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Reviews
December '13 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 02 December 2013 03:13
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
All Is Bright
(Anchor Bay)
Phil Morrison’s offbeat holiday-themed comedy aspires to a Bill Forsyth feel in its story of two Montreal low-lifes who drive to Brooklyn to sell Christmas trees: one is getting divorced from the woman the other is planning to marry, which of course causes endless complications.
The mood isn’t sustained—only Forsyth can do despair and joy simultaneously in classics like Local Hero and Housekeeping—but with perfectly matched actors like Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd, Morrison and writer Melissa James Gibson have made an endearingly adult comedy. The Blu-ray image looks great.
(Sundance Selects)
In this unbearably trite comedy, several self-absorbed characters—two young Americans and a trio of local brothers—travel around Chile in search of the ultimate hallucinogen.
Although well-acted (especially by Gaby Hoffman as a clichéd free spirit), none of these characters is in the least interesting, while also remaining off-putting; the movie—directed by Sebastian Silva, brother of the clan playing the brothers—falls into a rut it can’t get out of. The hi-def transfer is solid; a making-of featurette is the lone extra.
George Thorogood & the Destroyers—Live at Montreux
(Eagle Rock)
Ageless blues-rocker George Thorogood took the stage with The Destroyers for 90 minutes of a pure, unadulterated rock’n’blues this past summer in Montreux, Switzerland.
Thorogood and his boys have a good boogie-woogie vibe on such classic barroom tunes as “Move It On Over,” “Bad to the Bone,” and his best alcohol-fueled shot, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.” The hi-def image and sound are first-rate; lone extra is a Thorogood interview.
Hannah Arendt
(Zeitgeist)
Director Margarethe von Trotta and actress Barbara Sukowa team to dramatize the formidable Jewish-German theorist-philosopher whose description of Nazi Adolf Eichmann as the “banality of evil” at his 1961 trial outraged many as defending the indefensible. Von Trotta shows Arendt at the trial and afterwards in New York intellectual circles.
This is Sukowa’s show: her Hannah is a shrewd combination of intensity and warmth, who hasn’t been scrubbed clean, but is allowed to speak for herself: the spellbinding sequence where she defends her work against those calling her a self-hating Jew for what she called Eichmann is where a sympathetic director and actress create an indelible portrait of a 20th century giant. The Blu-ray image is first-rate; extras comprise a making-of featurette, deleted scenes and—on the DVD only—a discussion with von Trotta, Sukowa, actress Janet McTeer and co-writer Pamela Katz.
Paranoia
(Fox)
A middling thriller that shows off its leading man’s physique more often than even his biggest fans would want, Paranoia features Liam Hemsworth, whose acting is as flat as his abs are chiseled.
Although Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford sleepwalk through the movie as rival masters of the universe, Amber Heard and Embeth Davidtz’s persuasive performances help it all glide by mindlessly but painlessly to an obvious conclusion. The Blu-ray image is good; extras are deleted scenes and featurettes.
(LionsGate)
This sequel to the action flick about middle-aged secret agents is entertaining enough, although it’s like the Smokey and the Bandit movies where it seems the actors are having more fun goofing off on-set than the audience does watching the movie.
Still, it has enough explosive artillery to satisfy genre fans, and tongue-in-cheek performances by Mary Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins and Bruce Willis keep this overlong parody on track. The hi-def transfer looks excellent; extras include a gag reel, deleted scenes and a making-of documentary.
The Vivien Leigh Collection
(Cohen Media)
Vivien Leigh became famous in 1939 with her Oscar-winning Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, but the beautiful and talented stage actress had been making films in her native England for years: this 1937-8 quartet provides a peek into her onscreen versatility.
Fire Over England is watchable historical fluff, while the other films—Dark Journey, Storm in a Teacup and St. Martin’s Lane—are sentimental romantic fodder with little going for them except Leigh’s presence. The Blu-ray transfers look excellent; lone extra is a discussion by Leigh expert and biographer Kendra Bean.
Animals
(Artsploitation)
What begins as a beguiling dramedy about a sexually confused teen with a talking teddy bear companion becomes a totally different animal by the time of its “shocking” high-school shooter finale.
Director Marcel Fores confidently deals with tricky subject matter, and even if it’s a bumpy ride at times, there’s enough grounding in both emotional and psychological reality to make it worthwhile. Extras include commentary and featurettes.
Blood on the Docks
The Half Brother
(MHZ)
(MHZ)
Set in the grimy French port of Le Havre, Blood is a gritty policier about a group of detectives solving perplexing murder cases; the actors are super, the writing and directing realistic, and the investigations arrestingly use the English Channel town’s visual blight.
The absorbing Norwegian mini-series The Half Brother is involving from the get-go, when the case of a disappeared young man begins with the raping of his virgin mother, who nearly dies from the attack. There’s top-notch acting by several generations of Norway’s stars, from Ghita Norby (who was in Hansun, so her burning a Hansun book is a sly in-joke) to Mariann Hole and Agnes Kittlesen.
(Virgil)
This trenchant documentary devastatingly shows how, after Shane’s lover Tom dies in a freak accident, Shane is shunned by Tom’s family and literally erased from their son’s short life.
Through emotional interviews with Shane, his family and his and Tom’s friends, director Linda Bloodworth-Thomson maps an unforgettable journey through the sadly ongoing battle between love and bigotry.
Le Joli Mai
(Icarus)
In Chris Marker and Pierre Llohme’s cinema verite portrait of Paris in May, 1962 (after the end of the Algerian War), dozens of Parisians wax philosophically about their lives and where they are headed as a society.
But its 143 intellectually packed minutes are an endurance test because only a few of the participants’ arguments and opinions are clearly articulated. Judicious tightening would make this snapshot even stronger. Both English and French versions are included—the English one narrated by Simone Signoret—and a bonus disc includes deleted scenes and related short films.
(Indiepix)
Iranian expatriate director Shirin Neshat has made an impassioned study of several women in her home country in 1953, when a coup d’etat engineered by the Americans and British made the Shah ruler for a quarter-century until the Muslim Revolution overthrew him and led to the captivity of American embassy hostages.
The strongly drawn quartet of disparate female characters is well-acted by Shabnam Tolouei, Pegah Ferydoni, Arita Shahrzad and Orsolya Tóth; Neshat’s ability to deal with sociological and historical issues is also vividly realized. Extras include an interview with Neshat.
Film Review: "Philomena"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 27 November 2013 22:57
- Written by Matt Oakes
"Philomena"
Directed by Stephen Frears
Starring Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Mare Winningham, Barbara Jefford, Michelle Fairley, Peter Hermann, Sean Mahon
Drama
98 Mins
PG-13
Philomena Lee's true story is the stuff of nightmares. Her baby stolen away by nuns and sold to the highest bidder, the path to that forfeited son swept clean, locked inside the tight-lipped vault of one particularly malevolent Catholic nun, Philomena has been through hell on Earth. And yet, she won't condemn those who have brought so much suffering upon her. Instead, she passes absolution down like Jesus himself. She may not ever forget but she is willing to forgive and from her untainted spirit, we can all learn a valuable lesson.
In Philomena, Martin Sixsmith's not quite disgraced but he's been let go from his cushy position over at the Labour party. Unsure where to start on his long-gestated novel of Russian history, he's offered a chance to turn Irish elder Philomena's life story into a personal piece by an old friend editor, Sally (Michelle Fairley). Intent on maintaining his journalistic pride, he refuses to touch her story on the grounds that it's a human interest story and "human interest stories are read by weak-minded, ignorant people and written by weak-minded, ignorant people." But when Martin meets Philomena, he is equally captivated by the unspeakable calamity that she's just now opening up about for the first time in sixty years.
Film Review: "Frozen"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 27 November 2013 04:20
- Written by Matt Oakes
"Frozen"
Directed by Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
Starring Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Santino Fontana, Alan Tudyk, Ciarán Hinds, Chris Williams, Stephen J. Anderson
Animation, Adventure, Comedy
108 Mins
PG
Although still lacking the gilded touch that made the likes of Aladdin, Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast such timeless classics, Frozen is a rock solid addition to the post-hand-drawn Disney musical stable and is the best animated feature of the year by a good margin.
Made up of a relatively unknown vocal talent, Frozen values story and song more than an all-star cast and kitschy pop culture jokes, making it an experience that'll warm the most curmudgeonly of hearts and a film rich with beautifully-realized animation that keeps the wow factor buzzing for children and adults alike.
November '13 Digital Week IV
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 25 November 2013 03:06
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Dexter—The Final Season
(Showtime)
Television’s most complicated serial killer drama draws to a close after the 12 episodes of its eighth season: as usual with many such shows, there’s enough fine acting to cover up excessive plot and characterization holes.
Michael C. Hall’s conflicted Dexter is nicely balanced by the finely delineated performance of Jennifer Carpenter as the cop in love with him. The hi-def image looks wonderful; extras include featurettes and interviews.
The Fitzgerald Family ChristmasPrince Avalanche (Magnolia)
Edward Burns keeps trying: the writer-director-actor’s latest saccharine rom-com, Fitzgerald is as trite as all his other films, but at least it has the saving grace of Connie Britton and Heather Burns as two of the women in his life.
David Gordon Green’s subdued, enjoyable Prince is a melancholy look at brothers-in-law (Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch, both excellent) trying to connect while working together. The Blu-rays look fine; extras are Burns’ commentary (on Fitzgerald) and Green’s commentary, deleted scene, interviews and featurettes (on Prince).
Girl Most Likely
(Lionsgate)
When a failed playwright loses her man and her job, she’s sent into a psychological tailspin and back to the family home in New Jersey; a cast led by a happily understated Kristen Wiig and a hilariously tarted-up Annette Bening makes this watchable.
Too bad Michelle Morgan’s script labors with trite comic touches while Shari Springer Bergman and Robert Pulcini’s direction is anything but focused. The Blu-ray is first-rate; extras are a gag reel, deleted scenes and featurettes.
JFK—American Experience
(PBS)
What better time for a four-hour documentary on John Kennedy than the 50thanniversary of his assassination? PBS agrees, hence this involving and not uncritical look at JFK’s life, from growing up as ambassador Joseph Kennedy’s sickly son to his fateful presidency.
Narrated by Oliver Platt, Susan Bellow’s film, which makes particularly good use of interviews, photos and vintage video and audio footage, also uses its excessive length to go into more depth. The Blu-ray image is quite good.
Planes
(Disney/Pixar)
The latest comedy to roll off Pixar’s animated assembly line is this lazy sequel of sorts to the smash Cars,with the usual assortment of non-stop jokes, bad puns and desperate pop culture allusions.
If that kind of humor floats your boat—or, to coin a relevant phrase, flies your plane—then you are and your children are the willing audience for this movie. The Blu-ray image looks good; extras include featurettes and a music video.
(Eagle Rock)
This past summer, the self-named world’s greatest rock’n’roll band returned to London’s Hyde Park for its first concert there since 1969, two hours of baby-boomer nostalgia from a group past its prime with a catalog of so many classic tunes it’s disappointing the show isn’t longer. (McCartney regularly pushes three hours in his Beatles-laden shows.)
Former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor returns for guest appearances on “Midnight Rambler” and “Satisfaction,” and bonus tracks include a rare live performance of “Emotional Rescue.” Both image and sound are superlative in hi-def.
Russian Ark
(Kino Lorber)
Aleksandr Sokurov’s dazzling visual feat—a one-shot, 96-minute tour of The Hermitage, one of the world’s great art museums—was made in 2002, long before small digital cameras became ubiquitous, so watching it now makes it even more impressive.
This dazzling historical fantasy is as formidable putting hundreds of extras through their one-take paces as it is visually. The Blu-ray image looks amazing; the lone extra is a 45-minute making-of (unfortunately, commentary and interviews from the original DVD are missing).
(Cinedigm)
This weird character study follows two young hitwomen who—after killing while dressed as pizza-delivering nuns—meet their match while tracking a mysterious, intimidating loner, played with consummate skill by James Gandolfini in his one of his last roles.
Writer-director Geoffrey Fletcher is lucky to have Gandolfini along with Alexis Bledel and that incredible chameleon Saoirse Ronan as the eponymous girls: the trio’s rapport helps trample the writer-director’s otherwise heavy hand. The hi-def image is good.
We’re the Millers
(Warners)
Bring together a dope seller, stripper, virginal teen boy and foul-mouthed homeless teenage girl as a “family”—don’t ask why—and you’ve got comedy at its crudest. And director Rawson Marshall Thurber labors too hard over the obvious situations and dialogue conjured up by four (!!) writers.
Jason Sudekis and Jennifer Aniston are tolerable, but the movie’s aces are Will Poulter and Emma Roberts as the kids: the filmmakers should have been smarter and concentrated on them even more. The extended version is raunchier, the Blu-ray transfer is solid, and extras include gag reels, outtakes, deleted scenes and featurettes and interviews.
(Universal)
Their third collaboration (after Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), writer-director Edgar Wright and writer-actor Simon Pegg’s ramshackle, sometimes funny but sophomoric comedy concerns a group of middle-aged men who, while on a pub crawl to recall their carefree younger days, discovers that almost everyone else is actually a robot as part of an ongoing alien invasion.
As dopey as it sounds, the movie is actually fun for awhile…until the sci-fi plot kicks in, and we get puerile comedy and “horror,” a hybrid that doesn’t work. With its obvious double-meaning title—it’s the name of a pub—so what else should we have expected? The Blu-ray image looks excellent; extras include commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes and outtakes.
DVDs of the Week
All-Star Orchestra—Programs 1-8
(Naxos)
In this series, Gerard Schwartz discusses and conducts several classical works, divided into categories like “Music for the Theatre” (Stravinsky and Ravel), “Relationships in Music” (Brahms and Schumann), “Mahler” (his Symphony No. 2) and “What Makes a Masterpiece?” (Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony).
All are played superbly by Schwartz’s all-star musicians, and there’s a healthy amount of contemporary works included, from Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s zippy Avanti! to Richard Danielpour’s Piano Concerto No. 4, subtitled Mirrors. The programs’ combined commentary and performance illuminates the music.
(Smithsonian)
JFK—One PM Central Standard
(PBS)
For the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, several programs—including these—looked at the event from different angles. Smithsonian’s Day (narrated by Kevin Spacey) is an engrossing 100-minute overview of that horrible day, from the moment Jack and Jackie got to Dallas that morning until he left in a coffin and she bloodied at his side that evening, with survivor and eyewitness interviews alongside vintage footage.
PBS’s One PM (narrated by George Clooney) concentrates on CBS anchor Walter Cronkite’s decision to wait to announce JFK’s death until it was official, ignoring rumors and pressure. Both docs present that devastating day in its historic and emotional context.
Here’s Edie—The Edie Adams Television Collection
(MVD)
To many, Edie Adams is best known for her Cut’n’Curl beauty salons, but as this four-disc set shows, she was much more than a mere name: she was an appealing and lovely comedienne, dancer and singer.
Her two television variety shows—Here’s Edie and The Edie Adams Show (1962-64)—are given retrospective life here, and their 21 episodes not only show her talent in comedic sketches and songs, but also showcases her special guests like Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Bob Hope and Johnny Mathis. Extras are her musical performances on husband Ernie Kovacs’ 1950s variety show.
(Miramax/Echo Bridge)
Now best known as a Tony-winning musical with Cyndi Lauper songs, Julian Jarrold’s 2005 dramedy about a northern England shoe factory has its own frisky humor, sentimentality and attractive performances by Joel Edgerton, Sarah-Jane Potts and Chiwetel Ejiofor (an Oscar contender for12 Years a Slave).
This fantasy based on a true story is a harmless enough diversion. Extras include director/stars commentary, deleted scenes with director commentary, alternate scenes and featurettes.
Oui, Girls
(Impulse Pictures)
Unlike today’s “gonzo” (plotless) porn, the 70s/80s “golden age” comprised movies that aped their Hollywood counterparts, however indifferently acted, directed and written.
But those movies also lived or died by their stars’ sex appeal, and this dumb parody of detective movies has Anna Ventura—one of the most beautiful women to ever grace triple X—in the lead role, as well as appearances by other top stars of the era like Sharon Kane, Lisa de Leeuw and Tiffany Clark.
(MPI)
Claude Miller was an underrated French director, and his last film (he died at 70 last year) is as typically elegant and understated as his best work (A Secretand I’m Glad My Mother Is Still Alive). This adaptation of Francois Mauriac’s novel shows the unhappy relationship between the title heroine and her husband, culminating in a botched murder attempt and fractured marriage.
Audrey Tautou’s impassioned performance is full of inner rage and sadness, while Gilles Lellouche plays the husband with a shrewd mix of bravado and banality. Gerard de Battista’s luminous photography and Lauren Brenguier’s richly authentic set design underscore a low-key tragedy that’s the perfect epitaph for its maker.
CDs of the Week
Matilda—Original Broadway Cast Recording
(Broadway)
The blockbuster Broadway hit imported from London doesn’t translate as well to recording: Tim Minchin’s songs need to be heard in context while watching Roald Dahl’s story of a precocious little girl who changes the attitudes of her classmates and teachers.
Still, rousing numbers like “Naughty” and “Revolting Children” hit the spot, and the cast is never less than spot on, especially Bertie Carvel as Miss Trunchbull. As a souvenir of the show, kids of all ages will enjoy it.
Tears for Fears—The Hurting
(Universal)
Thirty years later, Tears for Fears releases a deluxe edition of its debut album, the original 10 tracks bolstered by a slew of extras on a second disc. While a product of its time—the prominent synths sometimes overpower the attractive melodies—The Hurting powerfully marries the darkness of The Cure with the memorable melodic facility of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, first-rate songwriters and singers from the haunting title track opener to the powerful finale, “Start of the Breakdown.”
Lyrical naiveté notwithstanding, the irresistible hooks on “Pale Shelter” and “Change” should have been worldwide smashes like “Shout” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” If the bonus disc is a mish-mash of remixes and extended tracks (B-sides “Wino,” “The Conflict” and “We Are Broken,” while nice to hear, are negligible), the album is a close second to the band’s best work (Songs from the Big Chair and The Seeds of Love).
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