4K Releases of the Week 

Akira Kurosawa’s black, bleak 1985 war drama is among the Japanese master’s greatest epics, poetically showing man’s inhumanity by compellingly welding Shakespeare’s King Lear to traditional Noh theater. Kurosawa’s masterly adaptation gives that tremendous actor Tatsuya Nakadai (mostly hidden behind amazing make-up) one of his best roles as the foolish king who destroys his empire by dividing it among his two older sons and banishing the youngest.

 

 

There’s much to admire—two unforgettable battle sequences, the despairing yet breathtaking final shots, Toru Takemitsu’s perfectly realized score—especially in a new 4K restoration that shows off Kurosawa’s stunning use of color, both realistically and symbolically.

 

 

 

 

 

Space Jam 

Re-released on UHD to coincide with the new Lebron James version arriving in theaters, Joe Pytka’s 1996 original starring Michael Jordan shooting hoops with Bugs Bunny and other animated characters is certainly no classic, but it does do the job entertainingly and succinctly.

 

 

I’m surprised it took a quarter-century for a reboot, but today’s quantum leap forward in visual effects might hinder the new version. Of course, this looks dazzling in 4K; the accompanying Blu-ray disc includes the film, and extras are a commentary with Pytka, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, vintage making-of and two music videos 

 

 

 

 

 

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory 

One of the most beloved movies ever makes the jump to 4K in a 50th anniversary edition: despite it softening the edges of Roald Dahl’s original story, there’s no denying Gene Wilder’s career-defining portrayal of Wonka, which dominates the movie despite not appearing nearly halfway through.

 

 

The movie, of course, looks lovely in ultra hi-def, and the accompanying Blu-ray disc also includes the film. Several interesting extras include some of the now-grown kid actors in an amusing and informative commentary; the documentary, Pure Imagination, with such priceless tidbits as why the title was changed from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (apparently because of tie-in chocolate “Wonka bars”); a vintage featurette; and four singalong songs.  

 

 

 

 

 

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week

Like the stars of recent feel-good senior citizen romantic comedies, such as Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn makes the most of her chance to display her continued vitality and charm well into her 80s as a stubborn widow who finally acquiesces to her harried daughter and loving grandson by moving into a retirement home, where she reluctantly makes new friends and even—surprise!—finds love.

 

 

Michael Lembeck directs and Donald Martin writes with a sledgehammer, but let’s face it, subtlety would be lost in such a cutesy concoction; at least Burstyn’s partners in crime are the equally winning Ann-Margret, Loretta Devine and Jane Curtin—these women leave the poor men, James Caan and Christopher Lloyd, far behind.

 

 

 

 

 

Till Death 

(Screen Media) 

If viewers swallow ignore the hypocrisy and the many howlers in the dialogue, plotting and plain common sense, S.K. Dale’s brittle chiller about a harried wife who is (literally) chained to her husband while the bad guys invade their remote winter hideaway is certainly an effective contraption.

 

 

That the glamorous Megan Fox, of all people, plays the wife with her usual self-assurance—always looking like a supermodel no matter how much blood has splattered or how long she runs in the snow and ice in her bare feet—makes this even more of a guilty pleasure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Werewolves Within 

It’s not surprising that this less-than-clever horror parody is based on a video game: the characters are caricatures, the would-be scares are telegraphed mercilessly, and the rat-a-tat dialogue is smart-ass without being particularly smart.

 

 

Josh Ruben directs with his tongue firmly in cheek; it’s too bad that this particular style renders anything that’s potentially worthwhile into something that’s enervating, like the appealingly off-kilter performance of Milana Vayntrub as a postal worker assisting Sam Richardson—who unfortunately repeats the limited comedic effects we know from Veep.

 

 

 

 

 

The Witches of the Orient 

I knew nothing about the Japanese women’s volleyball team that won the gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in front of a delighted home crowd, but Julien Faraut’s slyly satisfying documentary introduces us to several of the players today, and they discuss the team, their coach, their nicknames, the atmosphere, the racism they encountered, and their origins as Osaka factory workers.

 

 

Faraut cleverly shoots new interviews and shows vintage footage in the old-style Academy ratio: when the gold-medal match vs. Russia is in widescreen and vivid color, the effect is transforming. 

 

 

 

 

 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

This creakily watchable B movie likely got a hi-def release since it stars Humphrey Bogart; in 1950, he was at the top of his profession, and even though the role of Lt. Colonel Matt Brennan—a former star aviator in the military who fearlessly tests the newest air technology—doesn’t fit him snugly, his charismatic appearance keeps director Stuart Heisler’s routine melodrama aloft, despite the dated aerial sequences.

 

 

There’s also solid support from Raymond Massey as Bogey’s new boss at the civilian company and Eleanor Parker as the woman on the ground he’s in love with. There’s a fine hi-def transfer; extras comprise a contemporary cartoon and short.

 

 

 

 

 

His Dark Materials—Complete 2nd Season 

The continuing cosmic adventures of Lyra and Will, the two youngsters who must navigate the multiple universes in this fantasy world created by novelist Philip Pullman once again conjure up many diverting sequences, especially the more fantastical ones. Even more so than in the first season, however, there’s never a sense that something personal is at stake, and the moribund earthbound sequences keep this technically superlative adaptation from really taking flight.

 

 

Luckily, Ruth Wilson gives a typically multi-layered performance as the enigmatic Mrs. Coulter, which keeps the series on track for much of its length. Unsurprisingly, all seven episodes look spectacular in hi-def; extras include on-set featurettes.

 

 

 

 

 

Madame Curie 

While it’s certainly not good history, this romanticized 1943 biopic about Marie Curie, the pathbreaking Polish scientist whose discovery of radium with her French husband Pierre led to her early death, is as entertaining as Hollywood hokum can be without becoming risible.

 

 

Director Mervyn LeRoy gets tremendously affecting performances by Greer Garson as Marie and Walter Pidgeon as Pierre, which go a long way toward forgiving the willful distance from the facts. The B&W film looks luminous on Blu; the lone extra is a short, Romance of Radium.

 

 

 

 

 

DVD Releases of the Week 

There’s something amusing in theory about a bunch of semi-recognizable celebrities trying to discuss important events in American history while under the influence of alcohol, but most memorable about this long-running Comedy Central series are the reenactments where other celebrities act out the events, even mouthing the exact slurred words.

 

 

Still, a little of this goes a long way: if you’re already a fan, you’ll gobble up all six seasons. Others might just sample a few episodes here and there. Extras are drunk outtakes, deleted scenes, extended clips and the “sober reveal,” where the previously inebriated talkers revisit their episodes while not under the influence.

 

 

 

 

 

Based on David Nicholls’ novel about Connie and Douglas, a couple about to divorce who still go on a long-awaited European vacation with their son, Albie, himself about to leave the nest for college, Us is an alternately insightful and clichéd glimpse at complicated relationships that doesn’t justify its four-hour running time.

 

 

Too often the series seems like a thinly veiled travelogue that visits places like Paris, Amsterdam and Venice—the family’s interactions with one another and others (with the exception of Freja, a lovely divorcee Douglas meets) are labored and overdone. Despite excellent performances by Tom Hollander (Douglas), Saskia Reeves (Connie), Tom Taylor (Albie) and Sofie Gråbøl (Freja), Us is much less than the sum of its parts. Extras are three making-of featurettes. 

 

 

 

 

 

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky—who escaped Nazi persecution by emigrating to the U.S. in 1938, where he died four years later, his music neglected and his reputation virtually nil—the enterprising Capriccio label is re-releasing several of its acclaimed discs of his works, with a particular emphasis on his voluptuous orchestral compositions and emotionally stirring operas. 

 

 

An “Anniversary Edition” six-CD boxed set is a great introduction to the varied music by this undervalued composer: there are fine renditions of the beautiful “Lyric” symphony, the dazzling String Quartet No. 2, and excerpts from several of his operas, including his masterpiece, A Florentine Tragedy.

 

 

Two more Capriccio re-releases are vintage recordings of a pair of Zemlinsky’s lesser-known stage dramas: the lustrous fairy-tale opera Es war einmal (Once Upon a Time) and Der Konig Kandaules (King Candaules), an opera he never completed in his lifetime. These performances display Zemlinsky’s masterly orchestral arrangements and the lush lyrical music he wrote for his vocal soloists. Hans Graf leads a superb reading of Es war einmal, led by soprano Eva Johansson and tenor Kurt Westi as well as the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Danish National Radio Chorus; Gerd Albrecht conducts an engaging performance of Kandaules, with James O’Neal’s towering king front and center.

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week 

Each year, millions make the pilgrimage to the French city of Lourdes to be blessed and healed by the Virgin Mary (who supposedly appeared to a young local girl in 1858), and Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai’s riveting documentary follows several French pilgrims who make the journey—both youngsters and adults, injured, sickly, frail, or accompanying others—as well as local religious and health aides who are the necessary backbone of the entire enterprise.

 

 

There is something undeniably moving about people whose faith is so strong that they believe that praying, attending services and taking a dip in blessed water will lead to miracles. It’s easy to be cynical in the face of such desperation, but since Demaizière and Alban Teurlai record these people without commentary, their realness is never in doubt.

 

 

 

 

 

Les Nôtres 

Although director Jeanne Leblanc walks a thin line in her marvelous movie about a pregnant teen in small-town Quebec who refuses to name her baby’s father—a decision with irreversible consequences—she gives her protagonist, high school sophomore Magalie, agency to deal with a widowed mother, close male friend and the local mayor, who lives next door with his wife—her mom’s best friend—and has always been very friendly.

 

 

Although her subject matter is dicey, Leblanc never shies from having Magalie confront each difficulty plausibly and, thanks to a fierce and flawless portrayal by actress Émilie Bierre, Les Nôtres is a rare honest glimpse at teen life.

 

 

 

 

 

The Birthday Cake 

Despite its authentic recreation of a slice of Brooklyn Italian-American existence, cowriter-director Jimmy Giannopoulos’ drama about a young man whose family is knee-deep in the local mob scene feels recycled and tired.

 

 

The central set piece—a memorial for our hero’s dead father in which the title cake takes center stage—is filmed, edited and acted with an urgency the rest of the film lacks. Shiloh Fernandez is competent, if uninspired, in the lead, while the likes of Val Kilmer, Lorraine Bracco, Ewan MacGregor and Ashley Benson fill supporting roles admirably. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer of ’85 

In François Ozon’s semi-autobiographical feature, set in 1985 when the writer-director was 18, teenager Alexis falls in love with the older, worldlier David, only to be confused by David’s ambivalence and then turned upside down when tragedy strikes.

 

 

Ozon strikes a nice balance between sentiment and camp—sometimes the downfall of his other movies—but despite correct details of era and characters, something doesn’t quite click: what should be devastating and deeply moving isn’t. The acting is, for the most part, unexceptional, except for Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (David’s mom), who’s mainly overly emotive. 

 

 

 

 

 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

These opera recordings gain immeasurably from superb singing, starting with Richard Strauss’ shattering Elektra, which, in director Krzysztof Warlikowski’s grab bag of a modernist staging at Salzburg last summer (during the pandemic!), has a superlative cast led by Ausrine Stundyte in the title role and Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as Clytemnestra, while Franz Welser-Most brilliantly conducts the orchestra and chorus.

 

 

French composer Charles Gounod’s Mireille, a sentimental tragic romance that’s rarely staged, has a solidly old-fashioned 2009 Paris production by director Nicolas Joe and lovely vocal performances by Inva Mula in the title role and Charles Castronovo as her lover. There’s excellently hi-def video and audio on both releases.

 

 

 

 

 

Guns for San Sebastian 

French director Henri Verneuil made this 1968 western on location in Mexico: set in 1746, it’s about Leon Alastray, a Mexican army deserter, who appears in a remote village posing as a priest, and who soon helps the locals defend themselves against savage attacks.

 

 

Despite Verneuil’s vigorous directing and the always boisterous Anthony Quinn in the lead, the drama sputters for much of its 120-minute length. A young Charles Bronson is the main antagonist, while Anjanette Comer—an actress I was previously unfamiliar with—winningly plays Quinn’s love interest. The film looks terrific on Blu; lone extra is a vintage on-set featurette.

 

 

 

 

 

It Happened at the World’s Fair 

An Elvis vehicle that’s a cut above despite its creaky, corny sentimentality, Norman Taurog’s 1963 romp through Seattle’s famous fairgrounds includes a stop at the top of the Space Needle, for starters. The flimsy plot finds Elvis plotting to win an attractive nurse (Joan O’Brien) who resists him—until she sees he’s playing foster father of sorts to an adorable little girl (Vicky Tiu).

 

 

Elvis sings “One Broken Heart for Sale” and his personality and chemistry with both O’Brien and Tiu are enough to carry such an overlong vehicle. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer.

 

 

 

 

 

Visions of Eight 

With eight directors filming their own glimpses of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, this bumpy omnibus feature suffers from the segments’ variable quality: Milos Forman’s offputtingly jokey short about the Decathlon, for example, pales next to John Schlesinger’s sober look at the Marathon, the lone segment to mention the elephant in the room, the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists.

 

 

Watching athletes push their bodies and minds to punishing levels is always fascinating, but not highlighting what these games are remembered for is a no-win situation. But here, even with directors like Kon Ichikawa (whose Tokyo Olympiad is a masterpiece), Arthur Penn and Claude Lelouch, this remains blurry and ineffectual. The film looks good and grainy in hi-def; extras include an audio commentary, a 55-minute retrospective documentary, and a vintage featurette about the film.

 

 

 

 

 

Voyagers 

Not really Lord of the Flies in space, writer-director Neil Burger’s ambitious sci-fi drama follows a several youngsters on a spaceship sent to a distant planet to discover whether it’s habitable—after years away from civilization, the now teenage astronauts take sides, discover sex and violence, and are just, well, as flawed and foolish as their compatriots on earth.

 

 

In theory, this is captivating stuff but Burger’s clinical approach smooths things out and render it all dully predictable, despite a few good scenes and imaginative visuals. There’s a fine Blu-ray transfer; extras are a Burger commentary and several featurettes.

 

 

 

 

 

Ziegfeld Follies 

The last of the onscreen Ziegfeld spectacles, this 1946 entertainment—co-directed by Vincente Minnelli among many other hands, including inventive dance director Robert Alton—consists of an enjoyable selection of song-and-dance numbers with comic breathers in between, all in sparkling Technicolor.

 

 

Obviously, it’s hit-or-miss, but the best moments are Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire’s duet, “The Babbitt and the Bromide,” and Judy Garland—Minnelli’s new wife—in “The Great Lady Has an Interview.” There’s a spectacular hi-def transfer; extras include several audio outtakes, the featurette Ziegfeld Follies: An Embarrassment of Riches, a pair of vintage cartoons and a live-action short.

 

 

 

 

Finally hearing a complete recording of Le Loup (The Wolf), a wonderful ballet score by the great French composer Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013), is the highlight of this new release, which also includes charming orchestrations of three early Dutilleux works for flute, oboe and bassoon with piano.

 

 

But it’s Le Loup that’s the centerpiece: the arresting orchestral colors as well as the elegantly assured musicalization of a fairytale about a bride who falls in love with the title canine—rendered with precise detail and majestic sweep by conductor John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London—make this one of Dutilleux’s major works.

 

 

 

 

 

Luciano Berio—Berio to Sing 

Italian modernist Luciano Berio (1925-2003) was never pigeonholed by any musical category, as this excellent recording of some of his wide-ranging vocal music—from folk songs and the Beatles to pyrotechnics for a single voice—superbly demonstrates.

 

 

Mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot proves herself equal to Berio’s own muse—his American wife, Cathy Berberian—in the stunning solo opening, Sequenza III, with its astonishing array of squawks, screeches, and other sounds. Cries of London shows off Berio’s easy mastery of styles from hymnlike to wistful, while his arrangement of “Michelle” again provides proof that Beatles songs in any style are captivating.

4K Release of the Week 

The showdown between two of the biggest screen monsters of all time is disappointingly predictable and tame, especially after director Adam Wingard doesn’t fumble what was an unnecessarily prolonged setup. It’s not the setup that hurts, it’s what comes after, as the highly touted battle royale between the title creatures is a repetitious and, quite frankly, thuddingly dull spectacle whose flashy special effects never transcend their digital origins.

 

 

Of course, it all looks quite spectacular in 4K; the feature is also included on a Blu-ray disc, and extras include director’s commentary and 10 making-of featurettes (on the Blu-Ray disc).

 

 

 

 

 

In-Theater/Streaming/Virtual Cinema/VOD Releases of the Week

After her dynamic performance in the Netflix series Unorthodox, Shira Haas consolidates her strength as a powerhouse actress in this unbearably touching drama about how the fraught relationship between rebellious teenager Vika (Haas) and her single young mother Asia (Alena Yiv, equally good) takes an unexpected turn when Vika is diagnosed with a debilitating condition.

 

 

Director-writer Ruthy Pribar never flinches throughout her thoughtful character study about a painfully believable mother-daughter relationship, right until the devastating final moments.  

 

 

 

 

 

Rita Moreno—Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It 

When I was a kid, Rita Moreno on The Electric Company was my first celebrity crush, and Mariem Pérez Riera’s intimate and frank documentary about the legendary stage, screen and TV actress and singer demonstrates how Moreno’s life and art are intertwined. As a Cuban immigrant, Moreno had more obstacles to stardom than usual, especially in the ‘50s.

 

 

But talent, charm, beauty and perseverance won out, as proven by her Tony for the play The Ritz and Oscar for the musical West Side Story, among other awards. Her on-and-off romance with Marlon Brando (characterized by domestic violence and an unwanted abortion) is an eye-opener, but Moreno never exudes negativity: instead, radiating optimism as she prepares for her 87th birthday celebration, it looks like Rita Moreno will live forever. (She’s 89 now.) We can only hope.

 

 

 

 

Take Me Somewhere Nice 

In Ena Sendijarević’s serious comedy, teenager Alma travels from her home in the Netherlands back to Bosnia to introduce herself to the father she has never met—but, of course, all kinds of misadventures ensue, some patently absurd, others more realistic, but all serving to toughen up Alma and broaden her view, both personal and—unsurprisingly in the Balkans—political.

 

 

Ena Sendijarević has an occasional heavy hand as she too cleverly traces Alma’s journey, filled with detours both literal and metaphorical, but she’s gifted by the fearless young actress Sara Luna Zorić, who makes every moment, every word, every silence, every gesture of Alma meaningful and humane.

 

 

 

 

 

Truman & Tennessee—An Intimate Conversation 

Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams—two of America’s greatest and most distinctive artists during the heyday of celebrity for writers—are brought to vivid, parallel life by Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s documentary, which dives into their early friendship and later falling-out as well as providing their insights into subjects as disparate as their addictions, successes and failures, all through their own words, written and spoken.

 

 

Along with many clips of them talking with Dick Cavett and David Frost, among other TV interviewers, we hear them through the voices of Jim Parsons (Capote) and Zachary Quinto (Williams), who translate their wicked humor and regional uniqueness winningly.

 

 

 

 

 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Husband-and-wife team Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, who have bankrolled several Christian projects, now dramatize the final days of Jesus and what happened to his apostles after he rose from the dead, despite the Romans’ desperate attempts to quell his support.

 

 

It’s manufactured efficiently enough by director Ciaran Donnelly, with an almost risibly bloody crucifixion scene, followed by some less than idiomatic sequences of the disciples—led by Peter and Thomas—being threatened for their association. Most welcome is the presence of Joanne Whalley and Greta Scacchi as Pilate’s wife and Jesus’ mother, respectively; their presence lifts up an otherwise grounded project for a few moments. There’s a superb hi-def transfer.

 

 

 

 

There Was a Crooked Man 

In his first and only western, Joseph Mankiewicz—director of such classics as A Letter to Three Wives, All About Eve and Sleuth—leisurely spins a battle of wits between an armed robber and the new warden in a frontier prison in the Arizona Territory.

 

 

There’s star power aplenty here, from Kirk Douglas (robber) and Henry Fonda (warden) to Burgess Meredith, Hume Cronyn and Warren Oates (prisoners), and Mankiewicz’ solid direction and Robert Benton and David Newman’s clever script are also assets, but this 1970 film’s sheer length (two hours) and snail’s pace sorely test one’s patience, and the meager punch line at the end is too little, too late. The film looks splendid on Blu; lone extra is a vintage making-of featurette.

 

 

 

 

 

DVD Releases of the Week

To discover new insights into the life and work of surrealist Salvador Dali, director David Pujol went to the source: the heads of the two Dali museums in his hometown of Valencia, who enlighten us about the man, the mythic celebrity and the serious—if underestimated—artist.

 

 

There are glimpses of many of his most colorful works, archival footage of Dali and his beloved wife and muse Gala speaking about art and their relationship and a look at his home studio and handpicked museum, both of which look like the places a man with Dali’s prodigious imagination would create. It’s all beautifully shot, accentuating Dali’s uniquely frenzied and disturbing artworks.

 

 

 

 

 

True Mothers 

In Naomi Kawase’s moving chamber drama, the lives of two different mothers—a teen who gave up her baby for adoption and the middle-class wife who adopted him—are illustrated by the inevitable difficulties that crop up when the young mom wants to reenter her child’s life, followed by an unexpected and bittersweet resolution.

 

 

Kawase walks a tightrope of sentimentality and contrived plotting, but her honest characterizations transform this far above the soap opera it might have become. There’s immeasurably strong acting by the leads, Hiromi Nagasaku (adoptive mother) and Aju Makita (real mother), who embody these women with unaffected naturalness. Extras are a Kawase interview by Juliette Binoche and a short film, Return to Toyama, by Japanese director Atsushi Hirai.

 

 

 

 

 

Your Honor 

If you can get past the enervating first episode—in which the entire storyline is set up so laboriously, implausibly and at times risibly (no one with asthma like the teenager in this series has would forget his inhaler no matter how stressed he is, among other howlers)—then this 10-part drama series about the lengths a respected New Orleans judge will go to protect his guilty son will do quite nicely.

 

 

As long as you’re don’t look too closely at all the coincidences and lucky breaks, then the acting of Bryan Cranston, Michael Stuhlbarg, Hope Davis, Hunter Doohan, Carmen Ejoho and Isiah Whitlock Jr. helps smooth over the many rough spots. Lone extra is a series of deleted scenes.

 

 

 

 

 

CD Release of the Week 

Recorded live last fall at the Buffalo Philharmonic’s glorious home, Kleinhans Music Hall, this disc showcases one of the best American orchestras in its element, with JoAnn Falletta leading a sparkling account of the old Vivaldi warhorse, The Four Seasons, making it sound so fresh and it’s like it was just composed.

 

 

Even better is Argentine master Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, not so much a riff on the Vivaldi but an update to 20th century Argentina, where the tango and jazz music are prominent. Tessa Lark shines as the violin soloist in the Piazzolla, while BPO concertmaster Nikki Chooi does the honors in the Vivaldi.