Carla's
Song (1996/Twilight Time
Limited Blu-ray)/House Of
Cards: Volume Three (2015
U.S. Version/Sony DVD Set)/Human
Capital (2013/Film
Movement DVD)/Still
(2014/Film Movement DVD)
Picture:
B/C+/C+/C Sound: B-/C+/C/C+ Extras: B-/C/C/C Main
Programs: B-/B-/B-/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Carla's
Song
Blu-ray is now only available from friends at Twilight Time, is
limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered from the link below.
Here
are some new drama releases you should know about...
Ken
Loach is a director who gets much respect and credit, though I have
found mixed results with his films, but Carla's
Song
(1996) is one of his better works that starts with a U.K. bus driver
(Robert Carlyle) becoming interested in a young woman (Oyanka
Cabezas) who is getting harassed on a bus by a cop who lands up
arguing with our driver/antagonist. This gets him following her,
maybe stalking her and wanting to get to know her better, no matter
his life situation or hers.
Then
things take an unexpected twist when he gets so involved that we get
to see that she his haunted by ugly goings on in her home country and
the film takes us there, as well as takes a stand against the U.S.
'overdoing it' (though Mr. Loach has much
harsher words to say) about their involvement in the country since
the 1980s and it becomes as gutsy as any film or the subject.
Twilight Time has issued it in this limited Blu-ray that shows some
of the best work of all involved and stops the film from being a
censored work, especially as it hardly got shown in the U.S. for
obvious, but unfortunate reasons. This turns out to be about more
than politics and is a film that deserves (re)discovery and new
discussion. Glad to see it get such solid treatment.
Extras
include an Isolated Music Score track, Deleted Scenes, Original
Theatrical Trailer and feature length audio commentary track by Loach
and Screenwriter Paul Laverty.
House
Of Cards: Volume Three
(2015) has been a landmark hit in its U.S. remake version with an
exceptional cast led by two of the best actors alive, Kevin Spacey (a
co-producer of the show) and the ever-underrated Robin Wright
dynamite as the President and First lady of the United States. The
original U.K. version of the show dealt with what would happen when
Margaret Thatcher stepped down and it is so respected, BBC issued it
on Blu-ray in the U.S. and we covered it at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12073/Borgen:+Season+One+(2010/MHz+DVD+Set)/The
I
think the U.S. version, obviously about another time and place, is
definitely its equal as it grasps the angry, dark side of power that
we are in and always have been. It is just more openly so since the
Thatcher/Reagan Neo-Conservative era that we are still actually in
and all those involved have a solid grasp of this. I cannot go into
details of the show, but have seen it on and off from its first two
seasons, so it is no surprise it continued in the intelligent vein of
shows like Oz,
The
Sopranos,
The
Wire,
The
Newsroom
and others. You can get into it at any time, but I still think this
is one you should see from the debut episode. Needless to say it is
as intense and smart as it began. All 11 episodes are here.
Extras
include episode recaps and two featurettes on the show to this point.
Paolo
Virzi's Human
Capital
(2013) is
a not-bad film that shows a twisted tale of excess, reckless
behavior, people trying to hide secrets from others, big money
schemes and does this by showing the events of a life-changing day
from five different perspectives that slowly add up to how much of a
disaster events turned out to be. Credit also goes to the cast
(mostly unknown in the U.S., but Valeria (Valerie) Golino was in Rain
Man
and a Pee Wee film) who pull this off without a false note or serious
trouble. The film has something to say and achieves this, though the
script has some off parts and what it says is not totally new; but it
bears repeating.
Extras
include a short, unrelated film called Job
Interview,
plus a Music Video, Deleted Scene and Making Of featurette.
Finally
we have Simon Blake's Still
(2014), which starts out nicely Aidan Gillen (The
Wire,
Game
Of Thrones)
as a man dealing with the loss of his son in what looks like it could
be a real interesting character study and art piece on his personal
suffering and reflection, then a young man starts harassing him.
Thinking this would be a dismissible subplot, I was hoping the film
would stay on track as he also deals with the woman in his life and
we would see more of something new or at least different than we
usually see.
Unfortunately,
this turns into an invasion, violence, rape, revenge, formula tale
that barely qualifies as a thriller and when it does shift gears to
that, I was disappointed and then could not believe its slow decline
into the mediocre. That's a shame because I liked the cast, locales
and where it was originally heading. What's left is a curio with an
ending I did not buy and too many missed opportunities to think
about. See it only if you really want to.
Deleted
Scenes and on-camera interviews with Gillen and Blake are the extras.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Song
can show the age of the materials used, but this is how the film is
supposed to look from all I have seen on it and it is easily the best
performer on the list with consistent color, some depth and nice
detail. The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Cards
and anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Human
have their softness, but are consistent shoots that look good and
would very likely improve on Blu-ray versions. However, the
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Still
is just too soft throughout and sometimes a problem to watch and see.
As
for sound, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix on Song
is actually the best sound performer on the list despite being a few
decades older than the rest of the productions with usually clear
dialogue and good sound. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 across the DVDs
are not as good, but Cards
and Still
have signs of a soundfield, where Human
is more quiet, laidback and a bit inconsistent. Wonder how lossless
5.1 versions would improve those?
To
order the Carla's
Song
limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and many other great exclusives while
supplies last at this link:
www.screenarchives.com
-
Nicholas Sheffo
