VOD of the Week 

(MPI/Capelight)

Marco Kreuzpaintner’s absorbing courtroom drama, based on Ferdinand von Schirach’s novel, takes what seems an open-and-shut murder case and, through compelling and clever machinations concerning the sordid shared history of killer and victim, becomes a riveting dissection of wartime criminality and those who whitewash it afterwards.

The cast is exemplary: Elyas M'Barek as the green defense lawyer, Franco Nero as his accused client, Alexandra Maria Lara as the victim’s granddaughter and lawyer’s close friend, and Heiner Lauterbach as the smug opposing counsel. 

Caro Diario (Dear Diary)

(Film Movement Classics)

Nanni Moretti’s 1994 triptych comprises episodes varying in amusement, seriousness and interest while representing the states of the filmmaker/narrator’s mind, from the zesty (“On My Vespa,” with Moretti motoring around Rome) to the negligible (“Islands”—unfortunately the longest—about an island where parents let children run things) and the deadly serious (“Doctors,” recounting Moretti’s harrowing cancer treatment).

The tone wavers uneasily throughout, not surprisingly, but Moretti’s light touch helps him—and viewers—through some of the rough spots. 

Blu-rays of the Week 

(Dynamic) 

A truly rediscovered opera is this 1809 historical epic about the infamous Spanish explorer Cortez, who cut swaths of discovery and destruction throughout the new world, and Gaspar Spontini—an early 19th century Italian composer—found interesting musical and dramatic ideas to make his story stageworthy.

Cecilia Ligorio’s 2019 production in Florence, Italy, is clearly and impressively thought-out, with fine musical contributions from orchestra and chorus as well as stand-out turns as Cortez and his Aztec princess love by, respectively, Dario Schmunck and Alexia Voulgaridou. The hi-def image and sound are impeccable.

The Reluctant Debutante 

(Warner Archive)

In Vincente Minnelli’s fizzy 1958 adaptation of William Douglas Home’s play, Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall play the nervous parents of a 16-year-old (Sandra Dee) who has eyes for a young man they consider a “mere” musician—but little do they know.

There are few big laughs, instead mainly amused smiles, as Harrison and Kendall are overshadowed by Dee’s mature teenager and Angela Lansbury’s exuberant comic performance as a scheming mom. While forgettable in the extreme, Minnelli completists might find more in it. The hi-def transfer looks excellent.

Sunday in New York 

Peter Tewksbury’s 1963 romantic comedy is a product of its time and ahead of it: Jane Fonda plays a 22-year-old bemoaning her virginity on a visit to New York who sets her sights on a man (Rod Taylor) she meets on the Fifth Avenue bus…but when her Albany suitor (Robert Culp) arrives at her brother’s (Cliff Robertson) apartment, things really get screwy.

Based on a Norman Krasna play (apparently a decent Broadway hit starring Robert Redford), the movie is as light as a feather, but it has Fonda at her most irresistible—and it may be a distant cousin to Woody Allen’s new frothy comedy A Rainy Day in New York, which is inexplicably unavailable to see in the U.S.

We Summon the Darkness 

(Lionsgate)

A trio of leather-clad young women bring three young men back to the house of one of the girls’ dad for fun and games after a heavy-metal concert, which soon turns into blood and guts in this tongue-in-cheek concoction from director Marc Meyers and writer Alan Trezza.

For about half its length, this horror parody is diverting; too bad that it eventually succumbs to Tarantino-itis, with inappropriately jokey violence, innocuous pop songs to blatantly underline the plot’s ludicrousness (although Kubrick did it better long before Tarantino with Full Metal Jacket); and remaining proudly illogical. The spirited performers keep things watchable. There’s a vivid hi-def transfer.

DVD of the Week 

(Film Movement)

Directors Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche chronicle the life and career of the indefatigable Lea Tsemel, one of the most hated and misunderstood people in Israel over the past half-century. Tsemel unapologetically defends those accused of crimes against the state, mainly Palestinians but even fellow Israelis like her husband, who was charged with and served jail time for what they considered trumped-up charges.

Thought-provoking and provocative like its protagonist, Advocate spotlights a woman whose fearlessness is her greatest weapon, as her husband, son and daughter acknowledge how family life has been disrupted at the same time as they admire her honesty and bravery.  

CD of the Week

Tom Cipullo—The Parting 

(Naxos)

This intensely moving chamber opera by composer Tom Cipullo and librettist David Mason explores the sad and illuminating story of Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti, who was murdered during the Holocaust, and his relationship with his wife as Death hovers nearby.

Cipullo’s brittle and dynamic score is for a quintet of exceptional instrumentalists (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano) and a trio of powerful voices: baritone Michael Mayes (Radnóti), soprano Laura Strickling (his wife) and mezzo Catherine Cook (Death). The combination of Radnóti’s translated poetry and intimate conversations makes for an unforgettable listening experience. 

(Criterion Collection)

In John Cassavetes’ 1970 exploration of male midlife crisis, three lifelong Long Island friends go on a binge after the sudden death of another buddy that includes public drunkenness (oh the horror!) and a boys’ trip to London. Cassavetes’ worst tendencies come to the fore here—the 142-minute movie is excruciating to sit through, as scene after interminable scene plays out in real time, with scant insight—mitigating the forceful performances of Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk and Cassavetes as the eponymous characters.

Obviously director Cassavetes couldn’t leave these improvisations on the cutting-room floor, so we all have to suffer through them. Criterion’s hi-def transfer is splendid; extras include reviewer Marshall Fine’s commentary, archival interviews with the stars (like an embarrassingly self-indulgent appearance on Dick Cavett) and cinematographer Victor H. Kemper, and new interviews with producer Al Ruben and actress Jenny Runacre, who’s terrific in her scenes with Cassavetes.

Inside Daisy Clover 

(Warner Archive)

Based on a novel by Gavin Lambert (who also wrote the script), Robert Mulligan’s uneven 1965 film satirizes Hollywood through the exploits of a 15-year-old girl who lives in a shack on a Southern California boardwalk with her mother.

Though tackling—however gingerly—then-verboten topics like (closeted) homosexuality and statutory rape, the film’s more parodic than incisively satiric, but the performances of Natalie Wood (though too old for the lead role), Robert Redford, Christopher Plummer and Ruth Gordon keep interest high right up until the obvious but perfectly realized final image. The movie looks quite enticing on Blu; lone extra is a vintage Bugs Bunny cartoon (huh? nothing on the film itself?).

The Hunting Gun 

King Arthur 

(Naxos)

In Thomas Larcher’s often mesmerizing new opera, The Hunting Gun, Yasushi Inoue’s novel about a man, his wife, daughter and mistress is brought to life with brilliant immediacy and psychological complexity, thanks to the consistently surprising musical score and the fine 2018 world premiere Bengenz Festival production.

Henry Purcell’s 17th century theater-opera hybrid, King Arthur, staged in Berlin three years ago, has wondrous musical interludes but the spoken sections—especially when, as here, done in German—distract from the tale being told, despite notable contributions from the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin under René Jacobs, choir, singers, actors and dancers. Both operas look and sound terrific in hi-def; but unfortunately there are no extras, especially for the Larcher opera. 

VOD/Virtual Cinema Releases of the Week 

(Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Actress/writer Kelly O’Sullivan may be a double threat, but she has scripted herself an enervating character to play: aimless 34-year-old Bridget, who becomes a nanny while trying to keep her messy personal life from unraveling even further.

There is humor and the occasional insight in this portrait of a young woman looking for a true direction, but O’Sullivan and director Alex Thompson rely too much on contrivance, especially concerning young Frances, Bridget’s charge, and a superficial cutesiness, exemplified by Bridget going after Frances’ hot guitar teacher after having an abortion against her not-quite-boyfriend’s wishes. Such moments mute what should have been a more compellingly chaotic comedic character study.

Stage—The Culinary Internship 

(Cargo Film & Releasing)

In the Michelin-starred Mugaritz restaurant near San Sebastian, Spain, 30 aspiring chefs arrive for a nine-month intensive that can make or break their careers, and director Abby Ainsworth follows several of them around as they try and succeed in this fraught but dynamic environment.

Alongside the wannabes’ personal stories are their equally personal dishes—including such strangely compelling if not so edible-looking dishes like apple rot, which is apples with penicillin—all overseen by renowned chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, who runs this, one of the world’s most offbeat, even infamous eateries.

DVDs of the Week 

(IFC Films)

Rashaad Ernesto Green’s beguiling independent feature follows 17-year-old aspiring poet Ayanna, who falls for 20-ish music producer Isaiah and discovers that first love is serious and difficult—especially when she discovers she’s pregnant.

Green’s admirably frank, sexy portrait of a young woman finding herself has, in the winning actress Zora Howard (who co-wrote the script with Green) as Ayanna, the perfect embodiment of an intelligent, artistic and complex young woman who deserves the movie that’s been built around her. The lone extra is Green’s 2008 short, also starring Howard and also titled Premature.

Still a Revolutionary—Albert Einstein 

(First Run Features)

Showing that Albert Einstein wasn’t the cuddly, white-haired genius he’s been pigeonholed as, Julia Newman’s succinct 80-minute documentary, though a little rough around the edges, is as fascinating as its subject.

Through vintage footage, interviews with historians and biographers, and glimpses of Einstein’s wide-ranging opinions on everything from nuclear war and Nazism to civil rights and abortion rights, Still a Revolutionary provides a necessary corrective and brings Einstein into our own difficult century as our intellectual and moral lodestar.

CDs of the Week 

(Mercury)

The classic Canadian prog trio’s commercial 1980 breakthrough showed that the band could move into shorter song forms without sacrificing the epic structures and instrumental chops that characterized its earlier records. From the opening “The Spirit of Radio”—which became one of the few popular Rush anthems—to the closing multi-part suite “Natural Science,” the album split the difference between musical complexity (“Jacob’s Ladder”) and lyrical simplicity (“Entre Nous,” “Different Strings”), with the straight-ahead rocker “Free Will” thrown in for good measure.

This welcome two-disc set includes the superb-sounding remastered album and 11 electric live tracks from the group’s 1980 tour, featuring most of the then-new record along with earlier gems “Xanadu” and  “Cygnus X-1”—both Book I and Book II!

Arnold Schoenberg—Pelleas und Melisande/Erwartung 

(Chandos)

The break in Arnold Schoenberg’s career—from full-blown Romanticism to the 12-tone system—is heard in this excellent recording of one of his most ravishing scores—the tone poem Pelleas und Melisande, based on Maurice Maeterlinck’s drama that Claude Debussy turned into his operatic masterpiece—as well as his haunting monodrama Erwartung, composed six years after Pelleas and comprising the kind of resolutely “difficult” music for which he was renowned (and reviled).

Edward Gardner conducts the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in a passionate Pelleas, while chamber forces most ably accompany the dazzling American soprano Sara Jakubiak in Erwartung’s solo vocal tour de force.

VOD/Virtual Cinema Releases of the Week 

(IFC Films)

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon return for their fourth go-round touring Europe and eating superb meals along the way, and if this entry is pretty much more of the same—amazing scenery, delectable dinners, and good-natured banter and dueling impressions—the stars have such great chemistry that the formula still works.

Michael Winterbottom directs with his usual light hand, and even obvious running gags like Greece the country vs. Grease the movie find laughs; and if the eventual plot divergence of comedy (Brydon) and tragedy (Coogan) is hackneyed, it doesn’t ruin an otherwise pleasurable journey.

Incitement 

(Greenwich Entertainment)

Yaron Zilberman’s provocative drama recounts the movements of Yigal Amir, assassin of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, from his thinking up the plot until carrying it out. Dazzlingly mixing in archival footage, Zilberman painstakingly and thoughtfully details how Amir, incensed by Rabin’s and Arafat’s Oslo peace talks, found passages in the Torah and interpretations by conservative rabbis to give him permission to act.

Yehuda Nahari Halevi, onscreen in nearly every shot, makes a persuasively confused killer; fine support comes from the actresses playing the women in his life: Daniella Kertesz (familiar from World War Z) and Sivan Mast.

Joan of Arc 

French director Bruno Dumont has, aside from his best films (Le Vie de Jesus, Humanite, Hadewijch), made duds like his 2017 Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc, a misconceived heavy-metal musical biopic. Now Dumont has made a sequel, once again starring the intense but miscast (and now 10-year-old) Lise Leplat Prudhomme in the title role.

Shot in the medieval cathedral in Amiens, France, Joan of Arc records her merciless questioning by unsympathetic church investigators with dull literalness. Even the usually excellent Francois Luchini as a church elder grilling the young girl can’t make a dramatic dent.

Nomad—In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin 

(Music Box Films)

Werner Herzog’s new documentary is a tribute to his friend, the adventurer and writer Bruce Chatwin, who died in 1989 of AIDS. Following Chatwin’s writings and visiting several of the far-flung places he reported on and lived in, Herzog talks with Chatwin’s widow and several friends and writers to paint a vivid if occasionally hazy portrait of a true original who also played a part in the creation of Herzog’s own film Cobra Verde, which was based on a Chatwin novel.

Herzog puts himself front and center, unsurprisingly, but his career has been entwined with Chatwin’s so it’s forgivable. 

A Towering Task—The Story of the Peace Corps 

One of America’s most important exports of the past 60 years, the Peace Corps was created by JFK and, despite missteps and other political shenanigans, is still going relatively strong even during the pandemic that is the tRump administration.

Alana DeJoseph’s engrossing documentary, narrated by Annette Bening, recounts its origins, history and ideals, as everyone (including volunteers who became leaders in and out of government) illustrate the notion that American exceptionalism can still work in the fulfillment of a just cause.

Blu-rays of the Week

The Man Standing Next 

(MPI)

This fast-paced, exciting political thriller dramatizes the events leading to the 1979 assassination of South Korea’s president amidst the U.S. congressional scandal known as Koreagate. Director Woo Min-ho’s confident, stylish drama compellingly juggles several storylines which coalesce in a bloody conspiratorial climax.

The performances are excellent top to bottom, and the film’s quasi-documentary look gives it the weight of history, the context of which most Americans will surely be unaware of. The film looks sensationally good in hi-def.

The Mystery of the Wax Museum 

Michael Curtiz’s 1933 pre-code horror flick stars King Kong’s Fay Wray as the friend of an intrepid reporter who enters the crosshairs of a deranged wax museum owner who thinks she looks like the Marie Antoinette replica lost in a fire a dozen years earlier.

This fairly ridiculous little item at least doesn’t waste time getting from A to B (it’s 80 minutes long), even if the stilted acting and cheap sets don’t help matters. Warner Archive’s first-rate restoration gives the two-color Technicolor visuals a satisfying onscreen pop; extras are two commentaries and a featurette about Wray with an interview with her daughter.

The Way Back 

(Warner Brothers)

Ben Affleck gives a strong and vulnerable performance as a high school basketball star whose life has hit a dead-end (nights getting drunk at a local dive) so he agrees to return to his alma mater to coach a raw group of players.

Although director Patrick O’Connor unearths every cliché of the cinematic sports-redemption story (from Hoosiers to Rudy to Miracle), hitting all the usual bases until his hero is literally lying face-first in the street blotto, there’s an earnestness to the narrative and to Affleck’s presence that makes this overly formulaic drama watchable. The film looks good on Blu; extras comprise two making-of featurettes.

DVDs of the Week 

(IFC Films)

It’s too bad director Jeremy Teicher was allowed to film in the Olympic Village at PyeongChang, South Korea, during the 2018 Winter Olympics, since all he came up with was this familiar semi-romance between a cross-country skier and a volunteer dentist.

Alexi Pappas and Nick Kroll (who were given co-script credit for their seemingly improvised dialogue) provide a few tenderly awkward moments as their characters dance around a possible relationship, but it all adds up to much ado about nothing. A documentary about the actual athletes living in the village would have been more interesting than this.

The Venerable W. 

(Icarus Films)

Veteran French director Barbet Schroeder’s truly disturbing documentary introduces one of the greatest threats to peace and security in the southeast Asian country of Myanmar: Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist monk whose racially-charged sermons have contributed to the anti-Muslim violence that has overtaken the region in the past decade.

It’s shocking but not surprising when he confidently says that the U.S. can only have its own peace and security under Donald tRump. Schroeder records this man’s quiet ravings with bemusement, simultaneously providing facts as a necessary historical corrective to show how dangerous such deluded hatred can become.

CD of the Week 

(SWR Music)

Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) composed seven symphonies that ran the gamut from the early, playful “Classical” symphony to the weighty Fifth, his symphonic masterpiece.

The two works on this disc—played solidly if with only intermittent passion by the Deutsche Radio Symphonie under conductor Pietari Inkinen—are among the composer’s most intense: the Third Symphony recycles musical themes and episodes from his complex opera The Fiery Angel (which failed at its premiere) to astonishing effect; and the staggering Sixth Symphony, an affecting study of the Russian psyche following the Second World War.