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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Thriller > Mystery > Politics > Documentary > Crime > Murder > Serial Killer > Cancer > Fraud > Legal > The Company You Keep (2013/Sony Blu-ray)/The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012/IFC Midnight/MPI DVD)/Living Downstream (2010)/Pink Ribbons, Inc. (2011/First Run DVDs)/West Of Memphis (2012/Sony Blu-ray w/DVD

The Company You Keep (2013/Sony Blu-ray)/The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012/IFC Midnight/MPI DVD)/Living Downstream (2010)/Pink Ribbons, Inc. (2011/First Run DVDs)/West Of Memphis (2012/Sony Blu-ray w/DVD)

 

Picture: B/C+/C/C+/B-     Sound: B-/B-/C+/C+/B-     Extras: B/B-/B/B/B     Main Programs: B/B-/B/B/B

 

 

Now for some new releases that deal with under-discussed social issues…

 

 

Robert Redford is back directing, but also staring in The Company You Keep (2013), one of the year’s most underrated films as a sudden arrest of a woman (Susan Sarandon) at a gas station turns out to be federal authorities finding her for being a hidden member of The Weather Underground.  This gets some wheels rolling including finding which member killed a police officer.

 

Redford is a single parent of a daughter (singer Jackie Evancho in a surprisingly good acting turn) and a lawyer in a small town who knows more about it all than he is saying.  The whole hidden network of former members is eventually alerted and contacted, so what will they do?  An aggressive reporter (Shia LeBeouf back in good form again) is going to find out whether they like it or not.

 

Besides being a good (if not great) mystery thriller, Redford is continuing to try and forge and reinforce his liberal discourse that goes back to his work in the 1970s (including the hijacked Brubaker, reviewed elsewhere on this site) asking many important and pertinent questions not being asked by any cinema much these days without being preachy, which even I admit he has done in the past.

 

This also is a film with one of the best casts of the year including Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Richard Jenkins, Brit Marling, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Brendan Gleeson, Anna Kendrick and Terrence Howard, all giving fine performances in well-developed roles.  Despite all it has going for it, the film will be purposely ignored because more than a few people want it to go away and are even afraid of it.

 

Don’t let that stop you from seeing it, though, as it is one of the smartest films of the year too in what seems like an increasing wasteland of bad scripts, bad digital shooting, bad CGI visual effects and purposeful stupidity.  This is a film all can be proud of and what it has to say will remain as relevant later as it is now.  It is also some of Redford’s best work of late.

 

Extras include Ultraviolet Digital Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes-capable devices, Press Conference featurette, On The Red Carpet featurette and a Behind The Scenes featurette.

 

Chris James Thompson’s The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) sounds like an idea that could go very badly, but it does not.  It is not as exploitive as The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer or outright bad like idiotic garbage like Dahmer Vs. Gacy (both reviewed elsewhere on this site), the film mixes interesting reenactments, actual archive footage and new interviews with real eyewitnesses to the ugly, sad serial killer case to show us a new angle to the case, the ugly fallout, how human nature did not help Dahmer get caught enough (and some things so bad, you wonder where the lawsuits are) and adds up to a rare key look at a dark chapter in American Crime that people are still talking about.

 

It also reminds us how nothing has changed for the better in the ways these cases become celebrated uglinesses and to think this was all before the Internet glorified anger, hate and illiteracy.  If you can handle the graphicness of the case, this one is worth your time.

 

Extras include Deleted Scenes, the Original Theatrical Trailer, Kickstarter Video and Q&A At Hot Docs 2012 featurette.

 

 

Chanda Chevannes’ Living Downstream (2010) is an excellent adaptation and exploration of the book by Sandra Steingraber on how consumer products, dirty factories, deadly deregulation and general neglect are giving people record cases of cancer not just nationwide, but worldwide.  Steingraber reads from her book, conducts many interviews, explains very clearly what is really going on and gives us the facts and the hard truth on how it has all become a vicious cycle that is helping no one except those making tons of money off of the deaths of others.

 

The great Rachel Carson (who wrote the classic book Silent Spring that got the environmental movement started) is rightly referenced many times, but Miss Steingraber is picking up the story in the post-Reagan world where things have become much worse than when that classic book was published so many decades ago.  She shows the many connections in each case discussed and along with her interview subject, spell out the urgency of getting things reversed before cancer and other health issues become even more epidemic.  This is a must-see documentary worth going out of your way for.

 

Extras include five Mini Docs which ask additional questions and two feature length audio commentary tracks on the making of the documentary.

 

 

That also gave me an excuse to finally get you all caught up on the equally remarkable Samantha King documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc. (2011) about how you might think something is being done to stop breast cancer just because you see products and fund raisers everywhere on the subject, especially associated with the Susan Komen Foundation.  Despite the good will of the women and other people participating in what sounds like a good idea, this program rightly argues that something not so good is going on behind the scenes.

 

Only 20% of the funds being raised are making it to research on the disease and environmental causes, so what about the other money?  It argues the campaign uses the “naďve optimism” of women to waste their energy on an empty promise so they will not rise as a new retro-feminist force that would force the society to transform for the better, even mocking said women.  With only 98 minutes of time, some of the darker aspects of this are sadly only touched on, but it is all worth considering in a sense of true mature, critical thinking.

 

It is also argued that the cause has been rendered a moneymaker first instead of being one to find a cure, plus that some of the participant companies are the cause of the cancers  and other illnesses by the products they still knowingly produce despite what is going on.  Interestingly, the piece argues this is not any kind of conspiracy, but a snowballing of carelessness in a world where women are still too often second-class citizens.  Consider it another must-see documentary.

 

Extras include DVD-ROM downloadable PDF material covering all aspects of potentially contaminating materials in everyday products and more, plus an on camera interview with Director Pool and Producer Din.

 

 

Last and not least is Amy Berg’s West Of Memphis (2012), a very important documentary about injustice in America and how bad one case was that dragged on for decades because of the politics, laws, hatreds and ignorance of one community who was tricked into believing three innocent men had killed and even mutilated three under-aged young boys just because they might be into things (Satanism, Rock Music, etc.) that the community might be uncomfortable with.

 

As covered in many new reports and no less than three HBO specials, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jesse Misskelley were arrested, framed and initially convicted of murder with death sentences for killing the three 8-year-olds despite not doing it.  As this always intense (and worth your time) 147 minutes moves forward, we find out how people were coerced and manipulated into saying things they knew was untrue (including with threats attached) and other misconduct that should still call for some kind of federal investigation simply because some police and lawmakers in Tennessee did not want to do their jobs properly or truthfully.

 

It is an ugly story and for this one we know, how many are still hidden?  How many have DNA not resolved yet, if ever?  The makers ask these vital questions all over again and we see the detective work finally done that should have been done by those in power in the first place, giving us a much darker answer than you might imagine.  I will not say anything else as not to ruin the story, but this is a great piece of investigative journalism and an amazing work everyone need sot see as well.

 

Extras include Deleted Scenes, Damien’s Past Recreations, Toronto International Film Festival featurette and a feature length audio commentary track with Berg, Echols and Davis.

 

 

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Company was shot on 35mm film in the 3-perf Super 35mm format with the latest Kodak Vision 3 negative stocks and it looks fine and refined throughout, distinguishing itself from so many generic HD shoots that it starts as a pure cinematic experience and stays that way visually throughout.  Detail and depth are impressive, the use of the scope frame better than most releases of late and anyone concerned about grain is not watching the film like those who complained about black bars when widescreen images came to the home video market not so long ago.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Dahmer, Downstream & Ribbons and 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Memphis all have new interview footage, vintage analog video and (especially Dahmer) reenactment footage resulting in similar editing approaches and needs, but Dahmer obviously suffers more being the only standard definition presentation here.  All look as good as they could in their respective formats.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on both Company and Memphis are towards the front speakers as Company is dialogue-based and more towards the front than I would have liked and Memphis has a combination of new audio, old analog (sometimes monophonic) audio and location recording to contend with, so it is no surprise that they are equaled by the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on Dahmer that has the same audio issues as Memphis.  The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on Ribbons and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Downstream are a little rougher and patchy since so much audio is monophonic or simple stereo and done under odd circumstances (some clips are rough copies) so they are not as sonically competent, but just fine for documentaries in general.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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