Steel City
(2006/Peace Arch DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: B- Film: B
Brian
Jun’s Steel City (2006) is a
remarkable, smart, rich, totally believable drama about a man (the underrated
John Heard) who lands up in prison after a car accident, shattering his life
and his connections with his family, his son PJ (newcomer Thomas Guiry in a
good early showing) still visits his dad, even if he is in wonderment of his
direction while trying to hold on to a relationship made tougher by the
circumstance.
He gets
help from his uncle (the also underrated Raymond J. Barry) and is deeply
involved with is girlfriend (America Ferrera, so good here, you’ll forget Ugly Betty and realize she may be one
of the best actresses of her generation) and you have a set-up that could have
gone for formula and been like every film we’ve seen before. Instead, Jun’s terrific screenplay is a deep
character study of the people, the town, changing times, changing America and
real values when they are not commodified by political pundits up to no good.
As I
watched, I was stunned with the great acting, fine skill with which this was
carried out and amazing chemistry (an extended cast that includes Laurie
Metcalf) and flow with which the film managed to keep going for its entire 95
minutes. It could have gone on longer
too, but it is fine as it stands and is one of the most underrated must-sees of
the year. Finally, a film that earned
its critical acclaim and still did not get enough of it!
Unfortunately,
the performance of this DVD is not up to the film. The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is
a bit weak, though it is also gritty, has some fine shots & compositions by
Director of Photography Ryan Samul and is always visually involving. The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes are also
on the lite side, but in both cases, I bet this would look and sound better on
Blu-ray and hope I am soon proven correct.
The film sure deserves such treatment, as does Mark Geary’s score.
Extras
include For Jimmy Brown, the short that was a basis for this film, deleted
scenes of interest, two very good audio commentaries with cast, crew & Jun
always present, stills and trailers for this and other Peace Arch releases.
- Nicholas Sheffo
