Algorithms:
Blind Chess Players Of India
(2014/First Run DVD)/Disorder
(2009/Icarus DVD)/Ilya and
Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here
(2013/First Run DVD)/Remote
Area Medical
(2013/Docurama/Cinedigm DVD)/Super
Bowl XLIX Champions: New England Patriots
(2015/NFL Films/Cinedigm Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/C/C+/C+/B- Sound: C/C/C+/C/C+ Extras: C+/B-/C+/C+/C+
Documentaries: B-/C+/B/B/C+
Now
for a diverse new set of documentary programs...
Ian
McDonald's Algorithms:
Blind Chess Players Of India
(2014) is an all black and white-shot look at how a group of young
fans of the great board game land up getting involved in serious
competition in it in ways that could change their lives for the
better forever. Just getting involved is a triumph in the 100
minutes we spend with them overcoming odds to be involved in
something special. The shooting style for some might throw them off
from watching this, but it is well done and definitely worth a look.
Extras
include Additional Scenes, a Director Q&A piece, short film
Seescapes and Audio Descriptive Services.
Huang
Weikai's Disorder
(2009) is
in even rougher black and white as we see a 58-minutes compilation of
troubled times and problems in modern China. The work is trying to
argue that modernization is the underlying root, but it simply seemed
like trouble you could find in any modern city, so that part did not
work for me. It is still an interesting, rare look at a society that
is still somewhat closed.
The
director's 2005 film Floating
is the only extra.
Amei
Wallach's Ilya
and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here
(2013) is about the artists who survived and reflected the darkest
decades of the USSR, in which Ilya in particular was affected as a
human being (no peace from being observed and watched by the
government al the time, especially when he became an artist early on)
and just how ugly, phony and disturbingly sad the Soviet Union was as
a country that could not fall fast enough.
The
mix of new footage, older stills of the Kabakovs and key footage of
the USSR along with histories of all synergize into a compelling look
at a nightmare hidden behind The Iron Curtain and how their
innovative artwork gives us a rare, privileged look at just how bad
and how badly its victims wanted to be free of that nightmare.
Definitely worth going out of your way for.
Outtakes
and Extended Interview clips are the extras.
Jeff
Reichert & Farihan Zaman's Remote
Area Medical
(2013) takes place in the birthplace of the Country Music genre
(Bristol, Tennessee; the medics set up shop at the Bristol Motor
Speedway) where one man is bringing free health care to people in
deep trouble and dire straits who cannot access the care. Some have
not been seen by a doctor in 40 years (!!!) and that some are still
alive with some of the ailments they suffer is remarkable in itself.
It is also a work that makes the big statement of how the national
health care situation is worse than you might have thought and how
this has gone especially badly since the 1980s.
There
are some sad stories, interesting ones, ones of people barely getting
by and of other people who care enough to give their time and help to
help others who have fallen through the cracks. Running 80 minutes,
this is an intense work everyone should see and could have run much
longer. Hope we get a sequel!
Extras
include the Original Theatrical Trailer, Deleted Scenes and two short
films: the original version of this feature and Kombit.
Super
Bowl XLIX Champions: New England Patriots
(2015) will
go down in infamy for two reasons. The winning Patriots were in a
deep cheating scandal (again!) days before the game, then they won
when the opposing team (the Baltimore Ravens) made the worst play in
the history of the NFL, if not the entire history of professional
sports. True analysis would take a separate essay and maybe a book,
but this new Blu-ray covers none of this.
Instead,
we get a roughly 90-minutes journey to the big game that won the
Patriots their fourth trophy (as has been the case with previous
entries in this series) and extras that simply include 14 bonus clips
running over an hour. This is a totally rosy, cleaned-up view of
what happened produced for the many fans of the team. In that, it
succeeds.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Patriots
may have some stylizing, noise and flaws throughout, but it
is the best presentation here, especially as it is the only Blu-ray
here. The noisy, black and white 1.33 X 1 presentation on Disorder
is the poorest presentation since the whole thing is essentially a
culmination of hidden cameras. That leaves the rest of the DVD here
in anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image digitally-shot
presentations that have their softness, but are just fine throughout.
Algorithms
is all black and white as well, but retains remnants of its color
scale.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Patriots
is a
little compressed, disappointing and should have stuck with 2.0
Stereo,
so lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the Enter
DVD is actually able to compete. However, the
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the rest of the DVDs are weaker
than expected, in part due to location audio (sometimes subtitled, so
the makers know this) and you should be careful of high volumes and
volume switching in their cases.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
