. The hi-def transfer is immaculate; extras are a making-of and director interview.
 
 
Divergent 

(Lionsgate)

In this seemingly endless 140-minute adaptation of yet another post-apocalyptic series of novels with a young heroine (following The Hunger Games and Twilight), Shailene Woodley proves herself an onscreen force to be reckoned with, nearly overcoming this shaky compendium of sci-fi cliches, warmed-over plotlines and non-existent characterizations to  create someone we care about having around.
 
Fans of the books probably won't be as finicky, but for those who haven't read the novels (three more films are on the way: consider this a warning), having Woodley at its center is enough to keep one watching. The Blu-ray transfer is first-rate; extras are commentaries, deleted scenes, music video and  featurettes.
 
The Railway Man 
(Anchor Bay/Weinstein Co)
In this crushing true story, the understatedly excellent Colin Firth plays Eric Lomax, former British soldier and POW in a Japanese camp, who confronts his nemesis, Takashi Nagase, decades later to bring closure to his awful experience: or is it just long-awaited vengeance?
 
Although director Jonathan Teplitzky plays it close to superficial by bouncing back and forth between the prisoner of war scenes and his life afterwards, he gets uniformly fine performances by Firth and Nicole Kidman as his wife, Jeremy Irvine as his younger self and Tanroh Ishida and Hiroyuki Sanada as Takashi Nagase then and now. The Blu-ray image is splendid; extras are director-writer commentary and a making-of featurette. 
 
 
12 O'Clock Boys 
(Oscilloscope)
Lofty Nathan's skillfully wrought documentary follows a group of marauding young men who prowl the streets of Baltimore on their dirt bikes, always eluding their police pursuers: their recklessness is seen as exhilarating if a bit disturbing.
 
There are moments when the otherwise gritty film seems at times to be overly sentimentalized, especially when it concentrates on Pug, a teen who desperately wants to join the group's ranks. The Blu-ray transfer looks good; extras include Nathan's commentary, outtakes and music video. 
 
We Won't Grow Old Together 
(Kino Lorber)
Maurice Pialat's trenchant 1972 exploration of a difficult on-again, off-again affair between a married filmmaker and his younger mistress is impossible to ignore, even if it's slow-going and heavyhanded at times.
 
Although it comes uncomfortably close to parody—and Pialat, unlike Albert Brooks in his even better Modern Romance, plays it straight—its lacerating truths, thanks to leads Jean Yanne and especially Marlene Jobert, make this a must-see, its dramatic bumpiness echoing Pialat's later, nakedly emotional A nos Amours, Under the Sun of Satan and his grievously underrated final film, Le Garcu. The grainy hi-def transfer makes this look like a home movie, to its credit; extras include a Jobert interview and a video appreciation.
 
 
DVDs of the Week
Beyond Westworld
Wizards and Warriors 
(Warner Archive)
These TV series—each lasting only one season—were either ahead of their time or hopelessly behind the times, starting with 1980's Beyond Westworld, a needless knockoff-cum-sequel to the entertaining sci-fi moviesWestworld and Futureworld; that the show only lasted five episodes speaks volumes about its worth.
 
1983's Wizards and Warriors, a kind of Dungeons and Dragons fantasy spoof, mixes humor and adventure with occasional hits but more often misses, even if its winking slyness anticipates things like The Princess Bride. 
 
The Blacklist 
(Sony)
The Eagle 
(MHz International Mystery)
If it wasn't for James Spader's weird (but effective) overacting, The Blacklistwouldn't have been discussed more than any other new show on network television, since the characters and the mainly risible plots haven't exactly been memorable, let alone remotely plausible: the season's 22 episodes build up to a finale that is strangely uninvolving.
 
The same goes for The Eagle, a sluggish Swedish crime drama, in which our detective hero and his partners follow up on many sordid crimes, and even if the plotting is somehwat less haphazard than in similar shows in the U.S., from what I've seen this is among the lesser of MHZ's international mysteries.
 
 
Rubenstein Remembered 
(Sony Classical)
Sylvie Guillem—On the Edge 
(Deutsche Grammophon)
Rubenstein Remembered, a 1987 documentary portrait of the great Polish pianist (who died in 1982 at age 95), is narrated by his son John, who gives this study the right amount of warmth; of course, Rubstenstein's own playing—notably the music of Chopin, his Polish master—is the main draw. 
 
On the Edge examines the artistry of the extraordinary French dancer Sylvie Guillem, always unafraid to tackle music and movement outside her comfort zone, as collaborations with Robert Lapage and Akram Khan show. Guillem is seen as dedicated, relentlessly driven but untortured; Edge extras comprise rehearsal and stage footage.
 
The Trip to Bountiful 
(Lionsgate)
Cicely Tyson's towering Tony-winning portrayal of octogenarian Carrie Watts, who longs to return to her birthplace before she dies, is preserved in this evocative TV movie based on Horton Foote's gently-observed play.
 
Tyson doesn't chew the scenery, instead gving a restrained star turn that touches and moves with its generosity and sincerity; she's given first-rate support by Blair Underwood, Keke Palmer and the always underrated Vanessa Williams. Michael Wilson's sympathetic direction is as unobtrusively spot-on as it was on Broadway.

NYC Theater Roundup—'King Lear' in Central Park, 'Sex with Strangers' off-Broadway

King Lear

Written by William Shakespeare; directed by Daniel Sullivan
Performances through August 17, 2014

Sex with Strangers
Written by Laura Eason; directed by David Schwimmer
Performances through August 31, 2014

Sanders, Bening and Lithgow in King Lear (photo: Joan Marcus)
It says something about the current state of our theater that the most emotionally draining of Shakespeare's great tragedies, King Lear, keeps appearing on our stages in lackluster productions, or even worse. 
Of the Lears I've seen since F. Murray Abraham's 1996 abomination at the Public Theater—Christopher Plummer, Kevin Kline, Derek Jacobi, Sam Waterston, Frank Langella—they have all come to various griefs, even if some of them did get aspects of the most difficult role in the Shakespearean canon right.
 
Now it's John Lithgow's turn: his Lear—the first one in Central Park since 1974, when James Earl Jones assayed the role—begins as a jolly, almost Falstaffian, king, and with Lithgow's imposing manner (he's 6'4") and big white beard, he comes across as Santa-like rather than kingly. 
 
Lithgow has impressive moments in the black-comic stretches on the heath when Lear—fast losing his grasp on a tenuous sanity after banishing beloved young daughter Cordelia and being summarily rejected by ungrateful older daughters Goneril and Regan, who now rule his kingdom—is reduced to a near-naked pauper, and he's with only his trusty Fool and two loyal subjects in disguise, Kent (also banished by Lear) and Edgar (whose bastard half-brother Edmund has convinced his gullible father, Gloucester, that Edgar is the bad guy).
 
But Lithgow is more problematic in the tragic scenes, since he tends to exaggerate his line readings (with the welcome exception of his restrained and touching response to Edgar asking to kiss his hand: "Let me wipe it first—it smells of mortality"). 
 
He oversells Lear's anger over being shunned by Goneril and Regan in turn, and in the final scene with Cordelia's corpse, his overdone bellowing makes it seem as if he wants to prove that he literally has the lungs to play the part. He also gives a weird emphasis to each of the five shattering, climactic "nevers."
 
Director Daniel Sullivan's stark, one-dimensional staging isn't helped by Susan Hilferty's bland costumes, John Lee Beatty's monochrome set and Dan Moises Schreier's annoyingly—and overused—banging percussion. Jeff Croiter's vivid lighting gives the show its few moments of excitement during the storm scene. 
 
The uneven supporting cast starts with Lear's daughters: Jessica Collins' headstrong Cordelia and Annette Bening's regal Goneril are balanced by Jessica Hecht's banal Regan, another of this actress's shrill, affected and incongruous performances.
 
Also unfelictious are Chukwudi Iwuji's cardboard Edgar, Eric Scheffer Stevens' garish Edmund and Glenn Fleshler's humdrum Cornwall. Pluses are Steven Boyer's tough-minded, smartly uncampy Fool and Jay O. Sanders' sensitive Kent (although I wish he didn't affect such a blatant low-class accent while in disguise); Christopher Innvar's Albany at least has noble bearing and Clarke Peters is a strong-voiced Gloucester. 
 
Now that John Lithgow has failed his ascent of the imposing mountain that is King Lear, who will be brave—or foolhardy—enough to attempt it next?
 
Gunn and Magnussen in Sex with Strangers (photo: Joan Marcus)
 
Sex with Strangers, Laura Eason's amusing two-hander about Olivia, a struggling novelist whose unexpected meeting with one of her biggest fans—Nathan, a sex blogger turned bestselling author—hits on interesting subjects: how the internet has changed the publishing world and how, in 2014, two people who are aged 30 and 40 might as well be 30 years apart. 
 
But despite being relevant, these subjects aren't really explored in any depth: Eason's facile writing masks this liability to a certain extent, while the spiffy staging by director David Schwimmer and the delicious performances by Anna Gunn and Billy Magnussen as the protagonists make the play seem deeper and cleverer than it is. 
 
There are humorous asides about the twitter/blogosphere generation (Ethan's, of course)—which lacks any sense of propriety or privacy—and the pre-internet generation (Olivia's)—for whom the smell and feel of an actual book outweighs the economics of e-books and e-readers. 
 
But despite such flickers of insight, and the intriguing power plays between Olivia and Ethan, there's a sense that it's all a ruse, a put-on, something underscored by an open-ended denouement that's a cheap attempt to underline this black-and-white world with ambiguity. 
 
But Gunn and Magnussen's easy rapport, along with their efficient simulation of various sex acts (which raise questions of intimacy and hypocrisy also blithely unexplored), make Sex with Strangers a quite attractive diversion.

King Lear
Delacorte Theatre, Central Park, New York, NY
shakespeareinthepark.org

Sex with Strangers
Second Stage Theatre, 305 West 43rd Street, New York, NY
2st.com

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