Boulevard
Nights (1979/Warner
Archive DVD)/God's Pocket
(2014/MPI/IFC Films Blu-ray)/Rise
Up Black Man (2014/Sound
View DVD)
Picture:
C+/B/C- Sound: C+/B-/C Extras: C-/B-/D Films: B-/B-/C-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Boulevard
Nights
DVD is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here
are three very different urban dramas you should know about...
Michael
Pressman's Boulevard Nights
(1979) is a sort of lost little gem produced by Tony Bill (My
Bodyguard) about Hispanic
American youth in East Los Angeles that features a very talented cast
that sadly did not get seen more as this film was not the hit it
deserved to be, but the characters and culture featured here is as
realistic as it is prophetic (including Rap/Hip Hop forerunners) in a
real slice of street life film that has aged very well is is likely a
minor classic of such a cinematic discourse long before the recent
increase (never enough) of great Hispanic talent on the big screen.
Raymond
(Richard Yniguez) is an ex-gang member who has found love with a very
pretty gal (Marta Dubois) and wants to move on to a better life, but
he has is little brother Chuco (Danny De La Paz) who is angry and
cannot stay out of trouble from the first scene in the film. The 102
minutes never falls flat, is something special and work going out of
your way to see. Carmen Zapata (who just passed away in 2014) and
John Fiedler are among the most recognizable of the adult cast, John
Bailey, A.S.C., is Director of Photography and Lalo Schifrin composed
the music score.
A
trailer is the only extra.
John
Slattery's God's Pocket
(2014) is one of the last performance the late, great Philip Seymour
Hoffman left behind when we lost him, but as usual, it is top rate
work in a really good story about a married man named Mickey
(Hoffman) whose wife (Christina Hendricks) is horrified when her son
from her first marriage turns up dead under circumstances that do not
sound right to her. Mickey has problems with drinking, gambling and
shady friends, including John Turturro co-running a flower shop but
using it to cover up other things.
If
that were not bad enough, a one-time shining journalist (Richard
Jenkins) is also in trouble with alcoholism, possibly losing his
newspaper reporting job and is trying to write the Great American
Novel in all this. Then he is asked to investigate the death and
starts to get involved with the mother!
This
has some real moments, some very darkly funny moments and some really
good acting all around. The title refers to the tough, working-class
neighborhood the characters come from and holds nothing back in what
it wants to say about it all. Hope the title does not confuse people
and they see this one.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary track by Slattery, TV
Spots, Original Theatrical Trailer and Deleted Scenes, a
little of which should have stayed in the film.
Kendall
Irvin's Rise Up Black Man
(2014) could sound like a film about 1960s Civil Rights activities or
even the Black Panthers, but it is a less political work set now with
two best friends (Prince Duren, Dustin Morby) who are about to be
challenged by changes around them when one starts to take a black
leader with great personality too seriously, who is using the younger
man for his own benefits. The other has personal issues he has to
deal with. That would seem like a simple story to tell, but the
script here is all over the place with Irvin throwing in every kind
of scene he can squeeze into a too-long 146 minutes and losing
control in the process.
The
actors try but the acting is a mixed as the directing and script, so
all kinds of possibilities land up getting stopped short in what
amounts to a crash course soap opera that lacks character development
and should have been some kind of TV mini-series. Instead, down to
its oddly cursive credits, it plays more like Tyler Perry on acid or
the like. Better luck next time...
There
are no extras.
The
anamorphically
enhanced
1.85 X 1 image transfer on Nights
show the age of the materials used, but this transfer is actually
pretty consistent throughout and shows what a good shoot this was
considering the budget limits. However, the
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Man
is very problematic throughout with all kinds of motion blur, not
helped by shaky camera work. It is a digital shoot, but not a good
one, making us wonder what portion of this was caused by the shoot,
the editing and the transfer. Fortunately, the
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Pocket
is very consistent, well shot, nicely stylized and impressive
throughout.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Pocket
is also the sonic winner here with a quiet, dialogue-driven
character, but is well recorded, mixed and presented. It also has
kick when the surrounds kick in for key scenes. The lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Nights was recorded decently for its time
and sound pretty good throughout, though I bet a lossless
presentation could get a little more out of the soundtrack. That
leaves the
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Man
with way too many
location audio and editing issues.
To
order the Boulevard
Nights
DVD, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
