Before Dawn (2024/Well Go USA Blu-ray)/Mid Wives (2023/Icarus DVD)/Succession: The Complete Series (2018 - 2023/HBO/Warner Blu-ray Set)/Totem (2023/Criterion/Janus Contemporaries Blu-ray)

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

Now for a new set of dramas and an upgrade to a recent hit series that some feel is a classic...

Jordan Prince-Wright's Before Dawn (2024) is one of the all-too-rare films being made about WWI, the 'war to end all wars' that is being forgotten as much as the Korean War and some other vital history in general. It is also one of the only ones shot digitally and one of the few films so far this year that seems to be about anything resembling human beings in a real world. Is that enough to make it a good movie?

In this case, yes, though it takes some time to get started, that is eventually to its advantage as Levi Miller plays Jim, who thinks joining the war will end it. Is he also the victim of some of the propaganda? The screenplay does not get into that, but some of that is sort of implied, naive to thinking he being there will end things more quickly, yet it is a more common story than many might have considered.

The mostly unknown cast (though you may have seen them here and there in some cases) are really good here and even when this is not always feeling period, they are, melding together well, helmed well enough and shows cinema in Australia is alive and well beyond low budget genre fare. Though not overwhelmingly amazing, it is impressive enough and I hope it gets the larger audience it deserves as, despite having some things we have seen before, it offers plenty for us to see and see again.

Extras include a Behind The Scenes featurette and Original Theatrical Trailer.

Lea Fehner's Mid Wives (2023) is a medical drama that is female-centered, well done, has a good pace, is well acted and has a decent screenplay. The actors gel well and situations as relevant now as ever, but despite the pluses, still plays like an upscale version of the endless TV medical dramas we have from TV all over the world that has become repetitive and overlapping.

The good news is that this veers a little more towards St. Elsewhere than a conformist, even right-of-center nighttime soap opera and has moments of realism that are a plus. We follow two dedicated women (Khadija Kouyate and Heloise Janjaud) who will do what they can to help all who need vital care. Cheers to the leads for avoiding the 'professional partner pitfalls' we would get in many cases. This runs a rich 100 minutes and might not be for everyone, but all involved are more successful than not in what they are trying to pull off here.

Extras include Original Theatrical Trailers.

Succession: The Complete Series (2018 - 2023) arrives in a full Blu-ray set at an opportune time, succeeding the DVD Complete Series set we covered last year at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16337/Carlito's+Way+4K+(1993/Universal/Arrow+4K+Ultr

Whether it is a classic or not, is hard to say despite some great work and acting here, even in the face of several successful TV production dealing with the rich and greedy, but as we post, the real life media family that inspired the show (the Murdochs of the Fox empire, of course) have just taken private their own battle and plans for... succession!

Even without that timing, the show is one of the few that is about as good as when it started as I have said before, not an easy thing to pull off these days. Now on Blu-ray completely, you can appreciate it much more than on DVD and I was glad to see this upgrade workout so well.

Extras repeat the extras from the DVD box set, as expected, but they are pretty good, but only to be see after watching the whole series.

Last but not least is Lila Aviles' Totem (2023,) a visually dense drama about a young seven-year-old gal (Naima Senties) having to deal with a group of family and adults that are at least partly toxic and partly dysfunctional in a way that is not always helping her or helping her develop in the best way possible. A very sick young uncle is another stress they all have to deal with, but can she have a real childhood when she is put too early into too many adult situations?

The casting and actors are a real plus, while Director Aviles handles all of this with a convincing consistency that is as dense and rich as it can be unpleasant. However, that is the point and that this is a situation for all kinds of children worldwide, possibly even worse for female children. She is not the victim of child abuse or severe neglect, but not one adult, no matter how well intended or how much they might love her, seems fully capable to be the full grown adult she needs. That also makes some of this potentially controversial, even a little bit, but that is the point of a mature, challenging narrative for adults. The praise the film has received makes total sense.

Extras include Michael Joshua Rowin's text essay on a paper pullout, while the disc adds an Original Theatrical Trailer and Meet The Filmmakers featurette.

Now for playback performance. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Before Dawn is digitally shot and can look it, yet it has a consistent style that often still looks the period that to good colorist work. Any CGI is not bad or great, while the scope frame is used well, though could have been used a bit better. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is better and more consistent, well mixed and designed with a consistent soundfield. The combination is food, but I wondered if a 4K edition would have been more effective.

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the Succession episodes, all apparently shot on 35mm photochemical film, the show looks solid from the first episodes to the last. It is about the rich and should look so. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes are also strong from start to finish, dialogue-driven and more, all adding up to much better performance than the DVD versions. As good as this is, I could see a 4K edition with DTS: X, Dolby Atmos to a 7.1 mix also working well.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Totem looks like it wants to emulate an old 35mm or 16mm documentary shoot to some extent and the narrow vision approach to composition is effective enough with fine color and editing that is a plus. We never get corny shaky camera work. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) Spanish 5.1 lossless mix is slightly inconsistent and a bit off in spots, but is fine otherwise, so the combination is naturalistic and realistic enough for the kind of narrative presented.

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Mid Wives is a little soft and apparently softer than we can see here as this reduction is a slightly off, but color is still decent and the look consistent. The lossy French Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is a little better, clean and clear enough with Pro Logic-like surrounds. An HD version with lossless sound would likely be more effective, but this will do.

- Nicholas Sheffo