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Film and the Arts
October '16 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 11 October 2016 19:29
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Les Cowboys
(Cohen Media)
In screenwriter Thomas Bidegain’s auspicious directorial debut, a teenager girl’s disappearance takes over the lives of her father and younger brother, disrupting and changing everyone along the way.
Loosely based on John Ford’s The Searchers, Bidegain’s drama has built-in contrivances, but it’s done so compellingly and acted so powerfully that the film’s denouement—showing the young woman’s ultimate fate—is a slow-burning stunner. There’s a superlative hi-def transfer; lone extra is a making-of featurette.
(Cohen Media)
Benoit Jacquot directs the latest adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s classic novel about a young woman who works as chambermaid for a wealthy provincial family and must balance her professional and personal lives.
For once, Jacquot’s sledgehammer directing doesn’t go against his material and he smartly casts in the lead Lea Seydoux, who—like Jeanne Moreau and Paulette Goddard before her in the earlier Luis Bunuel and Jean Renoir versions—makes criticism seem like carping, so effortlessly does she make the title character three-dimensional. The film looks ravishing on Blu; lone extra is a making-of featurette.
The Last King
(Magnet)
A complicated web of deceit is dramatized in this fast-paced thriller by director Nils Gaup, who brings a sense of immediacy and excitement to this true story of an infant, next in line for the throne, being protected from his many enemies.
Of course, at 100 minutes, the film simplifies and the real complexities involved, but it’s still a fun ride. The film looks sumptuous on Blu; extras are interview with lead actor and music video.
(Warner Bros)
Director David Yates’ reboot of Tarzan takes place years after the tale everyone knows: Tarzan and wife Jane leave civilized life in London to return to Africa, where they are confronted by more criminals.
As far as it goes, it’s not completely imbecile, with a nice balance of action, 3-D and a delightfully feisty Margot Robbie as Jane. Alexander Skarsgard’s Tarzan is adequate but doesn’t have enough to do: less time spent on Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz’s supporting antics would have helped. The Blu-ray image is sharp and clear; extras comprise several featurettes.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
(Warner Archive)
In Clint Eastwood’s turgid 1997 adaptation of John Berendt’s colorful best-seller about a real-life killing among Savannah’s upper-crust renders them as cartoons, especially Kevin Spacey’s campy protagonist who shoots a guest at one of his own lavish parties.
John Cusack’s lackadaisical outsider, a reporter working on a story about the town’s checkered history who falls into a big murder story, seems out of his element, as does Eastwood himself: although a few sequences come off fairly well, best is a solid supporting cast that includes Jack Thompson and Jude Law. The film looks good on Blu; lone extra is a 20-minute behind the scenes featurette.
On Dangerous Ground
(Warner Archive)
This gritty 1952 film noir about a brutalizing cop and the blind young woman who turns his world upside down was directed with vigor by Nicolas Ray and features a pulsating Bernard Herrmann score.
As the detective, Robert Ryan gives a satisfyingly no-nonsense performance, while Ida Lupino is heartbreaking as the sightless heroine. There’s a superb hi-def transfer, on par with most Warner Archive releases; the lone extra is historian Glenn Erickson’s commentary.
Parsifal
(BelAir Classiques)
Richard Wagner’s solemn, four-hour “religious” opera is profaned by director Dmitri Tcherniakov’s 2015 Berlin staging, as Wagner’s dignified characters searching for the Holy Grail are dropped into a ludicrously modern setting that battles the majestic music.
Despite the ridiculous visuals, Daniel Barenboim conducts a wonderfully detailed reading of Wagner’s weighty score, and his singers—especially Rene Pape as Gurnemanz and Anja Kampe as Kundry—are in splendid voice throughout. The hi-def audio and video are first-rate.
(Magnet)
Four giggly millennials on a tour of devil-worshipping sites get more than they bargained for after they interfere with a sacrificial ritual and find themselves dealing with its female survivor in Jeffrey Hunt’s ragged but occasionally scary horror flick.
At a tidy 84 minutes, it passes quickly—and becomes forgotten even faster—but it will do decently enough for those desperate for a few chills. The film looks spiffy on Blu; extras include making-of featurettes.
Slugs
Vamp
(Arrow)
Made by Spanish horror auteur Juan Piquer Simon, 1996’s Slugs is an icky entry into the slimy horror genre whose predecessors are movies like Squirm and Bug; it’s too risible to work, though there’s a dash of cleverness in some of the deaths by slug infestation.
1996’s Vamp isn’t saved by a game Grace Jones as vampire Kinky Katrina or by Michelle Pfeiffer’s younger sister Deedee, who’s actually pretty good (but still wasted). Both films have good, grainy hi-def transfers; many extras include new and vintage interviews, bloopers, featurettes, and a Slugs commentary.
The Becoming of the Mannheim Ring
(Arthaus Musik)
Director/stage-lighting designer/costumer Achim Freyer was behind the mish-mash of a staging of Richard Wagner’s 2013 Ring Cycle in Mannheim, Germany; this two-disc set follows Freyer, cast, crew and company officials during the lengthy rehearsal and pre-production period of the four operas that make up the massive tetralogy.
At nearly four hours, this making-of feature might be a lot to sit through, but since the operas themselves total 15 hours, what’s another 240 minutes of watching fly-on-the-wall director Rudij Bergmann’s record of behind the scenes machinations?
The Hunting of the President Redux
(Virgil Films)
Based on the highly readable, fair-minded book by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons about the demonization of the Clintons by right-wing opponents, Harry Thomason and Nicolas Perry’s 2004 documentary—with 2016 updates—comes off more screechy and biased, like a liberal corollary to what the wingnuts having been doing to the former (and future) First Couple since they became a viable political force.
There’s much damning evidence that what the GOP has taken as gospel—everything and everybody the Clintons touch die—is lunacy writ large, but done more soberly, it would be more persuasive.
(Warner Archive)
Tobe Hooper’s trashy 1994 slasher flick is a garbled mess, despite its pedigree: it’s based on a Stephen King short story and stars Freddy Kruger himself, Robert Eglund, as a laundry owner whose press goes rogue.
The ostensible monster—a machine that morphs into a murderous creature—isn’t very frightening, with special effects so slipshod that it seems like the work of rank amateurs. Ted Levine plays the detective with unsavory menace, similar to his turn as the villain in The Silence of the Lambs.
Vincent Van Gogh—A Life Devoted to Art
(Arthaus Musik)
This Dutch documentary about the Netherlands’ most famous artist is an informative overview of the life, career and early death of Van Gogh (whose name is pronounced correctly throughout, so it sounds wrong to an American ear—no pun intended).
There are plentiful glimpses of his paintings, sober talking heads in discussion, and visits to locations throughout the Netherlands and France, where he lived, worked and, finally, killed himself in 1890, penniless and forgotten. As someone notes, he’d be amazed that his paintings now are sold for unfathomable amounts of money. A second disc has a 15-minute featurette—but why isn’t it included on the main disc?
Off-Broadway Review—“Nat Turner in Jerusalem”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 11 October 2016 03:36
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Nat Turner in Jerusalem
Written by Nathan Alan Davis; directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian
Performances through October 16, 2016
 |
| Rowan Vickers and Phillip James Brannon in Nat Turner in Jerusalem (photo: Joan Marcus) |
Suddenly, the Nat Turner slave rebellion is everywhere: in Nate Parker’s new film The Birth of a Nation and in Nathan Alan Davis’s play Nat Turner in Jerusalem. While Parker’s film choppily dramatizes what happened before, during and after the uprising—in which Turner and many fellow slaves butchered dozens of slave holders and their families, only to be caught and massacred themselves, with Turner arrested and thrown in prison before being hanged—Nat Turner in Jerusalem concentrates on Turner’s last night on earth in a two-hander (with three characters) that is by turns realistic, metaphysical and too obviously symbolic.
The symbolism starts with the title: Jerusalem was the Virginia town where Turner’s rebellion went to grab a cache of firearms and also were he was imprisoned and hanged, but it also conveniently alludes to the martyrdom of both Turner and his savior Jesus Christ. As Turner discusses his fate with two men—a nameless guard and his lawyer, Thomas Gray, the latter of whom publishes Turner’s confessions after his death—the dialogue is peppered with Biblical quotations, and the prisoner even convinces the atheist lawyer to kneel for a final prayer before he agrees to speak to him.
Some of this makes for convincing drama, but there are long arid stretches where Turner, for example, extols the existential beauty of the sunset or describes the spiritual rightness of his murderous rampage; as if to compensate, he is turned into a Christ-like figure by Mary Louise Geiger’s moody lighting, which throws his shadow on the wall as he holds a lamp—and voila, it looks like the Holy Grail being carried to the altar.
None of this is coincidental, obviously, but since the material itself is so strongly compelling, reducing it to mere metaphorical drama—Turner even frees himself from his chains at one point—makes Jerusalem a frustrating 90 minutes of theater that’s further burdened by a set-up where the movable wooden stage itself is placed between two sets of uncomfortable bleacher seats.
Phillip James Brannon makes Turner a charismatic figure, even when wearing his clumsily literal chains, while Rowan Vickers plays Gray and the guard with insufficient variety. Nat Turner in Jerusalem contains pertinent food for thought, but its lyrical flights are too often weighed down by thudding didacticism.
Nat Turner in Jerusalem
New York Theater Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, New York, NY
nytw.org
American Classical Orchestra Opens Season at Lincoln Center
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 27 September 2016 21:30
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Photo by William Neumann Photography
The fine musicians of the American Classical Orchestra inaugurated their 32nd season with a rewarding opening night concert at the wonderful Alice Tully Hall on September 22nd. The program was devoted to music of the early Romantic era, unusual in the period-instrument repertory, all of it new to this ensemble. (This orchestra specializes in music of the Classical period along with some works of the High Baroque.)
The estimable and appealing Thomas Crawford who led (and founded) this orchestra remarked in an enjoyable pre-concert talk that he was confident that the first work on this program—the excellent, little-known Symphony No. 10 by the rarely encountered Cipriani Potter—was receiving its New York premiere and would never be heard by the audience again. The influence of Ludwig van Beethoven was keenly felt here while the piece was admired by—as well as conducted by—Richard Wagner. The strengths of this ensemble were at their most evident in this performance, especially with respect to the conductor's splendid command over tempo.
Crawford described the next work—the resplendent set of songs, Les nuits d'été, by the visionary Hector Berlioz—as one that he cannot understand and that sounds almost random, calling it "enigmatic, inexplicable and rapturous"—he added that despite his incomprehension, he intended to program more by this composer because the texture is so different from other music they play. The superb performance was most remarkable for the stunning presence of the lovely and amazing soloist, Juilliard student Avery Amereau, whom I've been privileged to hear sing several times and whom Crawford noted with astonishment was that most uncommon creature, a contralto—indeed, on this account she was recently profiled by the New York Times.
The second half of the concert was devoted to a compelling rendition of the great Felix Mendelssohn's magisterial "Scottish" Symphony. (This was a fitting counterpart to the composer's lesser-known "Reformation" Symphony heard at Carnegie Hall the previous day, played by the Senior Concert Orchestra of New York.)
I look forward to attending the other performances by the American Classical Orchestra being presented this season.
September '16 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 06 September 2016 12:30
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
A Boy Named Charlie Brown
Snoopy Come Home
(CBS)
At the height of his comic strip’s popularity—which became even more celebrated with TV specials like the classic perennial A Charlie Brown Christmas—Charles Schultz and company brought the Peanuts gang to the big screen with, for the most part, memorable results.
1969’s low-key Boy is like a charming—if occasionally rambling and overlong—TV episode, while 1972’s Snoopy shows off the strip’s beloved beagle in an often bittersweet narrative. The films look good enough on Blu-ray, at least.
(Warner Archive)
Long before the bloated and overwrought (but, sadly, Oscar-winning) The Revenant, an earlier era of “survival” films featured Sydney Pollack’s Jeremiah Johnson (1972) starring Robert Redford and this atmospheric 1971 entry starring Richard Harris as the physically and emotionally wounded protagonist.
Although there’s not much action by today’s standards, Harris gives as intense a performance as Leonardo DiCaprio as the protagonist left for dead by his fellow explorers, and director Richard C. Sarafian keeps the drama understated and naturalistic, even with an attacking bear (you didn’t think The Revenant was in any way original, did you?) that further wounds Harris. There’s a solid hi-def transfer, with muted colors and sharp imagery.
The Ones Below
(Magnet)
This standard-issue Rosemary’s Baby rip-off is afflicted with the usual problem of this kind of would-be thriller: its characters act so stupidly that one can’t have much sympathy when bad things begin happening.
It’s stylishly directed by David Farr (who also wrote the flimsily-motivated script), and Clemence Poesy is disturbingly effective as a new mother gone off the rails by her neighbors, but by its end—which is nonsensical—the movie prefers cheap twists over psychologically plausibility. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer; extras comprise several featurettes.
(Eagle Rock)
It’s difficult to say whom this release is for: are hardcore Styx fans pining for an eight-song performance, barely lasting 50 minutes, interspersed with a half-hour’s worth of alternately entertaining and self-serving interviews with band members and crew?
The band sounds as tight as ever—and Tommy Shaw’s voice hasn’t aged a bit on tunes like “Crystal Ball”—but why, in 2016, are rock fans still getting chopped-up and heavily-edited, instead of full-length, concert films? The hi-def video and audio are rocking; extras are interviews.
What Happened, Miss Simone?
(Eagle Rock)
Nina Simone was a true original—her singing style and stage presence were unquestionably unique—but the details of her career and her life as an icon and a civil-rights activist is at the center of Liz Garbus’s always fascinating documentary.
The footage of her performing is electrifying—especially glimpses of her during her “eclipse” in Europe—but it’s only one aspect of her legacy, as the many interviews with family, colleagues and admirers shows. The film has a solid Blu-ray transfer; extras comprise additional interviews.
CSI: Cyber—Complete 2nd (Final) Season
Limitless—Complete 1st Season
Lucifer—Complete 1st Season
(CBS)
CSI: Cyber never caught on with viewers—the rare CSI franchise to fail—despite what producers thought would be sure-fire casting of Oscar winner Patricia Arquette and Emmy winner Ted Danson: the final season is watchable but underwhelming.
The first seasons of new dramas Limitless and Lucifer had trouble keeping their balance with offbeat plots butting heads with the strictures of hour-long network TV drama series, the former’s pill making its protagonist the world’s smartest man, while the latter transplants the devil from Hades to Los Angeles—the City of Angels, get it? CSI and Lucifer extras include featurettes, a gag reel and deleted scenes.
Moby Dick
(Warner Archive)
Clocking in at only 78 minutes, it’s obvious that this 1930 version of “the great white whale” tale has little to do with Herman Melville’s massive novel: furthermore, John Barrymore’s Ahab, lovesick over a young woman in New Bedford, Mass., returns to the sea to kill the giant leviathan who bit off his leg before returning to land and his woman, has nothing on Melville’s great antagonist.
To cement things, there isn’t even any character named Ishmael in the movie, which makes this for Barrymore completists only.
(Warner Bros)
As if they hadn’t fought enough demons, specters, werewolves and other creatures of the night over the previous ten seasons, Dean and Sam Winchester—brothers and hunters ofSupernatural—have not encountered an enemy like the one that arrives to confront them in their 11th season: The Darkness.
It’s a clever ploy to reboot a show that was on its way to becoming stale and repetitive, and the 23 episodes gain dramatic traction from it. Extras are five featurettes, deleted scenes, gag reel and commentaries.
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