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Reviews
August '15 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 12 August 2015 00:33
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Barely Lethal
(Lionsgate)
This comic caper about a lethal assassin who, because she's a teenage girl, decides to become a "normal" high school kid, works on and off for 90 minutes, growing increasingly desperate to balance its Sixteen Candles homage with warmed-over Spy Kids-like action.
Kyle Newman's movie at least has Hailee Steinfeld, an accomplished and charming actress who holds the screen formidably since her memorable 2010 debut in True Grit: with the likes of Samuel Jackson and Jessica Alba wasted, Steinfeld is the only one worth watching. The movie looks good on Blu; extras comprise a commentary, deleted scenes and featurette.
(Alchemy)
In a faith-based drama with a twist even O. Henry would have rejected, a high school senior is framed for murder in 1950s Georgia and his identical twin brother takes matters into his own hands to set everything right. It's too bad hamfisted director Joshua Mills' inability to tell a straightforward story without obvious religious symbolism drags down his competent cast.
Some may find its message emotionally or spiritually satisfying, but it would have been more so without such heavyhanded writing and directing. The movie looks fine on Blu.
The Dovekeepers
(CBS/Paramount)
This collaborative followup to The Bible by actress Roma Downey and husband Mark Burnett is an equally leaden and laugh-inducing mini-series, the opposite of Alice Hoffman's original novel about the events leading to the mass Jewish suicide at Masada around A.D. 73 through the eyes of several women.
This could have been gripping television, but if the visuals (well-chosen costumes, sets and locations) look OK, actresses Cote de Pablo, Rachel Brosnahan and Kathryn Prescott can do little, while someone like Sam Neill does even less. The superior hi-def transfer is the best thing about this release.
Far from the Madding Crowd
(Fox)
The latest adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel about the free-spirited Bathesheba Everdene and the very different men she juggles has been directed crisply by Thomas Vinterberg and well acted by the always remarkably Carey Mulligan and, as her suitors, Tom Sturridge, Michael Sheen and Matthias Schoenaerts; too bad it loses out to John Schlesinger's longer 1967 film.
(Over)length is necessary, but Vinterberg's version clocks in at exactly two hours, making it more like Cliffs Notes. It looks gorgeous, of course, but there's a lack of sweep and grandeur amid the intimacy of Hardy's classic story. The Blu-ray transfer is excellent; extras comprise deleted scenes, an alternate ending and crew and cast interviews.
The French Lieutenant's Woman
(Criterion)
John Fowles' novel about an affair between a Victorian woman and a dashing man was long considered unfilmable, and the middling 1981 adaptation by director Karel Reisz, from a clever but unsatisfying script by Harold Pinter, does nothing to dispel that theory: by making the story a parallel affair between that couple and the contemporary movie stars portraying them, it crudely visualizes Fowles' intelligent conceit.
The Criterion Collection, of course, goes all out with its new Blu-ray edition: stunning hi-def transfer, new interviews with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons, and a South Bank Show episode from 1981 with vintage interviews of Reisz and Pinter.
(Warner Bros)
Anne Fletcher's mostly unfunny odd couple/buddy comedy, which stars Sofia Vergara and Reese Witherspoon as a hot tamale fugitive and tomboyish Southern cop on the run together (don't ask), might have been more palatable if the actresses had switched roles, but that would have forced the filmmakers to come up with something original and humorous.
Neither actress can overcome the sexist jokes thrown her way for 85 minutes; except for a decent opening title sequence, the movie is DOA. The hi-def transfer is solid; extras are featurettes and an alternate ending.
Insurgent
(Lionsgate)
For this Divergent follow-up, it's up to Shailene Woodley and her rockin' short haircut to save the world—or at least post-apocalyptic Chicago—from Jeanine (a bored-looking Kate Winslet), who wants all divergents hunted down. Woodley is terrific, as always, but even she finds it hard to keep a straight face when speaking many howlers in the dialogue or perform nonsensical stunts in several unexciting action sequences.
Whether director Robert Schwentke or Veronica Roth's original novel is to blame is immaterial, as we await the next installment of what's becoming another underwhelming dystopian young person's fantasy with trepidation. The movie looks very good on Blu; extras are a commentary and featurettes.
(Cinema Guild)
In Lisandro Alonso's western, a foreigner in late 1800s Patagonia looks for his teenage daughter a la The Searchers, but that cliched plotline is merely a pretext for Alonso's artful location camerawork and impressive editing, which partially compensate for the lackluster acting and script.
The claustrophobia induced by the square 1.33:1 frame provides tension, but Viggo Mortensen's hero has been directed so laconically that he literally fades into the background after awhile. The film has received a first-rate hi-def transfer; extras comprise a 30-minute New York Film Festival press conference and two Alonso shorts.
A Little Chaos
(Universal)
In his pleasant if uninspired directorial debut, Alan Rickman stars as the king of France in this fictional tale of the first female landscape designer (Kate Winslet) in a 17th century field dominated by men: Matthias Schoenaerts plays the head Versailles Gardens designer who has eyes for Winslet.
It's all very pretty (with enticing costumes and sets) but also pretty forgettable; Schoenaerts and Winslet are hamstrung by the middlebrow romance, Rickman's king is less droll than dull and Stanley Tucci's foppishness quickly turns enervating. The Blu-ray transfer is impeccable; surprisingly, there are no extras.
Flamenco Flamenco
(Music Box)
Legendary Spanish director Carlos Saura's brilliant career making music and dance films continues with this 2010 exploration of the indigenous Spanish art form, a follow-up to his own 1995 documentary, Flamenco; once again, stupendous performances of flamenco's greatest practitioners are superbly recorded by Saura and his frequent collaborator, the master cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.
Saura and Storaro's deftly (and intricately) choreographed camera movements create yet another intoxicating musical journey. Too bad that, on DVD, voluminous extras (short Saura interview, a look at the performers and a 100-minute making-of documentary) are included, which make the movie's transfer less than scintillating.
Match
(IFC)
Stephen Belber, who adapted his own play, also directed this occasionally involving drama about an aging ballet dancer-teacher and his surprising relationship with a couple that's come to interview him.
Although the dialogue has bite and some wit, the machinations that trigger what happens to the trio are too contrived to take seriously, even if the intimate final scenes have a sort of tenderness to them that's likely due to the sensitive acting of Carla Gugino, the calm at the center of the overacted storm of Patrick Stewart and Matthew Lillard.
(Warner Bros)
Rookie Blue—5th Season, Volume 2
(e one)
The fourth season of Person finds the investigators as often as not being investigated themselves, all the while coming to terms with bleak ending of season 3; solid acting by Michael Emerson, Sarah Shahi, Jim Caviezel and the rest of the team is what propels the season's 22 fast-paced episodes.
In the first 11 involving episodes of Blue's 5th season, the men and women of the precinct try to deal with the physical and psychological aftereffects of two of their own being shot at last season's end.Person extras are featurettes, Comic-Con panel and gag reel; Rookie extras are a featurette and webisodes.
August '15 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 04 August 2015 23:16
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
The Casual Vacancy
(Warner Bros)
Based on J.K. Rowling's post-Harry Potter novel, this four-hour HBO miniseries is crammed with stellar performers like Michael Gambon, Rory Kiear, Julia McKenzie and Simon McBurney, but director Jony Campbell and writer Sara Phelps haven't summoned a sense of urgency about the various misdeeds, dilemmas and disasters surrouding everyone in the picturesque town of Pagford.
I don't know if Rowling's underlying book suffers similarly (numerous changes were made), but the miniseries comes across as a vacuous but pretty-looking Masterpiece Theatre wannabe. The movie looks quite good on Blu; extras are three behind-the-scenes featurettes.
(Lionsgate)
This '50s Cold War thriller, with its dark, dank Russian locations and murky secret-police operatives engaging in a widespread coverup of a series of killings, is Gorky Park-lite, even if it's based on Tom Rob Smith's first novel about agent Leo Demidov, played with steely-eyed resolve by Tom Hardy.
Director Daniel Espinosa keeps things moving, and there's strong support from Noomi Rapace and Gary Oldman, but the movie alternates between fast-moving sequences and meandering among its dreary characters and locations. The Blu-ray transfer is top-notch; lone extra is a making-of featurette.
Innerspace
(Warner Bros)
Joe Dante's intermittently delightful 1987 comic fantasy, with amusing (and Oscar-winning) special effects, is too satisfied with its cleverness, which prevents its ever really taking off; it also pretty much coasts on Dennis Quaid's and Martin Short's screen personas, which moots the effectiveness of the entire inside-the-body experience.
And unfortunately, there's also the usual dead space occupied by a tiresome Meg Ryan trying desperately to act. On hi-def, the movie's visuals are still eye-popping; the lone extra is a commentary by Dante and others.
Jenufa
War and Peace
(Arthaus Musik)
Playing Czech composer Leos Janacek's first great tragic heroine in Jenufa, German soprano Michaela Kaune performs with sensitivity and intelligence, bringing Kristof Loy's flimsy production to surging life with help from conductor Donald Runnicles and the the Berlin Opera orchestra and chorus; hi-def video and audio are first-rate.
In Sergei Prokofiev's masterly War and Peace, based on Leo Tolstoy's massive novel, 1000 pages of dense prose have been stunningly transformed into a stirring four-hour stage drama. The Kirov Opera's 1991 production by director Graham Vick has been transferred to hi-def with a disappointingly soft image; at least conductor Valery Gergiev and several Russian singers give Prokofiev's varied score a lively intensity.
Madame Bovary
(Alchemy)
Sophie Barthes is the latest director to take a crack at Gustave Flaubert's classic novel about a young woman whose boredom as a country doctor's wife leads her to several affairs, disgrace and death; while Barthe gets the physical production's details right, her casting drags Flaubert's heroine down into superfluous melodramatics.
Mia Wasikowska might be the right age for Emma, but she never gets past acting like a petulant teenager, while someone like Paul Giamatti is utterly too contemporary to play the local pharmacist; Henry Lloyd-Hughes fares better as Emma's husband Charles. The film does look sumptuous on Blu.
(IFC)
Those who like their violence gruesomely nasty will find it in this western by Danish director Christian Levring, in which the perfectly cast Mads Mikkelsen plays an immigrant whose just-arrived wife and young son are murdered by low-lifes whom he kills before facing the wrath of a vengeful widow and her brother-in-law. Whether one responds to its singlemindedness will depend on how much one cares about wall-to-wall, blood-filled revenge.
Along with Mikkelsen, Eva Green makes the most of a thankless role as the mute widow and Nanna Oland Fabricius has a lovely if too-short presence as the ill-fated wife. The movie's spaciousness looks great on Blu; lone extras are behind-the-scenes and interviews.
Showdown in Little Tokyo
(Warner Archive)
Why this loud but empty 1991 action flick is worthy of a Blu-ray upgrade over more worthy titles is even more mysterious than the goofy look on star Dolph Lundgren's face whenever he attempts to act or show emotion.
Director Mark L. Lester never met a cliche he didn't like, and fans of Tia Carrere will be disappointed to know that a body double did her nude scenes (although years later Carrere did pose nude for Playboy, for what it's worth). The hi-def transfer is good.
Any Day
(Anchor Bay)
What could have been a gritty study of an ex-con deal with the harsh realities of the post-prison world is turned by writer-director Rustam Branaman into a mawkish, sentimental drama cobbled together with the gracefulness and intelligence of a fourth grader's first book report.
The sloppiness in Branaman's writing—every story arc is so predictable that it's easy to guess the risible twists and turns—destroys a game cast led by Sean Bean as the ex-con, Kate Walsh as his sister and Eva Longoria as an unlikely neighborhood beauty whom our hero meets grocery shopping.
Every Secret Thing
(Anchor Bay)
Amy Berg made the fascinating documentary West of Memphis; for her feature debut, she takes Nicole Holofcener's bumpy adaptation of Laura Lippman's novel—about two girls, who once caused a toddler's death, caught in another missing child controversy—and turns it into an occasionally gripping psychological mystery.
Fine acting by Elizabeth Banks, Diane Lane, Abigail Breslin and Danielle Macdonald as the girl at the center of the case help smooth over a script that merely skims the surface of its serious themes. Extras comprise deleted scenes.
(Decca)
For the 200th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi's birth, this 2013 concert at Milan's famed La Scala Opera House shows a different glimpse of the great opera composer with a selection of purely instrumental sections of his operas, played with verve by the Filharmonia della Scala orchestra and conductor Riccardo Chailly, all of whom have Verdi's music in their blood.
The operas excerpted include Jerusalem, Nabucco, Giovanna d'Arco, I vespri siciliani, and La forza del destino, whose thunderous overture closes a triumphant performance of Verdi without any vocalists.
NYC Theater Reviews—"Shows for Days," "Amazing Grace"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Sunday, 02 August 2015 20:03
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Shows for Days
Written by Douglas Carter Beane; directed by Jerry Zaks
Performances through August 23, 2015
Amazing Grace
Book, music & lyrics by Christopher Smith; directed by Gabriel Barre
Opened July 16, 2015
 |
| Lupone in Shows for Days (photo: Joan Marcus) |
For Douglas Carter Beane, nothing succeeds like excessive zingers. His latest play, the awkwardly titled Shows for Days, is full of them, and they overwhelm this sentimental, sketchy autobiographical memory play about how he began in theater. His teenage alter ego Car hangs around a local Reading, Pennsylvania, theater group, first doing grunt work, then writing lively cast bios and finally penning a full-length play put on by the troupe.
Beane populates his play, narrated by the grownup Car, with a caricatured whiny young actress, aggressive bisexual actor, mincing veteran actor, lesbian jack/jane of all trades and domineering diva. There are scattered amusing moments and one-liners, but Beane is much too concerned with demonstrating theater's sacredness, whether it's in a small town or at Lincoln Center, and with pulling back the curtain on what goes on offstage, with in-joke references that get titters of recognition from a few insiders and crickets from the rest of the audience.
If Shows for Days is a trite exercise in hagiographic autobiography, director Jerry Zaks knows how to smooth over its worst impulses by staging it as zestily as possible, even if most of his game cast is unable to escape the clutches of Beane’s clichéd characters.
Only the legendary Patti Lupone is able to transform the diva Irene into a sharply-etched portrait of a hurricane-like life force, not so much bulldozing but tapdancing her way through the play, giving even Beane’s weakest lines a sense of hilarious urgency. Shows for Days would be even more forgettable without Lupone's brilliant artistry.
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| Young and Foy in Amazing Grace (photo: Joan Marcus) |
The story of John Newton—18th century British slave owner turned militant abolitionist who wrote one of the most beloved songs ever—is certainly fascinating, but the musical made from it, Amazing Grace,contents itself with melodrama, unsubtle explications of slavery's evil and songs that never approach Newton's own quiet hymn, which has accumulated heavy baggage over the centuries: most recently, President Obama sang it at the memorial service for nine murdered Charleston churchgoers.
Since the song "Amazing Grace" has been placed at the very end—where it's performed twice, first by the cast then, after curtain calls, by the cast and the audience in a communal celebration—we must endure 2-1/2 hours of mediocre tunes, lyrics, dramatics and dimestore psychology as Newton changes from a man who thought slavery was natural (his father ran a booming slave-trading business) to a fervent abolitionist.
Since Newton also penned some 200 songs, surely a couple could have gotten into the show; instead, Christopher Smith's mainly unmemorable numbers, which comprise pseudo-spirituals and pseudo-big ballads, predominate in director Gabriel Barre's well-paced staging.
Most impressive is the first-rate physical production by set designers Eugene Lee and Edward Pierce, costume designer Toni-Leslie James and lightning designers Ken Billington and Paul Miller, whose accomplished work climaxes with a marvelously realized tableau of Newton being saved from drowning by his loyal slave Thomas at the close of the first act.
Josh Young's strong-voiced Newton, Erin Mackey's beguliling Mary (Newton's longtime sweetheart), Chuck Cooper's tough but tender Thomas, Laiona Michelle's sympathetic slave Nanna and Harriett D. Foy's hypnotic Princess Peyai of Sierra Leone (who sold her own people and treated the shipwrecked Newton as a sex slave) are all but drowned out by the heavyhanded mediocrity of the music, lyrics and book.
Despite good intentions, Amazing Grace never illuminates its important story for its audience.
Shows for Days
Mitzi E. Newhouse @ Lincoln Center Theater, New York, NY
lct.org
Amazing Grace
Nederlander Theater, 208 West 41st Street, New York, NY
amazinggracemusical.com
July '15 Digital Week IV
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 28 July 2015 22:40
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Cemetery Without Crosses
(Arrow USA)
An unabashed tribute to Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, French director-actor-cowriter Robert Hossein made this entertaining 1969 revenge shoot-em-up at the height of the craze: it passes by harmlessly enough, with an interesting hanging at the opening that's followed by lots of vacant stares and pauses that do little more than fill up the 90-minute running time.
Hossein himself plays the hero of sorts with little nuance, while French actress Michele Mercier plays the femme fatale with an enthusiasm belying her lack of acting ability. The film looks fine for its age on Blu; extras are three Hossein interviews.
(Kino Lorber)
In Jess Franco's (deliberately?) mistitled thriller, after the famous doctor Victor Frankenstein is killed, his own daughter Vera has to take on the ultimate bad guy, a wizard and his assistant, a blind bird-woman (of course!).
Although the movie is anything but erotic, it's a mildly enjoyable yarn that shows off Franco's eye for female pulchritude and sharp European locations, which combine to keep it watchable. The movie looks OK but a little soft on Blu; lone extra is a commentary.
Fierrabras
(C Major)
Although Franz Schubert wrote magnificent songs and chamber music, his operas never made it far in the repertoire, which gnawed at him in his brief life (he died at 31 in 1828): this engaging production of his most accomplished dramatic work has all hands coming together musically, vocally and directorially.
Peter Stein's 2014 Salzburg staging of this romantic epic is well done, while the singers—Julia Kleiter, Georg Zeppenfeld, Markus Werba—and musicians (under Ingo Metzmacher's able baton) present Schubert's rich melodies the way they were meant to be heard. The hi-def image and sound are first-rate; extras are interviews.
(PBS)
The Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast, the largest coral reef system on earth, is so large it can be seen from outer space: in Nick Robinson's engrossing three-hour documentary, above- and underwater HD cameras present an educational look at this amazing part of our world.
The eye-popping colors, the bountiful variety of marine life, and even glimpses at human disasters (there's a heartstopping moment when a rescue plane is dispatched for a burning boat with more than a dozen people aboard) make this a must-see nature epic. The Blu image is stunning, unsurprisingly.
Rolling Stones from the Vault: Hyde Park Live 1969
(Eagle Rock)
When the Stones performed at Hyde Park, it was only two days after former member Brian Jones died, and there's a weird moment when Mick Jagger recites a Shelly poem before the assembled throng; the rest of the 55-minute concert film—out of running order and only containing half of the show's songs—consists of ragged but straight-ahead rock'n'roll.
The band performed "Honky Tonk Women" for the first time, its sleazy vibe already in evidence; other highlights are "Midnight Rambler" and "Sympathy for the Devil," the latter accompanied by African tribal drummers. Too bad this historic concert is so truncated, but fans won't care.
(Arthaus Musik and Opus Arte)
Richard Strauss' grandest opera has been a staple since its 1911 premiere, so it's too bad that the 2014 Glyndebourne, England, staging is so undistinguished: although Kate Royal, a formidable singing actress, succeeds royally in her first attempt at the Marschallin, the others performing the greatest female trio in opera history—Tara Erraught and Teodora Gheorghiu—are not up to her level.
A better trio is in the 2004 Salzburg Festival staging, with Adrienne Pieczonka, Miah Persson and Angelika Kirchschalger (the best Octavian in recent memory) do wonders with Strauss' characteristically gorgeous vocal lines, especially in that final, unforgettable trio that becomes a meltingly lovely duet. The new version looks fine and the earlier one looks decent on Blu. Extras on the Glyndebourne disc comprise interviews.
3 Hearts
(Cohen Film Collection)
A love triangle between a man and two sisters sounds enticing, but in Benoit Jacquot's clumsy hands, it turns out less exciting than a trip to the dentist: don't blame actor Benoit Poelvoorde, directed to be either sullen or moody by turns; too bad neither of his leading ladies, charmless Chiara Mastroianni and one-note Charlotte Gainsbourg, are worthy of his time and trouble.
Jacquot's silly machinations include his laying on portentous music and omniscient narration with a trowel, all to no avail. The film looks good on Blu; lone extra is a 30-minute Jacquot Q&A.
The Water Diviner
(Warner Bros)
For his directorial debut, Russell Crowe tackles an expansive yet intimate true story of an Australian farmer who travels to Turkey to find out what happened to his three sons, who fought in the battle of Gallipoli. Crowe is, as usual, taciturn in the lead role, but as director he has an easy grasp (like fellow Aussie Mel Gibson) for action juxtpasoed with sentimental domestic scenes.
There's also an immaculate performance by Ukrainian beauty Olga Kurylenko, and the emotional family bonds are enough to see us to the end despite the glaring flaws. Andrew Lesnie's gritty photography has been superbly transferred to hi-def; extras are making-of and Gallipoli featurettes.
DVDs of the Week
Comet
(IFC)
With his entry in an unwelcome tradition of normal young women falling for obnoxious guys, director-writer Sam Esmail harks back to earlier films—The Sixth Sense and Annie Hall come up in the first few minutes—in a desperate attempt to make his conventional romance seem unconventional.
Mixing the chronology of the relationship is another ruse to hide the flimsiness of his conceit; if Emmy Rossum is her usual adorable self, Justin Long too easily enacts the typically annoying creep.
The High Cost of Loving
(Warner Archive)
In Blessings, Jean Negulesco's 1959 romantic comedy, Britisher Deborah Kerr doesn't forgive French husband Rossano Brazzi's many dalliances while in the army for nine years, does the unthinkable and divorces him: this medium-concept material is partially redeemed by the charming pair of Kerr and Brazzani, with Maurice Chavalier lending gallant support as Brazzani's uncle. J
ose Ferrer directs and stars in High Cost, a 1958 comic romp about an office worker with a pregnant young wife who thinks he's about to lose his job: after a sublime silent opening sequence, the movie settles down to routine comic asides about office and home life, with Gena Rowlands scoring in her debut as the wife.
Our Daily Poison
(Icarus)
Journalist Marie-Monique Robin made this documentary about the chemicals that keep being put into our food supply in 2010, but even in the lightning-fast internet era, it's still a wake-up call about an industry more interested in manufacturing more rather than healthier food.
Robin, who enlists the assistance of experts in the field from Europe and the U.S., buttresses her argument with vintage clips that show that this is not merely a 21st century liberal issue. A personal quibble: in her narration, Robin pronounces "grocer" as "grosher," which I find gross!
(First Run)
A worthy Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee this year, Georgian writer-director Zaza Urushadze's drama about an elderly man who nurses opposing wounded soldiers during the Georgian war of the 1990s nestles its allegorical account of warfare's insanity and futility inside an unassumingly subtle drama about pure goodness.
Without wielding a sledgehammer, Urushadze still hammers home pertinent points about adversarial mania among ancient enemies, and his flawless cast embodies these men not simply as types, but as real people, which adds to the film's low-key but real power. Lone extra is a five-minute on-set featurette.
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