Tag Archives: Blu-ray/DVD reissues

Behind the Music, Documentary, Jazz Musicians, On Music

Blu-ray reissue: Let’s Get Lost (****)

January 27, 2025 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on January 25, 2025)

Let’s Get Lost (Kino Classics)

The life of horn player/vocalist Chet Baker is a tragedian’s dream; a classic tale of a talented artist who peaked early, then promptly set about self-destructing. Sort of the Montgomery Clift of jazz, he was graced by the gods with an otherworldly physical beauty and a gift for expressing his art. By age 24 he had already gigged with Stan Getz, Charlie Parker and Gerry Mulligan. He began chasing the dragon in the 1950s, leading to jail time and a career slide.

There are conflicting versions of the circumstances that led to a brutal beating in 1968, but the resultant injuries to his mouth impaired his playing abilities. While he never kicked the substance abuse, he eventually got his mojo back, and enjoyed a resurgence of his career in his final decade (he was only 58 when he died).

The nodded-out Chet Baker we see in Bruce Weber’s extraordinary warts-and-all 1988 documentary (beautifully shot in B&W) is a man who appears several decades older than his chronological age (and sadly, as it turned out, has about a year left to live). Still, there are amazing (if fleeting) moments of clarity, where we get a glimpse of the genius that still burned within this tortured soul.

One scene in particular, where Weber holds a close up of Baker’s ravaged road map of a face as he croons a plaintive rendition of Elvis Costello’s “Almost Blue”, has to be one of the most naked, heartbreaking vocal performances ever captured on film. Haunting and one-of-a-kind, this is a must-see. The film snagged a well-deserved 1989 Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Kino Classic’s 2025 Blu-ray edition sports a beautiful 4K picture restoration and newly remixed audio (noticeable improvements over Metrodome’s 2008 Region 2 DVD). The package also features a number of Weber’s short films. It would have been nice to include the two Weber-directed Chet Baker music videos that are on the 2008 DVD (which also contains two short films curiously not included on the Kino Blu-ray)…but that’s a minor quibble, as I was just happy to see this fabulous doc get an upgrade.

Drama, Family Issues, Neo-Noir, True Crime

Blu-ray reissue: Looking for Mr. Goodbar (***1/2)

January 6, 2025 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on January 4, 2025)

Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Vinegar Syndrome)

Considering that she was still basking in the critical accolades for her audience-pleasing Oscar-winning performance as the kooky and lovable Annie Hall, it was a bold career move for Diane Keaton to immediately follow it up with a leap into the relative darkness of Looking for Mr. Goodbar.

Writer-director Richard Brooks adapted his 1977 drama/neo-noir from a novel by Judith Rossner (which was based on the sensationalized real-life 1973 murder of a 28-year old NYC schoolteacher). Keaton gives an outstanding performance as a young woman with a repressive Catholic upbringing who moves to a seedy downtown apartment to escape the verbal abuse and restrictive rules laid down by her tyrannical father (Richard Kiley).

Her newfound sense of freedom and self-confidence sparks a sexual awakening; she soon slips into a double-life, teaching deaf children at an inner-city school by day, and cruising the singles bars at night looking for casual sex (and discovering recreational drugs along the way). When she begins juggling relationships with two men (Richard Gere and William Atherton), her life begins to take a darker turn. Tuesday Weld gives one of her best performances as Keaton’s sister.

The film divided critics at the time; some were upset at Brooks’ deviation from Rossner’s novel (I can’t speak for that, as I’ve never read it). Others appeared chagrined that the film (for them at least) lacked a moral center. Speaking as someone who turned 21 the year the film came out, I’d say it captures the zeitgeist of the “Me Decade” to a tee; I see it as a companion piece to John Badham’s Saturday Night Fever.

Vinegar Syndrome has assembled a nice package, which includes a 4K UHD and a Blu-ray disc (both restored from the original 35mm camera negative). Lots of extras, including new and archival interviews, a commentary track, and a number of essays (visual and written).

Drama, Family Issues, Politics

Blu-ray reissue: City of Hope (****)

January 6, 2025 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on January 4, 2025)

City of Hope (Sony)

John Sayles’ sprawling 1991 drama about urban decay and political corruption (beautifully shot by Robert Richardson) is set in fictional Hudson City, New Jersey (Cincinnati stands in). Vincent Spano plays the central character, the ne’er-do-well son of a property developer (Tony Lo Bianco) who has dubious ties with local mobsters. Utilizing his patented network narrative structure, Sayles weaves in many of his pet themes, such as family ties, culture clash, tests of faith, class warfare and local politics.

There are similarities with the previous year’s Bonfire of the Vanities; but this is a far superior film. I see City of Hope as a precursor to The Wire. The populous cast (uniformly excellent) includes Chris Cooper, Joe Morton, Angela Bassett, David Straithairn, and Gina Gershon.

Save the commentary track by Sayles, Sony’s Blu-ray edition is bereft of extras, but features a nice high-def transfer. I’m just happy to see this nearly forgotten gem get a long-overdue home video release (to my knowledge, it was never even issued on DVD).

Horror, Sci-Fi

Blu-ray reissue: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (****)

January 6, 2025 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on January 4, 2025)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kino)

While there have been three remakes over the decades (Philip Kaufman’s 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Abel Ferrara’s 1993 Body Snatchers, and the one I have yet to see, Oliver Hirshbiegel’s 2007 The Invasion), I have a particular soft spot for the original 1956 sci-fi classic.

Directed by the versatile (and prolific) Don Siegel and adapted from Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers by Daniel Mainwaring, the story is set in a sleepy California burg, which gets seeded by extraterrestrial spores that quickly germinate into people-sized pods. Each pod is able to replicate a human being, provided it is in close proximity to someone who remains fast asleep during the process. Once the host body is sapped, it is discarded, leaving behind a perfect physical copy devoid of personality; essentially they become malleable automatons, serving the whims of the aliens.

Kevin McCarthy gives an iconic performance as a doctor who is the first person to realize what is happening (of course, nobody believes him, until it’s too late). The film is huge on atmosphere (nice night-by-night work from DP Ellsworth Fredricks helps sustain a mood of dread and paranoia). Genuine chills and thrills abound throughout.

What I like about the 1956 original is that is very much of its time, vis a vis the sociopolitical subtexts. The Cold War era was in full play; one gets a sense of allusions and commentary regarding the Red Scare and the bland “Leave it to Beaver” conformity of the era.

I’ve owned the film on DVD and a previous Blu-ray edition; but Kino’s “4K Scan of the Best Available 35mm Elements” lives up to it’s billing, as it’s the best print I’ve seen to date on home video. Features include a choice of the 2.00:1 or 1.85:1 version, both in newly remastered 1080P HD, and 4 commentary tracks (2 of them new).

Western

Blu-ray Reissue: Once Upon a Time in the West (****)

August 12, 2024 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on August 10, 2024)

Once Upon a Time in the West (Paramount)

Although it is chockablock with classic “western” tropes, director Sergio Leone somehow manages to honor, parody, and transcend the genre all at once with this 1968 masterpiece. This is a textbook example of pure cinema, distilled to a crystalline perfection of mood, atmosphere and narrative.

At its heart, it’s a simple revenge tale, involving a headstrong widow (Claudia Cardinale) and an enigmatic “harmonica man” (Charles Bronson) who both have a bone to pick with a vicious gun for hire (Henry Fonda, cast against type as one of the most execrable villains in screen history). But there are bigger doings afoot-like building a railroad and winning the (mythic) American West. Also on board: Jason Robards, Jack Elam, Woody Strode and Keenan Wynn.

Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci helped develop the story, and it wouldn’t be classic Leone without a rousing soundtrack by his longtime musical collaborator, Ennio Morricone (be advised you won’t be able to get the “Harmonica Man Theme” out of your head).

There have been several Blu-ray reissues over the years (this latest release makes it a quadruple-dip for me, counting the original DVD edition), but this 4K restoration is by far the best transfer I’ve seen to date (full disclosure: I don’t have 4K playback/monitoring capabilities, so I am judging by the Blu-ray included with this multi-format 2024 reissue). Extras include multiple commentary tracks, a new look back by film critic Leonard Maltin, and a number of other featurettes (some recycled from previous editions and some new ones).

Horror, Thriller

Blu-ray reissue: Peeping Tom (****)

August 12, 2024 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on August 10, 2024)

Peeping Tom (The Criterion Collection)

Michael Powell’s 1960 thriller profiles an insular, socially awkward member of a film crew (Carl Boehm) who works as a technician at a movie studio by day, and moonlights as a soft-core pin-up photographer. He’s also surreptitiously working on his own independent film, which goes hand-in-glove with another hobby: he’s a serial killer who gets his jollies capturing POV footage of his victim’s final agonizing moments. The film is truly creepy, a Freudian nightmare. The solid supporting cast includes Moira Shearer, Anna Massey, and Maxine Audley.

Powell, one-half of the revered British film making team known as The Archers (The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp) nearly destroyed his career with this one, which, due to its “shocking” nature, was largely shunned by audiences and critics at the time (thanks to Martin Scorsese, the film enjoyed a revival decades later and is now considered a genre classic on a par with Psycho). Leo Marks scripted (he also wrote the screenplays for the 1951 noir Cloudburst and the unsettling 1968 thriller Twisted Nerve).

Several subsequent films can be viewed as descendants of Peeping Tom; most notably Manhunter (1986), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), and (more tangentially) Man Bites Dog (1992).

Criteron’s new 4K digital restoration is top-flight, a substantial upgrade over the 2010 Studio Canal (Region B) Blu-ray. Extras include two commentary tracks (one with film historian Ian Christie and another with film scholar Laura Mulvey), a documentary about the history of the film, and more.