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Criterion Review: THE TALES OF HOFFMAN (1951)
Lose yourself in the fantasia of Powell and Pressburger’s acclaimed and newly restored Opera adaptation
It’s easy for me to fall under the bewitching spell cast by the films of Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. With lavish production design and mind-blowing visual effects that seem effortlessly executed with an equal amount of exacting detail, the films of the British duo are guaranteed to show me something I’ve never seen before. With The Red Shoes, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, and A Matter of Life and Death, each of the films I’ve been lucky to watch have the gripping drama of something by Noël Coward with the creative flights of fancy of Fritz Lang. There’s a delicate and irresistible line toed between fantasy and reality, with tempestuous emotions vividly and viscerally brought to life in swirls of dreamlike three-strip technicolor.
The Criterion Collection has released 9 of Powell and Pressburger’s nearly 30 years’ worth of collaborations. However, a much-needed upgrade to their release of The Tales of Hoffmann has been long-awaited by fans of both the pair and label. Featuring a 2015 restoration conducted in collaboration by Studiocanal, The Film Foundation, and the BFI National Archive, this new Blu-ray features one of Powell and Pressburger’s most infamous collaborations at a new visual peak, restoring not just reference-quality video and audio, but previously-lost scenes and credits sequences cut from American releases. In addition to equally lavish special features featuring interviews and commentary from Martin Scorsese and George Romero, The Tales of Hoffmann is an absolute must for collectors of Criterions and classic British cinema.
Loosely inspired by the life of the famed German poet, E.T.A. Hoffmann (Robert Rounseville) guides a drunken bar audience through three surreal stories of love and heartbreak, all brought phantasmagorically to life by Powell and Pressburger. From Olympia the Automaton (Moira Shearer), Giulietta the vexing courtesan (Ludmilla Tchérina), and finally, to Antonia the star-crossed Opera singer (Ann Ayars), Hoffmann recounts how he and each of his loves found themselves at a tragic crossroads between love and art. All the while, Hoffmann and his newest love, Stella (also Moira Shearer), are stalked by the evil Councillor Lindorf (Robert Helpmann), whose shapeshifting permutations each play a diabolical hand in the demise of Hoffmann’s many loves.
What took me by surprise in The Tales of Hoffmann is how little of a divide there is between the real and dream worlds in this film, taking the technicolor frenzy of The Red Shoes’ iconic ballet sequence and spinning a whole film out of it that’s wholly devoted to an inescapable magical realism. Central to the effect are jaw-dropping sets by Hein Heckroth and magician-quality visual effects by Powell and Pressburger that lend classic silent cinema in-camera trickery to modern ballet. The team constantly plays with perspective and optical illusions throughout, whether it’s a staircase painted on a flat floor at an angle or a robot-dismembering sequence that cleverly combines in-camera editing with skillfully placed black velvet. The film’s standout sequence, set in the bacchanalia of Venice, combines on-set water illusions, disappearing reflections, and jewels that change to wax and back again. These tricks happen without warning and almost instantaneously, as if Powell, Pressburger, and company know that to let these magical moments linger too long would mean spoiling them entirely. As such, while they’re glimpsed only for a short while, they linger in audiences’ minds like half-remembered dreams, a potent quality that’s constantly one-upped throughout the entirety of Hoffmann’s runtime. It’s a nonstop showcase for Powell and Pressburger’s talents, featuring the duo at their most artistically unrestrained.
The film also is a mature continued exploration of the duo’s fascination with the deadly intersection of Art and Desire (which Powell would also pointedly continue with his later film, Peeping Tom). The Red Shoes placed its central ballerina precariously between a life devoted to artistic fulfillment or romance in reality; A Matter of Life and Death trapped its heroic pilot in a battle between the real and supernatural in the name of love; Black Narcissus created an inescapable feeling of dread that heightened the real world to the level of fantasy. Here, The Tales of Hoffmann plunges us into the moral deep end of artistic expression, which is as much of an escape for its artist as it is for his audience. These dreamlike escapes into the recesses of memory are as craved by Hoffmann as anyone else–in going over his tragically beautiful memories of how his love interests are corrupted by an outside figure, he’s able to divorce himself from just how culpable he was in their fates, or how his own ambition or possessions of love blinded him from the dangers in his midst.
It’s a toxic yet addictive sense of perpetual escape, one that fractures his current love Stella into three personas. His best friend Nicklaus (Pamela Brown), always by Hoffmann’s side, is always conscious of his ironic folly, but Hoffmann is too blind to heed his warnings. Likewise, Hoffmann also fails to recognize the plot against him and Stella which bookends the film. He’s far too caught up in the sorrow that made his art immortally famous to recognize how he’s creating another step in the pattern.
While I’m not familiar with the ending of the stage production, a cursory glance details how Nicklaus reveals himself to be the Muse of Art itself, further giving a redemptive weight to Hoffmann’s suffering. But by excising this, Hoffmann feels far more human. His fantastical escapes become more of an exhilarating coping mechanism tinged with self-imposed suffering. There’s no confirmation that his art is the reward for his suffering; rather, the cycle of how he suffers for his art is allowed to continue forever, with no end in sight. Much like the rest of Powell and Pressburger’s filmography, Hoffmann’s blindness to his own culpability is beautiful because of how he realizes it for others–and we as an audience fully understand just how easy it is to surrender to a world of fantasy than deal with the harshness of reality.
Video/Audio
Criterion presents The Tales of Hoffmann in 1080p HD in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio, sourced from a 4K restoration of the original 35mm nitrate three-strip Technicolor negative by The Film Foundation and the BFI National Archive, in association with StudioCanal. Previously-deleted sequences in Act Three and a never-before-seen curtain call sequence at the film’s ending were discovered and included for this restoration, sourced from 35mm separation master positives curated by the BFI National Archive. The film’s monaural English audio track was restored from a 35mm soundtrack positive. Restoration supervision was done by Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, and Vice President of Mastering for Warner Bros. Technical Operations Ned Price. English SDH subtitles are included solely for the feature film.
Where past releases of The Tales of Hoffmann suffered due to frequent misalignments in the three-strip technicolor negatives, this stellar transfer individually restored each of the three negatives before digitally combining and cleaning up any remaining errors. The result is likely the best The Tales of Hoffmann will ever look, short of an actual 4K UHD release. Hein Heckroth’s sets and costumes are infused with a new vitality, with colors that use as broad of a color palette as possible. The minute details that lend Powell and Pressburger’s visual effects their power are well represented here: for example, where past transfers showed the sharp contrast of black velvet in the Olympia dismemberment sequence, the deep blacks and shadows of this transfer now make the sequence feel all too real. The film’s monaural English track still possesses all the bombastic flair of the original Opera, though at times the dialogue and lyrics can be washed out by the chaos of background elements. For a film that was shot wholly to playback, the restoration also does a great job of ensuring actors’ lip-synchs match with the audio–though the errant moments where the timing doesn’t match play well into the dreamlike nature of the film.
Stills Gallery / George Romero Interview / The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Special Features:
- Audio Commentary: A 1992 archival audio commentary by Martin Scorsese and film critic Bruce Eder from Criterion’s Laserdisc release of Hoffmann, which has been updated by Eder in 2022 for this release to include discussion of the film’s newly-restored additional sequences.
- George A. Romero: A 2005 archival interview featuring the late creator of the Dead series, talking about how Hoffmann inspired him to become a director. One of the best anecdotes is how, without either director’s knowledge, he and Martin Scorsese would alternate renting out a 16mm print of the film while both were living in New York, and would be frustrated when the print wouldn’t be available due to the other.
- Stills Gallery: A selection of behind-the-scenes and production stills and marketing materials for Hoffmann’s international release.
- Hein Heckroth Gallery: A selection of the frequent Powell and Pressburger collaborator’s design sketches and reference materials for Hoffmann’s complex, painterly sets and art direction.
- The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: A 1956 musical short film directed by Michael Powell, based on the story by Goethe. Much like Tales of Hoffmann, Sorcerer’s Apprentice features a beautifully exaggerated take on the classic fairy tale also popularized by Disney’s Fantasia, transforming it into a ballet set amidst Hein Heckroth’s painterly sets with moments of English narration. In Standard Definition.
- Theatrical Trailer for The Tales of Hoffmann’s original 1951 release.
- Essay from Criterion’s 2005 DVD release of Hoffmann by film historian and Powell/Pressburger expert Ian Christie, which reckons with the film in relation to its directors’ careers, how the film improves upon and differs from the original (unfinished) 1880 source material by Jacques Offenbach, its perplexed reception upon opening in 1951, and its lasting impact on modern auteurs like Romero and Scorsese.
The Tales of Hoffmann is now available on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
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Tribeca 2022: NEXT EXIT is a Deftly Executed Debut
Ghosts are indeed real, in this supernatural road movie that explores suicide, depression, friendship and family
Next Exit, which recently world premiered at Tribeca is the assured writing/directorial debut of Mali Elfman, daughter of legendary composer Danny Elfman. The film transpires in a not too distant future where the Elizabeth Holmes-eque, Dr. Stevensen (Karen Gillan) has proven the existence of ghosts, and therefore an afterlife. Give our current socio/political cesspool of debt, depression and disregard for our fellow man, many see this revelation as a legit way out, and suicide becomes an escape hatch for many.
In an interesting move on the script’s take on the supernatural, while it’s been proven that ghosts do exist and some individuals can indeed see them, we still don’t fully understand how this exactly works. The narrative is a supernatural road movie that follows an unlikely pair of travelers — Teddy (Rahul Kohli) and Rose (Katie Parker), who are driving from New York to San Francisco in a rental, one way, to be some of the first to participate in Stevensen’s “Life Beyond” program. This program hopes to begin to unlock the secrets of the afterlife by allowing these “pioneers’ to “cross over” under the doctor’s watch.
When the film begins and we set off on this road trip, both protagonists have lost the will to live and don’t personally care to share this pilgrimage with anyone, but their own demons. As we travel cross country, their truths are slowly revealed, and the pair begin to assist the other in making some kind of amends. It’s because of their final destination, and the limited time left, both parties are allowed to be just vulnerable enough to begin a healing that allows both characters to possibly find something in the other that may be worth living for. The film isn’t trite, or saccharin, about how this relationship begins to manifest itself and it’s also careful not to allow this to distract or override their friendship or the growth that would need to take place to allow something like this to take root in our walking wounded pair. It’s a testament to Rahul and Katie’s natural chemistry and performances that it doesn’t feel cliche, coerced, or distract from the darker themes when some romantic interludes begin to present themselves to the pair.
If you’re familiar with Gillan’s suicide prevention activism, or her feature directorial debut, The Party’s Just Beginning, about the high rate of suicide in her home of the Scottish Highlands, this alludes to something more nefarious to Dr. Stevensen’s promise of an otherworldly paradise. I was transfixed by this story and the mechanics of the discovery of an afterlife presented in this film, almost as much as the story of Teddy and Rose. The film uses this supernatural plot device to dig in and examine some very relevant themes in their relationship, such as suicide, depression, friendship and family, in a way that would be impossible otherwise. It’s a fascinating means to an end that also infuses the film with a world building and mythology I wasn’t expecting, as the road movie is littered with terrifying flourishes as Rose appears to have some otherworldly connection to the beyond. Mali Elfman has crafted a fascinating, and haunting story, that is filled with a deeply touching empathy for characters that wouldn’t have been given this kind of care in lesser hands. It’s a tale that’s deftly executed and leaves the audience wanting more, filled with heart and the kind of performances that shows a keen eye for the human experience and makes me excited as to what she chooses to tackle next.
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THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE Blasts its Way onto 4K UHD
“When a Classic Western becomes a 4K UHD, purchase the 4K UHD”
In John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, aging famed Senator Ransom “Ranse” Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) returns with his wife Hallie (Vera Miles) to the small town of Shinbone where they first met. They’re set to attend the funeral of obscure rancher Tom Doniphon (John Wayne), but Ranse finds himself beleaguered by the local press who have come to hear him recount how he once gunned down vicious outlaw Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) on the eve of their unnamed state’s ascendancy to the Union. Ford’s film flashes back to how Ranse and Tom became allies in their quest to bring Liberty to Justice for all—but as we quickly learn, there’s far more to just how Liberty Valance got shot, with just who did it equally brought into question.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of the most memorable Westerns of all time by any metric, whether in the filmographies of all those involved or in a greater sense of a Western film canon. What makes it so memorable is how just nearly everyone involved—from John Wayne to Jimmy Stewart to Ford himself—is seemingly driven to set fire to their own legacies. Wayne and Stewart begin the film very much typecast: Stewart as a downtrodden yet courageous man of the law and Wayne as a heroic figure of the West, driven to tame it by force.
As the film progresses, though, the central act of courage morally corners Ranse and Tom, and where they must live with a series of deceptions and consequences in order to uphold the valiant image they’ve created for themselves. Stewart’s reputation as a law-abiding citizen feels like nothing more than a hollow mask, forged wholly by the sacrifices of people like Wayne’s Tom. Likewise, Tom knows his days as a wild ranger are coming to an end simply by the presence of people like Ranse—once the West is tamed, it can never be un-tamed. The killing of Liberty Valance, as celebrated and necessary as it may be, is a major turning point for both men; once they take action, they’re trapped with the reputations they forge out of that one split-second decision, destined to reap what they sow both in and out of the public eye.
The film represents a complicated morality for a Western that stands only in comparison to The Searchers, which Ford and Wayne had received acclaim for less than a decade previously. Even so, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance goes far beyond that film. It’s absent a xenophobic depiction of Native Americans as major antagonists, and what black-and-white villain it has is shot dead halfway through the film. What’s left, then, is a major tension between those who rise or suffer as a result, calling into question the nature of heroism that draws audiences to Westerns in the first place. It’s a far cry from the thrilling comforts of Ford’s Stagecoach, which kickstarted Wayne’s career as a Cowboy Hero, and even Stewart’s own Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Here, ideals of heroism pale in the shadow of gunsmoke, with true acts of courage going unnoticed by necessity. The real heroes of the West aren’t remembered; all that matters is that the villains are dead.
Shot during the rise of color film and changing American tastes (not to mention a small role by a rising Lee Van Cleef of eventual Sergio Leone Western fame), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a film out of time in more ways than one: It’s a John Ford Western that harkens back to the old-fashioned production methods of his classic films, with a story and themes that acknowledge that the days of the West (and the Western) are reaching a complex and melancholic end.
The film’s availability on physical media has been checkered, to say the least, with varying qualities of transfers made available across DVD and Blu-ray. Paramount Presents has revived The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance as the latest in their 4K UHD line, boasting a picture quality that finally does the classic film justice alongside a roster of archival special features making their HD debut.
The Restoration
Paramount presents The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in Dolby Vision 4K UHD. The accompanying Blu-ray disc isn’t the same problematic and extras-free disc from 2015 and 2017, but contains a 1080p HD transfer of the 2022 restoration as well as the film’s special features. Both instances of the film are presented in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. A restored Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Audio English Track is the default selection for both discs. Mono tracks in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish (Castilian & Latin) are also available on the 4K disc. On the Blu-ray, there are also accompanying Mono tracks in English, French, and Spanish. English SDH subtitles are available for both the film and accompanying special features. The 4K disc also includes feature subtitles in English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Norwegian, Polish, Spanish (Castilian & Latin), and Swedish. The Blu-ray disc also includes subtitles in French and Spanish.
While past transfers have varied in quality across physical media releases, Paramount’s latest restoration of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is pretty stunning, even if it has its own shortcomings. Re-scanning the film’s materials has brought out a level of detail missing from past releases. The shorn wood of the film’s sets to the fabrics of the costumes are well represented in texture and quality, while longer shots may lose their focus as a result of digital enhancement across the board. Also, it’s clear from the consistency of the film grain across shots that something may have been added in after the fact (and not inherent to the materials themselves), which results in an experience that is by far the best Liberty Valance has looked in years, though one that may be errantly distracting for a handful of shots. While this may be critical, this doesn’t stop Paramount’s package from featuring a transfer with plenty of room to boast as far as picture quality goes—this is quite a transfer across the board, and is definitely a step up from heavily DNR’d past releases.
The film’s audio tracks are quite robust, from the film’s original monaural elements to a remixed dynamic 5.1-surround track. Crisp, impactful dialogue and Foley work make up the most prominent elements, with Cyril J. Mockridge’s plaintive score taking more of a supporting role in surrounding channels.
Special Features
Note: All of the package’s special features are on the film’s accompanying Blu-ray disc.
- Filmmaker Focus — Leonard Maltin on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: The famed film critic gives a brief yet impactful new introduction to the film, framing it within the careers of its stars and director as well as its evolving place in Western cinematic canon.
- The Size of Legends, The Soul of Myth: An archival seven-part documentary on the genesis and production of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, putting Ford’s film in the context of the tumultuous and evolving studio-director-star relationships of the time. Features interviews with Ford (audio), Peter Bogdanovich, former Paramount executives, and Ford’s grandson, Dan Ford. While this is a fascinating and in-depth look at the film’s complicated production, it’s frustrating that this documentary doesn’t have a “Play All” function; each part must be played individually.
- Archival Commentary with late filmmaker and film historian Peter Bogdanovich, accompanied by archival interviews conducted by Bogdanovich with Ford and Stewart. Surprisingly, this isn’t an option for the 4K transfer of the film, which seems like an unusual oversight for a release like this, given the option of many other language tracks on the 4K disc. Not subtitled.
- Archival Selected Scene Commentary for seven scenes in the film, with an introduction from film historian and John Ford descendant Dan Ford, accompanied by archival interviews conducted by Dan Ford with John Ford and stars Stewart and Marvin.
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Sleeve containing fold-out original theatrical art.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is now available on Paramount Presents 4K UHD courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
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The Archivist #142: Spencer Tracy Shines in a Dual, Dueling Role: DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
Victor Fleming’s 1941 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella gets a freshly scrubbed Blu-ray release
The title says it all I think. The Archivist — Welcome to the Archive. As home video formats have evolved over the years, a multitude of films have found themselves in danger of being forgotten forever due to their niche appeal. Thankfully, Warner Bros. established the Archive Collection, a Manufacture-On-Demand DVD operation devoted to thousands of idiosyncratic and ephemeral works of cinema. The Archive has expanded to include a revivals of out-of-print DVDs and factory pressed Blu-ray discs. Join us as we explore this treasure trove of cinematic discovery!
By 1940, Spencer Tracey was not only a perennial box-office favorite, but also a two-time Academy Award winner for Captains Courageous in 1938 and Boys Town just a year later. Between Boys Town and arguably one of his most famous roles in the Victor Fleming-directed adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s perennial favorite, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Tracy appeared in three other films (Boom Town, Edison, the Man, and Northwest Passage) released in over the course of a single year. Like many performers of his era, Tracy worked under a long-running studio contract, well-paid certainly, but also limited in the roles he could take. Like many performers of his time, it was more enough that he was a working actor. Regardless of whether Tracy had any say in accepting the dual title role in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Tracy delivered one of his most memorable performances, deliberately avoiding the theatrical makeup usually associated with the Hyde persona for a whole body, inside-out approach.
Romance first, tragedy last. Stevenson’s 1886 novella was and remains an ur-text for psychologically driven Gothic horror, irresistible to performers eager to play diametrically opposed, dueling personas sharing the same body. Not surprisingly, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has seen more than its fair share of adaptations, some more faithful than others, some barely resembling the source text at all. Stevenson’s novella has been adapted for the silver screen at least a dozen times, including a 1920 adaptation featuring John Barrymore in the title role, and just a decade before Tracey slipped into the role, an Oscar-winning role for Fredric March (The Best Years of Our Lives). Tracy, though, didn’t seem the slightest bit daunted by following in March’s footsteps, in large part because he felt that his take was sufficiently different that accusations of imitation or duplication wouldn’t fall in his general direction. He was right.
A slickly made, generously budgeted, glossy black-and-white adaptation brilliantly shot four-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg (Gaslight, Mrs. Miniver, Woman of the Year), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde centers, as always, on the dual title characters, Dr. Jekyll (Tracy), a respectable member of high society, and his brutish alter-ego, Dr. Hyde (Tracy again), the literal manifestation of Dr. Jekyll’s worst, libidinal instincts, sexual and otherwise. For Stevenson, Jekyll represented Victorian-era morality, a surface gloss on human nature unfettered by law, morality or ethics. Hyde obviously represented that critique, though not every adaptation has made a point of underlining or emphasizing those ideas, instead leaning heavily on Hyde’s grotesque behavior and the audience’s prurient, voyeuristic interest in that behavior. Both takes can be found in Fleming’s adaptation, though melodrama, especially Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s relationship with the two female characters, the ill-fated Ivy Peterson (Ingrid Bergman), a hedonist or sensualist by one definition, a fallen woman by another, more judgmental one, and Beatrix Emery (Lana Turner), the society-approved, virginal romantic interest.
The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end. Everything goes sideways, of course. Jekyll can’t give Hyde free rein to do whatever he wants without consequences to everyone around him and eventually, Jekyll himself. While Stevenson spent little time on the elusive elixir invented by Jekyll to release Hyde. Before long, the elixir no longer determines when and where Hyde makes an appearance and the division between Jekyll and Hyde, a convenient, comforting fiction, dissolves. And in a Victorian society that judges any deviance from the norm as worthy of imprisonment or death, Jekyll seals his own fate the moment he decides to take the first, life-changing sip of the elixir. It both “frees” Jekyll and dooms him, a predictable end that also serves here and in more traditional adaptations, as a critique of the Victorian society that refuses to make a place for him.
Special Features
- Theatrical trailer
Additional Reading:
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THE BATMAN on 4K UHD Showcases the Details in the Darkness
Matt Reeves’ take on the Caped Crusader leans into the grittier side of Gotham
Synopsis:
More than a year of stalking the streets as the Batman (Robert Pattinson), striking fear into the hearts of criminals, has led Bruce Wayne deep into the shadows of Gotham City. With only a few trusted allies — Alfred (Andy Serkis), Lt. James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) — amongst the city’s corrupt network of officials and high-profile figures, the lone vigilante has established himself as the sole embodiment of vengeance amongst his fellow citizens. When a killer targets Gotham’s elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues sends the World’s Greatest Detective on an investigation into the underworld, where he encounters such characters as Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), Oz, aka The Penguin (Colin Farrell), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and Edward Nashton/aka The Riddler (Paul Dano). As the evidence begins to lead closer to home and the scale of the perpetrator’s plans becomes clear, Batman must forge new relationships, unmask the culprit, and bring justice to the abuse of power and corruption that has long plagued Gotham City.
We’ve had Batmans before, but this is The Batman. An effort to stand apart, and to draw a line under Robert Pattinson’s (Good Time, High Life) distinct portrayal of a relentless force. This take on the Dark Knight, crafted by writer/director Matt Reeves (the modern Planet of the Apes trilogy), delivers plenty of familiar fare, but makes great efforts to adopt its own tone, embrace other facets of the character, and plant us in the early years, as Bruce/Bats is still finding his footing as a masked vigilante. Gotham is engulfed by a drugs epidemic and corruption, something that has helped drive Bruce Wayne’s vigilante crusade, but also spawned a mysterious figure. The Riddler (Paul Dano) has been intent on bringing his own brand of justice to bear. Elaborate death traps, to punish his targets, alongside clues on calling cards and social media. To install fear and whip up interest, but more-so to draw in Batman and his partner in the police dept, Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright). Setting them on a trail to uncover a bigger crime that has long gestated in the city. As they are led on this chase, Bruce finds that he himself is a target, and personally linked to the information The Riddler is set on revealing to the public.
The film leans hard into the procedural elements, DC stands for Detective Comics after all. And while involved in some of the Batman features, never before to this extent. Intricate schemes, crimes scenes, analysis, navigating shady locales and figures, good old fashioned footwork, its all here. These victims are breadcrumbs, leading Batman along a path to uncover the culprit of the crimes, and what The Riddler wants out in the open. Along the way, though the underbelly of the city, we get introduced to other players, from mob boss Carmine Falcone (Turturro), along with his right hand man Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot (Colin Farrell), and even cat burglar Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman. So far so Batmany, but what really sets this version apart is an immersion not just in realism, but in a bleaker and more gritty tone. These traps set by The Riddler are not goofy affairs, but more akin to something out of the Saw movies. The detective work is befitting a David Fincher film, that out of the pages of a colorful comic book. This darkness permeates practically every aesthetic and design choice the film has to make. Even Waynes’s apartment feel lifted out of a Gothic church and somehow transplanted to the innards of a modern high-rise. Cinematography by Greig Fraser delivering amber hues, shadows, rain soaked streets, industry meets medieval.
This version of Bruce and Batman is similarly grim. A youthful and tortured recluse, fully embracing the emo aesthetic. A glimpsed journal in the film tells us this is Year 2 of Wayne’s winged crusade to restore justice and order to the city. The early years sees a more brutal and unrefined Batman, physically and practically. It adds a refreshing sense of danger, as he plunges fist-first into some of his encounters. Pattinson brings a tortured, human weight to the role, one befitting the tone. While supporting performances from Andy Serkis (Alfred), Turturro, and Wright also impress, the real standout is Kravitz, with an assured and alluring performance that proves delightfully adept at throwing Pattison’s Batman off-kilter.
There’s much to appreciate in Reeves’s take on Batman, but plenty to quibble about too. A running time of 176 minutes doesn’t exactly fly by. I’m all for lengthier movies, if it services the story, but The Batman is replete with repetition and redundancy, those 176 minutes often grate. A scene that deftly conveys meaning,m is often followed up by a more obvious reminder of the same message. This dumbing down is doubled down upon by an overuse of moody voice-overs. This all feels like spoon feeding the viewer rather than letting the words or physicality of the actors do their intended purpose. The dark brooding is overly slathered on at times, and stands in contrast to a final that feels a little too grand in scale and spectacle, especially considering the grimy street level work that leads up to it. Even with these issues, Reeves’s and Pattinson’s collaboration is a thoroughly engaging endeavor, and admirably proves there is still life in the Batman franchise.
The Package
Gothic in tone and appearance, this version of Gotham is even more grungy than any previous depicted. Having seen this film on streaming via HBO Max, the physical 4K copy is notably superior. Detail comes across superbly, evident in costume and set details alike. Blacks are deep and inky, contrast and color range impress, allowing all the details in the shadows to come through. It looks like the 4K disc is just the movie, no extras, and they make good use of all that space to deliver a great transfer free of any artifacts or compression issues. In addition to the 4K disc, the release includes a digital copy of the film, a Blu-ray version, and a third disc which hosts the extra features.
- Vengeance in the Making: Just under an hour in length, and packs plenty in to that decent runtime. Touches on all aspects of the production, from original conception, to script development, casting, design, while providing other insights via on-set footage
- Looking for Vengeance: Very short featurette covering the fight choreography, specifically ‘this’ Batman’s fighting style
- The Batman: Genesis: Reeves and Pattinson talk about the decisions made and path taken in this particular depiction of Wayne/Batman, notably in terms of leaning into the detective elements, and also the youth of this iteration. A shame its runtime is just over 6 minutes
- Vengeance Meets Justice: Reeves and Pattison are joined by Paul Dano to compare and contrast the Batman and The Riddler
- Becoming Catwoman: Zoë Kravitz talks about her approach to playing the character, and shares some on set tidbits too
- The Batmobile: Special effects supervisor Dominic Tuohy, along with a few other cast and crew members, chat about the new take on the car, with some additional info on the design and building process
- Anatomy of a Car Chase: A short but interesting breakdown of the film’s most impressive action set piece
- Anatomy of the Wing Suit Jump: Insights to this action set-piece, concerning costume design and filming tech
- Unpacking the Icons: Rundown of some of the aesthetic/costume choices for the film and what makes them distinct from previous iterations
- A Transformation: The Penguin: A pretty detailed look at the process of transforming Farrell into the Penguin
- Deleted Scenes: Scene 52 Joker/Arkham and Scene 56 Selina Gets 44 Below Keycard: These have circulated quite widely online. Presented here with a commentary from Reeves, who explains their exclusion
The Bottom Line
While there is plenty of familiar stuff here, Reeves manages to imbue his take on Batman with a very distinct flavor. A detective story that immerses us in the grimy underbelly of Gotham like never before. It’s the kind of film that truly benefits from being seen in the highest detail available, and 4K is the best option. This quality, combined with an extensive series of extra features, make this a great package.
The Batman is available on 4K UHD now
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JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION Delivers More of the Same, Just Slightly Different
Colin Trevorrow returns to the blockbuster series that turned him into an A-list director.
Not exactly the meeting of old friends we were expecting. As we’ve learned time and time again, intellectual property is forever. A series or franchise might end with a literal whimper, but studio executives learned long ago that time was most certainly on their side. Wait ten years, wait fifteen years and audiences, forgetting what they didn’t like and only remembering what they did, will be ready for a franchise to be reborn. It doesn’t always work, of course, but it did with Jurassic World in 2015, resurrecting a seemingly dead franchise and giving Universal a billion-dollar money maker. A sequel was greenlit before the doors closed on multiplexes the first weekend Jurassic World was open. And in a surprise to exactly no one, the sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, did more than well enough to justify Jurassic World: Dominion, a promised “end” to the entire series. Audiences, of course, know better.
The final minutes of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom promised moviegoers something only tantalizingly teased the moment the original Jurassic Park hit multiplexes back in 1993: Genetically engineered dinosaurs escaping from their sanctuary and wreaking all kinds of havoc on unsuspecting (and suspecting) humans, overturning the world order and relegating humanity to endangered species status—or at least no longer the unquestioned rulers of the planet we call home. Jurassic World Dominion, however, all but turns away from the promise inherent in the premise, instead substituting one of the most ill-conceived, poorly executed ideas in the entire six-film series: genetically engineered locusts created by the obligatory evil corporation, BioSyn, as part of a predictably rapacious scheme to force farmers around the world to rely on BioSyn-created grain (immune to the locusts, of course). It’s enough to make even the most diehard of Jurassic Park/World fans to wonder how and why such an incredibly weak idea made it past Universal’s executive board.
Also not exactly the meeting of old friends we were expecting. Making the dinosaurs—the primary reason for the existence of the series—into secondary or background characters is bad enough, but relegating them to another derivative, cliché-ridden story is almost just as bad. While the dinosaur population has spread throughout North America, they don’t seem to post an imminent threat of any kind. They’re more of a nuisance than anything else, a problem to be either ignored (shades of living through a global pandemic) or handled with the least intrusive means available. In this case, that means letting dinosaurs roam unpopulated areas and capturing the more dangerous ones and transporting them to a climate-controlled sanctuary in Italy, the Dolomites.
Not coincidentally, the governments of the world have ceded all control to BioSyn and their gray-haired, sweater-wearing CEO, Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott). Equal parts Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and every billionaire villain ever put on film, Dodgson has a dream to wrest control over Mother Nature (grain, locusts, dinos) and become the de facto most powerful man alive. Only a combination of new and legacy characters can stop Dodgson from enacting his evil plan for world domination, including Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), the nominal hero of the two earlier entries and a raptor trainer turned dino-lover of sorts; Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), a Jurassic World senior executive who becomes a dino-lover and dino conservationist; Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), their adopted daughter and the world’s first ever human clone; and the first trilogy’s central trio, paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill), paleobotanist and Grant’s one true love Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and chaos mathematician and living god in black Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum).
The plot, such as it is, doesn’t connect the new and legacy characters until well into the second hour of the two-and-a-half hour film. Instead, audiences get two wobbly plot lines for the price of one. For Owen and Claire, it’s locating and rescuing a kidnapped Maisie and Beta, the daughter of Owen’s favorite raptor, Blue. With Maisie and Beta gone, Owen and Claire slip into action hero mode, following hints and clues to an underground dino bazaar on Malta (cue frenzied, frantic, ultimately semi-meaningful chase sequence). For Alan and Ellie, it’s taking a direct flight to BioSyn’s dino sanctuary in Italy, where they find Ian already waiting for them, and clumsily attempting a stealth mission involving locust DNA without Dodgson noticing. Spoiler: He eventually does, sending our legacy trio into escape mode.
While the two plot lines eventually merge, every obstacle, every setback seems artificially created to delay the inevitable meet-up between new and legacy characters. The super-secure sanctuary, of course, proves to be far less secure than Dodgson or his freshly scrubbed minions in matching polos and advanced degrees would have everyone believe. Before long, the dinos make their presence known and the legacy and new characters are running and stumbling for their lives. The threat, though, never really extends beyond the sanctuary, leaving the real-world stakes in suspended animation until audiences get their obligatory dino-on-dino action. In the end, Jurassic World Dominion doesn’t feel like a fitting end to the series as much as it does another open-ended entry, less of a promise and more of a threat that moviegoers will only have themselves to blame if another trilogy gets greenlit in the future.
Jurassic World Dominion opens theatrically in North America on Friday, June 10th.
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Criterion Review: THE FUNERAL
Tradition clashes with modernity in Juzo Itami’s satirical comedy
Synopsis:
It’s death, Japanese style, in the rollicking and wistful first feature from maverick writer-director Juzo Itami. In the wake of her father’s sudden passing, a successful actor (Itami’s wife and frequent collaborator, Nobuko Miyamoto) and her lascivious husband (Tsutomu Yamazaki) leave Tokyo and return to her family home to oversee a traditional funeral. Over the course of three days of mourning that bring illicit escapades in the woods, a surprisingly materialistic priest (Chishu Ryu), and cinema’s most epic sandwich handoff, the tensions between public propriety and private hypocrisy are laid bare. Deftly weaving dark comedy with poignant family drama, The Funeral is a fearless satire of the clash between old and new in Japanese society in which nothing, not even the finality of death, is off-limits.
Inspired by real family events, Juzo Itami’s The Funeral is a personal, and often moving affair. Beyond this, it manages to fit into its narrative, an insightful dive into generational conflicts within Japanese culture. Old ways and new, tradition vs. modernity, tugging at each other against the backdrop of a Japanese Buddhist funeral. From the preparation, to the wake, though the service itself, and the aftermath, its a window into expectations and traditions, navigated by those brought up with it, and endured by those beholden to it.
A gathering of an eclectic assortment of family and friends, precipitated by the sudden demise of patriarch Shokichi Amamiya (Hideji Otaki). The film largely swirls around his daughter Chizuko Amamiya (Nobuko Miyamoto ) and her husband Wabisuke Inoue (Tsutomu Yamazaki). Their work as TV entertainers, speaks to an ability (and a need) to perform, to create a facade, something that is deployed and frequently tested as they navigate the responsibilities and expectations of them. What could be emotionally heavy fare, is given levity due to the exhaustive and intricate demands of tradition. The ceremonial aspects and behaviors, compensation for the priests, even the use of instructional videos to guide the couple through the process, all add to a growing sense of absurdity and farce. A deference to the deceased, at the expense of the living, in terms of time, money, and effort.
While this cost is highlighted, the film doesn’t castigate or cast out traditional values, no matter how exhausting they may seem. Instead it highlights how they can still offer solace, a comfort in ritual and family. Something that can be estranged from younger generations. Connections and comfort permeate the film, as it deftly touches on the whole spectrum of loss and grief. There is a superb balance of the tonal shifts required to pull this off, with careful timing and pace, supported by layered writing and nuanced performances from the cast. A family of fully fleshed out characters to connect with, share the processing of a death and what is left in its wake (no pun intended).
The Package
Image quality on this new restoration is pistine. Details impress, colors are strongly, and naturally represented. Blacks are deep, and overall quality of image and detail stands out. The transfer presents with a warm palette, that nicely complements a natural gain. Extra features are:
- New interview with actor Nobuko Miyamoto: Miyamoto reveals how her personal experience of planning her father’s funeral inspired her husband (Itami) to make The Funeral. Beyond this, she also tells of her experiences working alongside her partner, and her overall career too
- New interview with actor Manpei Ikeuchi: A shorter interview with the child of Itami and Miyamoto, who reminisces on his performance as a child in the film, working under the guidance of his father, and his legacy
- Creative Marriages: Juzo Itami & Nobuko Miyamoto, a short program produced by the Criterion Channel: Hosted by film critic Michael Sragow, who dives into the collaboration between the pair, thier individual talents/contributions, the personal stamp they put on projects, and their legacy
- Commercials for Ichiroku Tart by director Juzo Itami: A collection of TV ads made by the director
- Trailers:
- PLUS: An essay by author Pico Iyer and, for the Blu-ray, excerpts from Itami’s 1985 book Diary of “The Funeral” and from a 2007 remembrance of Itami by actor Tsutomu Yamazaki: Iyer’s essay predominantly covers the overarching career of Itami, and deftly places the film’s themes into cultural context
- New cover by Tatsuro Kiuchi
The Bottom Line
Sobering and satirical in equal measure, The Funeral is as fascinating as it is poignant. A respectful exploration of Japanese culture, that skewers some of the more absurd efforts that come in the face of loss, and with deference to tradition. At its core, it highlights the human values in which we respect life, and find comfort in each other. Criterion offer a superb presentation of the film, supported by a set of extra features really reinforce the personal ties of Itami and Miyamoto to the feature.
The Funeral is available via Criterion now
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THE CONTRACTOR: Top Notch Thriller Exposes Stark Reality for Former Soldiers
Chris Pine and Ben Foster: forever blue collar Americans with their backs against the wall
I spend a fair amount of my time thinking about the value of a single human life.
Working at Community First! Village in Austin, TX, where we provide permanent supportive housing for the formerly chronically homeless, I work day to day alongside people who’ve been chewed up and spit out by the United States of America. They’re often dear people whom I love and who have untold value to offer to those around them. But our society has told them, again and again, that they are worthless and have nothing to contribute. The individual value of each of their lives is of sacred value to me, and I long for a world where our society values them as much as my place of work does.
I lead with this personal connection because The Contractor, Chris Pine’s latest thriller, spoke to me quite deeply in its own exploration of the value of a soldier’s life amidst the grinding gears of America’s war machine. Threading a tonal line somewhere between Hell Or High Water (another anti-hero, blue collar, deconstructionist American film starring both Pine and Ben Foster) and a Bourne film, The Contractor is slick, but grounded, offering thrills and reflection in equal measure.
Pine’s James Harper is a real modern military man, resorting to various steroids and HGH to keep his absolutely ruined knee limping along long enough to keep him on active duty and continue to support his family. But, failing a drug test, he’s sent out of the military with no benefits or pension. Forced into private contracting to use his training to earn a living, he’s sent on a shady mission that will obviously go south by Rusty (Kiefer Sutherland), a contact who has helped Harper’s former CO Mike. A nice paycheck later, Harper and Mike are black ops in Berlin, tasked with grabbing some data from a scientist whose funding comes from vaguely Middle Eastern sources. It’s not long before Harper is on the run, side by side with Mike once again behind enemy lines. Bourne this is not, however, and Harper always feels just a half step ahead of being killed throughout this ordeal.
Writer J.P. Davis takes his time with The Contractor, really embedding us in Harper’s life in the first act. We’re invested in this one man’s plight, pulling for him to find a way to provide for his family with the dignity we’d all hope would be afforded to someone who has sacrificed much for the country we benefit from. And the relationship between Harper and Mike is easy and identifiable as well. Pine and Foster have incredible chemistry already proven in Hell Or High Water and reinforced here. The Contractor is a real “human first” kind of film, where there are thrills and action and nail-biting suspense, but all of that is in support of telling Harper’s (and Mike’s) tale. Davis’ script adeptly addresses intergenerational trauma, the war machine, private contracting, and meat and potatoes daily American life. Some might argue that the film attempts to have its cake and eat it too, with both melancholic life exploration and some kick ass combat sequences.
I’d argue that The Contractor brings much to the table in this deconstructionist era. There’s not a lot of saber rattling going on. Pine is able to play a heroic lead and a military veteran with a special set of skills, but the system that made him is the villain here. It’s that age old exploration of one soldier’s life weighed against the profiteering and rhetoric of the nations they fight for. And The Contractor does an excellent job of grounding us with Harper, getting us on his side, and rooting for him to turn the tables against those who betrayed him, however far fetched that might be.
Pine and Foster are excellent, as always, but this film really brings a ton of talent to the table beyond that. Gillian Jacobs (Community) has a dramatic lead as Harper’s wife Brianne and I feel she did a lot with a little. Sutherland has extremely little screen time, but he absolutely nails being a guy JUST like Harper and Mike who decided one day to sell out guys just like him to benefit himself. He’s loathsome, but one can see how someone might become a person like him. I also absolutely love character actor Eddie Marsan, and he’s got a brief but emotionally resonant role as a contact Harper makes while he’s on the run. Marsan’s Virgil is yet another mirror for Harper… a soldier who survived his wars but is forever disconnected from his family as a result. A ghost of a man, but surviving nonetheless. Perhaps the only thing that distinguishes Harper from Rusty, Virgil, or even Mike, is a scarred and broken relationship with his own father, who himself abandoned his family after his wars were fought. Harper’s driving force in life is to not repeat the sins of his father, and that response to trauma makes all the difference in his decision making.
The Contractor is simple. It won’t win major awards or accolades. It may be too on the nose for indie cinema connoisseurs or not action packed enough for action junkies. But I loved this film and its thrilling journey of darkness for our everyman hero. I appreciate the frankness with which the film addresses the plight of our modern soldiers and the system that only values them until it’s done with them, and then leaves them high and dry once they’ve given all they have. I appreciate a film that demonstrates the humanity of our hero and explores the value of his life and his family’s life as weighed against some vague black ops priority that exists only to make rich people richer. The Contractor posits that our capitalistic system absolutely prioritizes the almighty dollar above our humanity, and keeps us rooting for our hero to prove his innate value against a stacked deck. This is exactly the kind of film that gets me invested, thinking, and cheering for the everyman to prevail.
The Package
Bare bones all the way, you’re getting nothing here but the film and a digital copy. That said, I’m thrilled that the studio deemed The Contractor worthy of a 4K UHD release because I think the film absolutely deserves that treatment… and it looks fantastic. This isn’t a mega-budget blockbuster, but it also isn’t straight to video fare. (Not to disparage DTV films, as I love them deeply). The Contractor exists in a nebulous space where it absolutely boasts an all-star cast, and looks amazing thanks to Swedish Director Tarik Saleh and cinematographer Pierre Aim’s top notch work, but it’s also not a wide release blockbuster either. I’d argue that the film looks great enough, and has enough to offer, that shelling out for the 4K UHD release may be worth it for those curious about the film… even if that 4K presentation is all you’re really going to get.
And I’m Out.
The Contractor hits 4K UHD and Blu-ray 6/7/2022 from Paramount Pictures.
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THE UNTOUCHABLES Go Toe-To-Toe With Al Capone in 4K UHD
De Palma’s Prohibition era cops & gangsters classic hits hard & looks great
My experience of, and appreciation for, Brian De Palma’s 1987 hit The Untouchables all revolve around one central truth of the film, which is that it is absolutely iconic.
This is one I grew up with; visiting the film many times through many different stages of my own life. I’ll never be able to impersonally assess it as a work disconnected from my own feelings toward it. And those feelings are strong. I absolutely adore The Untouchables. But it’s a rare film indeed that achieves anything even close to iconic status. So I’d argue that De Palma’s Untouchables more than cements its status as a crime/action classic based almost solely on its iconic style alone. It’s ultimately more than that, though. It’s a mainstream action blockbuster crafted by a visionary auteur but aimed squarely at the mainstream crowd, succeeding wildly as a piece of entertainment that has endured throughout the decades, and here with its glorious new 4K restoration stands poised to entertain yet another generation of crime/action junkies.
De Palma’s Untouchables is absolutely my reference point and baseline for all depictions of Eliot Ness vs. Al Capone in prohibition era Chicago. I know there was a tv show that inspired the film, and that these real life historical characters will continue to inspire retellings long into the future. But this one is mine, the version against which I’ll always compare other adaptations. And I suspect it will always remain my favorite.
There are simply too many elements of the film that stand out for me to not love this thing. Truly so few movies really stick in my mind and conjure up images the way that The Untouchables does. For instance, the climactic gun battle along the subway station’s giant marble staircase (itself a reference to Battleship Potemkin) is so visually remarkable, I can’t escape visual flashes of this sequence popping into my mind if the film ever crosses it. This action set piece employs De Palma’s excellent use of slow motion to create a gunfight even John Woo would be proud of.
Then there’s Robert De Niro’s depiction of Al Capone. Capone takes up shockingly little screen time in the film, but he’s depicted with such reverence and terror that De Niro’s over the top performance fits like a glove. The baseball ball at the board room table sequence is another visual image that instantly jumps to mind as unforgettable when discussing The Untouchables.
After those incredible sequences, I’d argue that cinematic legend Ennio Morricone’s absolutely stellar score does an enormous amount of heavy lifting to elevate The Untouchables to its iconic status. From sweeping, adventurous themes evoking the freedom of the wild west to aggressive trills that place you immediately in the world of cops and robbers, to tension laden nursery melodies evoking a child in danger, Morricone’s score is enough to make me cry and pump my fists as though Morricone himself is pulling my strings.
Then you’ve got the legendary David Mamet on script duty. Not quite a subtle screenplay, this one again swings and bullseye’s iconic status. With enough Connery quips and one liners to rival any Bond outing, one might occasionally roll one’s eyes when watching The Untouchables, but the experience sure is snappy and reminds you that you’re having a great time at the movies instead of experiencing some kind of real world, painstakingly recreated grit. It’s a real movie script, efficient and fun, infusing just the right amount of humanity to the larger-than-life tale.
These scattershot elements were covered in a scattershot way because that’s how my love for the film feels. It’s set pieces and components, it’s bits of score and mood and dialog. As the internet would say, it’s a vibe.
But The Untouchables is also simply a fantastic action-adventure movie with a wonderful, award-winning cast at its heart. Perhaps the concept of “cops above reproach” today feels more than a little dated. But stripping away any of that real world kind of thinking, what you’ve got here is just cops n’ robbers, white hats vs. black hats… the good triumphing over the evil. And while today’s world is too shifting and corrupted for this to feel current, it still feels good to harken back to the simplicity of Kevin Costner as Ness, Sean Connery as mentor beat cop Malone (an Oscar-winning turn), Andy Garcia as young tough guy Stone, and Charles Martin Smith as accountant-turned-crusader Wallace taking down the bad guys; their integrity winning the battle over Capone’s duplicitousness. It feels quaint, indeed… but no less satisfying for how aspirational it might be today.
Connery’s Malone feels like classic Connery, but one can see why this netted him his lone Oscar win. Top Gun’s Maverick, as depicted in the sequel, may easily have been modeled on Malone… here’s an elderly beat cop who’s been looked over for every promotion because he refuses to be on the take. He could be a decorated public figure by this late in the game, but he’s chosen righteous purity at the expense of his career. And along comes a young, hungry Eliot Ness to glean wisdom from a cop whose methods had never been given the time of day. Forming an elite force disconnected from Chicago’s corrupt police in Capone’s pockets, these four crusaders topple a whole system, though not without some tragedy along the way at the hands of Billy Drago’s terrifying white-suited enforcer Frank Nitti. The Untouchables might err on the side of melodrama, but its heightened style and flair truly make the human stakes feel real, the deaths palpable, and the victory sweet.
“Never stop fighting until the fight is done. Here endeth the lesson”.
The Package
I’ve repeatedly said, when discussing 4K UHD releases, that the difference between these measured against standard high definition is pretty moderate… at least for me. I happen to think that The Untouchables is an absolutely gorgeous film, mostly set in Prohibition-era Chicago, but with a visually arresting foray into Canada that briefly allows the film to become a Western. This new release does look absolutely stunning and I’m thrilled to have The Untouchables in its sharpest possible form to date. But I’m not sure any but the most discerning will be able to say this format improves leaps and bounds over a 1080p presentation.
You get a bunch of vintage promotional behind the scenes featurettes here that I really enjoyed, highlighting the script, the cast, a genre exploration, etc. It’s the kind of stuff I love, but also nothing new produced exclusively for this release.
Interestingly, as I’m starting to notice more and more, this 4K UHD release does not come with a Blu-ray copy, but only a Digital Code. Just something worth noting.
A 4K UHD release for any film does not feel like a foregone conclusion as this technology (or at least a physical release of films scanned with this technology) are more and more a niche thing. So I’m thrilled to own this, and to have the opportunity to write my thoughts on a film I adore. The Untouchables absolutely belongs among the niche list of titles to get this level of treatment.
And I’m Out.
The Untouchables is now available on 4K UHD from Paramount Pictures
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CRIMES OF THE FUTURE Delivers Classic Cronenberg
A cinematic throwback that disturbs but disappoints
It’s been around 8 years since David Cronenberg (Scanners, The Brood, The Fly) turned in his last feature. His eagerly awaited return, picks up an ongoing collaboration with Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method), and the director’s predilection for body horror. Coming off the back of a premiere at Cannes Film Festival, one complete with purported walkouts (and a 7 minute standing ovation), Crimes of the Future is a feature that will certainly satiate most fans, remaining true to the auteur’s style, but won’t convert anyone new to the cult of Cronenberg.
Set in a dark, derelict future, the evolution of humanity has picked up speed. New organs, glands, and subsequently hormones are being found in members of the population. Medical advances have all but eliminated pain, leading to a sub-culture, where individuals push the boundaries of physical experience and human appearance. This is a time where some take their twisting and morphing innards, and turn them into art exhibitions, political statements, and social/ecological messages. The most renowned of these is Saul Tenser (a shrouded performance from Mortensen, literally), a performance artist who seems especially adept at generating new organs. Their cataloguing and extraction is done in collaboration with his partner Caprice (a simmering Léa Seydoux, Blue is the Warmest Color). Grappling with his creative struggles and physical pain, Tenser becomes caught up in moves to monitor and police the changes humanity is undergoing, and the efforts of a tortured man named Lang (Scott Speedman), who wants to use the autopsy of his son in one of their shows, and advance a growing belief in what these mutational leaps mean for mankind.
While not a remake of his 1970 original, Cronenberg’s latest draws some inspiration from it, as well as from other entries to his oeuvre. The opening scene, featuring the murder of an an “evolved” child by its own mother, sketches out the conflict that engulfs our future society, and more pertinently our protagonist. This age of Accelerated Evolution Syndrome has spawned an industry of bizarre sleeping cradles, eating chairs and surgical platforms, and the proliferation of “desktop surgeries”. This art scene is just one outlet of people to share and stare at what we are becoming. There’s even mention of an underground “inner beauty pageant”, an event that first got its start in Arrested Development, to showcase what biological oddities they’ve been cooking. Tenser removes these organs, striving to keep the new flesh at bay, while Lang has an agenda where he posits the necessity to embrace it. Looming large is the emergence National Organ Registry, run by Wippet (Don McKellar) and his assistant Timlin (a quirky Kristen Stewart), who both become beguiled by Tenser’s celebrity and prolific generation of new organs. Something also reflected in him picking up weird groupies in the form of Biomedical mechanics Berst and Router (played with off-beat relish by Tanaya Beatty and Nadia Litz). A new age calls for a new bureaucracy and associated police force. Both speak to governmental concerns as pockets of the population begin to show unnatural abilities and tendencies. It all manifests in a backdrop to the film, presenting a transgressive, dystopic thriller, that serves as a critique of America’s social and economic direction. But the focus is the rather tender dynamic between Saul and Caprice; two individuals on a journey to find peace and accept who they are becoming in this new world.
Crimes of the Future feels like classic Cronenberg, and that is perhaps the film’s greatest strength and weakness. Visuals, ideas, and performances are infused with his familiar style and tone. Yet little of it feels new or progressive. There is a quieter timidity to the tale. Structurally it feels disjointed, something compounded by a rather thin sketching of a more expansive world. Some of the aesthetics look less like Cronenberg originals and more like a cheap knockoff. The butchery of the body seems even more crude in an age of CRISPR technology and DNA editing. Despite this, it still resonates. Many of Cronenberg’s earlier efforts similarly ruminated on mutation and transformation, notably Videodrome and Existenz. In those cases, it was typically external forces looking to corrupt the flesh. Here, they come from within, something that befits the more introspective nature of the piece. Body horror gives way to a sensual and spiritual journey. We glimpse people liberated by the changes within, looking to transforming their outsides. Tenser especially, wracked with pain and the loss of control over his own body, channels it into a form of expression. One of the things that defines us as humans is our creativity. So as Tenser becomes more consumed by mutations, each installation marks a rallying against the dying of the light, until his ultimate revelation. To accept and embrace evolution, no matter how revolting it is.
Crimes of the Future hits theaters June 3rd
