Media Party

Lola Montès (Blu-ray)

(The Criterion Collection, 2.16.2010)

One of the greatest film directors, Max Ophuls created at least two masterpieces: Letter from an Unknown Woman and The Earrings of Madame de. Legend has it his final film, Lola Montès, is also a masterpiece, but it has been difficult to verify that claim. After a disastrous Paris premiere in 1955, the film’s producers attempted to increase its commercial viability by cutting scenes and remixing the sound. At the end of 1956, it was further re-edited, which some argue may have hastened the director’s death in 1957. In 1968, producer Pierre Braunberger bought the rights and re-edited Lola Montès into something approximating the original version... but with washed-out visuals. Using digital technology, the Cinémathèque française created a completely restored version, now released on Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection. Was the 55-year wait worth it? Certainly. Is Lola Montès another Ophuls masterpiece? Probably not.

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The House of the Devil (Blu-ray)

(Dark Sky Films, 2.2.2010)

Small-scale horror productions typically yield iffy results. Then again, many of the genre’s standouts were made cheaply and, for that reason, effectively. On that note, how The House of the Devil got stuck with an infinitesimal theatrical run to coincide with a hopeless video-on-demand run is anyone’s guess. The latest indie-horror offering from Ti West (The Roost, Trigger Man) -- discounting that god-awful Cabin Fever sequel he tried to remove his name from -- even managed to receive raves from non-horror critics and boasted some of the coolest retro promo art ever.

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Black Dynamite (Blu-ray)

(Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2.16.2010)

Even more Grindhouse than Grindhouse, Scott Sanders’ super sly sophomore feature satirizes, deconstructs and duly honors seventies-era blaxploitation cinema with intelligent affection. In roughly the same tradition as the Wayans’ I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and the craptastic Eddie Griffin vehicle Undercover Brother, Black Dynamite re-establishes the black counter-culture genre’s trademark clichés: pimps, ho's, nun chucks, a general porno ambiance, insane conspiracy curveballs... and all that jive.

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The Inglorious Bastards (Blu-ray)

(Severin Films, 7.28.2009)

File under long-rumored, but we’ve just received word that Quentin Tarantino’s years-in-gestation new project is going to be an in-name-only remake of Enzo G. Castellari’s giddy WWII-set macaroni combat flick (legit subgenre, honest), The Inglorious Bastards. If this review were written when Castellari's film was initially released on DVD two years back, it would begin somewhat like that. A year and a half later, as Severin's Blu-ray upgrade hits stores, Tarantino’s bizarrely-spelled Inglourious Basterds is the certified recipient of conflicted critical acclaim, Tarantino's best box office performance to date, a swift home video release and eight Oscar nominations. But Tarantino and Castellari's films have little in common -- other than their title(s) and their totally goofball takes on World War 2.

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(500) Days of Summer (Blu-ray)

(Fox Home Entertainment, 12.22.2009)

Somewhere between the age when kids learn to speak and the age when they stop being cute, they develop a lethal, extremely offputting habit: manipulating people with their cuteness. There's that knowing glint in their eyes. They know they're cute and they know they can use it to get stuff. That's Zooey Deschanel in a nutshell. For a while, the strong-willed, opinionated awkwardness of her screen persona (in movies like Mumford, Almost Famous and All the Real Girls) was a breath of fresh air, but then she got comfortable and settled into the relaxed, carefree cuteness of Audrey Hepburn, but with the crucial lack of Hepburn's foreign discomfort. Deschanel always seems comfortable onscreen, casually cueing the responses of the audience and her fellow characters. This cuteness is lethal and in (500) Days of Summer it's supposed to be.

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Soul Power (Blu-ray)

(Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 1.26.2010)

Assembled entirely from archival footage shot in 1974, this strikingly grainy and energetic concert film recalls the good vibes of Dave Chappelle's Block Party and the film that inspired it, Wattstax, but with even better music and much more provocative political content. Most of the latter comes from Muhammad Ali, who mixes good humour with unapologetically confrontational -- and generally accurate, if a bit sweeping -- anti-white rhetoric.

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Inglourious Basterds (Blu-ray)

(Universal Home Video, 12.15.2009)

Quentin Tarantino’s madcap blend of world history, film history and faux history sparked one of this year’s most divisive debates amongst cineastes -- it seemed as though critics and audiences were either dubbing it his best or his worst. For me, QT’s latest genre riff falls somewhere in between, and considering that all of his films are essential viewing, no matter how off-balance or over-indulgent they tend to get, that’s nothing to moan about.

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Snatch (Blu-ray)

(Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 12.1.2009)

Call it overrated, but in 1998 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels established a confident new talent with all kinds of post-Tarantino promise. Sadly, Guy Ritchie’s now better known for his failed marriage to Madonna than his past triumphs as a filmmaker (this Christmas’ pretty awful-looking Sherlock Holmes revamp might change that... stay tuned). I’ll be the first to admit that Lock, Stock once made for very impressive viewing for my then-slightly uninformed cineaste eyes and Ritchie’s follow-up, Snatch, initially played like a crowd-pleasing gimmick with higher-concept thrills and tacked-on Brad Pittsploitation. It felt like a watered-down rehash and, as a major fan of Ritchie’s debut effort, a bit of a gyp.

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Trick 'r Treat (Blu-ray)

(Warner Home Video, 10.6.2009)

The directorial debut of X2 and Superman Returns co-writer Michael Dougherty is undisciplined, inconsistent and derivative. It's also an incredibly well-crafted, adventurous and rowdy good time. Applying some of the E.C. Comics affectations of George A. Romero's Creepshow to half-hearted, not especially memorable effect, Trick 'r Treat fails in its primary orientation as horror anthology. When Quentin Tarantino directed Pulp Fiction, he took inspiration from Mario Bava's omnibus classic Black Sabbath, adding his own taste for non-linear ensemble interconnectedness. Dougherty has attempted something similar, while also retaining the horror emphasis of Bava's film. However, this is where he does most of his stumbling. The film's structure is extremely sloppy, connecting stories, abandoning threads and zipping-through-time in a manner that seems arbitrary, rather than dramatically motivated. The good news? Dougherty does just about everything else right.

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Baraka (Blu-ray)

(MPI Home Video, 10.28.2008)

Seeing this globe-spanning 70mm feature by Ron Fricke (DP and co-editor of Godfrey Reggio’s similarly non-verbal/non-narrative doc Koyaanisqatsi) in high-def yields new appreciation for its montage of moving images. Baraka goes way beyond the limits of mere travelogue, offering a reflection on nature, culture and spirituality unlike any other. This disc also highlights Fricke’s distinctive voice as a director, cinematographer and editor, each more remarkable here than in Reggio’s superb, yet preachier, Qatsi trilogy. The only thing lacking is an iconic Philip Glass score (in his place, we have fantastic -- if slightly dated -- work by Michael Stearns).

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