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December '22 Digital Week I

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 07 December 2022 21:16; Written by Kevin Filipski

4K/UHD Releases of the Week

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

(Warner Bros)

Despite its pedigree—a screenplay by John Hughes and a cast of reliable comic actors—this 1989 sequel to Vacation and European Vacation is as bumpy a ride as the first two entries, with similar ratios of satisfying to cheap laughs as the Griswolds attempt to have a happy holiday gathering despite seemingly everything going wrong.

Chevy Chase does his usual sometimes funny, sometimes not shtick, and there are good moments from Beverly D’Angelo, Brian Doyle Murray, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Diane Ladd and the otherwise forgotten Nicolette Scorsese. The 4K image look solid; lone extra is a commentary by D’Angelo, director Jeremiah S. Chechik, Randy Quaid, Johnny Galecki, Miriam Flynn, and producer Matty Simmons.

Westworld—Complete 4th Season

(Warner Bros)

Fans of Westworld think the series went off the rails during its fourth season, and to an extent, they’re right—jumping forward several years (twice!) and setting much of the plot in a recognizable Manhattan (with the High Line in evidence) is a detour from previous seasons.

On the other hand, since it has always taken sharp narrative curves, season four could be considered par for the course. The always humanizing presence of both Thandiwe Newton and Evan Rachel Wood keep things grounded, along with the dazzling-looking settings, which mesmerize even more in 4K. All eight episodes are included on both three UHD discs and three Blu-rays; hours of extras comprise making-of featurettes and interviews.

In-Theater/Streaming Release of the Week

In the Court of the Crimson King—King Crimson at 50

(DGM)

For a half century, guitarist Robert Fripp has created his own niche in rock music annals with prog giant King Crimson, which has gone through many iterations over the decades; yet, no matter who else is in the group, Fripp is the constant, focused on the music even at the expense of his relationship with other members.

Toby Amies’ candid documentary tactfully explores that delicate balance, as we hear from Fripp and current and former band members like Ian MacDonald (who died earlier this year), Adrian Belew, Bob Bruford and Tony Levin to present a compelling warts-and-all look at the creative process, with great musical moments both onstage and in rehearsal.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Christmas Eve

(Naxos)

Although this opera by Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov isn’t among his most well-known, Germany’s Frankfurt Opera has given it a high-wire production by director Christof Loy, which was filmed last winter.

The fantastical plot is business as usual for Rimsky, whose music often sounds ravishing, especially when sung by Julia Muzychenko as the heroine Oksana. Conductor Sebastian Weigle leads the orchestra and chorus in a focused and sumptuous performance. As always, there’s excellent hi-def video and audio.

Christmas Concerts

(SWR Classic)

These two holiday concerts by the SWR Vocal Ensemble, “Silent Night” and “Christmas Carols,” were respectively recorded in 2017 and 2018 at the properly solemn confines of the Gaisburg Church in Stuttgart, Germany.

Led by conductor Marcus Creed, the vocal ensemble—with its soloists often splendidly taking the lead—beautifully sings such perennials as “The Holly and the Ivy” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” along with other seasonal music by such composers as Britten, Howells, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Mahler and Schumann. The Blu-ray video and audio look and sound sumptuous.

The Night of the Iguana

(Warner Archive)

In John Huston’s spirited 1964 adaptation of a rambunctious Tennessee Williams play, Richard Burton chews the scenery as T. Lawrence Shannon, a former priest turned tourist guide leading a group to Puerto Vallarta; he’s being harangued by stern Judith Fellowes (Oscar-nominated Grayson Hall), who believes he’s trying to seduce her 16-year-old niece, Charlotte Goodall (a very Lolita-like Sue Lyon).

Along for the ride are a gleefully effervescent Ava Gardner as Maxine Faulk, an old friend who might become a new flame, and a properly dowdy Deborah Kerr as spinster Hannah Jelkes. The hi-def transfer makes Huston’s B&W images really pop; extras are on-set and retrospective featurettes.

Star Trek Discovery—Complete 4th Season

(CBS/Paramount)

In the fourth season of the latest Star Trek spinoff series, USS Discovery captain Michael Burnham heads the crew that tries, in a post-cataclysm environment, to help rebuild the United Federation of Planets.

These 13 episodes provide enough of the familiar space drama to satiate even the most finicky Trekkie, while the performances of Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham and Anthony Rapp as scientist Paul Stamets can be recommended to all viewers. There’s a very good hi-def transfer; extras include on-set featurettes, deleted scenes, audio commentary and gag reel.

DVD Releases of the Week

Blonde—The Marilyn Stories

(Film Chest)

With the release of Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, in which Ana de Armas makes a heartbreaking Marilyn, Monroe is once again getting media attention, hence this three-disc set that brings together documentary and fictional accounts of her life, career and untimely death. Of the features centering each disc—2001’s biopic Blonde with Poppy Montgomery, 1991’s Marilyn and Me with Susan Griffiths and 1976’s Goodbye Norma Jean with Misty Rowe—the most interesting is the latter, exploitative but anchored by Rowe’s quite sympathetic portrayal.

Extras are a 1986 documentary; Marilyn’s first TV appearance, on The Jack Benny Show in 1953; and a short doc, 1967’s The Legend of Marilyn Monroe, narrated by John Huston, who directed Marilyn at the beginning and end of her career, in both The Asphalt Jungle and The Misfits; but beware, the video quality is pitched somewhere between VHS and DVD.

Amazing Grace—Country Stars Sing Songs of Faith and Hope

(Time/Life)

Time-Life’s latest massive boxed set is this behemoth, which is made up of 10 discs of more than 150 performances of spirituals and other gospel songs by some of country music’s biggest stars, from George Jones and Loretta Lynn to Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire.

Among the classic tunes they perform are “Amazing Grace,” sung by both Jones and by Josh Turner; “Coat of Many Colors,” sung by Parton; and “How Great Thou Art” by McEntire. In addition to the memorable live performances, many enticing extras include two DVDs of Opry Gospel Classics, including rare archival performances by Johnny Cash, Barbara Mandrell, Charley Pride, Porter Wagoner, and more; interviews with the likes of Vince Gill, the Oak Ridge Boys and Statler Brothers; bonus performances; and a 36-page collector’s booklet.

CD Release of the Week

Aram Khachaturian—

Piano Concerto/Concerto-Rhapsody/Masquerade

(BIS)

Known for his engaging ballets Spartacus and Gayane (the latter featured so prominently in Kubrick’s classic 2001), Russian composer Aram Khachaturian (1903-78) was an endless reservoir of glorious tunes, so it shouldn’t surprise anybody that this disc of his piano music, especially the D-flat major Piano Concerto and Concerto-Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, is crammed with one exquisite melody after another.

On the two orchestral works, conductor Andrew Litton leads the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in lovely accompaniment to the excellent soloist Iyad Sughayer, who shows in the solo Masquerade Suite that he can easily alternate between delicacy and bombast whenever it’s needed.

A Sentimental Evening With Audra McDonald

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 07 December 2022 15:00; Written by Jack Angstreich

Audra McDonald on stage, photo by Chris Lee

At Carnegie Hall, on the evening of Saturday, December 3rd, I had the enormous privilege to attend a terrific concert—entitled “Feeling Sentimental”—featuring the fabulous Broadway musical star, Audra McDonald—who first performed at this venue in 1998—looking glamorous in a stunning red gown. She was accompanied by a full orchestra under the admirable direction of Andy Einhorn—in his conducting debut at this hall—along with pianist Jeremy Jordan, drummer Gene Lewin, and Mark Vanderpoel on bass.

McDonald opened the program with Jerry Herman’s "I Am What I Am" from his 1983 show La Cage aux Folles, in honor of the victims of the recent mass shooting in Colorado. She followed this with another lovely song, “Pure Imagination,” by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, from the 1971 film, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, where it was unforgettably delivered by Gene Wilder. Her next song was one of the highlights of the evening, the glorious "(When I Marry) Mister Snow" from Carousel, the classic musical from 1945 by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II—she appeared as Carrie Pipperidge to great acclaim in Nicholas Hytner’s highly regarded Lincoln Center production of 1994. She then performed “Cornet Man,” a lesser-known song by Jules Styne—with lyrics by Bob Merrill—from 1964’s Funny Girl. As a tribute to the wonderful Diahann Carroll, she sang “A Sleepin' Bee” by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Truman Capote, from their 1954 show, House of Flowers. Her next item, “Moonshine Lullaby” from Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun of 1964, is also less commonly heard. Another summit in the proceedings was attained with the next two songs: first, as a tribute to the incomparable Barbara Cook, the magnificent “Will He Like Me?" by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick from their extraordinary 1963 musical She Loves Me and, second, “Summertime” from George Gershwin’s 1935 opera, Porgy and Bess, with lyrics by DuBose Heyward. She closed the first half of the event with the famous “Rose’s Turn” from Styne’s Gypsy of 1959, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

After intermission, McDonald returned to the stage to perform “Gorgeous’’ from Bock and Harnick’s 1966 The Apple Tree. Her rendition of Duke Ellington’s “(In My) Solitude” from 1934 ensued, followed by a tribute to Leslie Uggams: “Being Good Isn't Good Enough” from Styne’s 1967 musical, Hallelujah, Baby!, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and a book by Arthur Laurents. She then sang “Bein' Green”—from 1970—by Joe Raposo, which was memorably recorded by Frank Sinatra. After this she did a mashup of “You've Got to Be Carefully Taught” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 South Pacific and “Children Will Listen” from Sondheim’s 1987 Into the Woods. This was succeeded by “Can’t stop talkin’” by Frank Loesser from the 1950 film, Let’s Dance. Herman’s exquisite "Before the Parade Passes By" from his 1964 Hello, Dolly! followed, and she then excellently performed another fine song, Sondheim’s “With So Little to Be Sure Of “ from his 1964 musical, Anyone Can Whistle, also with a book by Laurents. She ended her set with another classic—“Cabaret” from the 1966 show of the same name by John Kander and Fred Ebb—which she originally sung for a benefit at the behest of Vogue editor, Anna Wintour. As a response to the ardent applause, she delighted her audience with two encores. She first performed “Home” from the 1972 musical, The Wiz, after which Einhorn joined her to reproduce the marvelous duet between Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland from the 1960s on the latter’s weekly television show on which they sang “Happy Days Are Here Again” and the Arlen “Get Happy,” introduced by Ruth Etting in 1930.

"Midsummer" in Winter with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Monday, 05 December 2022 20:37; Written by Jack Angstreich

David Hyde-Pierce with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, photo by Chris Lee

At Carnegie Hall, on the evening of Thursday, November 17th, I had the great fortune to attend a terrific concert featuring the superb Orchestra of St. Luke’s under the estimable direction of Harry Bicket.

The event opened exhilaratingly with a dazzling performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s pleasurable Piano Concerto No. 1, with the extraordinary soloist, Benjamin Grosvenor. The first movement opens in bravura fashion, and after the introduction of the exquisite, song-like second theme, it becomes the model of the virtuoso Romantic concerto. The delicate Andante that follows is the most beautiful of the three movements while the propulsive, playful finale is astonishing too in its way. Grosvenor stunned with an amazing encore: "Gnomenreigen" from Two Concert Etudes by Franz Liszt.

But it was the balance of the program that was especially memorable: a magnificent account of Felix Mendelssohn’s marvelous Overture and Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring David Hyde-Pierce as narrator. The celebrated Overture is of course enchanting and was followed by the sprightly, charming Scherzo. The song “Young spotted snakes”—an instance of heavenly vocal writing—was gloriously sung by the lovely soprano Elena Villalón, mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall, and the wonderful Choir of Trinity Wall Street. The effectively suspenseful Intermezzo was succeeded by the majestic Notturno, while the inordinately familiar Wedding March was nonetheless stirring and exultant, preceding the delightful song, “Through the house give glimmering light,” which proved to be a gorgeous conclusion.

This outstanding ensemble returns to this venue on February 9th, 2023 with Franz Schubert’s unforgettable Ninth Symphony and on April 13th, 2023 with a program devoted to Georg Friedrich Händel, including the fabulous Royal Fireworks Music.

November '22 Digital Week III

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 01 December 2022 03:02; Written by Kevin Filipski

Streaming Release of the Week

The King of Laughter

(Film Movement)

Eduardo Scarpetta, one of the biggest Italian actors of the early 20th century—who was beloved by his fans for his clownish, larger-than-life stage persona—is the endlessly fascinating if problematic subject of Mario Martone’s illuminating, vastly entertaining biopic.

This lavish costume drama doubles as a warts-and-all character study of an gleefully adulterous artist on his way to becoming irreleveant in a new entertainment world (in one scene, he berates his son for wanting to appear in a movie, then a mere curiosity) with a blistering, detailed performance by the great Toni Servillo as Scarpetta, who gets a final chance at delighting an audience when he’s taken to court for plagiarizing a work by Gabriele D’Annunzio, one of Italy’s greatest writers.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week

A Christmas Story

(Warner Bros)

It’s easy to see why this beloved 1983 holiday movie has been a cult item for years: director Bob Clark’s sentimental but heartwarming comedy-drama is off-kilter enough to survive multiple seasonal viewings, including a healthy dose of satiric touches.

As the bemused parents, Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon were incapable of giving a bad performance and Peter Billingsley and the other kids are pitch-perfect, while the beloved set pieces—the Red Ryder rifle, the leg lamp, the visit to Santa—are hilarious. The UHD transfer looks terrific; the 4K disc includes a Clark and Billingsley commentary, while the Blu-ray disc includes the commentary and several new and archival featurettes.

Don’t Worry Darling

(Warner Bros)

For her sophomore feature as director, Olivia Wilde shows striking visual control but a shaky narrative handle in this overfamiliar Twilight Zone-esque story of a ’50s housewife who discovers that nothing is as it seems in her seemingly perfect marriage, friendships and lifestyle.

The movie takes forever to set up its plot reveal, and director Wilde stumbles badly, leading to a rather wan conclusion. Still, it all looks antiseptically feverish, Florence Pugh is tremendously good in the lead and even Wilde herself is divertingly sardonic—too bad her real-life beau, someone named Harry Styles, is pretty much a zero as Pugh’s hubby. The UHD images look spectacular; extras are a making-of featurette and deleted scene.

Halo—Complete 1st Season

(Paramount)

In this often grim sci-fi drama series, the first to be based on an X-Box video game that’s been popular for two decades, a cyborg supersoldier who goes by the moniker Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) may just well be the last line of defense for earth in a seemingly hopeless battle with the Covenant, a lethal alien threat from other galaxies.

It’s as convoluted as it sounds, and the series seems a threadbare knockoff of Dune. Still, its visuals look majestic in 4K; the voluminous extras comprise several hours of making-of featurettes and interviews.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

The Doom Patrol—Complete 3rd Season

(Warner Bros)

In the third season of this weirdly watchable superhero series, the “disposable” outcasts once again take on the mantle of saviors and survivors as they do battle with many more otherworldly adversaries.

The cast members, which are led by Timothy Dalton, Brendan Fraser and Dianne Guerrero, keep everything tongue-in-cheek throughout, and the shameless blend of sappiness and sarcasm keeps the show from becoming too melodramatic or self-parodic. As always, the series’ 10 episodes look stunning in hi-def; extras include featurettes and interviews.

Entre Nous

(Cohen Film Collection)

French director Diane Kurys made this moving 1983 drama about the decades-long friendship between two women—beginning in the 1940s in occupied France—based on her own mother’s story.

At times almost too painfully intimate, it’s not only an insightful and perceptive character study but also a stupendous showcase for two great French actresses: Isabelle Huppert and the redoubtable Miou-Miou are magnificent in their emotional but clear-eyed portrayals of these very individual women. The film looks good on Blu; lone extra is an interview with Kurys.

Jeepers Creepers Reborn

(Screen Media)

In this latest sequel to a movie I’d completely forgotten about, our young heroes find their way to Horror Hound festival, where they and others are terrorized by an unknown but overly familiar assailant: could it be the return of the Creeper? (I won’t tell.)

There are a few amusingly bloody set pieces and a couple of decent scares amid the 85 minutes of director Timo Vourensola’s otherwise predictable flick. There’s an excellent hi-def transfer.

A Knife in the Head

(Cohen Film Collection)

In director Reinhard Hauff’s gritty, unsettling 1978 drama, Bruno Ganz plays Hoffman, a German biogeneticist who is shot in the head at a protest and spends the rest of the movie slowly getting his memory back and trying to discover what happened. Meanwhile, the police tag him as a terrorist and the protestors say he was summarily shot by the cops.

Hauff’s penetrating study of the merging of the personal and political has highly charged acting, especially by Ganz and the affecting Angela Winkler as his wife. The film has a perfectly grainy look in hi-def; extras are interviews with Hauff and producer Eberhard Junkersdorff.

Pearl

(A24/Lionsgate)

This prequel to the mediocre slasher film X, which combined porn and the gothic to no discernable end, assumes viewers want to know the killer in the first movie’s backstory: so director Ti West and his cowriter and lead actress, Mia Goth, are going to show us—over and over, to ever diminishing returns.

A skewered Technicolor homage to The Wizard of Oz, of all things, Pearl has a bright look that underscores the constant blood flow, about the extent of its cleverness. The aptly named Goth is properly intense, but she holds to that one note—often impressively, just as often impassively—for an inordinately long time. The always hungry alligator is not even the most ridiculous thing here. There’s a terrific hi-def transfer; extras include two making-of featurettes.

Der Ring des Nibelungen

(Naxos)

Any time Richard Wagner’s epic Ring tetralogy is staged, it’s a big deal, and last year’s Berlin production was no different: but director (and co-set designer) Stefan Herheim went for a no-frills staging, based around a piano at center stage that stood in for, well, everything.

But it is musically that this Ring thrives, beginning with Donald Runnicles conducting the Berlin Opera Orchestra in a vivid reading of Wagner’s massive four-opera score, while the most of the performers do well: Nina Stemme’s Brunnhilde, Iain Paterson’s Wotan/Wanderer and Elisabeth Teige’s Sieglinde lead the way. The heroic role of Siegfried is punishing for most tenors, and Clay Hilley does at least give it the old college try. Hi-def video and audio are first-rate; extras are making-of featurettes.

DVD Release of the Week

Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam All-Stars

(Time/Life)

For several years—from 1992 to 1997 and again from 2006 to 2008—Def Comedy Jam showcased some of the most promising comics performing in front of audiences crowded with even bigger celebrities. This 12-disc, 23-hour-long set contains three dozen episodes, plucked from all the seasons, with standup appearances from, just for starters, Cedric the Entertainer, Dave Chappelle, Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart, D.K. Hughley, Queen Latifah, Martin Lawrence, Bernie Mac and Tracy Morgan.

Extras include a bonus episode, 2 Raw 4 TV; a bonus DVD comprising Shaq & Cedric the Entertainer Present: All Star Comedy Jam, which includes more standup by the likes of Kevin Hart, Tommy Davidson, Aries Spears and DeRay Davis; and a 24-page collector’s booklet.

CD Release of the Week

A Golden Cello Decade

(Hyperion)

Cellist Steven Isserlis always curates intelligent concert programs, so it’s no surprise that his latest CD release is also a fascinating historical and musical journey, through the years 1878 to 1888. Isserlis surveys several cello works that are highlights of that fertile decade, like two substantial sonatas: one of Richard Strauss’ earliest major works, his Sonata in F Major, followed by the D Major Sonata by a female German composer of whom I was unaware, Luise Adolphia Le Beau.

Both sonatas are splendidly performed by Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih, who also play Isserlis’ own arrangement of Antonín Dvořák’s 4 Romantic Pieces as well as the CD’s opener, Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei (with a valuable assist from harpist Olivia Jageurs) and two brief but lovely “footnotes,” as Isserlis calls them, by Ernst David Wagner and Isaac Nathan. Not only is the music making prodigious but so are the program notes—as everyone who follows Isserlis on Twitter knows, his musical insights are second to none, and his notes are as entertaining as they are educational.

Reviews

December '22 Digital Week I

A Sentimental Evening With Audra McDonald

"Midsummer" in Winter with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s

November '22 Digital Week III

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