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Reviews
December '21 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 01 December 2021 23:57
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-ray Releases of the Week
Citizen Kane
(Criterion)
Rightly celebrated as The Great American Movie, Orson Welles’ towering debut remains a remarkable achievement, with an innovative narrative structure that still works as strongly 80 years later. And this new release—unfortunately hampered by a new hi-def transfer that’s botched 30 minutes in, so if you have a copy, send the movie disc back to Criterion for a replacement—displays Gregg Toland’s lustrous B&W compositions and throws Welles’ youthful genius into sharp relief: although he came close, he never topped himself in the next 40-plus years of making (or trying to make) movies.
The three-disc Criterion set is packed inside a ridiculously overcomplicated design that probably won’t last, along with many extras, including the rarely-seen BBC documentary The Complete Citizen Kane; Welles’ 1934 short, The Hearts of Age; interviews and video essays; TV appearances by Welles, producer John Houseman and actor Joseph Cotten; and three commentaries: by Roger Ebert, by Peter Bogdanovich, and by Welles scholars James Naremore and Jonathan Rosenbaum.
(Film Movement)
Director Robert Mugge’s seminal 1991 documentary, which explores the vital and active rural blues artists, hidden in plain sight deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, has as its guide music journalist Robert Palmer, who’s accompanied by Eurythmic Dave Stewart.
Among the many memorable musical moments in this consistently surprising and satisfying journey are performances by Jessie Mae Hemphil, Big Jack Johnson and Lonnie Pitchford. The film has been given a superior new hi-def transfer; extras are Mugge’s commentary and a behind-the-scenes featurette.
Eric Clapton—The Lady in the Balcony: Lockdown Sessions
(Mercury Studios)
Notwithstanding his bizarre and unhinged response to pandemic lockdowns—in his awful new song, “This Has Gotta Stop,” he compares lockdowns to slavery, of all things—Eric Clapton can still sizzle with the best of them on his six-string, as this acoustic performance from this past spring demonstrates. In a 17-song set, Clapton and his terrific band—bassist Nathan East, drummer Steve Gadd and keyboardist Chris Stainton—run through sparkling versions of “Peter Green’s “Black Magic Woman,” Derek and the Dominos’ “Bell Bottom Blues” and solo Clapton tunes “Tears in Heaven” and “Believe in Life” (written for Clapton’s current wife, the lady of the concert’s title).
I’ll even forgive him for continuing to play his stultifying unplugged “Layla.” The concert has been handsomely photographed and nicely recorded in hi-def, and the entire concert is included on an accompanying CD.
(Warner Archive)
In director David Butler’s cute if inessential 1951 musical, Doris Day and Gene Nelson sing and tap-dance their way into each others’ hearts as a couple of performers looking for their big break—both professionally and personally—on the Great White Way.
Highlights are several musical numbers staged by Al White and Eddie Prinz, including the Oscar-winning title tune and Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things.” The colorful visuals look splendid on Blu.
The Thin Man Goes Home
(Warner Archive)
In the fifth go-round for the classic husband-and-wife sleuthing team, Nick and Nora Charles, the couple (along with their dog Asta) returns to Nick’s hometown, where—of course—they get caught up in a murder: soon, Nick has the chance to prove himself before his always skeptical father.
Richard Thorpe directed this 1944 sequel, which is a little flabby but still fun. The B&W images look crisp on Blu-ray; vintage extras are a Robert Benchley short, Why Daddy? and a classic Tex Avery cartoon, Screwball Squirrel.
Like a Rolling Stone—The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres
(Studio LA)
The career of music journalist Ben Fong-Torres makes for a lively and informative documentary by director Suzanne Joe Kai, who follows him from his beginnings in San Francisco in the ‘60s through his celebrated cover stories and interviews for Rolling Stone magazine and his very personal political and local journalism about the Chinese-American community, like the still unsolved murder of his brother many years ago.
Kai not only talks at length with Fong-Torres but also with family members, former colleagues and performers like photographer Annie Liebowitz, fellow staffer turned filmmaker Cameron Crowe, the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, the Doors’ Ray Manzarek, Carlos Santana, Steve Martin (Ben’s last Rolling Stone cover story subject) and Elton John, all of whom discuss the man’s talent, influence and taste in a manner that’s quite touching.
CD Release of the Week
Malcolm Arnold—Complete Symphonies and Dances
(Naxos)
One of the most grievously underrated composers of the 20th—or any—century, Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) was best known for memorable film scores such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, for which he won an Oscar. But his wide-ranging concert music—chamber works, concertos, dances, symphonies—showed Arnold as a formidable, original composer of music probing his own variable emotional states.
This boxed set, for the centenary of Arnold’s birth, collects the excellent complete recordings by conductor Andrew Penny and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland of Arnold’s extraordinary cycle of nine symphonies, along with Penny’s CD of Arnold’s dances with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Arnold’s symphonic cycle runs a staggering psychological gamut, culminating with his breathtaking ninth symphony, as towering a personal statement as Beethoven’s celebrated “Choral” Symphony, but Arnold’s final Lento movement is as naked and bleak a musical summation ever composed.
Ballet & Pride On Display at Lincoln Center
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 01 December 2021 18:29
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Scene from Bernstein in a Bubble. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor.
After a first week featuring performances of the beloved repertory staple, Giselle, the second week of the Fall Season at American Ballet Theater at the David H. Koch Theater was devoted to several mixed programs, including the Fall Gala. On Wednesday, October 27th, I had the privilege to attend an excellent evening—celebrating Gay Pride—of four dance pieces, beginning with the most extraordinary of all, the witty Bernstein in a Bubble, by Artist in Residence, Alexei Ratmansky, probably the greatest living choreographer, at least among those that employ a classical vocabulary. Set to the jazz-inflected Divertimento, one of Leonard Bernstein’s strongest orchestral scores, Ratmansky here seems to have devised a delightful hommage to the composer’s brilliant collaborator, Jerome Robbins. The work featured an impressive cast, including Skylar Brandt, Chloe Misseldine, Cassandra Trenary, Aran Bell, Patrick Frenette, Blane Hoven, and Tyler Maloney.
Touché by Christopher Rudd and set to music by Woodkid and the magnificent film composer, Ennio Morricone, was an ultimately moving gay love duet, elegantly executed by Calvin Royal III and João Menegussi. Even better was a second duet, by Clark Tippet, Some, choreographed to the Second Sonata for Violin and Piano by William Bolcom, and effectively performed by Brandt and Gabe Stone Shayer.
The dance portion of the program concluded strongly with Indestructible Light by Darrell Grand Moultrie, set to jazz pieces by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Neal Hefti, Billy Strayhorn, and Chuck Harmony, again with a remarkable cast including Jacob Clerico, Michael De La Nuez, Annabel Katsnelson, Kanon Kimura, Melvin Lawovi, Hannah Marshall, Betsy McBride, and Duncan McIlwaine. A fabulous bonus to the evening was the appearance of the dazzling Lypsinka performing her famous act answering telephones while lip-syncing to classic Hollywood actresses, like Elizabeth Taylor and Faye Dunaway, speaking in old films. The event ended with a talkback about Touché with Rudd, Royal, and Menegussi, along with Sarah Lozoff, the consulting Intimacy Director for Ballet Theater’s Fall 2021 Season.
A second program on the following night was even more outstanding, beginning with the exquisite La Follia Variations by Lauren Lovette, set to wonderful Baroque music by Francesco Geminiani, “re-imagined and arranged” by Michi Wiancko, featuring Scott Forsythe, Jonathan Klein, Emily Hayes, Lawovi, Kimura, Clerico, Fangqi Li, and Joseph Markey. Most exciting though was the opportunity to see the compelling Pillar of Fire—set to Arnold Schoenberg’s early, glorious Verklärte Nacht—by Antony Tudor who, after George Balanchine and Frederick Ashton, was one of the premier choreographers of the twentieth century that worked in the classical idiom and whose creations are now sadly undervalued. The primary cast was superb, featuring above all the astonishing Gillian Murphy—who was exceptional in the eponymous role in Giselle the previous week—as Hagar, ably complemented by Stephanie Petersen as the Eldest Sister, Zimmi Coker as the Youngest Sister, Thomas Forster as the Friend, and Cory Stearns as the man from the House Opposite, with characteristically accomplished support from the corps de ballet.
The evening ended delightfully with the brilliant ZigZag—by the admirable Jessica Lang—choreographed to a marvelous selection of songs sung by the inimitable Tony Bennett, including: “What the World Needs Now” by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David; the signature “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”; "Fascinating Rhythm" by George and Ira Gershwin; “Spring in Manhattan”; Cole Porter’s “It's De-Lovely,” a duet with Lady Gaga; "Just One of Those Things,” also by Porter; “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin, from his classic late feature, Limelight; “Blue Moon” by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart; Duke Ellington’s "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)”; and "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" with music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The enchanting cast included Isabella Boylston, Katherine Williams, Erica Hall, Bell, Hoven, and Royal, with exemplary assistance from members of the corps. I look forward to the return of this terrific company to Lincoln Center in the spring.
Broadway Musical Review: “Diana—The Musical”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 29 November 2021 22:33
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Diana—The Musical
Music and lyrics by Joe DiPietro
Book and lyrics by David Bryan
Directed by Christopher Ashley; choreography by Kelly Devine
Opened November 17, 2021
Longacre Theatre, 220 West 48th Street, NY
thedianamusical.com
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| Jeanna de Waal (center) in Diana—The Musical |
Diana—The Musical comes along after other recent dramatic recreations of the life of Princess Di: the Netflix series The Crown and Pablo Lorrain’s movie Spencer. The Crown delved into the relationship among Diana, Charles, Camilla and the royal family, centered by a sympathetic Emma Corrin as Di, while Spencer was an often risible fever dream in which Kristen Stewart does a weirdly breathy impression rather than a truly interesting characterization, despite the ridiculous awards talk accompanying her portrayal.
Diana—The Musical is a kind of mixture of The Crown and Spencer, with its clumsy and unsatisfying blend of pop, camp, melodrama and comedy centered by a recognizably humane Diana, played with vigor and intelligence by Jeanna de Waal. Unlike Stewart’s impersonation in Spencer—which has little nuance—de Waal’s Diana is closer to Corrin’s lovely, multilayered turn in The Crown.
The show’s first act, unfortunately, is an ungainly mess: director Christopher Ashley and choreographer Kelly Devine move briskly from scene to scene in order to keep the focus off the soggy book, lyrics and music of Joe DiPietro and David Bryan.
Careening wildly from bombastic rock which sounds like Jim Steinman/Meatloaf outtakes to interchangeable ballads (too bad “I Will” isn’t the Beatles tune), the songs rarely propel the plot or engage the ear, so Ashley’s busy staging and Devine’s clever movements are needed to propel the action, as during Diana and Charles’ first date, a cello recital by renowned Russian musician Mstislav Rostropovich becomes, in Diana’s bored mind, a dance raveup that the then-teenager would much prefer to such a staid performance.
The second act is marginally better because there are a couple of campy interludes taking liberties with Diana’s relationships with Charles (the colorless Roe Hartrampf), Camilla (the sensational—and appealing—Erin Davie) or Queen Elizabeth (the always superb Judy Kaye).
The second-act curtain raiser, “Here Comes James Hewitt,” features Diana’s favorite author and step-grandmother, romance novelist Barbara Cartland (Kaye again, and hilarious) to acidly describe Di and Charles’ crumbling marriage and how soldier James Hewitt became her lifeline, in and out of bed.
Another act two number, “The Main Event”—staged as a mock boxing match between the princess and Camilla a la Ali-Frazier (a line even mentions “the thrilla in Manila,” which happily rhymes with “Camilla”)—approaches the deliriousness of “Hewitt.”
But these moments are few and far between. And the show ends with “If,” a most puzzling closer. After Diana gets her divorce with the queen’s blessing, she sings of looking forward to her newfound freedom along with her young sons, who are smartly never seen onstage. But instead of allowing her that brief moment of happiness, the show’s ensemble mentions, portentously, what happens in Paris in August 1997, when Diana was killed in a car crash while being chased by photographers.
Diana leaves the stage silently and the ensemble strangely gets the last word. We all know what ultimately happened to her, so why deny our heroine her deserved moment of triumph, however admittedly brief?
November '21 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 25 November 2021 00:49
- Written by Kevin Filipski
4K/UHD Releases of the Week
Ran
(Lionsgate)
Akira Kurosawa’s black, bleak 1985 war drama is among the Japanese master’s greatest epics, poetically showing man’s inhumanity as it compellingly welds Shakespeare’s King Lear to traditional Noh theater. Kurosawa’s masterly adaptation gives that tremendous actor Tatsuya Nakadai (hidden behind amazing make-up) one of his best roles as the foolish king who destroys his empire by dividing it among his two older sons and banishing the youngest.
There’s a surfeit of sequences to gasp at—especially two unforgettably shot battle sequences, the despairing yet breathtaking final moments, and Toru Takemitsu’s perfectly realized score—in a subtly realized new 4K restoration that shows off Kurosawa’s stunning use of realistic and symbolic color. The lone extra is an interview with the French restoration team; the Best Buy exclusive comprises a garishly colored Steelbook (pictured).
(Warner Bros)
Director George Miller’s classic franchise—Mad Max (1979), The Road Warrior/Mad Max 2 (1981), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)—comprises a quartet of kinetic action flicks that, as they rolled on, became catnip for those who don't care about characterization, plot or dialogue but want more explosions, stunts and non-stop action.
That's just what Miller and his crack technical crew do, conjuring wall-to-wall car chases, races and hand-to-hand combat that, after awhile, become bludgeoning and mindnumbing. But the first film remains a truly original creation, with a pre-superstar (and pre-lunatic) Mel Gibson front and center. The ultra hi-def transfers look incredible; lone extras are on the The Road Warrior disc: a Leonard Maltin intro, Miller and cinematographer Dean Semler commentary, and Road War: The Making of ‘Road Warrior’ featurette.
The Outsiders—The Complete Novel
(Warner Bros)
Francis Coppola’s 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s classic teenage novel was a mess when first released; Coppola later improved it somewhat by dropping his father Carmine’s bludgeoning score and replacing it with appropriate period pop tunes. It’s still a messy mix of great and cringeworthy scenes that’s worth a look for the future stars all in one cast: Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and—best of all—Diane Lane, whose Cherry is the most interesting character.
The 4K transfer looks terrific; new extras include restoration interview with cinematographer Stephen Burum, Zoetrope head of archives and restorations James Mockoski and colorist Gregg Garvin; deleted scenes; Coppola intro and “Anatomy of a Scene” featurette; and “Old House New Home” featurette. Vintage extras comprise a Coppola commentary; Dillon, Howell, Lane, Lowe, Macchio and Swayze commentary; Staying Gold: A Look Back at ‘The Outsiders’; S.E. Hinton on Location in Tulsa; The Casting of 'The Outsiders'; ‘The Outsiders’ Started by School Petition; and deleted/extended scenes.
Clerk.
(1091 Pictures)
Kevin Smith, who began his career with a bang with 1994’s Clerks—which heralded a fresh, funny new movie voice—then spun his wheels with movies that either were Clerks retreads or misbegotten attempts to branch out that made one long for Clerks retreads, has nonetheless navigated a nearly three-decade long career, which Malcolm Ingram’s a touch too reverential but well-done documentary shows. Smith was one of the first celebrities to grow his audience online, then branched out into comic books, podcasts and live performances, all while continuing to make the movies he wanted to make.
Interviews with Smith, his mother, brother, wife, daughter, sidekick Jason Mewes, producer Scott Mosier, and others who’ve worked with him or appeared in his films (Ben Affleck! Matt Damon! Stan Lee!) give this an appropriately exhaustive feel, although bookending the movie with two Springsteen songs is a bit much (at the final “The Wish” works better than the clichéd “My Hometown”).
Blu-ray Releases of the Week
The Bee Gees—How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
(Warner Archive/HBO)
Since the Bee Gees became such massive stars with Saturday Night Fever in the late 70s it’s easy to forget they had a pretty good career before and after that juggernaut, as Frank Marshall’s incisive documentary demonstrates. We start from their youth in Australia, hitting it big in Britain then the States in the ’60s and onto huge chart success in the mid-70s as they turned to disco, which extended into the early ’80s.
There’s also a sense of sadness, since two of the three brothers Gibb are gone—three of four, if you count younger brother Andy, also a hitmaker in his own right—and Barry, speaking today wistfully about their lives and shared career, looks as you’d expect someone who has had great highs and terrible lows. The Blu-ray image looks good; extras are two promos masquerading as deleted scenes.
(Cohen Film Collection)
This soggy adventure, which was directed in 1988 by an out-of-his-element Nicholas Meyer, makes an undeniably fascinating historical subject—a marauding band of local Thuggees, known as “deceivers,” killing and robbing in 1825 India—as urgent and exciting as watching water boil.
Pierce Brosnan plays a British officer who goes undercover to infiltrate the gang, but Meyer’s direction, Michael Hirst’s script and Brosnan’s performance drag down this two-hour drama, despite shooting on actual locations and being produced by the eminent Ismail Merchant. The excellent Blu-ray image at least has a fine amount of grain.
National Velvet
(Warner Archive)
One of the all-time beloved movies is this 1944 melodrama about a teenage girl who, with help from a young drifter, trains her beloved horse Pie for the big race and…well, for those few people who don’t know what happens, I won’t spoil it.
Young Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney are an irresistible (and platonic) young couple and the horse sequences are beautifully done, particularly the race footage. It’s corny, sentimental uplift, which is what moviegoers during WWII wanted. The colors literally pop off the screen in hi-def; extras?
(Warner Bros)
The second season of this series based on Korean director Bong Joon Hoo’s 2013 post-apocalyptic sci-fi flick about a high-speed train circling the globe carrying what’s left of humanity after a disastrous attempt to fix global warming (elites in front, dregs in back) brings in Mr. Wilford—the shadowy billionaire behind the super train—who engages in a power play with Layton, the leader of the opposition.
Once again, despite incoherent plotting and jerky pacing, flashy visuals and the cast—led by Daveed Diggs (Layton) and Sean Bean (Wilford), although Jennifer Connolly is used to less good effect than in the debut season—provide the energy to keep Snowpiercer on track. The season’s 10 episodes look dazzling in hi-def; extras are short featurettes and interviews.
Some Came Running
(Warner Archive)
Considering daring in its day, Vincente Minnelli’s vicious 1958 evisceration of the hypocritical values of small-town America has lost some of its luster over the decades, but it still has several moments and images that are indelible and potent.
There’s also a superlative cast, led by Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine, Dean Martin, Arthur Kennedy and Martha Hyer, as well as a canny blend of location and studio shooting that’s pretty seamless. The hi-def transfer looks gorgeous; lone extra is the vintage featurette, The Story of ‘Some Came Running’.
The Early Films of Lee Isaac Chung
(Film Movement)
Before he made last year’s Oscar-nominated Minari, Lee Isaac Chung directed a trio of intimate films that explored the intricacies of relationships, whether young men from different tribes in Rwanda (2007’s Munyurangabo), friends dealing with another’s being diagnosed with cancer (2009’s Lucky Life) or a lonely middle-aged woman who miraculously finds a companion (2012’s Abigail Harm).
Chung’s understated technique perfectly illuminates the ordinary but remarkable people that populate these films, and that they comprise mainly unfamiliar faces—Amanda Plummer, as Abigail Harm herself, is the exception—makes them all the more real. The lone extras are a Chung commentary and behind-the-scenes footage on Munyurangabo.
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