Blu-rays of the Week 

(Criterion)

Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who died in 2016, was best-known for his loosely structured trilogy of films set in his country’s Koker region: 1987’s Where Is the Friend’s House?, 1992’s And Life Goes On and 1994’s Through the Olive Trees. These endlessly inventive mixtures of fiction and documentary are self-reflexive explorations that mark the pinnacle of an impressive career, and were immeasurably valuable in giving Iranian cinema a prominent place internationally.

Criterion’s excellent boxed set comprises fantastic-looking hi-def transfers of all three films, along with many contextualizing extras: And Life Goes On commentary by Kiarostami experts Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa and Jonathan Rosenbaum; Homework (1989), a newly-restored Kiarostami doc; a doc about the director, Abbas Kiarostami: Truths and Dreams; interview with Kiarostami’s son Ahmad; conversation between scholar Jamsheed Akrami and critic Godfrey Cheshire; 2015 discussion with Kiarostami; interview with scholar Hamid Naficy.

American Gods—Complete 2nd Season 

(Lionsgate)

In the second season of this tense and gleefully bizarre fantasy drama, the Old Gods and New Gods—when they’re not making the life of our mortal hero, Shadow Moon, extremely difficult—converge on Cairo, Illinois because—hey, why not?

There’s a mighty starry cast on board—led by Ian MacShane, Emily Browning and Peter Stormare, and even including Cloris Leachman and Crispin Glover!—to keep us occupied when the plotting goes off the rails, as it frequently does. There’s a fine hi-def transfer; extras comprise three making-of featurettes.

Aniara 

In this existential Swedish sci-fi feature—based on Nobel Prize winner Harry Martinson’s eponymous 1956 poem—a city-size ship carrying humans to a new home on Mars goes wildly off course after hitting space debris, sending the vessel into the stratosphere; those onboard must deal with the psychological ramifications, including murder and suicide, for starters.

Directors Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja have made a thoughtful if diffuse study of human nature reverting to its most elemental state when confronted by a mortal—and moral—crisis. There’s a fine hi-def transfer; extras include several making-of featurettes.

Arrow—Complete 7th Season 

(Warner Bros)

Warner Bros. provided me with a free copy of this disc for review.

The ramifications of the series’ hero Oliver Queen’s decision to admit that he is the Green Arrow continue to reverberate, especially when he’s released from prison and his cousin becomes the new Green Arrow—but is not all she seems to be.

The 22 episodes present a roller-coaster ride of dramatics, especially when it jumps 20 years into the future; but the cast—led by Steven Amell and Katie Cassidy Rodgers—keeps it honest. The hi-def transfer is superb; extras include Comic-Con panel, San Diego 2018; featurettes, gag reel and deleted scenes.

The Flash—Complete 5th Season 

Warner Bros. provided me with a free copy of this disc for review.

The end of last season saw the appearance of Nora, the grown not-yet-born daughter of Barry/The Flash and Iris, whose time-traveling antics end up making things more difficult for the team fighting another rosters of criminals.

This engaging superhero adventure has just enough tongue-in-cheek humor to get by, as well as a fine cast led by Grant Gustin, Candice Patton and Jesse L. Martin. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer of the season’s 22 episodes; extras include Comic-Con panel, San Diego 2018; featurettes, gag reel and deleted scenes.

Godzilla—King of Monsters 

(Warner Bros)

Warner Bros. provided me with a free copy of this disc for review.

In this sequel to the 2014 reboot, Godzilla and several monstrous “Titans”—horrific prehistoric creatures like the three-headed Ghidorah—do battle, along with Mothra, a creature created in a lab by meddling scientists.

Desperately stretching this B-movie aesthetic long past its short attention span—it clocks in, for reasons unknown, at over two hours—director Michael Dougherty relies on his ace effects team to work overtime, as it seems nearly every frame is filled with some rampaging monster. The game cast (Vera Farmiga David Straithairn, Kyle Chandler, Ziyi Zhang, Ken Watanabe, for starters) doesn’t stand a chance against the formidable CGI team. The film looks too digital on Blu-ray; extras are Dougherty’s commentary, several featurettes and deleted scenes.

Moonfleet 

(Warner Archive)

Warner Archives’ latest Blu-ray excavation comprises less familiar titles by two legendary directors. Fritz Lang’s Moonfleet (1955), is a watchably lush adventure with great color photography by Robert Plank, entertaining scenery-chewing by Stewart Granger and a soaring Miklos Rosza score.

John Ford’s Wagon Master (1950) boasts fine performances by Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr as rustlers who join a Mormon wagon train going west, but there’s a sense of déjà vu in this lesser Ford picture (maybe not an Edsel, but close). Both films have solid new hi-def transfers; Wagon Master includes a commentary by Carey Jr. and Peter Bogdanovich, with Ford’s own comments sprinkled throughout.

The Walking Dead—Complete 9th Season 

(Lionsgate)

The series’ ninth season gets a fresh jolt from its leapfrogging ahead several years—first to more than a year after All Out War and again to six more years later when the united communities’ fraying bonds are put the ultimate test—time and again.

Despite the by-now tired concept, the accomplished filmmaking and acting help cover up the relentless sameness that’s at the heart of the series. It all looks great on Blu; extras include deleted scenes and several featurettes. 

DVD of the Week 

(CBS)

Not that there’s any reason to watch I Love Lucy in a colorized version, but for those who want to, this two-disc set collects 16 of the most popular episodes—including an all-time classic with guest star Harpo Marx—and gives them that slightly off-kilter color wash that sometimes looks decent but more often looks fake.

Still, Lucy is hilarious whether in B&W or color; extras include an interesting 30-minute featurette about the colorization process.

CD of the Week

Poul Ruders—The Thirteenth Child 

(Bridge)

Danish composer Poul Ruders—whose 2000 opera from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale has been back in the limelight thanks to the popular TV series and tRump’s presidency—premiered his latest opera at Santa Fe Opera last month.

This world premiere recording finds Ruders in a more lyrical, even romantic mood, mirroring the libretto that Becky and David Starobin based on a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. The cast is uniformly excellent, with standouts being Sarah Shafer as Princess Lyra and Tamara Mumford as her mother, Queen Gertrude. David Starobin conducts a sympathetic account of Ruders’ engaging score by the Odense Symphony Orchestra. The relatively brief running time and Ruders’ new-found notoriety should further assure The Thirteenth Child a bright future. 

Blu-rays of the Week 

(Cohen Film Collection)

The latest Buster Keaton release comprises two of the comic genius’ lesser-known efforts. 1925’s Seven Chances, an inspired piece of classic Keaton lunacy, crams more awesome hilarity and stuntwork into 57 minutes than movies twice as long. As always, Keaton builds the humor to a thrilling crescendo, as he tries to outrace rolling boulders in an exhilarating finale.

1926’s Battling Butler shows him hoping to impress his girlfriend’s tough-guy brothers by entering the ring: needless to say, the climactic bout is a doozy. Both films have superlative new hi-def transfers; lone extra is a short featurette on Keaton’s amazing stunts.

La Donna Serpente 

La Nonne sanglante 

(Naxos)

Naxos has resurrected more worthy operatic rarities, beginning with the substantial La Donna Serpente, the only opera by the unheralded Italian composer Alfredo Casella (1883-1947). His fantastical 1932 tale is reminiscent of Prokofiev’s equally absurd Love for Three Oranges, as Casella’s richly dazzling music is nearly the playful Prokofiev’s equal. The colorful 2016 Turin staging is highly rewarding.

Charles Gounod (1818-93), best known for Faust and Romeo et Juliette, composed La Nonne sanglante in 1854; a tragic tale of forbidden love, it’s bumpy musically and dramatically, although the 2018 Venice production makes a good case for its stageworthiness.

The Hustle 

This comedy pitting Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson as competing con artists—a female reboot of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels—is about what you’d expect, with Wilson’s smart-mouth shtick dueling Hathaway’s elegant straight-woman manner.

It percolates for 90 minutes in pretty routine fashion, never allowing its stars to stray from their obvious strengths, like Wilson’s sarcastic one-liners. The filmmakers should have had them switch roles, but at least they had the good sense to shoot in the south of France. There’s a superior hi-def transfer; extras are three on-set featurettes.

The Inland Sea

(Criterion)

Author Donald Richie was the go-to expert on Japanese cinema—particularly that of Ozu and Kurosawa—so this little-seen (and little-known) gem from director Lucille Carra, which transforms Richie’s own book of his Japanese cultural explorations into a relatively brief (56-minute) but poetic travelogue, is worth seeing.

At times it seems less like a Criterion Collection project—or, at most, an extra on a Criterion Japanese film release—but it looks beautiful in high-def, and the bonus features (new Carra interview, 1991 Richie interview, conversation between filmmaker Paul Schrader and cultural critic Ian Buruma on Richie) bring context to an obvious labor of love.

Lohengrin 

Richard Wagner’s heroic opera has been given a fresh makeover by director Yuval Sharon at Wagner’s own shrine, the Bayreuth Festival in Germany. The music—all 3-1/2 hours of it—of course, is gorgeous, especially as played by the Bayreuth Orchestra under conductor Christian Thielemann.

The standout vocalists are Piotr Beczala as the title hero, Anja Harteros as heroine Elsa, and Waltraud Meier as antagonist Ortrud. The hi-def video and audio are top-notch.

Poms 

(Universal)

When a new resident at a Georgia retirement community—a boisterous New Yorker stricken with cancer—ruffles feathers by starting a cheerleading club, both those who applaud her scheme and those dead set against it are forever changed by her tenacity.

If Diane Keaton wasn’t in the lead, this high-concept, low-wattage comedy-drama would even be less memorable. Along for the ride are Jacqui Weaver, Pam Grier, Celia Weston and Rhea Perlman, proving that even women “of a certain age” can’t overcome lazily-written and crudely directed pep fests. The film looks fine on Blu.

Salome 

(Unitel)

These 2018 Salzburg Festival productions value directors over composers to both operas’ detriment. Strauss’ Salome, one of the most shocking operas ever, has been defanged by stage/set/costume/lighting designer Romeo Castellucci, who benightedly hides Salome during her famous “Dance of the Seven Veils” (maybe he is wearing one hat too many?). Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian is a magnetic Salome, and Franz Welser-Most conducts a thrilling reading of Strauss’ score by the Vienna Philharmonic.

Tchaikovsky’s intense Queen of Spades loses a lot except for the climactic card game, which has been staged incisively by director Hans Neuenfels. Otherwise, Tchaikovsky’s music and a fine cast help keep interest throughout.

DVDs of the Week

The Sun Is Also a Star 

(Warner Bros)

In this queasily artificial melodrama, the delightful star of Blackish, Yara Shahidi, gives her all in the service of an unrelievedly sappy YA romance. Although she and costar Charles Melton have good chemistry and she exudes more intelligence and charm than actresses twice her age, even Shahidi can’t overcome the annoyingness at the heart of this contrived relationship flick.

Some underseen New York locations are supremely photogenic backdrops, so there’s that. Lone extra is brief making-of featurette.

Trial by Fire 

The true story of Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas father convicted of murder after his three young daughters perished in a tragic 1991 fire, is straightforwardly recounted in Edward Zwick’s barely-released drama, which shows how far the semi-mighty have fallen (Zwick directed 1989 Oscar winner Glory after creating TV’s Thirtysomething).

This punishing exploration of capital punishment might lack nuance, but necessary perspective is added by the powerhouse performances of Jack O’Connell (Willingham), Laura Dern (Elizabeth Gilbert, who befriended Willingham and tried getting him a new trial) and—most stunningly—Emily Meade as Willingham’s wife.

CD of the Week

The Film Music of Gerard Schurmann 

(Chandos)

Here was a film composer with whom I was completely unfamiliar, even though I’ve seen a few of the films for which he wrote scores. But British composer Gerard Schurmann—born in 1924, he’s a spry 95 now, according to the liner notes—supplied an impressive array of colorful music to a surprisingly eclectic group of features, as this disc—devoted to excerpts from eight of his scores, from a 1956 police drama The Long Arm to a Dostoevsky adaptation that Hungarian director Karoly Makk made in 1997, The Gambler—demonstrates.

Schurmann’s music—as played by the BBC Philharmonic under the sympathetic baton of conductor Rumon Gamba—has sufficient variety and versatility to encompass the aural soundscapes of routine thrillers and horror flicks and even an historical melodrama about Mussolini’s mistress.