Adieu Godard (2021*)/Queen Of Glory (2021*)/Tahara (2020*)/The Test (2021/aka Le Test/Icarus DVD)/Time Traveler's Wife: The Complete Series (2022/HBO/Warner DVD Set)/Unidentified (2020/*all Film Movement DVDs)

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

Now for a new TV show and a set of foreign films that register in the comedy and drama categories....

We start with Amartya Bhattacharyya's Adieu Godard (2021) making its rounds as the news that Jean-Luc Godard left us at 91 (via assisted suicide) so a comedy about his films might not what his fans might be in the mood for right now, but even if he was still healthy, alive and well, I found this to be a one-joke, predictable 'comedy' with no laughs.

An archetypal 'dirty old man' (we are already in trouble with this archetype/stereotype) named Ananda (Choudhury Bikash Das) accidentally is given a DVD of a Godard film when he thought he was taking home something more explicit and racy. Not being able to understand the film, yet intrigued by the female nudity, he decides to set out and see every Godard film he can get his hands on (we suspect his Maoist anti-auteur and videotape experimental works) to see if he can figure out anything while he focuses on more nude women.

It is made worse with the first half in half-convincing black and white for no apparent reason, but the overall work is as scattered as it is obvious and just becomes a run on for its long, long, 87 minutes and even its ending does not work. See it at your own risk.

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image starts in black and white, turns into color about half-way through and never looks too good, sharp or clear. Maybe higher definition might reveal some improvements, but the softness and motion blur seems baked-in and the black and white is particularly unconvincing. Must have been shooting with older HD cameras. The issues of softness extend to the lossy Odia & English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix, which has subtitles but is on the soft side too, so be careful of volume switching and high volume playback.

Trailers are the only extra.

Nana Mensah's Queen Of Glory (2021) is the strange tale of a young woman named Sarah (Nana Mensah) going to school in Ohio, having left her home country of Colombia and trying to make a new life for herself. Suddenly and shockingly, her mother dies, then maybe more bizarre, she has left her a Christian bookstore who's name is the title of this film. Does she keep it, sell it, liquidate it or continue to run it? She starts running it while she decides, but that leads to other unexpected things happening and just adds to the multiple stresses in her life.

This one runs 78 minutes, does not do enough with the time and despite some good shots and interesting acting, is not very memorable, is not exactly a slice-of-life tale and some parts of this were just not ones I was convinced by. This runs a forgettable 78 minutes. Only see it if you are really, really interested.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image has some good color to it and shots in it, but it is still too soft overall and the result is a mixed viewing experience, while the sound is here in both lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mixes, yet neither is very strong and its weakness has me again warn to be careful of volume switching and high volume playback.

Anthony Nti's 20-minutes-long short film Da Yie (2019,) Deleted Scenes and a Producer & Director feature-length audio commentary track are the extras.

Olivia Peace's Tahara (2020) is a more miss-than-hit drama/comedy about two young gals who become sexually involved in sometimes oppressive circumstances and how they deal with it, with the twist being we now have social media. The whole feature 'film' is made on cell phones, but unlike the cross-dressing indie hit Tangerine, the use of cell phone shooting does not work.

Rachel Sennott, whose Shiva Baby has been a recent indie hot of its own, plays one of the two young ladies who get involved, the other being played by Madeline Grey DeFreece, can be convincing. The problem is, just like ever other production that insists on showing cell phone screens, the production cannot seem to get focused and plays in a very choppy manner. If you can enjoy this one, good luck, but otherwise, don't be surprise if you also find more issues than not.

The 1.1 X 1 image (yes, you read that correctly) is off of cell phones for the entire 77 minutes and it just does not work. Did they not try turning the phones to be wider? At least some times? The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo mixes are about the same, location audio issues included, so this has some of the better audio on the list, relatively speaking.

An Audio Commentary track with director Olivia Peace, writer Jess Zeidman, cinematographer Tehillah de Castro, editor Troy Lewis, and sound designer Justin Enoch.

French comedy films can be good, but when they play like sitcoms or got awry, they do not work and that includes when they try to be like Hollywood product. Emmanuel Poutain-Arnaud's The Test (2021) has a ridiculous amount of casual profanity like too many Hollywood comedies do these days, but it is pretty French otherwise.

Too bad this tale of the Castillon Family takes a simple premise and beats it to death for 80 long, long minutes in an idiot plot when the mother of the family (Alexandra Lamy) finds a pregnancy test that is positive, but has no idea who is pregnant. Forget that maybe the test is in the garbage because it is faulty, old, but at least may have dropped in the waste basket in the family bathroom accidentally. The question is who is pregnant (it has to be someone in or connected to the family here) and why are they not saying anything?

Well if my family was this goofy, I would not want them to know either and is the person with said results aware of the chaos this test could cause? There is no suspense to mystery because the screenplay renders everyone a little too cartoonish for its own good and the fact it is so short shows even the makers must have known this could only go so far. Should have been a telefilm, if that. Pass on it.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 image is softer than I would have liked and the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is likewise weaker and lower in volume than I would have liked to the point that I will recommend being careful of volume switching and high volume playback. That combination did not hurt me seeing this, as higher fidelity would have made no difference in my opinion of it.

A trailer is the only extra.

The Time Traveler's Wife: The Complete Series (2022) is a TV remake of the 2009 feature film with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams that I was not a fan of at all, as this review will confirm:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9545/The+Time+Traveler

Warner felt an new version with Rose Leslie (Game Of Thrones) and Theo James (a good actor who just cannot seem to catch a break) might work as a series, but this is eVen sillier than the feature film and virtually none of the humor work. Thus, they pulled the plug after only six episodes, meaning this idea failed twice despite some good actors and at least some money on the screen. For fans only, if that.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a little softer than I would have liked, styling notwithstanding, though dated-on-arrival CGI digital visual effects do not help matters. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 fares a bit better with a fairly good surround mix. The combination may work better on a Blu-ray set, but we'll see.

Extras include featurette clips Time Travel Explained, Rose & Theo: Uncensored Would You Rather... ?, Chapters of a Relationship looking at each episode, Anatomy of a Scene and Time Traveler's Wife: A Love for All Time. That's more extras than previously announced.

Bogdan George Apetri's Unidentified (2020) has a detective named Florin (Bogdan Farcas) who has all kinds of personal problems when a bizarre case turns up that he definitely wants to pursue, an arson case he is immediately convinced the suspect is guilty of. He cannot fully prove this in the beginning, then some of the people around him say that he is too obsessed and might be blowing the case. Is he onto the truth or is he losing it? Or is someone trying to get him to close the investigation because there is a cover up?

Friedkin's Crusing this is not, but we have seen several cops-over-the-edge films before and this one allows the lead to start snapping at everyone, but it never adds up to anything, has a so-so ending and if it is an attempt to deconstruct genre in any way, that does not work either. The result is very mixed and even disappointing. Only the extremely curious or diehard genre fans should bother. I also just directed and was bored with the director's film Miracle, so maybe it is just him and his approach to filmmaking. We'll see what his other films are like.

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is strangely the best-looking of the six releases, though not perfect, warmer, more color rich and more solid by comparison. The soundtrack is here in both lossy Romanian Dolby Digital 5.1 and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with the 5.1 a little better. That makes it the best performing combo on the list.

Deleted Scenes and a Director's feature-length Audio Commentary track are the extras.

- Nicholas Sheffo