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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Relationships > Sex > Romance > Family > Cable TV > Drama > Gay > Counterculture > Ozploitation > Aus > Girls: The Complete Fifth Season (2016/HBO Blu-ray set)/Lazy Eye (2015/Breaking Glass DVD)/Petersen (1974/Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVD)

Girls: The Complete Fifth Season (2016/HBO Blu-ray set)/Lazy Eye (2015/Breaking Glass DVD)/Petersen (1974/Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVD)



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



PLEASE NOTE: The Petersen Import DVD is now only available from our friends Umbrella Entertainment in Australia, can only play on Blu-ray players that can handle the PAL DVD format and can be ordered from the link below.



Sexuality and nudity in film and now on TV can be a joke and just plain pointless these days, but there are those releases that have it as part of their narrative and these three new titles are on that short list...



Girls: The Complete Fifth Season (2016) is Lena Dunham's hit HBO series starting to show its age. Staying in what has now become a formula approach, the show lost Adam Driver much of last season due to major feature film commitments and now that he is back, it is similar to the time Marla Gibbs left The Jeffersons for a failed spin-off TV show. A key character returns and the show is still never the same again, with his character in a new subplot I never bought, though even the regulars seem lost and you wonder where new characters or character growth is.


It is not that there are not some good moments or the actors are suddenly bad, but they are doing things that seem contrived and to be blunt, most people look bored this time out. Unless you are a big fan, this is probably not the season for you.


Inside The Episodes and Deleted & Extended Scenes are the only extras.



Tim Kirkman's Lazy Eye (2015) is a return of the repressed relationship melodrama where one man (Lucas Near-Verbbrugghe) and an old lover (Aaron Costa Ganis) reacquaint for more than just a sexual tryst. It is years later and they deal with a past that is not awful, but reminds them how things did not work out. What is different is that the makers are not concerned with hardcore or even softcore sex as much as they are in showing extended physical, though sexual, intimacy. This is rare in any film dealing with sexuality, gay or not, so this reminded me of the 1974 classic A Very Natural Thing (reviewed elsewhere on this site) if not as good or bold.


However, I also felt there were a few missed opportunities and the overall film I uneven despite the ambition of how they interact. Interesting and successful in that ambition for sure, it is only going to interest a limited audience, but that one might not just be one of gay males.


Extras include a Director's feature length audio commentary track, Behind The Scenes, Deleted Scene, Photo Gallery, Post-Screening Q&A and A Closer Look at Lazy Eye featurette.



Finally we have the Australian Ozploitation romp, Tim Burstall's Petersen (1974) with a young (and soon to be iconic) Jack Thompson as a guy who 'sleeps around' during the counterculture of the time and also juggles what he'll do next and what his future will be. Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver was a big deal sexually at the time and thus, they have their scenes and moments, but the film also serves as a time capsule of that period in that country.


There is of course, similarities to films like it in the U.K. and U.S., yet there is still something special and distinctive on how Australia experienced these times and how their cinema like this resulted from it. There is also a controversial scene that has brought up issues of sexual assault (and rape), dealt with in the extras, but the film offers much more. However, being the kind of film it is, the storyline lags more than a few times. Still, this is worth a look for what works and what be a minor classic of the genre.


A Photo Gallery, Original Theatrical Trailer and 20-minutes interview section with Alan Finney, David Williamson, Robin Copping, Wendy Hughes, Jack Thompson & Jacki Weaver are the extras.



The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Girls is easily the best image performer here as expected, but the anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Eye (shot well enough in HD) and anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Petersen make fine showings here and Petersen was shot very well on Eastman Color Kodak 35mm film stocks at the time. This is a fine representation of how good the film looked and that means a Blu-ray would obviously be more impressive.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Girls is also the best release here sonically, well mixed and presented down to new music and hit records, but the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Eye is pretty good too, though the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Petersen could sound a bit better.



To order the Petersen Umbrella import DVD and other hard-to-get releases, go to this link to order:


http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/



- Nicholas Sheffo


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