In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Based on the novel by Andy Weir—whose first bestseller, The Martian, was turned into a pretty good 2015 Ridley Scott movie with Matt Damon as a lonely man trying to survive in a brand new world—this saga about Ryland Grace, a brilliant science teacher finding himself the lone astronaut on a spaceship heading for a distant star and trying to survive in a brand new world (of course) shows that lightning does not always strike twice. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (and writer Drew Goddard) take Weir’s goofy premise way too seriously, and their 156-minute behemoth sags throughout—most damagingly in the middle hour, when too many flashbacks show how Grace got here and his cutesily budding friendship with an alien he names Rocky.

 

 

It’s certainly watchable, thanks mainly to Ryan Gosling’s effortless star power and awesome-looking effects, but it drips with sappiness along with the most strangely literal use of a Beatles song ever on the soundtrack.

 

 

 

Two Prosecutors 

Adapting an obscure novella by Soviet author Georgy Demidov that’s set during the Stalinist purges, Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa vividly dramatizes the visit of young prosecutor Kornyev to a Soviet prison where he talks with a jailed elderly Bolshevik, Stepniak—after witnessing evidence of torture, the idealistic Kornyev goes to Moscow as a whistleblower, but he’s pleading to the wrong man: Andrey Vyshinsky, the mastermind of the great purge.

 

 

Loznitsa has made the slowburn to end all slowburns, demonstrating how the banality of bureaucracy hides the evil lethality underneath; but if the denouement is too patly predictable, the journey to arrive there is quietly, spellbindingly unnerving.

 

 

 

Streaming Releases of the Week 

When her shady boyfriend owes a lot of money to even shadier characters, bright college student Luce decides that the only way she can help him financially (after her strict father tells her no) is to become a cam girl for the night, so with help from Vittoria—already making a healthy amount of cash with her online exploits—Luce transforms herself into a sexy character named Blue, which triggers a lot of unintended consequences.

 

 

Eleonora Puglia writes and directs in a lively manner, which helps this sordid, sometimes plodding morality tale go down easier than it should. Alexia Cozzi, a winning actress I’ve not seen before, makes the clueless Luce sympathetic. Italian porn legend Rocco Siffredi, of all people, decently plays Luce’s dad.

 

 

 

Mr. Nobody Against Putin 

This intensely personal film, which won the best documentary Oscar this month, introduces Pavel Talankin, a mild-mannered teacher at a Russian school who is affronted when Putin invades Ukraine and an edict comes down that students must be indoctrinated into being patriotic. Co-directed by Talankin and David Borenstein, Mr. Nobody is the ultimate David vs. Goliath story, as Talankin records the absurdities of forced political allegiance with bemusement, anger and humor, although it must be said that making the invasion of Ukraine the red line to finally oppose Putin’s encroaching totalitarianism feels less than authentic.

 

 

But, with similar political situations occurring elsewhere, that may be the point. And Pavel’s bravery cannot be dismissed: he left Russia in 2024 with his film footage on seven hard drives, and now lives somewhere in Europe.

 

 

 

4K/UHD Release of the Week 

In Italian erotic master Tinto Brass’ 1983 comedy, superstar Stefania Sandrelli plays Teresa, whose impotent older husband nearly pushes her into an affair with their son-in-law Laszlo. This is typically effervescent Brass filmmaking (with the usual softcore sex scenes and clinical crotch shots) that has a bona fide movie legend at its center, often in the altogether.

 

 

As always, Brass is closely attuned to female sexuality and has a willing participant in Sandrelli, who has never been more sexually charged. The UHD transfer looks immaculate; extras are an audio commentary and (on the accompanying Blu-ray disc) interview with actor Franco Branciaroli, who reminisces about his intimate scenes with Sandrelli; a vintage Brass interview; featurettes on the Venetian locales and Ennio Morricone’s score; and an isolated Morricone audio track. 

 

 

 

Blu-ray Release of the Week

Richard Wagner’s classic operatic tetralogy about gods, dwarves, nymphs and humans predates Tolkien’s Middle Earth by decades—the first opera, Das Rheingold, premiered in 1869 and the last, Götterdämmerung, first appeared in 1876—but it remains thrilling and even relevant, as directors and opera houses find new ways to stage this mammoth masterpiece. In Dmitri Tcherniakov’s 2022 Berlin State Opera production, the disharmonious setting is an antiseptically modern office building that removes the grandeur from Wagner’s meticulously worked-out conflicts among gods and humans.

 

 

But there’s first-rate music making—by the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin conducted by Christian Thielemann—and splendid performances by a cast led by Michael Volle’s supreme Wotan; Rolando Villazón’s mischievous Loge; and Anja Kampe’s powerhouse Brünnhilde. Hi-def image and sound are first-rate; disappointingly, there are no extras.

 

 

 

CD Release of the Week 

Early works by a trio of composers whose artistry and actual lives were forever changed by the Nazi regime in Germany make up this excellent new disc by the enterprising Krása Quartet, which unsurprisingly begins with a couple of works by its namesake, the Czech composer Hans Krása (1899-1944), who was murdered at Auschwitz. His String Quartet No. 2 (1921) is a delight, while the scarcely more somber Theme and Variations for String Quartet (1936) was premiered in the Terezin concentration camp during WWII.

 

 

Karel Ančerl (1908-73) was a notable conductor, but he penned a pair of short fugues while a student. The last work is by Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942), who died of tuberculosis after being deported and imprisoned. His Divertimento for String Quartet (1914) is quite an achievement, even if it’s somewhat more conventional than his more musically progressive later works. The members of the Krása Quartet perform impressively throughout.