
Behind
The Bucket: A Garrison Story
(2022/MVD DVD)/Modernism
Inc. (2023/First Run
DVD)/Scala!!!
(2023/Severin Blu-ray)
Picture:
B-/C+/B Sound: B-/C+/B Extras: D/D/B Documentaries:
C+/B/B-
Now
for some documentaries that will not bore you....
Star
Wars
fans (and especially cosplayers) will want to check out this
heartwarming documentary, Behind
The Bucket: A Garrison Story
(2022), which focuses on The 501st Legion - an elite group of
costumed fans from around the world. However, the documentary seems
to mostly focus on a group of fans in the midwest.
These
fans aren't your normal cosplayers looking to win a costume contest
at a comic convention. These passionate folks get their costumes up
to spec and screen accurate, joining a force of good that helps out
the community with their passion for Star
Wars.
Whether it's visiting a sick child in a hospital, appearing in a
parade, or any other special public appearance - The 501st Legion are
''bad guys that do good'' as their slogan proclaims.
Some
of the more dramatic moments of the doc explore some of the fans that
have been touched by these performers. A few sad stories highlight
the doc including a man with very bad fire wounds and a young fan
with brain tumors - both of which were touched by the cause. In
lighter moments we see a few stars from the films pop up during some
of the comic con highlights including Ray Park, who played the iconic
villain Darth Maul, and a few clips from the highly esteemed Star
Wars Celebration convention.
The
only Special Feature is a trailer.
Behind
the Bucket is a little long, but gets the point out about the
mission of The 501st legion and how everyday Star Wars
fanatics have stepped up to make the less fortunate a bit happier in
extreme situations. Hats off to the brave folks who dedicate the
time and money to spread joy to those in need in addition to being a
shining star for fans at fun events.
Jason
Andrew
Cohn's Modernism
Inc.
(2023) is part of a very welcome cycle of occasional docs on the
arts, media, images, logo, fonts and design that include innovation,
change and how non-language ideas communicate many things. With
welcome overlap with many other such releases, this focuses on the
innovative work of Eliot Noyes, who created new ways to visually and
graphically organize and iterate such things in the mid-1950s for
IBM. His work helped them create a more effective identity and
influenced countless business and corporations.
It
becomes yet another biography of the man, his world, U.S. business,
the U.S. itself and so much more. Once you start watching it, you
become curious, then surprised, then engrossed, especially if you
know some of this history, have seen the other such documentaries and
know about what you can still see of all this work and innovation
today. I consider this a must-see documentary and highly recommend
it, especially at a packed 79 minutes.
There
are sadly no extras, but back in 2011, Cohn also gave the equally
excellent Eames:
The Architect & The Painter
and we reviewed the DVD at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11498/Eames:+The+Architect+&+The+Painter+(2011/Firs
Jane
Giles And Ali Catterall's Scala!!!
(2023) is yet another-all-too-rare program about the movie-going
experience in movie theaters, how it can lead to communities and how
some theaters become iconic, stand out and prove to be one-of-a-kind
places to be. Some like the title locale in London, especially from
1978 to 1983, when this place exploded with all kinds of classic,
indie and underground films, plus hit movies and shorts.
Running
96 minutes, it is packed with interviews, rare photos, remarkably
surviving footage and the kinds of groups that landed up forming out
of have such a pro-film place to go where the people loving the film
and had scholarly knowledge of it were often the same people. In
this early era of streaming, especially post-pandemic, 4K HDTVs and
some shockingly bad big budget films, it is a vital record of the
great effects cinema can have and what some of it has been, is and
will always be all about.
Similar
to several tales of such places in the U.S., et al, the energy and
fun is immediately apparent and though we get a few down moments or
overlap with other such programs or reflections, it is definitely one
everyone should check out, especially if they have not seen such a
documentary before. The decline of such places sadly, very slowly
started with home video and cineplexes with multiple screens, but the
very slow replacement of people who loved film and knew how to make
them with penny-pinchers who are clueless has reached a new low as
this review posts. Scala!!!
celebrates all this and that includes a ton of extras to give you a
better idea of things.
Full
content and extras include
a full poster and faux theater ticket, plus (per disc and the press
release):
Disc 1
Audio
Commentary With Co-Directors Jane Giles And Ali Catterall
Introduction
From The UK Premiere At The 2023 BFI London Film Festival
Introduction
To SCALA by Director Michael Clifford
SCALA
(Michael Clifford, 1990)
SCALA
CINEMA (Ali Peck/Victor de Jesus, 1992)
Director
Commentary For SCALA CINEMA
Scala
Programs 1978 - 1993
Cabinet
Of Curiosities: Inside The Scala Archive
Extended
Interviews
Mary
Harron Outtakes
Nick
Kent Outtakes
Thurston
Moore Outtakes
John
Waters Outtakes
Cartoons
By Davey Jones
Osbert
Parker's SCALA!!! Animation Experiments And Outtakes
Primatarium
Animation
Scala
Programs Animation
Tentacles
Animation
Trailer
Disc
2: Short Films
DIVIDE
AND RULE - NEVER! (Newsreel Collective, 1978)
DEAD
CAT (David Lewis, 1989)
David
Lewis Remembers DEAD CAT
THE
MARK OF LILITH (Bruna Fionda/Polly Gladwin/Zachary Nataf, 1986)
RELAX
(Chris Newby, 1991)
BOOBS
A LOT (Aggy Read, 1968)
KAMA
SUTRA RIDES AGAIN (Bob Godfrey, 1971)
COPING
WITH CUPID (Viv Albertine, 1991)
ON
GUARD (Susan Lambert, 1984)
Disc
3: Documentaries
THE
ART OF THE CALENDAR (Kier-La Janisse, 2024)
SPLATTERFEST
EXHUMED (Jasper Sharp, 2024)
Short
Films
MANIAC
2: MR. ROBBIE (Buddy Giovinazzo, 1986)
Audio
Commentary For MANIAC 2: MR. ROBBIE With Buddy Giovinazzo
HORRORSHOW
(Paul Hart-Wilden, 1990)
Audio
Commentary For HORRORSHOW With Director Paul Hart-Wilden
CLEVELAND
SMITH: BOUNTY HUNTER (Josh Becker, 1982) Original Cut
CLEVELAND
SMITH: BOUNTY HUNTER (Josh Becker, 1982) Producer's Cut
Audio
Commentary For The Producer's Cut Of CLEVELAND SMITH:
BOUNTY
HUNTER With Producer Scott Spiegel
MONGOLITOS
(Stephane Ambiel, 1988)
Audio
Commentary For MONGOLITOS With Director Stephane Ambiel
and
The Legendary H.G. Lewis Speaks: 1989 Scala Appearance By The
Godfather Of Gore.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition
image on Scala!!!
has all kinds of film
and video sources as expected, but looks pretty good overall and is
easily the image champ on the list, as is the
lossless PCM 2.0 Stereo sound, pretty well recorded and mixed.
Behind
the Bucket is presented in standard definition (480i) on DVD with
an anamorphically enhanced, 1.78
X 1 widescreen aspect ratio and an average stereo audio mix. The
standard definition transfer is fine considering that this is a low
budget documentary and heavily reliant on cinematic style. The film
is shot pretty good for the most part, a few dips in audio here and
there due to quality of the source, but nothing too jarring. Of
course no John Williams Star Wars music is used as that would
violate copyright (too expensive to license) so we have some stock
music cues here and there with a few tracks that are repeated and
tend to pass their welcome at moments. Overall, for a low budget
documentary it comes across fine in standard definition.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Modernism
is about as good as Bucket, also with some older, sometimes rougher
sources, but they play and are edited together just fine, while the
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has at least as much vintage mono
sound as new stereo, but is just fine for the old format.
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (Bucket)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/