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October '15 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 06 October 2015 23:23
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Beat the Devil
Salt of the Earth
(The Film Detective)
Two B&W classics have gotten the hi-def treatment, starting with John Huston's Beat the Devil, the great 1953 caper starring Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida, Jennifer Jones and Robert Morley: Huston's sly directing and the top-notch cast give this black-comic adventure the extra push it needs to stay in the memory.
1954's Salt of the Earth, made by blacklisted members of the original "Hollywood Ten," is a crudely effective propagandistic drama about a miners’ strike against a heartless New Mexico company. Subtle it ain't, but its glimpse at workers' travails fifty years ago still resonates today. Both movies look decent if unspectacular on Blu-ray.
(Warner Brothers)
Though markedly inferior to the surprise 2012 original hit, that won't matter to anyone who just wants to watch this sequel to see Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, et al (excepting Matthew McConaughey), doing their patented stripper-dance moves. Steven Soderbergh's fingerprints are all over this, even if he's only listed as cinematographer and editor and his associate Gregory Jacobs is director.
For those who want cheesecake to go with their beefcake, there are too-short appearances by Amber Heard, Elizabeth Banks and Jada Pinkett Smith. The film looks sharp on Blu; extras comprise two featurettes and an extended dance scene.
Manglehorn
(IFC)
Al Pacino gives what for him is an understated performance as a locksmith whose business and personal lives are fading in his twilight years as he juggles a distant Wall Street son, an aging and sickly cat, the memory of his dead wife and a budding relationship with a charming bank teller, played by the also usually flamboyant (but here low-key) Holly Hunter.
Director David Gordon Green directs with empathy, and his reining in both of his stars keeps this offbeat character study from becoming too off-key. The movie looks excellent on Blu.
(Magnolia)
This okay documentary about Dallas Mavericks' MVP Dirk Nowitzki—the first German-born player to make it truly big in the NBA—shows his life in Germany and eventual move to the United States and big league superstardom.
Director Sebastian Bernhardt not only talks to Dirk, his parents and mentor (who all speak German for those for whom reading subtitles may be an issue) but also his teammates, coach, GM, owner and even rivals like Kobe Bryant. The movie has a superior hi-def transfer; extras are deleted scenes and a Nowitzki interview.
Poltergeist
(Fox)
When the young daughter of bemused dad and mom, after staring at the big-screen TV in their new house, says "They're here," why don’t her parents realize they’re in a remake of Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg’s 1982 ghostly smash?
Although it follows the original fairly closely—except for making the poltergeist-busting psychic male and including a lame fake ending—there’s nothing particularly interesting going on; the usually reliable Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt are wasted as the parents. Watch (or re-watch) the original instead. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer; extras are an extended cut and alternate ending.
(Fox)
It's been 40 years since the ultimate camp/cult movie was released, and if you're watching it for the first time, you might ask what all the fuss is about: the humor is sophomoric, the songs forgettable and the acting over the top.
But that's not the point: the movie has taken on a life of its own for millions of fans, and this new edition will make it even easier for them to party like it's 1975 whenever they want. The hi-def transfer is first-rate; extras include U.S. and U.K. versions of the film, audio commentary, deleted scenes, alternate opening and ending.
When Marnie Was There
(Universal)
The latest animated masterpiece from the legendary Studio Ghibli is this moving adaptation of Joan G. Robinson's young adult novel about the memories of a young orphaned girl, who discovers her own family history while staying at a remote seaside village to recover from an illness. Unlike many Ghibli films, director Hiromasa Yonebayashi keeps the fantastical stuff to a minimum, but there remains the usual astonishing animation that explores the inner lives of its beautifully rendered characters.
The film (whose vibrant colors are vividly retained on Blu-ray) can be watched in the original Japanese or in English with familiar voices like Hailee Steinfeld, Vanessa Williams and Catherine O'Hara. Extras include featurettes.
(Alchemy)
A hot-shot lawyer’s fast-track to the district attorney's office is complicated by his obsession with paid escorts: once the escort service is busted by the feds, he finds his whole world—personal and professional—starts to crash around him.
For its first half, Mora Stephens' drama follows its protagonist’s double life with knowing plausibility: when it all becomes unhinged and turns risible, an accomplished cast—led by Patrick Wilson's lawyer, Lena Headey as his loyal wife and Dianna Agron as the escort he falls for—can’t overcome a script as obsessively one-track minded as its hero. The film looks decent on Blu; extras include deleted scenes with director's commentary.
DVDs of the Week
Darling Lili
Oh! What a Lovely War
(Warner Archive)
Two massive 1969 box-office flops are back on DVD, starting with Darling Lili, Blake Edwards' overblown paean to wife Julie Andrews, who stars as the singer/spy: despite her charm, the entire enterprise is swamped by its large scale at the expense of the smaller, more interesting story that's been buried.
Likewise, Richard Attenborough's musical-comic look at World War I, Oh! What a Lovely War, favors big-name cameos from many British movie stars—John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson and Susannah York, for starters—and ends up with an incoherent, scattershot approach to its subject. Both films are, sadly, not restored; Lili extras comprise 19 deleted scenes, while War includes Attenborough's audio commentary and a three-part retrospective documentary.
(Film Movement)
The long, eventful life of Nathan Handwerker—who founded the Nathan's Famous hot-dog chain—is recounted by his grandson Lloyd Handwerker in this charming documentary portrait that presents the career and business sense (and, at times, lack of it) of the founder and his family.
Interviews with family members—including some who've since passed away—are interwoven with an audio interview with Nathan before he died for a warts and all glimpse at a successful family business buffeted by the winds of change. Extras comprise a director's commentary, deleted scenes and extra footage.
Fresh Off the Boat—Complete 1st Season
(Fox)
Reign—Complete 2nd Season
(Warner Brothers)
Fresh Off the Boat, from chef Eddie Huang's memoir, shows great promise in its 13-episode first season with its diverting premise of cultural clashes seen through the eyes of a precociously funny 12-year-old whose family has moved from Washington D.C.'s Chinatown to bustling Orlando in the 1990s.
In the second season of the entertaining historical drama Reign, young Mary Queen of Scots discovers, along with her new husband King Francis, that there are tough times ahead for France—where she lived before returning to the Scottish throne—starting with the Black Death and famine. Lone Fresh extra is a gag reel; Reign extras comprise deleted scenes and a featurette.
(Kino)
The proliferation of chemicals in our lives—from the products we use to the foods we eat and even the furniture we sit on—causes innumerable dangers to women's and children’s health and well-being, as Dana Nachman and Don Hardy's documentary shows.
This well thought out road map for how, against insurmountable odds like lobbyists and “bought” politicians, we can fix things contains damning circumstantial evidence and touching personal stories from several individuals. Extras are deleted scenes.
NYC Theater Reviews—‘Antigone' at BAM; ‘Spring Awakening’ on Broadway
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 05 October 2015 21:38
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Antigone
Written by Sophocles; translated by Anne Carson
Directed by Ivo van Hove
Performances through October 4, 2015
Spring Awakening
Music by Duncan Sheik; book and lyrics by Steven Sater
Choreographed by Spencer Liff; directed by Michael Arden
Performances through January 24, 2016
 |
| Juliette Binoche as Antigone at BAM (photo: Stephanie Berger) |
Sophocles' classic tragedy Antigone, about the conflict between the individual and the state— is it ethical or right for a grieving sister to bury her brother even though it's expressly forbidden by the king's law?—has been given a workable new translation by Anne Carson, despite the ill-advised decision to allow the characters themselves to speak the words of the omitted chorus: what might be thought anachronistic is vital to a drama still relevant 2500 years after it was written.
Still, Carson's adaptation is certainly playable, so it's disappointing that director Ivo van Hove has created such a ponderous staging. One yearns for the director's infamous idiosyncrasies, which he has used in the past to do (or undo) works by Ingmar Bergman, Lillian Hellman and others. However, his Antigone, on a monochrome set of modern furniture in front, a large wall showing mainly irrelevant video imagery at the back and a circular opening in said wall that becomes alternately a blazing or eclipsed sun, passes by with nary a flicker of originality or illumination.
Even the ominous soundscape—which Daniel Freitag sculpted from musical fragments by Arvo Part, Henryk Gorecki, Morton Feldman and even Lou Reed, whose "Heroin" ends the proceedings in van Hove's usual way, as a pseudo-hip pop-song cue—comes off half-baked, not even witty. And most disheartening is the lackluster acting: even a luminous movie star like Juliette Binoche inhabits the title role in a curiously inert fashion.
 |
| Sandra Mae Frank and Austin P. McKenzie in Spring Awakening (photo: Joan Marcus) |
I doubt that Broadway was breathlessly awaiting a revival of Spring Awakening—Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's mediocre musical based on Frank Wedekind's classic 1891 play about sexual confusion among teenagers—but that hasn't stopped director Michael Arden. His gimmick? Populating his cast and musicians with both hearing and deaf performers who use American sign language (ASL) throughout the show.
For example, the tragic heroine Wendla is enacted by charming deaf actress Sandra Mae Frank while her dialogue and songs are voiced by the equally talented (and hearing) actress Katie Boeck. Other teenagers, parents and teachers are played by a combination of signing deaf and hearing performers; if the fatal disconnect in the world of the original play is underlined too insistently in Arden's production, he and choreographer Spencer Liff have provided an inventive and continuous flow of onstage activity—the show begins with an almost too clever evocation of what's to come, with actresses Frank and Boeck on either side of a mirror—to help make credible Arden's original notion.
But a little of this goes a long way, since there are times when it's unclear who exactly is speaking or singing: such (deliberate?) confusion doesn't exactly parallel Wedekind's artfully rendered perturbation. Neither do Sheik's colorless tunes and Sater's flavorless lyrics get at the nuances of Wedekind's insightful exploration of adolescent psychology: in fact, whenever the dialogue ends and the songs begin, Spring Awakening screeches to a complete halt.
The large cast is energetic and mostly accomplished, with Patrick Page and Camryn Manheim performing various adults with gusto. If Frank's Wendla is less memorably innocent and sexually curious than Lea Michele in the original production, that's only because she's not Lea Michele (who also had—has—a killer voice). Likewise, Austin P. McKenzie and Daniel N. Durant as male protagonists Melichor and Moritz aren't a patch on Jonathan Groff and John Gallagher Jr. from the original, both of whom—like Michele—went on to bigger and better things.
Here's hoping that, with all the attention the return of Spring Awakening is getting, someone will bring back Wedekind's original play, which desperately needs a revival, since it's still contemporary and relevant without the musical trappings.
Antigone
BAM Harvey Theatre, 651 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY
bam.org
Spring Awakening
Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 256 West 47th Street, New York, NY
springawakeningthemusical.com
September '15 Digital Week IV
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 01 October 2015 01:40
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
The American Dreamer
(Etiquette)
Lawrence Schiller and L.M. Kit Carson's rambling 1971 on-set portrait of Dennis Hopper follows the unlikely auteur, fresh off his Easy Rider triumph, making his follow-up, The Last Movie. Alternately intelligent and clueless, Hopper believes his then-new movie will be more successful than his debut, but it ended up a disaster.
This slight fly-on-the-wall documentary's ramshackle quality makes it a frustratingly uneven look at a filmmaker at work. Still, its time-capsule quality has its appeal. The film's hi-def transfer is naturally grainy; extras are making-of and restoration featurettes.
Breaker Morant
Mister Johnson
(Criterion)
Before becoming a reliable gun-for-hire on a string of commercial movies, Bruce Bersesford had an estimable career, first in his native Australia, then in indepdent international productions, and even in Hollywood, where 1989's Driving Miss Daisy famously won the Best Picture Oscar without him receiving a Best Director nomination. 1980's Breaker Morant, one of his very best films, is a riveting and enraging chronicle of the sacrifice of scapegoated soldiers in the little-known Boer War; Beresford's brilliance at adapting difficult material (a play about the real life Morant), adeptness with actors—Edward Woodward, Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson, for starters—and camaraderie with top collaborators like cinematographer Donald McAlpine are on display.
1990's equally memorable Mister Johnson is a fiercely moral tale of colonialism and racism set in Nigeria. As usual, Beresford's associates (actors Pierce Brosnan and Maynard Eziashi, cinematographer Peter James, composer Georges Delerue) help the director create a fully-realized adaptation of Joyce Cary's remarkable novel. Both films have first-rate transfers; extras include interviews with Beresford, Brosnan, Brown, McAlpine and Eziashi, while Morant also has Beresford's commentary, a 1973 documentary The Breaker and a Boer War video piece.
(Warner Brothers)
I never watched the HBO series which this movie is based on, so I'm probably the wrong audience for such a static, inside-joking, insubstantial feature about a bunch of self-important blowhards in the most self-important town around (Los Angeles) and how they deal with people even more vapid than they.
There's a boatload of cameos, but even in a movie dominated by testosterone and male pattern baldness, two infinitely appealing actresses, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Emily Ratajkowski, steal the show. The movie looks good on Blu; extras include featurettes, deleted scenes and a gag reel.
Murder, My Sweet
(Warner Archive)
In Edward Dmytryk's 1945 adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel, Dick Powell plays detective Philip Marlowe in a film noir that includes two femme fatales—blonde siren Claire Trevor and brunette beauty Anne Shirley—and a shady criminal underworld through which Marlowe moves.
Exceptional acting distinguishes one of the best Marlowe adaptations: although, admittedly, there's not much competition. The restored black and white film looks splendid on Blu-ray; lone extra is an audio commentary by film noir expert Alain Silver.
(Alchemy)
Kris Swanberg's sweet-natured comedy-drama, which follows a young inner-city teacher whose own surprise pregnancy is mirrored by that of one of her best students, lasts only 86 minutes and says little that's insightful or penetrating.
Despite the essential shallowness, there are nice, low-key portrayals by Colby Smoulders as teacher and Gail Bean as student, their time together (and apart) keying an enjoyable and painless entertainment. The Blu-ray transfer is solid.
DVDs of the Week
The Great Museum
(Kino)
In Johannes Holzhausen's intimate documentary, the inner workings of Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum vividly come to life, as curators, administrators, restorers, workmen and visitors ply their trades at one of the world's great art institutions, whose holdings comprise paintings and sculptures by masters such as Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Rubens, Brueghel and many others.
In the style of Frederick Wiseman, Holzhausen's unobtrusive direction is thoroughly encompassing, picking out details large and small to give a sense of what keeps a world-class museum flourishing. Extras include deleted scenes and a director interview.
(Warner Brothers)
When I began watching Jane last fall, I gave up after a few episodes because its plot (an innocent young woman is accidentally inseminated at her doctor's office) seemed a classic one-note premise that wore thin quickly.
But rewatching it, I rediscovered the absolute freshness of Gina Rodriguez, whose irresistible portrayal of Jane turns what could have been a caricature into a funny, intelligent, charming character. The rest of the cast is also excellent, but it's Rodriguez who ultimately triumphs over her show's sitcom silliness. Extras comprise two featurettes, deleted scenes and a gag reel.
Lipstick
(Warner Archive)
Although this exploitative 1976 thriller by Lamont Johnson about a model who must deal with her own rape but also that of her teenage sister amounts to little more than a simplistic revenge picture, there's one very good reason to watch: Mariel Hemingway.
In her film debut, the then-15-year-old provides class and realism in her portrayal of the model's younger sister (the model is played stolidly by Mariel's own older sister, Margaux Hemingway), partly but not entirely obscuring the fact that the movie revels in its predictable melodramatics about rape.
(Sundance Selects)
This exploration of a 1982 Chicago double murder case—which became messy 17 years later when a journalism teacher and his students were able to spring the convicted killer from jail after getting another man to confess to the crimes—shows how the arrogance of an elite academic can infect other people's very lives.
Shawn Rech and Brandon Kimber's film presents what first seems to be a case of injustice for an a convicted murderer on death row, then turns into a compelling look at injustice against someone else.
Soul Boys of the Western World
(Sundance Selects)
I never would have thought that Spandau Ballet, one of many post-punk new-wave bands to emerge from Britain in the late '70s, was worthy of a full-length documentary, and director George Hencken's 111-minute look at the group is far more interesting when it deals with how Margaret Thatcher's conservative England led to so many young people having their say against their era through music.
True, Spandau Ballet did create one of the era's great songs, "True," but that's not enough to make this anything other than a diverting but forgettable group portrait.
September '15 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 24 September 2015 01:41
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
American Heist
(Lionsgate)
This gritty but routine crime drama follows two brothers—one just out of prison, the other trying to go legit—who join local crooks to a rob a bank, with a big problem: the legit brother's new girl happens to work as a 911 operator for the local precinct.
Despite flavorful New Orleans locations, authentic performances by Adrien Brody and Hayden Christensen as the brothers and sweet Jordana Brewster as the girl, director Sarik Andreasyan never pulls his film out of its stupor: its lame "twist" would work better if the story continued for a few more minutes. The hi-def transfer looks good; lone extra is a making-of featurette.
(Disney)
In Kenneth Branagh's colorful take on the most beloved of all fairy tales, Lily James makes for an adorable heroine, and Branagh gets over the top but not quite campy portrayals from Helena Bonham Carter (fairy godmother), Cate Blanchett (evil stepmother), Richard Madden (prince), Derek Jacobi (king) and Sophie McShera and Holliday Grainger (evil stepsisters), all helping this adaptation to not become annoying.
There's far too much CGI for my taste, but that's just me. The Blu-ray transfer is excellent; extras include featurettes and a new Frozen short.
Dog Day Afternoon—40th Anniversary
(Warner Brothers)
Sidney Lumet's botched bank robbery classic—with Al Pacino's best, most completely in-character performance—retains its tension, comedy and tragedy after 40 years, and the magnificence of Frank Pierson's script, Dede Allen's editing, Victor J. Kemper's cinematography and Chris Sarandon's, John Cazale's and Charles Durning's acting is beyond reproach.
This quintessential New York movie was released on Blu-ray in 2007; this new Blu is identical, but with a bonus disc containing I Knew It Was You—Rediscovering John Cazale, a touching 40-minute tribute to the beloved actor, with paeans from Pacino, Cazale’s girlfriend Meryl Streep and fans Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Rockwell and Steve Buscemi. Dog extras are a Lumet commentary, making-of documentary and Lumet featurette; Cazale extras are a commentary, extended interviews and two Cazale short films.
(e one)
Sleepy Hollow—Complete 2nd Season
(Fox)
The supernatural is hard at work in these series, starting with Haven, based on a Stephen King story, now far afield from the original, but sputtering as of late, seemingly content with running out the clock instead of pushing the envelope as it did in its first few seasons.
Sleepy Hollow, on the other hand, is an unapologetically bonkers update of the Ichabod Crane legend: witches, warlocks, 18th century denizens befuddled by cell phones and—best of all—the decapitation of a famous Founding Father. Both series look super on Blu; Havenextras are featurettes and a commentary, and Sleepy extras are commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes and a gag reel.
In the Name of My Daughter
(Cohen Media)
French director Andre Techine teams again with muse Catherine Deneuve for an engrossing true story that shocked France in the '70s: the disappearance of the lone daughter and heir of the head of a casino empire (Deneuve), with suspicion falling on the mother’s closest associate, whom the daughter fell for.
Denueve’s despairing portrait of a mother who's lost her only child and Adele Haenel’s perfect portrayal of the young woman are damagingly offset by the uncharismatic Guillaume Canet as the lover boy-villain: Techine's sharp and tautly told tale suffers because of him. The film looks great on Blu; lone extra is a Canet interview.
(Universal)
In this slight but enjoyable sequel, novice director Elizabeth Banks plays to the original's strengths (the gals’ camaraderie and blistering put-downs) and weaknesses (overlong musical numbers of—mostly—bad songs) to make a diverting comedy that goes on 15-20 minutes too long.
Director Banks smartly has actress Banks return as one of the wisecracking announcers, and her cast—Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld—is accomplished and appealing. The film looks sharp on Blu; extras include a gag reel, featurettes, extended and deleted scenes and additional musical performances.
DVDs of the Week
Closer to the Moon
(Sundance Selects)
Telling the bizarre true story of five Communist Jews in late ‘50s Romania whose brazen robbery was followed by, as part of their punishment, them being forced to reenact the heist for movie cameras before being put to death, writer-director Nae Caranfil has made it even stranger by casting British and American actors, whose dueling accents are jarring.
It works well in Vera Farmiga's splendid scenery-chewing as the gang’s lone woman, but an uncertain tone and forced air of whimsy permeate throughout: we never get a sense of how their act bumped up against a brutally totalitarian regime.
The Other Man
(First Run)
Mary McDonagh Murphy's 2011 documentary about the famously reclusive To Kill a Mockingbird author has been updated, ns Harper Lee, to incorporate her "new" novel, Go Set a Watchman, the controversial prequel to her classic book. This is an engaging overview of the life and art of a woman who has remained out of the public eye for 50 years, with encomiums from family members, friends, colleagues and admirers, including authors Scott Turow and Anna Quindlen and celebrity fans Oprah Winfrey and Tom Brokaw.
South African apartheid met its demise during F.W. de Klerk’s presidency, and The Other Man utilizes recent interview footage with him and other talking heads to examine his role as Nelson Mandela's partner in ending a cruelly racist regime. Neither does it skimp on de Klerk's own racist ties against Mandela’s African National Congress; it’s still a fair and balanced portrait of a vital cog in true historical change. The lone Harper extra is a visit with Lee this past June;Other extras are additional interviews.
Jeff Lynne's ELO—Live in Hyde Park
(Eagle Rock)
ELO's presiding genius Jeff Lynne finally gave in and performed his band's biggest hits for the first time in decades for thousands of sated fans in London last September: the concert—comprising 16 songs, 15 by ELO and a single (inexplicable) one by the best forgotten Travelling Wilburys—provides 70 minutes of high-energy progressive rock courtesy of Lynne, his band mates (including original ELO member Richard Tandy), and a full string orchestra.
Highlights are note-for-note perfect recreations of "Turn to Stone," "Don't Bring Me Down" and encores "Telephone Line" and Lynne's most Beatlesque magnum opus, "Mr. Blue Sky." The hi-def video and stereo audio are excellent; extras include a Lynne interview and an ELO history documentary.
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