In-Theater Releases of the Week 

In the slow-burn follow-up to his Oscar-winning, nearly three-hour Drive My Car, Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi has created a mythic journey into the ongoing—and possibly eternal—tug of war between human civilization and the natural world. When a clueless entrepreneur plans to turn an unspoiled rural village into a new “glamping” site for the affluent, the local citizenry fights back in a carefully calibrated town meeting—then Hana, the young daughter of easygoing widower Takumi (our erstwhile protagonist), goes missing.

 

 

The film has its share of seeming longueurs that are actually part of the director’s scheme (Hamaguchi rarely goes where he think he will), and the final moments of this melodrama-cum-environmental plea-cum existential horror film are as confoundingly powerful as anything he’s ever done.

 

 

 

Slow 

When dancer Elena and sign-language interpreter Dovydas meet, they are instantly attracted to each other, then Dovydas admits that he is asexual, with no interest in physical intimacy. How this revelation affects their relationship is at the heart of Marija Kavtaradze’s intimate character study.

 

 

Despite the bumpiness of the narrative, Kavtaradze has a real ability of homing in on this couple’s psychology, and that—coupled with persuasive performances by Kęstutis Cicėnas (Dovydas) and especially Greta Grinevičiūtė, who creates in Elena a character of intensity and lived-in truthfulness—makes this worth watching.

 

 

 

In-Theater/Streaming Release of the Week 

She was best known for being the girlfriend of the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones followed by the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards—and the muse who inspired the songs “Gimme Shelter” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”—but directors Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill want to show Anita Pallenberg as much more. She was a model and actress who had a life of her own after splitting with Richards in 1980. Included are numerous interviews with Pallenberg’s children, Richards, and others who knew her (she died in 2017), along with priceless archival video, audio and photographs, and even excerpts from her unpublished autobiography narrated by Scarlett Johansson.

 

 

Yet the directors hedge their bets by only devoting the last 15 minutes of a 110-minute running time to Pallenberg’s post-Richards life and career, even dragging in model Kate Moss to speak on her behalf. It probably wasn’t intended that way, but it comes off as special pleading for a woman who didn’t need—or want—it. 

 

 

 

4K Releases of the Week

When Steven Soderbergh got together with George Clooney, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac (RIP), Brad Pitt, et al, for a trio of supremely entertaining, infectious heist movies, it was the last word in ultra-cool Hollywood glamor—Ocean’s Eleven (2001) is the best of the lot, but both Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007) are excellent time-wasters as well, slickly made and directed by Soderbergh with generosity for his many stars on display.

 

 

All three films look perfectly coiffed on UHD; extras include commentaries on all three films, making-ofs and other on-set featurettes as well as deleted scenes for Twelve and Thirteen.

 

 

 

Peter Gabriel Live in London—Back to Front 

Like most classic rockers, Peter Gabriel decided that a gimmick for his 2013 tour would draw audiences, so he played his breakthrough 1986 album So in its entirety in order—or, at least, in the order Gabriel wanted to play it. He stuck “In Your Eyes,” side two’s lead track, at the end, so the concert would finish with a rousing audience participation number rather than the offbeat “This Is the Picture.”

 

 

Filmed in London, Gabriel and his crack band—the same musicians he toured with in ’86, when I saw him twice—tear through the nine So tunes and a dozen other Gabriel classics with often wild abandon; the show climaxes with the always emotional encore “Biko.” The 4K image looks incredibly sharp, and the surround sound is even better; lone extra is an interview with Gabriel and tour director Rob Sinclair.

 

 

 

Blu-ray Release of the Week

Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s 1887 opera has never held the stage as memorably as his masterpiece Eugene Onegin or the flawed but fascinating Queen of Spades, although this 2022 Frankfurt production by director Vasily Berkhatov makes a credible attempt to wrestle with this riveting but unwieldy tragic romance, updated from 15th-century Tsarist Russia to modern times.

 

 

Although the music is often beautiful, there are stretches when it’s not—still, this is an impressive musical performance with Valentin Uryupin conducting the orchestra and chorus master Tilman Michael leading the chorus. Canadian baritone Iain MacNeil is a tower of strength as antagonist Prince Nikita while Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian makes a gorgeous-voiced heroine Nastasya. The hi-def video and audio are unbeatable. 

 

 

 

CD Release of the Week 

John Adams’ operas have often taken the pulse of 20th century history, from Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer to Doctor Atomic (which preceded—and bettered—Christopher Nolan’s overrated Oppenheimer by more than a decade). His most recent opera—premiered in 2017 and extensively revised in 2019 and now, for this 2023 concert performance—goes back another century, to the California of the 1850s gold rush. The only similarities to Puccini’s own The Girl of the Golden West are the title and setting; otherwise, Adams and librettist Peter Sellars strike out in different territory, like miners panning for gold in a new stream.

 

 

This forceful recording reunites much of the original cast with Adams conducting the LA Phil and the Los Angeles Master Chorale in a riveting performance of a richly textured if occasionally meandering work. The vocal soloists, led by Julia Bullock, Davóne Tines, Paul Appleby, Daniela Mack and Ryan McKinny, are unimprovable, as is the magisterial chorus. If it’s ultimately not as gripping as it could be, perhaps a future filmed performance will give it its due as music-theater, not simply a concert version.