Film & Arts - Film Festival Traveler

the traveler's resource guide to festivals & films
a FestivalTravelNetwork.com site
part of Insider Media llc.

Connect with us:

You are here: Home

Film & Arts

Reviews

July '24 Digital Week II

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 18 July 2024 02:35; Written by Kevin Filipski

4K/UHD Releases of the Week

The Boy and the Heron

(GKids/Studio Ghibli)

After the sublime 2013 memory piece The Wind Rises, the great animator Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement; but 10 years later, along comes this often inscrutable, heavily symbolic but tremendously affecting feature—don’t hold its Oscar for best animated feature against it! During WWII, young Mahito’s mother, a nurse, dies in a hospital fire—after his father marries her sister and they move to her country estate, Mahito’s grief and guilt are embodied in a talking heron, who takes him to an anthropomorphic world where he must fight for survival—and for closure with his mother.

Only Miyazaki could make something so sentimental and borderline risible and make it funny, touching and trenchant simultaneously. Needless to say, the animation looks amazing in 4K; the accompanying Blu-ray’s extras comprise storyboards, music video for the song “Spinning Globe” and interviews with composer Joe Hisaishi, producer Toshio Suzuki and supervising animator Takeshi Honda. There’s also an English-dubbed version with the voices of Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe and Mark Hamill; stick with the original Japanese for authenticity.

Twister

(Warner Bros)

This silly but watchable 1996 disaster thriller pits tornado chasers vs. Mother Nature—and, more often than not, nature wins: director Jan de Bont and writers Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin (Crichton’s then wife) for the most part lose, especially when it comes to such howlers in the dialogue as, when a twister barrels down toward them, one character yells out, “Let’s run for it!” Well, duh. The $100 million budget obviously went to the vast array of technical effects, well-done but not overwhelmingly impressive (especially now, where some seams show in 30-year old technology). Actors like Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Todd Field, Cary Elwes, Lois Smith and Philip Seymour Hoffman try their best but are defeated by ridiculous plotting and the twisty effects.

The 4K image looks quite detailed; extras include a new retrospective featurette and bonuses from earlier releases: three on-set featurettes, music video for Van Halen’s song “Humans Being” (Eddie and Alex also contribute a moody instrumental, “Respect the Wind”) and a commentary by du Bont and effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Challengers

(Warner Bros)

If a menage a trois among a female tennis player turned coach and the male tennis pros in her life, each on opposing career trajectories, sounds like fun, director Luca Guadagnino and writer Justin Kuritzkes make sure to scuttle that possibility. This impossibly cutesy rom-com is crammed with flashbacks within flashbacks to try and present some variety, but even Guadagnino knows it doesn’t help, since he uses a surfeit of camera tricks and ridiculous angles to keep things bouncing. Then there’s the awful use of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ pounding electronic score, always beginning or ending at the wrong time, as if the music cues are slightly off.

The threesome enacted by Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist is more authentic on the court (they all look and move like tennis players) than off, where the trio is saddled with stilted dialogue and must deal with desperate symbolism like a windstorm of Biblical proportions that actually happens twice. It’s all about as sexy as a celebrity doubles match. The hi-def image looks excellent but, as with so many new releases, there are no extras.

Kidnapped—The Abduction Of Edgardo Mortara

(Cohen Media)

The latest film by the world’s greatest living director, 84-year-old Italian master Marco Bellocchio, is yet another of his gripping and operatic dissections of historical subjects that touch on politics and religion—this time he tells the horrific but true story of a six-year-old Jewish boy torn from his parents’ grasp because a former housekeeper said she baptized him when she thought he was dying as an infant. With his usual sweeping flair and acute observation, Bellocchio fills the screen with indelible images that not only cast a wide net on anti-Semitic mid-19th century Italian (read: Catholic) society but also the excruciating pain and loss felt by the Mortara family as their beloved son and brother remains forever out of their reach.

Bellocchio builds his film on two towering performances—by Barbara Ronchi as the boy’s mother and Enea Sala as the young Edgardo, one of the strongest child performances I’ve ever seen. Supremely well-chosen music by Rachmaninoff and Pärt complement a superb original score by Fabio Massimo Capogrosso. The haunting but gorgeous final shot of mother and son is as unforgettable as the rest of this masterpiece; Francesco Di Giacomo’s glistening cinematography is accentuated beautifully on Blu-ray. Extras are a short Bellocchio intro and 20-minute director interview.

The Last Stop in Yuma County

(Well Go USA)

I’ve never been a fan of the real Coen brothers’ films, so warmed-over Coens—which is what this aggressively, even nonsensically nihilistic drama about a bunch of nonentities who end up offing one another (along with several unfortunate bystanders) at a rate even the brothers wouldn’t countenance—comes off even more contrived.

Too bad writer-director Francis Galluppi is more concerned with getting these people together and letting bad luck take care of them until it doesn’t matter who’s standing at the end. The film looks fine on Blu; lone extra is a making-of featurette.

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week

Eno

(Film First)

In his eminently watchable documentary about legendary music producer Brian Eno, Gary Hustwit borrows Eno’s own way of creating for the film’s structure, as certain ideas, visuals or bits of music lead to other, sometimes not entirely successful tangents. Eno talks quite engagingly and candidly about his life, career and thoughts about the importance of art to nourish the human brain, both in new footage as well as vintage interviews.

There’s also priceless footage of Eno at work, both alone doing his ambient music (like the original Windows 95 “jingle”) and with some of his biggest collaborators, from Roxy Music and David Bowie to U2 and the Talking Heads. One gimmick is that the film—at least in its first run at Film Forum in NYC—will never be the same twice, rearranged and completely different footage making a “new” film each time, a fitting metaphor for its enigmatic, endlessly fascinating subject.

The Blue Rose

(Dark Sky)

Anyone with fond—or not so fond—memories of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, in which two women sleepwalk through a surreal Hollywood, will relive that film during every minute of George Baron’s unabashed copy, which the director makes no bones about, even referencing Lynch in his discussions of his own film.

The difference is that Lynch’s fully developed visual sense can make such dicey material work at times, whereas the best Baron can do is emerge as an instant epigone aping the Lynchian style without any substance.

Janet Planet

(A24)

Annie Baker, who has won awards for her (overrated) plays, makes her screen writing and directing debut with this at times insightful but mainly insufferable exploration of the relationship between Janet, a hippie-ish single mom, and Lacy, her restless 12-year-old daughter. As in her plays, Baker writes clever dialogue that’s not as meaningful as she intends; her assiduously oddish characters often claw at stretches of meaninglessness, whether in their words or silence.

As a director, she alternates establishing shots and glaring closeups to snippets of music from Laurie Anderson to Bach that populate her eclectic soundtrack. Her distaff cast, comprising Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler and Sophie Okenedo, performs sensitively, while the men, embodied by Bill Paxton and Elias Koteas, are pretty much ciphers.

CD Release of the Week

Czech Songs—Magdalena Kožená

(Pentatone)

Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, who has this music in her very bones, beautifully sings a smartly programmed recital disc of vocal works composed by her compatriots. As usual, she sounds natural and focused while performing cycles by the great but underappreciated Bohuslav Martinů and the great but more appreciated Antonin Dvořák, alongside a welcome taste of the unjustly obscure Hans Krása and Gideon Klein (who were both murdered in Nazi camps).

Tastefully accompanying the always elegant Kožená is the Czech Philharmonic, under the baton of her husband, Simon Rattle.

American Ballet Theater Portray "Romeo and Juliet" With Stellar Cast

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 12 July 2024 09:09; Written by Jack Angstreich

Isabella Boylston in Romeo and Juliet. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor.

At Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House on the evening of Wednesday, July 10th, I had the inestimable privilege to attend a splendid performance of American Ballet Theater’s superb production of Romeo and Juliet, brilliantly choreographed by the now undervalued Sir Kenneth MacMillan and set to the glorious, immortal score by Serge Prokofiev, here expertly conducted by Charles Barker. The excellent scenery and costumes were designed by Nicholas Georgiadis and the effective lighting is by Thomas Skelton.

Veteran principal Herman Cornejo was extraordinary as Romeo and is one of the greatest stars in the company or indeed anywhere. He was marvelously partnered by Isabella Boyleston as Juliet (replacing Cassandra Trenary) and who has come into her own as an awesome ballerina. And, finally, newcomer Jake Roxander was simply sensational as Mercutio, astonishingly completing the primary cast.

The secondary cast was also remarkable, including Roman Zhurbin as Tybalt, Andrii Ishchuk as Paris and, most memorably, Luis Ribagorda as Benvolio. The delightful Three Harlots were Isadora Loyola, Breanne Granlund, and Courtney Shealy. The most important of the other dramatic—as opposed to danced—roles were acted by Luciana Paris and Alexei Agoudine as Lady and Lord Capulet, Carlos Lopez as Escalus, Prince of Verona and as Friar Laurence, Betsy McBride as Rosaline, Nancy Raffa as the Nurse, and Lauren Post and Clinton Luckett as Lady and Lord Montague. The wonderful corps de ballet was in exceptional form.

July '24 Digital Week I

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 10 July 2024 17:04; Written by Kevin Filipski

4K/UHD Release of the Week

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

(Criterion)

Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 western about the fateful relationship between lawman Pat Garrett (James Coburn) and outlaw Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) was savaged upon release by the studio and critics, the former ripping Peckinpah’s cut to shreds—six editors worked on the film. But the 50th-anniversary release—11 minutes longer than what came out a half-century ago—and the even longer preview cut makes one realize the film is for the most part unsalvageable in any version, despite sporadic directorial brilliance.

The biggest liability is Bob Dylan, who contributes a score of mediocre songs (except for his classic “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”) and a scandalous non-performance as a ridiculous character named Alias, itself a brazen steal from Lincoln Kerstein’s story for Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid ballet. As always, Criterion does a thorough job of contextualizing of the film’s fraught history: two UHD discs and two Blu-rays include all three cuts; there’s a commentary on the “new” version, an archival Coburn interview and new featurettes Dylan in Durango and Passion & Poetry: Peckinpah’s Last Western.

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week

Mother, Couch

(Film Movement)

With a cast of heavyweights like Ellen Burstyn, Ewan McGregor, Rys Ifyns, Lara Flynn Boyle and F. Murray Abraham, Niclas Larsson’s film about an elderly woman (Burstyn) whose decision to stay on the sofa at a furniture store brings her three estranged children from different fathers (McGregor, Ifyns and Flynn Boyle) together for a chance to patch things up surprisingly never becomes the intriguingly offbeat comedy-drama it wants to be.

It begins as unfunny, warmed-over Luis Buñuel and never goes anywhere, thanks to Larsson’s scattershot script. The cast gives its all, especially Burstyn and Taylor Russell as the young store employee who catches McGregor’s eye, but nothing ends up cohering.

The Nature of Love

(Music Box)

French-Canadian writer-director Monia Chokri’s occasionally trenchant comic study follows the emotional and sexual relationship of heady college professor Sophia and working-class guy Sylvain, who meet cute when he gives her an estimate to restore a decrepit cottage she owns.

Too often, Chokri’s writing and directing rub our noses in the couple’s obvious differences—her intellectual crowd and his earthy, of the soil clan—while her copout ending insists there’s no way Sophia and Sylvain can stay together, although we’ve watched them do just that for most of the movie. Holding it all together are terrific performances by Pierre-Yves Cardinal (Sylvain) and Magalie Lépine-Blondeau (Sophia), who make a maturely sexy couple.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Abigail

(Universal)

Armed with a healthy sense of humor, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett take Stephen Shields and Guy Busick’s troublesome script about a preteen vampire who toys with a group of inept criminals that abducted her for ransom and make it a watchable gore fest.

Amid the risible plotting and exploding bodies, there are fun moments and tongue-in-cheek performances, topped by Melissa Barrera, fast becoming our reigning scream queen after Scream, Scream VI and this harmless but efficient dark comedy. The film looks good on Blu; extras include a commentary, deleted/extended scenes, gag reel and on-set featurettes.

Danza Macabra, Volume 3—The Spanish Gothic Collection

(Severin)

For the third set in Severin Films’ collection of foreign horror flicks, a quartet of early-mid ’70s features from Spain—Necrophagous (1971), Cake of Blood (1971), Cross of the Devil (1975) and The Night of the Walking Dead (1975)—have been resurrected and given new shelf life. These films were made near the end of Spanish dictator Franco’s repressive reign, hiding transgressive ideas within the genre of Gothic horror.

Best is the atmospheric vampire shocker The Night of the Walking Dead—with the wonderful Emma Cohen as the heroine—while the least successful is the arty and self-indulgent omnibus Cake of Blood. Each film has received a good transfer; extras are led by commentaries on each film and interviews with actors, writers and critics.

Hatchet—The Complete Collection

(Dark Sky Films)

Director-writer Adam Green made his low-budget horror movie, Hatchet, in 2006—it’s not that much more distinguished than other slasher flicks populating the B-movie landscape over the past few decades, but he’s parlayed that home-movie ethos into three sequels (from 2010, 2013 and 2017) that are each less interesting and watchable than the previous one.

Now all four Hatchets have been brought together for diehard fans in a set that includes first-rate hi-def transfers of the films, with extras comprising gag reels, interviews, on-set featurettes and a bonus disc, Hatchet: Swamp Tales.

Sherlock Holmes

(Severin)

Peter Cushing and Sherlock Holmes are an uncomfortable fit in this 1968 British TV series—short-lived, unsurprisingly—six episodes of which are all that has survived and included in this two-disc set.

The picture quality is pretty negligible—at times, it’s like watching an old VHS tape—but the main problem is the stories themselves, which are rendered unexciting and routine, with the partial exception of the two-part Hound of the Baskervilles: even Cushing looks bored at times. Extras include commentaries on all six episodes and on missing episode clips; audio interview with Cushing; and BBC’s countdown clock for each episode.

Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace

(Severin)

Christopher Lee’s lone starring role as the great detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle came in this German-made drama—it was shot in Berlin—directed competently by Terence Fisher, with Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson (Nigel Stock) taking center stage.

Senta Berger contributes a nice bit, but Lee and Stock’s chatty chemistry isn’t enough to overcome a by-the-numbers storyline. The hi-def image looks decent enough; extras are a commentary, Fisher interview and Fisher featurette.

The Classic "Swan Lake" at Met Opera House

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Sunday, 07 July 2024 09:16; Written by Jack Angstreich

Catherine Hurlin and James Whiteside in Swan Lake. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor.

At Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House on the afternoon of July 4th, I had the privilege to attend a superb performance of American Ballet Theater’s marvelous production of Swan Lake which has a glorious score by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky—here admirably conducted by Charles Barker—and enthralling choreography by former Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie after that of the immortal Marius Petipa along with Lev Ivanov. The wonderful sets and lovely costumes were designed by Zack Brown, and the very effective lighting by Duane Schuler.

The spectacular lead role of Odette-Odile was brilliantly danced by the surely ascendant principal, Catherine Hurlin. Her partner as Prince Siegfried was an exceptionally good James Whiteside, here performing at his unusual finest. Cy Doherty and Andrii Ishchuk were effective in the divided role of von Rothbart, the evil sorcerer.

The secondary cast was also remarkable and I will here highlight the most significant individuals that were featured. Fangqi Li, Sunmi Park and Carlos Gonzalez (who doubled as Benno, the prince’s friend) collectively realized the exquisite Pas de Trois from Act I while the interlude of the Cygnettes in Act II—one of the most dazzling in the ballet—was here executed by Lauren Bonfiglio, Erica Lall, Hannah Marshall, and Kotomi Yamada. The comparably beautiful dance of the Two Swans was bewitchingly enacted by Sierra Armstrong and Remy Young. The main roles in the delightful set of divertissements from Act III were also enchantingly incarnated: Anabel Katsnelson, Bonfiglio again, Rachel Richardson and Zimmi Coker were the Hungarian, Spanish, Italian and Polish Princesses respectively; Paulina Waski and Kento Sumitani were the stars in the Czardas; Isadora Loyola, João Mengussi, Luciana Paris, and Patrick Frenette excelled in the Spanish Dance; and Luigi Crispino and Melvin Lawovi enlivened the Neapolitan Dance. The main actors in non-dancing parts included Claire Davison as the Queen Mother and Clinton Luckett as Wolfgang, tutor to the prince (as well as the Master of Ceremonies in Act III). The extraordinary corps de ballet was characteristically accomplished.

The artists received a rapturous and greatly deserved standing ovation.

Reviews

July '24 Digital Week II

American Ballet Theater Portray "Romeo and Juliet" With Stellar Cast

July '24 Digital Week I

The Classic "Swan Lake" at Met Opera House

More Articles...

Newsletter Sign Up

Upcoming Events

Tweets!