DVD Review: An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story

The judicial branch is the one branch of government that you really want to be able to have complete faith in. You want it to be fair and to be honest, and for truth to win out in all cases. Because you never know when it could be you that’s relying on that system. An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story is an incredible documentary film about a man who was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and served twenty-five years in prison.

The film opens with Michael Morton seated in an otherwise empty courtroom. He says, “This is the room where my life changed.” He is allowed to tell his story through an interview conducted in that very room. He tells the story of meeting Chris at school, and we see still photos of them from early in their marriage. He talks about the birth of their son. And then he gets into that day in 1986 when his wife was killed. And Michael really gives us an idea of what it was like to be a target of the investigation, and the helpless feeling that results. He says, “You get the sense you’re at these people’s mercy, and you hope to God they know what they’re doing.”

An Unreal Dream allows the story to be told in chronological order, and features interviews with many of people involved, both in his trial and in the fight to free him. Sometimes when watching a documentary, you feeling that some of the information from interviews is a bit extraneous. Not so with this film. Every piece of information that is revealed through the interviews feels pertinent and important, and helps move the story forward.

The film includes interviews with trial attorney Bill Allison, Barry Scheck (co-director of the Innocence Project), Nina Morrison (senior staff attorney with the Innocence Project) and attorney John Raley. It’s interesting that the film also includes interviews with Lou Bryan, one of the jury members, and Mark Landrum, the jury foreman. Lou says she didn’t see much emotion from Michael, and Mark says that the jury looked up to the district attorney, and admits there wasn’t much deliberation.

Michael talks about his prison experience, and there are also interviews with several former inmates, some who have been released and some who are still behind bars. Michael candidly says: “Some of the best people to be around were the murderers. They usually don’t steal from you. They’re usually not drunks.”

Some of the most moving scenes are about his son, whom Michael was allowed to see every six months, because of court-ordered visitations. His sister-in-law, who was raising Eric, brought him, and she clearly believed Michael to be guilty. Michael talks about how hearing Eric call his sister-in-law “Mom” was jarring. His son became a stranger to him, and then at age eighteen legally changed his name. Michael says, “That’s what broke me.” This film gives us Eric’s perspective as well, through interviews with him.

The injustice of it all is infuriating and depressing, as the prosecution deliberately withheld evidence that would have acquitted Michael (and perhaps saved the life of another woman - the real murderer killed another woman two years after Michael's wife was killed), but Michael Morton’s outlook is so positive and he is full of forgiveness, that the film ultimately leaves you actually feeling good and optimistic, which surprised me. This is an excellent film.

Special Features

This DVD includes a lot of excellent bonus material. The first thing is a collection of highlights from Ken Anderson’s Court of Inquiry. This is sixteen minutes of footage from February of 2013, when it was decided whether former DA Ken Anderson violated the law during the case.

There is also footage from Ken Anderson’s plea deal hearing. This hearing was on November 8, 2013, regarding the settlement of civil and criminal proceedings against Ken Anderson. This special feature is approximately fifteen minutes. Anderson was sentenced to ten days in jail, community service and a very small fine. (That’s it? He should be sentenced to twenty-five years.)

The DVD also includes highlights from a Q&A with Michael Morton, director Al Reinert and attorney John Raley. This was from a screening at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival on November 10, 2013, and is approximately thirteen minutes. There are some good questions asked. Michael Morton is asked about his feelings regarding the miniscule jail sentence for Anderson. Also, someone asks about his current relationship with his sister-in-law, something I myself was wondering.

There is a short segment on the SXSW film premiere. There is also a music video for “Whispering Hope” included in the bonus features. By the way, a soundtrack for this film is available.  I posted a review of it, which you can read on Michael Doherty’s Music Log.

An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story was released on DVD on April 1, 2014 through First Run Features.

DVD Review: Alice

Alice is Jan Svankmajer’s incredible version and vision of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, mixing live action and stop motion animation. It was originally released in 1988. It opens with Alice (Kristyna Kohoutova) tossing rocks into a stream. She then looks at a book that’s on the lap of the woman next to her. We assume it’s her mother, but we don’t see her face. The woman slaps her to stop her from touching the book. During the opening credits there are close-up shots of a mouth that tell us to close our eyes, or we won’t see anything.

And then we’re inside a cluttered, somewhat dark room. Alice is now tossing small rocks into a tea cup. Though first we only hear the sound of the stones hitting the cup, as we’re treated to the details of the room. The details include a doll with a book open on its lap next to a smaller doll, making us question the reality of the opening shot. It’s wonderful that this film has us questioning reality almost immediately; that’s perfect for this story.

From there, things begin to get deliciously strange, when a rabbit that is on display in a glass case removes the nails that keep it in place. Alice then watches as the rabbit dons white gloves and a coat and hat, and smashes through its glass cage with a pair of scissors. She follows the rabbit, climbing into a desk drawer. That shot looks fantastic, by the way.

This film is so delightfully odd and deliciously dark from the beginning. You immediately are immersed in this strange reality, and so view it with the same wonder that Alice does (something Tim Burton completely failed at in his disastrous and dull version of this story). Her initial descent takes a frightfully long time that you get the feeling that she’ll never return to any sort of normalcy, whatever that might mean to her.

When she shrinks, she becomes the shorter of the two dolls that we saw in the room. Then at one point when she grows, she doesn’t return immediately to herself but is trapped within the shell of the doll and is forced to break out of her own shell. It’s a wonderful image.

Every image in this film is captivating. The bit where the rat builds a fire pit on Alice’s head is bloody wonderful. Alice says, “That’s going too far.” And the mouth adds, “Said Alice to herself.” There are close-up shots of the mouth throughout the film, making it all seem like a story that she’s telling herself. I love when she revives the socks. The caterpillar is a sock with a set of false teeth, which looks wild and humorous. And then Alice’s own socks try to escape.

There are many images of death and decay, such as the animated skeletons of animals. Also, sawdust keeps falling out of the poor rabbit, so he closes his body up with a safety pin. But Alice is never terrified. When you’re young, there is no fear of death. Also, when she needs to find a way out of a place, she does. Keys are found in the oddest places, but they are found, which again gives us the feel that this is a story that she herself is telling.

Bonus Feature

The disc contains Darkness Light Darkness, an incredible short film directed by Jan Svankmajer.

Alice was directed by Jan Svankmajer, who also directed Lunacy, another film I love. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD on April 15, 2014 through First Run Features.

DVD Review: Mr. Magoo: The Theatrical Collection 1949-1959

Mr. Magoo: The Theatrical Collection 1949-1959 is a four-disc set that includes the fifty-three theatrical shorts released between 1949 and 1959, as well as the full-length animated feature, 1001 Arabian Nights, from 1959. There are also lots of bonus features, including audio commentaries on several of the films.

I was familiar with Mr. Magoo from the television series, which I loved when I was growing up. The character of Mr. Magoo was quite a bit different at the beginning of his career, and it’s wonderful to watch the way he developed and changed over the course of these fifty-three short films. In the first short, The Ragtime Bear, Mr. Magoo was more ornery. When his nephew Waldo plays the banjo, Mr. Magoo reprimands him: “Waldo, stop that guitar. Can’t stand noise!” The bear then plays the banjo, and Mr. Magoo grabs it from him, telling him to get a new coat (his nephew wears a fur coat). There’s a wonderful moment when Mr. Magoo falls off a landing, and it seems like the bear is going to catch him, but catches the banjo instead, allowing Magoo to fall. The bear is a fan of bluegrass and puts up with a lot for his love of music. (This episode has an audio commentary by John Canemaker, in which he talks about UPA, the film’s director, the style of the characters and so on. There is a lot of great information packed into a short span of time.)

Mr. Magoo is cantankerous throughout many of the early shorts, and slowly becomes more loveable as the series goes on. I actually really love the early shorts with the more ornery character. And of course, his nearsightedness always plays an important part in the troubles he encounters.

Trouble Indemnity is one of my favorites of the early films. An insurance salesman bothers Mr. Magoo (after Mr. Magoo first dismisses a man on his television screen and then a coat on a rack). The insurance company is The Fly By Night Insurance Company, a nice touch of honesty. Magoo ushers the man out of his home, though actually into his closet, where the man finds Magoo’s college gear, and dons it, making another attempt at selling him insurance. One thing I love about all of these films is the stuff that Magoo mutters under his breath. In this one, there is a bit where he laughs about eighty thousand people dying in bathtubs. This film also features that classic bit where Magoo gets on a girder instead of the elevator. The insurance company men then see Magoo out on the beam and realize he’s a huge insurance risk and so they need to protect him, leading to all sorts of silliness.

In many of these shorts, Mr. Magoo inadvertently foils the plans of criminals. In Bungled Bungalow, Magoo’s house is stolen and he manages to get it back without ever knowing it was gone in the first place (that short has the perfect final line, by the way). It’s not just criminals who are brought down, but also anyone who is perceived as less-than-honest, such as the insurance people in Trouble Indemnity, and used car salesmen in Sloppy Jalopy (another of my favorites).

Magoo always gets himself into terrifying situations, but he is oblivious to the danger. And somehow his being in frightening scenarios without being afraid helps us take our own fears less seriously. He also exhibits a bizarre sort of optimism that is delightful. One manifestation of this that I absolutely love is that when he comes across a sign, he reads whatever he needs the sign to say rather than what it actually says (and in fact only looks at signs when he needs information). It’s a great running gag throughout the series. And while that optimism puts him into dangerous situations, it never actually harms him. Things turn out all right for Mr. Magoo. And I think that is certainly part of the appeal of this character.

Of course, part of the appeal of these films is the humor. There is a delightful scene in Hotsey Footsy where Magoo dances with a wrestler, mistaking him for his friend’s wife. The German girl that Waldo tries to pick up in Magoo Goes Skiing makes that short so enjoyable – her reactions and expressions are hilarious. And Kangaroo Courting features a great running gag in which a kangaroo has been trained to punch someone whenever it hears a bell, which leads to several funny moments. In Magoo’s Canine Mutiny, a criminal’s fur coat makes Magoo mistake him for a puppy, and he puts him on a leash and takes him home. He also hits him with a rolled up newspaper, which is great. Magoo’s Masquerade opens with Magoo in a devil costume saying, “Merry Christmas.” Wonderful.

A great deal of the credit for Magoo’s appeal has to go to Jim Backus, who provides the voice. From the interviews and commentaries included on these discs, it’s clear that he was allowed to improvise a lot of Magoo’s comments, and it is those mutterings of Magoo’s that make him so delightful. Plus, his readings are just so perfect. There is a moment in Magoo’s Check-Up where an advertisement on a television says, “Now then, Mr. Viewer,” and Magoo responds, “The name is Magoo.” His delivery is just so wonderful, and it’s that delivery that gets the laugh, more so than the line itself. And in Magoo Goes Overboard, Magoo says, “Only one thing to do with a drowning man – render him unconscious.” He sells that silly line by delivering it as a straight line.

In many of these shorts, Magoo exclaims, “Great balls of fire!” I don’t know why, but that makes me laugh nearly every time. Only in a few does he say, “Magoo, you’ve done it again” (a line I remember being a big part of the television series). By the way, in Meet Mother Magoo, we learn that Mr. Magoo’s first name is Quincy. That short is particularly good, because of the way she plays along with his silliness while being completely aware of it, sharing the joke with her cat.

1001 Arabian Nights

The fourth disc contains the feature-length film, 1001 Arabian Nights. The opening credits list Jim Backus as providing the voice for Uncle Abdul Azziz Magoo (so not Quincy in this one). And this time, other actors are given credits in the opening title sequence – Kathryn Grant as Princess Yasminda, Dwayne Hickman as Magoo’s nephew, Aladdin (not Waldo), Hans Conreid as The Wicked Wazier, Daws Butler as Omar the Rugmaker (Butler often provided the voice of Waldo in the shorts), and Alan Reed as the Sultan.

The idea of displacing Magoo in time and location isn’t a bad one, but he becomes a supporting character in his own film. There are entire sequences without Magoo at all. This film tells the tale of Aladdin, who by the way does not resemble Waldo. It would have been funnier with Waldo as Aladdin, though at one point Aladdin does call him “Unc,” as Waldo often does in the shorts.

The Wicked Wazir wishes to become the most powerful man in the world, and consults a spirit in a flame as to how to go about it. The spirit encourages him to marry Princess Yasminda and use Aladdin to obtain a magic lamp. (Magoo, by the way, is a lamp merchant in this version of the tale.) It is funny when the flame spirit warns Wazir about Magoo. Wazir has been stealing from the sultan’s treasury, so there are jokes about the sultan’s water being shut off, which are cute. But most of this stuff falls flat.

A lot of this film is just not funny. But there are some wonderful little moments, like when the Wazir hands some gold coins to Aladdin (“sample of my generosity”) and then immediately takes one coin back and drops it into his pouch. And I love the executioner who even says “Chop chop chop” in his sleep.

1001 Arabian Nights was directed by Jack Kinney.

Special Features

All four discs include special features. There are commentary tracks on several shorts, including The Ragtime Bear, Spellbound Hound, Bungled Bungalow, Barefaced Flatfoot, Fuddy-Duddy-Buddy, The Grizzly Golfer, Hotsey Footsy, When Magoo Flew, Magoo Express, Magoo’s Puddle Jumper, Meet Mother Magoo, Magoo’s Private War, Magoo Saves The Bank and Terror Faces Magoo. The commentaries are delivered by animation historians and by relatives of some of the key crew members. Some are better than others. The only completely useless track is the one on When Magoo Flew, for UPA animator Bob Longo simply explains what you’re seeing on screen anyway. John Canemaker provides some of the best commentary tracks, giving us lots of information.

There is also Interview With Leonard Maltin. Whom, you might ask, is he interviewing? No one. He simply talks about UPA, Magoo and the feature-length film. I can’t stand Leonard Maltin (something about him irritates the hell out of me), but he is toned down a bit here.

There is a Mr. Magoo documentary on the fourth disc, which features interviews with many animation historians, who talk about how UPA’s work was different from that of other studios. There is plenty of information, but even more enjoyable is A Princess For Magoo, which is a vintage promotional documentary about the feature-length film narrated by Jim Backus (who also makes an appearance). There are shots of Hollywood, while Jim Backus says, “Hollywood has nothing whatever to do with our story.” And then we see a bit of UPA Studios, including some of the storyboards for the film, and footage of Kathryn Grant recording her part.

The special features also include a photo gallery, with stills and sketches from the shorts as well as the feature-length film, and posters from the film.

Mr. Magoo: The Theatrical Collection 1949-1959 was released on April 22, 2014 through Shout! Factory.

DVD Review: When Jews Were Funny

It always seemed to me that most of the best comedians were Jewish. I used to wonder why that was, and figured it’s because the best comedy comes from pain and troubles. When Jews Were Funny is an odd documentary investigating the question of whether Jews have lost their position at the top of the comedy game. The film opens with a quote from Lenny Bruce: “Who can be glad they’re a Jew? You can say…I’ve made a good adjustment but that’s all.”

This film is basically a series of interviews with Jewish comics and writers. There is a bit of old stand-up footage thrown into the mix to break it up, but really the film is a series of interviews. That might not sound like much, but this is an enjoyable documentary, mainly because those people who are interviewed are extremely funny.

Folks interviewed in this documentary include Shecky Greene, Norm Crosby, Shelley Berman, Jack Carter, David Steinberg, David Brenner, Bob Einstein, Gilbert Gottfried, Andy Kindler, Ed Crasnick, Mark Breslin, Howie Mandel, Judy Gold, Eugene Mirman, Cory Kahaney and John Silverstein (and several others).

Mark Breslin, co-founder of Yuk Yuk’s, says: “I’ve always thought that comedy was Jewish jazz. It was our people’s way of expressing our powerlessness and our intelligence at the same time. All comedy, I think, comes from frustration.” And Howie Mandel says, “I think that comedy ultimately comes from darkness…because that sense of humor is a great conduit to survival.”

David Steinberg says that immigrants who came from Russia had nothing. “They had each other, and they had humor.” He thinks that Jews are no longer the masters of comedy. “The thing that helps humor is oppression. The thing that kills humor is assimilation.”

David Brenner says that his father taught him there’s something funny in everything. That’s actually an idea that is echoed by several of the people interviewed. I’ve always said there is no subject that is devoid of humor, and it’s nice to hear that sentiment expressed by some of the best comedians in the business.

All of the stand-up footage in this film is television footage from the 1960s, and includes performances by Alan King (from 1967), Rodney Dangerfield (from 1969), Harvey Stone (from 1964), Henny Youngman (from 1963), and Jackie Mason (from 1962). Perhaps my favorite is Jackie Mason’s great bit about not wanting to go to war.

The filmmaker, though never seen (except for his hand, which ends up in frame occasionally as he’s gesturing), plays a big part in this film. Not only do we often hear his questions, but he also interacts with the comics. It’s more of a conversation, and is often about his own life and his own questions. It’s almost like therapy for him. It’s interesting, because even when he’s talking about himself, what we see on screen is the person who is being interviewed, so often what we’re seeing are reaction shots. At one point, Elon Gold asks the director what is the thesis of his film, and Alan Zweig talks about why he’s making the film.

Bonus Material

The DVD includes some bonus footage – five scenes totaling approximately sixteen minutes. This includes more with Shecky Greene and Jack Carter. My favorite of these scenes is “Jewish Joke Medley,” which includes some seriously funny material. Also in “Name That Tune,” there is a great anecdote.

When Jews Were Funny was directed by Alan Zweig, and was released on DVD on April 1, 2014 through First Run Features.

DVD Review: Poseidon Rex

I’ve had a love for monster movies ever since I was a little kid watching Creature Double Feature on Channel 56. Godzilla, Mothra, Daimajin, Gamera, King Kong and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms – I watched them again and again.  And in more recent years I’ve enjoyed films like Jurassic Park, so I was excited to see Poseidon Rex, a movie about a dinosaur that lives in the ocean and attacks boats. On the DVD cover it says: “Half Dinosaur! Half Sea Monster! All Trouble!” That’s perfect. I'm sold.

But what makes this one even more enticing is that it was directed by Mark L. Lester. He’s known for directing Firestarter and Commando. Those are fine, but the film I love him for is Class Of 1984, a movie that I watched a whole lot when I was a kid, and several more times as an adult. Poseidon Rex has a much lighter tone than some of Lester's earlier films. This is just a fun movie – there’s nothing serious here, and nothing too frightening (so, yeah, it's fine for children).

It opens with three men diving for gold. One of them, Jackson Slate (Brian Krause), is being forced to lead this diving expedition at gunpoint. The men set off some powerful explosives, waking and angering a giant dinosaur, which eats two of the men and the boat.

Meanwhile Rod (Steven Helmkamp) and Jane (Candice Nunes) have arrived on an island for a vacation. Henry (Berne Velasquez) takes them out on his boat to go snorkeling out by the blue hole, a giant sinkhole where Jackson has gone searching for gold. They find Jackson floating in the water and revive him, with the help of Sarah (Anne McDaniels), a marine biologist. No, it doesn’t quite make sense that they would take Jackson to Sarah, but this film has to get all of the main characters together quickly.

There is a criminal organization led by Tariq, and it was that organization that was behind the dive for the gold, and in a flashback we learn that Jackson was involved in an earlier expedition for gold with these gangsters. Well, Jackson asks for help from Sarah, Rodney, Jane and Henry, and promises to cut them in on the gold. Rodney is curious about the blue hole anyway – that’s why he made this trip. Sarah is interested for science’s sake. Henry just wants gold. Sarah is the voice of reason. She says to Rodney: “I don’t want to die on some wild goose chase for some lost treasure. Did you forget the part where some gangsters are trying to kill him?” She tells Rodney to stop acting like he’s in The Goonies, and doesn’t join them on their dive. Rod ends up chickening out anyway, and doesn’t dive.

Well, Jackson, Sarah and Henry find the sunken boat that likely has the gold, as well as giant dinosaur footprints, and quite a few eggs. Of course, the presence of eggs raises a lot of questions. Is there another dinosaur down there? And the moment they were woken by the charges, they started going at it? Or was this dinosaur pregnant for centuries, and when she woke she suddenly lay a bunch of eggs? Who knows? Sarah takes one of the eggs back to her lab, and when she and Jackson carefully open it, the baby dinosaur inside is miraculously alive. The baby gets loose, but comes in handy when the gangsters show up.

There are some other odd yet convenient plot elements, such as an abandoned military post, with guns, a communication system and a working plane. It’s interesting how often characters stumble upon old military bases in these films. And as you might expect, there is some less-than-stellar acting in this film. Anne McDaniels is on the weaker side as Sarah, and just isn’t believable as a marine biologist. And the coast guard guy is not quite as good an actor as McDaniels. And later they completely forget about the baby dinosaur that is still loose somewhere.

But it kind of doesn’t matter. After all, you get shots of a dinosaur chasing boats and cars (yes, it can live on land as well as in the water). The movie moves rather quickly, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. And there are some good surprises. It's fun. Don't expect much else, and you should enjoy it.

Special Features

The DVD includes The Making Of Poseidon Rex, a nine-minute feature with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with cast members Brian Krause, Steven Helmkamp and Anne McDaniels. There are also interviews with director Mark L. Lester and visual effects man Scott Wheeler, who talks about the creature design.

The trailer is also included.

Poseidon Rex was shot on location in Belize, in Central America. It is scheduled to be released on DVD on May 13, 2014 through ITN Distribution.

DVD Review: Junction

Junction is an exceptional, exciting, intense character-driven thriller about a simple burglary that escalates into a hostage situation, but is about so much more.

Junction begins with a bit of voice over narration describing a childhood nightmare, whose main image has never quite disappeared. Then during the opening credits we see a group of four people in car, in a series of close-ups from outside the car. Each person is isolated, from us because of the barrier of the windows, and from each other through the choice of single shots. None of them is talking.

They arrive at the home of their drug dealer, and David (Tom Pelphrey), the driver, goes in. He doesn’t have the money and asks for the drugs as a favor. It’s revealed through the dialogue that David and the dealer went through rehab together, which is a nice touch. The film, though intense, actually has many humorous touches like that. What’s wonderful about those moments is that they don’t lessen or destroy the tension, but in some ways actually add to it, because these moments show that even comedy is robbed of its ability to solve, or even ease the situation.

Tai (Anthony Ruivivar), the dealer, mentions that he wants to get a television for his mother’s birthday, so David sees that as an opportunity to get the crystal meth that he and his three friends are desperate for. So the four of them break into the house of a family that had recently moved in (figuring the family likely hadn't installed alarms yet). David finds a large flat-screen television and puts it in the car. Donald (Neal Bledsoe) has meanwhile found an older style television in the attic, and they decide to use that as a back-up in case Tai doesn’t want a flat-screen.

David, Kari (Summer Crockett Moore) and Spot (Harris Doran) wait in the car, but it is taking Donald way too long to bring down the other television. While Spot urges them to just leave him, their loyalty to their friend causes them all to go back into the house. By then, the older television isn’t even necessary, as David has talked to Tai on the phone, and Tai said the flat-screen would be fine. So we as audience members just want Donald to get out of there. But in the meantime Donald has discovered some videos in the machine of the older television, and now his goals have changed.

Donald makes David promise that if the cops do nothing about what they’ve discovered, that they themselves will take care of it. But then, as they are finally leaving the house, the man, Connor (Anthony Rapp) arrives home, followed soon by his wife, Jennifer (Sharon Maguire), and young daughter, Mia (Danielle Kotch). And what was going to be a simple robbery turns into a hostage situation, when Donald flips out.

This is a totally intense film with excellent performances by the entire cast. The relationships are so interesting, and change throughout the film. These are well-defined relationships, and that includes that between the two main cops (played by David Zayas and Michael O’Keefe). They’re given a lot to work with, including a bit of a back story that comes into play with how they handle this situation. Basically, the plot is really well thought out, with layers that make it feel much more real. The cops aren’t just cops. The thieves aren’t just thieves. And the victims certainly aren’t just victims. Everyone has depth which makes this film not your average thriller.

Bonus Features

The DVD includes The Making Of “Junction,” which features interviews with a lot of the cast, including Summer Crockett Moore (who was also a producer on this project), Neal Bledsoe, Tom Pelphrey, Harris Doran (who mentions how the cast had a week of rehearsals) and Sharon Maguire. Key crew members are also interviewed, including writer/director Tony Glazer, Adrian Correia (the cinematographer, who talks about the film noir elements in the look of the film), Austin Wintory (the composer), and Pat Patterson (a producer). They talk about the effects of crystal meth, and how the makeup really helped the actors get into character. This special feature is thirty-two minutes.

The DVD also includes the film’s trailer.

Junction was written and directed by Tony Glazer, and was released on DVD on April 22, 2014 through Grand Entertainment Group.

DVD Review: Picture Of Light

Picture Of Light is a strange documentary about the northern lights, about our perception of reality, and about the use of technology to somehow capture nature. It has a slow, deliberate approach, both in its narration and in the film overall, that is completely engrossing.

It opens with the crew testing camera equipment in a cold chamber to get ready to capture the northern lights – an interesting way to begin the film. But this film is about the making of the film as much as it is about the northern lights. We see the crew on the train heading north, and we are told in voice over: “We were escaping the electrical world, with fifty pounds of batteries in our bags.” Nice. And yes, there is a bit of a sense of humor to the whole project. The film asks us early on, “Is film a surrogate for the real experience?”

For me, for now, it is. The northern lights are something I hope to experience firsthand at some point in my life. But this film does work as a surrogate, or at least a taste of the actual experience. It’s interesting too, because the filmmakers are both experiencing the lights firsthand, but also capturing the images and creating a surrogate.

This film is also about the details. There are close-up shots of details along the way, such as water dripping onto the railroad tracks. The water looks like darts shooting down (and in its own way as beautiful as the northern lights). There are lots of beautiful shots long before they even get to the northern lights. The seemingly simple shot of snow blowing across a road is gorgeous.

The crew shot this film on two visits to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. The voice over informs us that this is the home of the first-ever pre-fabricated building in North America. And we are treated to footage of life in the region, including the locals talking about the northern lights. The guy talking about hunting is at times very frightening.

But there is some strange behavior all around. While waiting for conditions to improve so they can get on with their filming, they decide to drill a hole in the motel room door to allow snow in, to see how a snow drift would be created in the room itself. And eventually a snow drift is created in the motel room, though the crew expresses disappointment in the style and look of the drift.

The lights themselves of course seem like magic, like dancing. And those images are allowed to play out, which is great. They do talk about how many frames they shot per minute and so on, so we can more of an idea of what we’re seeing. Plus, there is some footage of the lights as viewed from space, as they’re explained a bit more.

Bonus Material

The DVD includes a photo gallery - some black and white, some color. There is also a section on director Peter Mettler, which includes a biography, a filmography, and an article titled Paradox And Wonder: The Cinema Of Peter Mettler.

The Picture Of Light was directed by Petter Mettler and originally released in 1994. It was released on DVD on April 15, 2014 through First Run Features. Mettler’s new film, The End Of Time, was also released on that date.

DVD Review: The Strange Woman

The Strange Woman is an excellent and unusual film with some really good performances and intriguing characters, particularly that of Jenny, who is portrayed impeccably and deliciously by Hedy Lamarr.

The film takes place in Bangor, Maine, in the eighteen hundreds. It opens with a wonderful scene in which Tim Hager, a broke drunk, tries to purchase more whiskey, while the shopkeeper tells him he should spend his money on food for his family. We learn through dialogue between the shopkeeper and another customer that Tim’s wife had left him, and that he has a daughter named Jenny. We then see Jenny playing with other children, and right away get a sense of her character. She tells one kid that she hates losers. She taunts Ephraim, a boy who can’t swim, and even pushes him into the river and tells the others she doesn’t care if he drowns. But then when the adults are approaching, she jumps in and fishes him out, pretending it was the other children that pushed him in. She has goals of being rich.

The film then cuts to Jenny now grown up. She is stunningly beautiful, and still living in Bangor, and still with the same goals of being rich. In an early scene, she goes down to the docks to meet the sailors, hoping to pick out the richest one. (By the way, early on you hear people singing “Drunken Sailor,” a song I love.)

Her father is still a drunk. He tells Jenny she’s just like her mother, saying there’s a devil in her, “And I’m going to whip him out of you.” Jenny responds, “You’re going to beat me.” He says, “This is one beating you’ll not like.” It’s an incredible scene. As he hits her repeatedly with his belt, there’s a wild look of enjoyment on her face – at least at first. Then she fights back and runs out. Her father falls over, seemingly from a heart attack, and dies.

And this is when the film begins to get even more interesting. She runs to the home of Mr. Isaiah Poster (Gene Lockhart), a wealthy, much older man who clearly has an interest in her. He’s also the father of Ephraim. She tells him, not that her father has died, but that her father is after her, and somewhat seductively shows him the marks on her back. Mr. Poster then visits the reverend and deacon, telling them Jenny should be married, leading them to suggest that he himself be the one. It’s so interesting that he manipulates them just the way that she did him.

It works. We next see Jenny writing a letter to Ephraim, and signing it “your loving Mother.” Yes, this woman is delightfully twisted. It gets even better. She reads the letter to us in voice over, saying: “I shall demand obedience and love. And if you refuse, my dear son, I shall punish you by not kissing you good night.” She urges him to visit, though Isaiah has urged him to stay away. Jenny is such an exciting and enticing character. Even though perhaps we as the audience are supposed to think ill of her, I couldn’t help but be completely drawn to her.

And when Ephraim (Louis Hayward) does visit, he immediately says, “Hello, Mother,” without any indication that it’s odd for him, which of course makes it all the more odd for us. The tension is wonderful once Ephraim comes home. Jenny clearly enjoys playing his mother, but also touches him affectionately. There is so much going on in her face. At one point she leans in, telling Ephraim she could see how all kinds of women would be attracted to him, and then when she has him and he leans in to kiss her, she pulls back and is suddenly all business, wishing him “Good night.” And it is later revealed that Ephraim and Jenny had talked of love at some point before he had left town, adding another layer to this relationship. That of course means that Isaiah most likely knew of his son’s affections when he angled to marry Jenny himself, making his character more interesting as well.

There are also troubles in the town, as there is no police force. There is violence in the streets, which excites Jenny, even when the violence is directed at her friend Lena. She pauses before helping her, which is just incredible. It’s wild, but some of Jenny’s most powerful moments are when she is silent and still, and allowing events to play out before her.

This film had me enjoying it right from the start, but it’s one that gets better and better as it goes along. Hedy Lamarr’s performance is superb. But the rest of the cast is quite good as well, and includes George Sanders, Louis Hayward, Gene Lockhart, Hillary Brooke, Rhys Williams, June Storey and Kathleen Lockhart.

The Strange Woman was directed by Edgar Ulmer. The new DVD, in HD restoration, is scheduled to be released April 29, 2014 through Film Chest Media Group. The DVD includes no special features.

DVD Review: Key And Peele: Seasons 1 + 2

Key And Peele is a sketch comedy series on Comedy Central starring Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. The first two seasons have now been released in a four-disc box set, which includes bonus features as well.

The series is seriously funny. And one thing that sets it apart from other sketch comedy shows is that the segments are filmed ahead of time, so they’re like a series of short comedic films, with introductions and other silliness shot in front of an audience linking the sketches. Both men are bi-racial, and a lot of their comedy comes from that, particularly in the first season.

“Bitch”

The first episode of the first season, “Bitch,” is one of my favorites. The title skit is about two married men who are bragging to each other about calling their wives "bitch" but are terrified that the wives might hear. So they remove themselves to more and more remote spots before repeating the word. This skit gets funnier as it goes on (while never mentioning that they're afraid of their wives). During one of their live segments, they rip on the premises for reality television programming, such as, "You have a mental illness - let us rearrange your furniture for you." I absolutely love that, and it leads into a sketch making fun of those kitchen shows.  One of my favorite bits is a fake commercial for Ancestry.com, in which all black people trace themselves back to Thomas Jefferson. 

The other episodes have plenty of excellent material. In one skit in the episode “Das Negroes,” they're part of a slave auction, where everyone is getting bought except them. It’s a great take on the subject, and is seriously funny and clever. This is one of my favorite sketches from the entire season.

“Soul Food” is one of the season’s best episodes. The restaurant scene is completely hilarious, and becomes funnier the longer it goes on. I love a sketch that keeps building like that. They do that also with the puppy sketch, which is probably my favorite bit from them. It is so bloody funny, and has them in drag, saying lines like, "I'm going to buy that dog. I'm going to drive him to the vet and I'm going to have him put down immediately." And when it has reached the point of being absolutely ridiculous, they take it to another, even more deliciously absurd level.

Season One Bonus Features

Several of the first season episodes have commentary tracks by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. There are also "Outtakes" (seven minutes of bloopers and whatnot), and a feature titled, "Poolside Interview," which is sort of what you think it will be - the two of them seated by a pool, talking.

The special features also include several segments of "Obama's Anger Translator." All are amusing, but some are certainly funnier than others. I particularly like the "Makeup Job" bit, and the one titled "The Last Four Years." The last special feature is titled "Key & Peele Live at the South Beach Comedy Festival." It's actually stuff before and after their performance, not the performance itself.

“Obama College Years”

The second season starts off with one of the show’s best episodes, “Obama College Years.” This one opens with a hilarious sketch of two men with guns moving in slow motion, but one trips, dropping his gun, and is then frightened by a bird, and so on – all set to music, without dialogue. It’s really well done. Key and Peele talk about meeting the president, which leads to the episode’s central sketch, riffing on what Obama might have been like in college (“This party can be the most inspirational party this campus has ever seen”). This episode also features a skit about Mary Magdalene’s pimp, and a wonderful skit about the racist nature of civil war re-enactments. But my favorite sketch is one in which an athlete gives some really bad advice to young children. I was laughing so hard I actually had tears in my eyes. “Kids, you can turn yourself into a car and have a friend drive you onto the freeway.” And just when I thought the skit couldn’t be any better, the guys rip on the common misuse of the word “literally.” Thank you, guys, for that.

That is my favorite episode of the season, but every episode has some great material. I love the hilarious image of dogs dressed as KKK members in “Dubstep,” as well as that episode’s bit about the speaker who had to follow Martin Luther King at a rally. In “Biological Dad,” there is wonderful skit about a gay couple adopting a child. By the way, Billy Dee Williams makes an appearance as himself in one of the segments of that episode.

The only sketch they continually go back to is the one about Obama’s anger translator. Sure, it gets repetitive, but it’s often quite good. I particularly like the time when they point out Mitt Romney’s mistakes: “Iran is on the sea. Syria’s two goddamn countries this way. Bam! Which is a city in Iran.”

The stand-up segments in front of the live audience are often very funny too. In one of those segments in the “Country Music” episode, Jordan says: “I won’t get dogs because it’s basically like buying a new grandparent. You gotta feed them, you gotta take them on walks. They will look at you in the eyes while they’re pooping.” By the way, there is always a little something during the credits. The episode with the best surprise at the end is “Non-Stop Party.”

Season Two Bonus Features

The bonus material for the second season includes four more Obama’s Anger Translator sketches, one of which has a funny Star Wars reference, and one of which is an alternate skit shot just in case the horrible occurred and Obama had lost the election.

Critiquer’s Corner by Vandaveon And Mike is a silly ongoing series, in which Key and Peele critique their own show as the characters Vandaveon and Mike. They do riffs on all ten episodes, offering suggestions on how to improve the show (put in dick shots). This is nearly a half hour of material.

Key And Peele: Seasons 1 + 2 was released on March 25, 2014.

DVD Review: Junk

Junk is a completely enjoyable, seriously funny and surprisingly sweet film about two guys who must set aside their differences when their movie is accepted at a small film festival. Don’t let the photo on the DVD fool you. This is not a drug movie. Sure, some of the characters do some drugs, but that is not the focus. This is a movie about films and friendship, and while it is often very funny, it also has heart and substance.

The film stars Kevin Hamedani as Kaveh, a man who directed a film titled Islama-rama 2, which has been accepted in a film festival. Kevin Hamedani also directed and co-wrote Junk. Ramon Isao co-wrote Junk, and plays Raul, the man who wrote Islama-rama 2. When the film opens, Kaveh is rehearsing a speech in front of the mirror about changes he’s making to his life. He then goes to meet his ex-girlfriend Natasha, telling her he still loves her and that he’s changed (“I even listen to R.E.M. now”) in an attempt to win her back. This attempt fails, as she is seeing someone new (“Somebody who listens to my stories without needing to take a bong hit”). But it’s interesting to see where this character’s priorities are. His film has been accepted to a film festival, and the first thing he thinks of is using that as a way to win back the love of his ex-girlfriend. That right there lets you know that this is a character-driven comedy, and not a slapstick comedy about silly situations.

Meanwhile Raul, his filmmaking partner, is in New York, in a writing workshop, which is not going well for him. The leader of the workshop tells him, “You’re not a good writer, but you’re a good film thing. So be a film thing.” We also get a truly sweet moment with Raul and his wife, Sachiko.

Kaveh and Raul haven’t spoken in a year, but the two are going to be sharing a motel room together. Their goal is to pitch their next film to a famous producer who will be attending the festival (described as a Japanese Roger Corman). When the two meet up in their crappy motel room, the scene is allowed to play out, which is nice. We see a little of the sources of their animosity (Kaveh can’t be bothered to remember Raul’s wife’s name, or even her nationality for that matter), but also the way they try to hide it with pleasantries. It’s actually a really good scene. Because of the really good performances by both lead actors, it’s believable that they have a history, and their awkwardness is likewise believable. It’s not overplayed for comedy.

As you might expect from a movie about filmmakers, there are lots of great film references – to Jodorowsky, Sam Raimi and films like Fright Night, Critters, Child’s Play, The Karate Kid, and Gremlins (“Rule 16: Don’t ever expose your Mogwai to the German language”). And of course we get to see a bit of Kaveh and Raul’s film. Their first midnight screening is lightly attended, but those there are into it, which is cool. And we see their competition’s film too, which is hilarious. We also see Kaveh and Raul’s ideas for future projects, including sequels to Gremlins and Child’s Play.

This movie made me burst out laughing many times. And a couple of those times, the laughter was of a sort of delightedly shocked variety. I’m so tempted to tell you about those moments, but I don’t want to spoil them. But as I said, while the film has these hilarious moments, it's really a film about friendship, and you come very quickly to care about the main two characters. There are lots of great moments and funny lines. When Kaveh awkwardly hits on a gorgeous girl at a bar, he says this great line: “Will you teach me how to go out with you?” I've watched the movie twice, and for some reason that line made me burst out laughing both times. Kevin Hamedani's delivery is just perfect.

Sure, there are a couple of dumb jokes. The mooning joke early on is one I could do without. And it seems odd that a film producer would have armed guards. But this film is such a delight that it's easy to overlook those few weak moments.

Bonus Features

This DVD has plenty of bonus material. There is a commentary track with Kevin Hamedani, Ramon Isao and Brett Davern, who plays Billy, the filmmakers' festival liaison. They tell some good anecdotes. The peanut butter bit from the beginning is actually based on a real event from Kevin’s life. The song that Cooper sings is one he actually wrote. They talk about many of the actors that they got for the film, including James Hong (from Missing In Action) and George Hardy (whom you’ll remember from the notorious Troll 2 and Best Worst Movie). And that’s George Hardy’s daughter in the scene with him. Ramon Isao’s wife plays his wife in the film, so that explains the easy rapport the two characters have. They point out the presence of one of the grips hiding behind a sign in an exterior shot (which I totally missed when watching the film).

There are approximately fifty-three minutes of deleted and extended scenes, including more of Kaveh’s practiced speech to his girlfriend in the mirror; some funny stuff regarding Billy, their festival liaison, and the reviews; more of their competition’s screening; and some good stuff with Connor talking about what’s good for his voice before he sings. The deleted scenes are not presented entirely in order.

The bonus materials include Making Of ‘Junk’ Featurette, which is approximately nine minutes and features interviews with Brett Davern, Ramon Isao and Kevin Hamedani. There are also two music videos by OK GO (“This Too Shall Pass” and “White Knuckles”), a photo gallery and the film’s trailer.

Junk was released on DVD on March 25, 2014 through Breaking Glass Pictures.

DVD Review: Newhart: The Complete Third Season

The third season of Newhart saw one significant cast change. Peter Scolari became a regular cast member, taking the place of Steven Kampmann. Michael Harris (Peter Scolari) had appeared in a few episodes of the second season, as the producer of Dick Loudon’s local television program. In the third season, his relationship with Stephanie (Julia Duffy) is developed.

The first episode of the season, “Tell A Lie, Get A Check,” briefly explains the absence of Kirk (Steven Kampmann) and Cindy (Rebecca York). The episode opens with Dick and Joanna returning to the inn. Dick says, “After two weeks of staying in one hotel after another, it’s really great to be back home in our inn.” I love that great dry delivery of his. They learn that Kirk and Cindy left town while they were away, as Cindy got a job as a clown. Dick is left with the job of selling Kirk’s café, which leads to a great guest appearance by Ray Walston as Claude Darling, the man who initially buys the café. Dick has a great line to him: “Trust us, we lied to you.” And so Larry, Darryl and Darryl buy the café.

Larry, Darryl and Darryl play a bigger role in this season. That famous introduction “Hi, I’m Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl” gets a bit old, but by the end of the season the writers are playing with it, creating jokes from the very fact that it was repeated so often. Like in "The Prodigal Darryl," when the first Darryl disappears and Larry leaves a gap in his introduction for the missing Darryl.

Throughout the season, Michael keeps trying to get Dick to promote his television show, but Dick and Michael disagree about the image the show should have. Several episodes feature his Vermont television show. In one episode George (Tom Poston) is a guest, and in another Joanna (Mary Frann) is the co-host. In the season’s final episode, Dick is driven to compete for a Vermont television award. Michael again wants him to change his image, and this time Dick gives it a go, and the results are disastrous and hilarious. That episode also features a puppet show put on my Larry, Darryl and Darryl to cheer up a sick Stephanie.

A lot of this season’s best and funniest moments come from Stephanie’s selfishness and her generally self-centered attitude, which is somehow endearing rather than off-putting. In “But Seriously, Beavers,” Stephanie is trying to sell make-up to the inn’s guests, but failing, leading her to pout, “I’ll never sell these and they’ll drag me off to jail and I’ll only get to wash my hair once a week and I’ll die.” The episode “Poor Reception” opens with Stephanie handing a customer his eggs, saying, “They may be cold, I was on the phone.” Her delivery is perfect. In “Happy Trails To You,” she's upset with Michael and tells him, “Don’t call me, don’t try to see me, and if you think you can get to me by sending me gifts, I guess I can’t stop you.” In “Georgie’s Girl,” she is studying for the Vermont driver’s test. She says: “If I can’t drive around in a convertible with the wind blowing in my hair, what’s the point of having a head?”

In a late episode, Stephanie and Michael visit Stephanie’s parents, and we see how her personality had developed. When Stephanie speaks back to her mother, her mother laments, “Where did your nanny go wrong?” Her father is played by the excellent Jose Ferrer, and he has one of the episode’s other great lines: “Princess, I know I haven’t said this enough to you, but I bought you a car.”

The season has a few other wonderful guest stars, including Richard Stahl (in a couple of episodes) and G.W. Bailey. There are also a couple of Ghostbusters references and one really funny reference to Poltergeist. These episodes originally aired in 1984 and 1985.

Newhart: The Complete Third Season is scheduled to be released on April 22, 2014 through Shout! Factory. The three-disc DVD set includes no special features. There is one moment in the episode “Lady In Wading” where the transfer is bad, and it briefly looks like a messed up video cassette.

DVD Review: Bettie Page Reveals All

You really can’t beat the title Bettie Page Reveals All, and you can’t beat Bettie Page, still the world’s most famous pin-up girl. In this new documentary, Bettie Page does in fact reveal many things about her life through interviews that function as the film’s narration (Bettie Page does not appear on screen, as she wished for folks to remember her as she was in her photos).

The film opens with a few thoughts on Bettie Page from people like Hugh Hefner (who talks about how much her image has influenced pop culture) and Dita Von Teese (who says, “It’s sort of confusing even whether she was a real person or not”). We then briefly see her funeral at Westwood Village Memorial Park in December of 2008.

After those opening shots, the film is basically told in chronological order. Through the interview, Bettie Page is really allowed to tell her own story, and she does a great job of it, offering fantastic and surprising anecdotes and information. Bettie speaks with candor about not only her professional life, and not only about her triumphs and joys, but about her troubles. About her father, she says: “A sex fiend is the way to put it. I mean, sex with anything that he could get his you-know-what into. Chickens and sheep and cows and anything.” He had sex with Bettie’s two sisters, and Bettie talks about how she let him touch her in order to get money to go to the movies. Her mother then took Bettie and the other children and left him. But because there wasn’t enough money to care for all six children, Bettie was put in an orphanage for a time.

As striking as that is, perhaps even more surprising is that Bettie Page aimed to be valedictorian of her high school class in order to get a scholarship and missed it only slightly, becoming salutatorian. Who would have guessed? It was very early in this film that I was already completely engaged.

Of course, a good deal of the film focuses on her professional career, and interestingly it was a Brooklyn policeman who not only got her started but suggested she wear bangs. The film presents plenty of early photos of Bettie Page. She talks about the bondage photo shoots, saying that most of that work came from requests from people. We are shown many of those photos, and yes, we get a good amount of nude footage of Bettie as well.

After Bettie Page disappeared from the professional world, the film goes into the influence she and her image had on artists and models in the 1970s and 1980s. Meanwhile Bettie had a few marriages, which she speaks about with humor. About the second marriage, she says: “Two months after the wedding I realized I had made a mistake. All we had in common was movies, sex and hamburgers.” Then when she got into religion, she was told she had to remarry her first husband, which she did. That is really interesting, and what comes after that is even more surprising.

Though Bettie is the narrator, there are several other interviews throughout the film. Other people interviewed include Paula Klaw, who along with Irving Klaw photographed and filmed Bettie Page; Bunny Yeager, a pin-up model turned photographer; and Harry Lear, who married Bettie Page in 1967 after her modeling career had ended and who reveals some disturbing episodes of her life.

By the way, I love that Bettie hated cigarettes. She didn’t smoke, and you can see that the cigarette in that famous whip photo is unlit.

Bonus Features

This DVD includes plenty of bonus material that should please Bettie Page fans. The first is Filth And Obscenity, and is nine minutes of footage including a couple of scenes of those old “educational” films (I love this line: “We know that once a person is perverted it is practically impossible for that person to adjust to normal attitudes in regard to sex”). There is more on Movie Star News, and more on Bettie Page’s influence on pop culture.

The bonus features also include The Early Years: Audio Interview With Bettie. Some of this interview was used in the film, but here we actually hear the questions as well as Bettie’s answers, which we rarely do in the film. Bettie talks about high school, and all the activities she was involved in. There is a little more about her time in the orphanage, and more on her start in modeling and the camera clubs. She talks about how she once thought about joining a nudist colony. Still photos accompany this interview, most of them being wonderful early photos of her. This interview is approximately sixteen minutes.

Unreleased Bettie And Paula Klaw Phone Call is the complete phone call, a small portion of which is in the film. They talk about old times, working together, and also about Bunny Yeager. This is approximately thirteen and a half minutes.

Perhaps most exciting is Irving Klaw’s Wiggle Movies, eight short films of Bettie Page (here referred to as Betty Page) totaling approximately twenty-five minutes. They are set to modern songs, most of them about Bettie Page, such as “Welcome To The Jungle (The Fabulous Bettie Page),” “21st Century Bettie Page,” and “My Baby Wants To Look Like Bettie Page.” The films include Dance Of Passion, Betty Pages’s New High Heel Tease, Waltzing In Satin Scanties, Dominant Betty Dances With Her Whip (my personal favorite), Dream Dance By Betty, Betty’s Enchanting Dance, Return Of Teaser Girl, and Betty’s Exotic Dance In High Heels.

There is also a music video of Buzz Campbell’s “Bettie Page,” which features footage from the Irving Klaw films.

Bettie’s Funeral is three minutes of footage from Bettie Page’s funeral, including an interview with Hugh Hefner and bits of the speeches.

The bonus features also include a photo gallery of seventy-one photos of Bettie that were not used in the film, as well as the film’s trailer.

Bettie Page Reveals All was directed by Mark Mori. It is scheduled to be released on DVD on April 22, 2014 through Music Box Films.

DVD Review: The Curse Of The Gothic Symphony

I knew nothing about the Gothic Symphony before viewing this film. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of the composer, Havergal Brian. But the opening title card of The Curse Of The Gothic Symphony immediately set me at ease: “In 1919 obscure British composer Havergal Brian began to write the Gothic Symphony.” Yes, that word “obscure,” made me no longer feel bad about not knowing him. It continues: “Finished eight years later, it became the largest, longest and most complex symphony in history. Many great conductors tried to mount performances, but their attempts were thwarted. As a result the composer declared the work to be cursed.”

The Curse Of The Gothic Symphony tells the story of a group of enthusiasts, led by Gary Thorpe, who are determined to mount a production of the symphony in Brisbane, Australia. The Gothic Symphony hadn’t been performed in thirty years, and never previously outside of the United Kingdom. It had only been performed four times in the UK. Because of the inherent troubles in mounting a production, this symphony has been considered cursed. It’s interesting that the composer himself considered the piece to be cursed. Part of the problem is the large number of musicians and singers that it requires – approximately six hundred people (and that’s six hundred incredibly talented people, including a children’s choir). That means a large venue, and some serious coordination.

The film begins in 2007. Interestingly, the film’s producer, Veronica Fury, is also interviewed as a subject because she ends up becoming involved in helping the symphony happen through her involvement in the film itself. And that is just one of the many interesting stories that come as a result of this endeavor.  We meet several of the people involved in the project. It’s interesting that one of the people who is involved for a time, Michael Black (Chorus Master, Opera Australia), himself hadn’t heard of the symphony before. He says he is not concerned with the curse, but then due to mounting troubles and scheduling conflicts, he ends up being unable to stay with the project.

As 2007 becomes 2008 and then 2009, the group gets so close a few times, only to have something go wrong. You can’t help but get completely caught up in their endeavor, in their desire, in their drive. Basically you get caught up in the people themselves as well as their quest. And so even if you don’t care at all for classical music, this documentary should still have appeal.

The film also provides a bit of a background on composer Havergal Brian (1876-1972). There is some old footage of him, and there are also some dramatic re-enactments (which I could take or leave). Some of the information on Brian comes from an interview with Olga Pringle, daughter of the composer, and she is absolutely delightful.

Bonus Features

The DVD includes “About Havergal Brian,” a short, written biography of the composer. He composed thirty-two symphonies and several operas, most of which went unperformed in his lifetime. There is also a photo gallery, which plays without the viewer having to press the arrow button.

The Curse Of The Gothic Symphony was directed by Randall Wood, and is scheduled to be released on DVD on April 15, 2014 through First Run Features.

DVD Review: The Bunker

The Bunker is an odd war film which takes place in the Hobo Woods in Vietnam in 1965. It is about a man named Tiberius (who goes by Ranger), the leader of a Special Forces unit that occupies an underground bunker. Tiberius is obsessed with finding traitors, and he sees them everywhere.

When the film opens, U.S. soldiers are silently killing the sentries outside an enemy’s building. They make their way inside, and demand to know the name of an informant. The only information they’re able to get is that it’s a girl with a tattoo on her back. There is a U.S. prisoner in the building, and we expect that the team is there to rescue him, but instead they kill him after accusing him of being weak since he allowed himself to be captured. (The soldier doesn’t really put up much of an argument, so maybe he is weak.) They cut the prisoner’s finger off, then detonate the building.

Tiberius (Christopher Bihrle) is amassing a fairly good collection of fingers, it turns out, and fingerprinting them.

Some other U.S. soldiers are leading some Vietnamese prisoners through the woods. They find a Special Forces ring, which leads to this bit of dialogue: 

      “Special forces? What the fuck are they doing here?”

      “I bet it has something to do with that bunker right there.”

The soldiers split up, two of them taking the prisoners. Those two are then attacked by the Special Forces unit, who take their prisoners and their fingers. The prisoners make no sound and seem to have no reaction whatsoever to what transpired, and silently go with their new captors.

The rest of the team find their two dead men, and radio it in. They request permission to check out the bunker, but are denied. “There is no bunker, Sergeant, and no Special Forces ring.” So clearly something is up.

Another team of soldiers is sent in to find the missing Special Forces unit, and they’re attacked by that unit. Although at this point it’s really difficult to tell who is who. I mean, they’re all in U.S. army gear. When people show up, I’m not sure if we’ve seen them before, or who I should be rooting for. These are U.S. soldiers attacking U.S. soldiers. Anyway, one of them escapes and ends up in one of those tunnels, and there is a nice moment of him disarming a trip wire.

Private Peter Harwick (Shane Scaccia) is captured, and Tiberius tells him: “I’m a patriot out here in this jungle. In this bunker. There are no laws, no rules. Just survival. There are traitors around us, you see.” But if there are no laws, how can there be traitors? Clearly Tiberius is supposed to be patterned on Colonel Kurtz, Marlon Brando’s character in Apocalypse Now. But Kurtz was compelling, and there was a great build before we actually met him. Also, Tiberius has cancer, which he tells Harwick. So if it’s “Just survival,” as he said, well, Tiberius is losing. Regarding the finger-cutting and traitors, he tells Harwick that a person’s fingers let him know if he’s a traitor. “If your hands are soft and pink, you serve no purpose.” So no black traitors then, I suppose.

Well, Harwick’s fingers must be pink, for Tiberius decides to execute him. First he reads him the charges: “And you, Private Harwick, I charge you with finding us out here.” Yeah, the film is full of awful dialogue like that.

Private Schenke (Jess Weber) rescues Harwick,  as well as – for some reason – a female prisoner named Kim-Ly (Sandy Suy), who may or may not have a tattoo on her back. No one has bothered to check yet, which doesn’t seem believable. After all, the search for this informant is Tiberius’ driving force. As they escape through a tunnel, Schenke asks, “What the fuck is wrong with those Special Forces?”

The film boasts no good acting performances, but the worst is by Jess Weber as Schenke. He says every line like he’s a whiny frat boy who has been forced to do a scene in front of his class and aims to prove he’s still cool by deliberately not trying. For example, when he says, “Someone’s back there,” from his tone I can’t tell if he means someone friendly is back there or someone who is going to kill them. Is he frightened? Nervous? Excited? Worried? No idea. And when he says “Shh” to Kim-Ly, he says it louder than whatever noise she had been making. And this, sadly, is the film’s hero.

There is quite a lot of pointless stuff in this film. Tiberius talks to some prisoners somewhere for a while (he loves to talk), and then makes them fight each other. So we have a useless fight scene. It’s especially pointless, as we haven’t even been introduced to these characters before (well, as far as I can tell, that is). We don’t really care about anyone in this film. Tiberius just can’t stop talking. He talks to photos about the sacrifices he’s made. But what sacrifices? And what is his purpose?

The film’s music is also a problem. There is a fight scene where every moment of contact between the two men is punched up by a single note from the score. Each kick, each hit gets a little nod from the composer. Also, if one of them bangs against a wall, the note sounds. It’s relentless, and hilarious.

By the way, the woman playing Kim-Ly can’t act either, so she and Schenke are well matched. There is what would be an emotional moment between them near the end, if either actor had emotions. One good thing, however, is that when Kim-Ly fires a gun close to Schenke, he actually reacts, holding his ears, complaining about damage to his hearing (which you almost never see in a film).

The Bunker was directed by Joe Black (who was also the editor, a co-writer, a producer and in charge of casting – so yes, this is his responsibility). The DVD was released on April 1, 2014 through Inception Media Group. The DVD includes the film’s trailer (in which its narrator actually uses the phrase “heart of darkness”).

DVD Review: 95ers: Time Runners

I admit: I’m a sucker for films that play with time and reality. Maybe that’s because at times it seems our grasp on reality is tenuous at best. Perhaps it’s because those films explore those strange areas of possibility and probability where we can fix mistakes and have second chances. Or destroy humanity. It’s all rather appealing.

The newest time-bending film, 95ers: Time Runners, tells the story of Sally Biggs, an FBI agent who has the ability to travel backwards slightly in time, which enables her to correct mistakes and become an expert marksman and so on. It is an enjoyable, interesting and imaginative film, and features a decent performance by Alesandra Durham as Sally.

The opening scene has a dreamlike quality to it. A man has died, and his daughter looks out the window at snow falling. After a moment, the snow stops, freezes in place, and then begins to rise, as the young girl continues to look out. And then the opening title comes on. It’s a nice, simple, but intriguing opening, with no dialogue.

And then we’re in the future, where a battle is taking place. The Earth seems under siege. Meanwhile, a mission is being discussed, with a target in the date December 19, 2003. So then we go to that time and meet Horatio Biggs (Joel Bishop), a man who is keeping a diary and is a bit full of himself, though possibly with good reason. Congress, based partly on his recommendation, has set aside a lot of money for an important project. On this date, he falls in love with Sally, who is part of a Christmas carol group that he sees through the window of the café.

The film shows us the relationship growing between Horatio and Sally. There is some narration from Horatio, and it is a bit annoying, with lines like “I find it very charming that Sally has convinced herself that she’s in control of our relationship.” His narration tells us it’s now Christmas Eve, 2004, and he’s going to propose. The narration is odd, because we then go to the future and get the impression that those people have been watching everything we’ve been watching. So did they hear the narration as well? (The director answers my question in the commentary track: the narration is the future computer reading the diary into the navigator’s mind.) These people in the future are trying to get a lock, first on Horatio, then on Sally. We don’t yet know their intentions, but we know it has something to do with the ongoing war.

Throughout the film, we stick mostly with Sally, who in the present time is pregnant with Horatio’s son. She is obsessed with collecting information on strange phenomena, and notices that much of it occurred on March 17, the day Horatio died (though his body was never found). The present, as the past, is just before Christmas (and there is a rehearsal for A Christmas Carol, another story which of course takes place in three times).

The film slowly lets us in on Sally’s special ability. There is a scene of Sally at work, where she has three chances to guess a password. The first time we see this scene, she guesses it on the third try. We then later see that she guessed incorrectly, then moved back slightly in time until she got it right. And we learn that is how she has accomplished several remarkable things.

At one point, Sally is summoned to the office of a new boss at the bureau, Hamilcar Grandon (Terence Goodman), who begins asking her some unusual questions. The scene is at first shown from one side of the two characters, but when Sally goes back a moment and corrects something, we suddenly switch to the other side. It’s a nice way of showing the different timelines. Then when another change occurs, we go back to the other side. This is one of the few times a film can legitimately cross the line. This movie has a lot of nice touches like that.

Even more interesting is the scene where Sally actually expresses regret about having met Horatio and having gotten pregnant. Their relationship wasn’t as romantic and loving as we first saw. It’s interesting, because this scene is about her choices – and a movie about time travel is all about choices. Later Hamilcar says to her: “Life is about making choices. About making better and better choices.”

Sally begins seeing Horatio’s ghost, and almost interacting with this apparition. And she finds his diaries, which allow for more narration from Horatio. The diaries also shed a lot more light on the changing nature of their marriage, shedding light for both the audience and for Sally, which is interesting. “Could it be that I’m married to a living specimen of the things I’m theorizing about in my work?” Horatio asks in one diary.

I got completely caught up in this film, in both its plot and its characters. Are there some problems? Of course. Some things are brought up, but not explored, such as the call from Sally’s doctor that her baby might have cystic fibrosis. And there is the larger unanswered issue regarding what exactly the war in the future is about, and who precisely are the combatants. There are times when we lose sight of the whole relation to the war. And as the pace accelerates toward the end of the film, the actual logistics of the time travel seem a bit muddled and confusing. But by then we’re so caught up in what Sally is doing that it doesn’t seem that big an issue. Also, they’ve clearly left themselves open for a possible sequel.

Be sure and watch the end credit sequence, because there is a bit more of the movie there. The title, by the way, comes from the highway, I-95, which has some significance in the future world (as well as the present time).

Bonus Features

The DVD includes a commentary track by director Thomas Gomez Durham and star Alesandra Durham. Thomas says that the project started thirteen years ago when he and his brother James started creating the story. Because this project is so important to them, and because they put so much time and energy into it, Thomas and Alesandra speak with great affection and joy, and have lots of wonderful anecdotes to tell. For example, they couldn’t afford a stunt guy, so it’s the director that gets hit in the head with the guitar at the beginning. Alesandra was actually pregnant at the time of some of the shooting. This film was really a family affair, with various members of the Durham extended family making contributions. (And one of their kids interrupts the recording of the commentary track to ask for a password, which they give him. And then later two of the kids are invited in to talk briefly about the film. One of them says the film is confusing.) Both Thomas and Alesandra also clearly enjoy dropping hints regarding the larger story that has been created for this universe.

There are also five deleted and extended scenes, complete with introductions explaining how they fit into the story. One of these scenes takes place after Sally has seen the Horatio apparition on a ladder outside their home. The next morning, Horatio’s sister holds up a sweater that Sally had been knitting as a gift for Horatio, but hadn’t completed, and she realizes that the apparition she saw was wearing the completed sweater. In the introduction to the extended chess scene, Thomas Gomez Durham talks about how there are sequels and books planned. (By the way, Kennings, Horatio’s chess opponent, is supposed to be an incredibly intelligent man, but he misuses the word “comprise” – he says, “will be comprised of,” when he should have said “will be composed of.” It’s a common, but annoying mistake. And that bit is in the film, not just in the extended scene.)

The DVD also contains the film’s trailer.

95ers: Time Runners was written and directed by Thomas Gomez Durham, who also was a co-editor, producer, visual effects supervisor, lead digital effects artist, and compositor among other things. Alesandra Durham, who plays Sally, is the other co-editor, and also props assistant, set decorator and one of the wardrobe people. So clearly this film is a labor of love, which makes me appreciate it even more.  The DVD is scheduled to be released on April 15, 2014 through Inception Media Group.