The Company You Keep (2013/Sony Blu-ray)/The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012/IFC Midnight/MPI DVD)/Living Downstream (2010)/Pink Ribbons, Inc. (2011/First Run
DVDs)/West Of Memphis (2012/Sony
Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
B/C+/C/C+/B- Sound:
B-/B-/C+/C+/B- Extras: B/B-/B/B/B Main Programs: B/B-/B/B/B
Now for
some new releases that deal with under-discussed social issues…
Robert
Redford is back directing, but also staring in The Company You Keep (2013), one of the year’s most underrated films
as a sudden arrest of a woman (Susan Sarandon) at a gas station turns out to be
federal authorities finding her for being a hidden member of The Weather
Underground. This gets some wheels
rolling including finding which member killed a police officer.
Redford is a single parent of a daughter (singer Jackie Evancho
in a surprisingly good acting turn) and a lawyer in a small town who knows more
about it all than he is saying. The
whole hidden network of former members is eventually alerted and contacted, so
what will they do? An aggressive
reporter (Shia LeBeouf back in good form again) is going to find out whether
they like it or not.
Besides
being a good (if not great) mystery thriller, Redford is continuing to try and
forge and reinforce his liberal discourse that goes back to his work in the
1970s (including the hijacked Brubaker,
reviewed elsewhere on this site) asking many important and pertinent questions
not being asked by any cinema much these days without being preachy, which even
I admit he has done in the past.
This also
is a film with one of the best casts of the year including Julie Christie, Sam
Elliott, Richard Jenkins, Brit Marling, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris
Cooper, Brendan Gleeson, Anna Kendrick and Terrence Howard, all giving fine
performances in well-developed roles.
Despite all it has going for it, the film will be purposely ignored
because more than a few people want it to go away and are even afraid of it.
Don’t let
that stop you from seeing it, though, as it is one of the smartest films of the
year too in what seems like an increasing wasteland of bad scripts, bad digital
shooting, bad CGI visual effects and purposeful stupidity. This is a film all can be proud of and what
it has to say will remain as relevant later as it is now. It is also some of Redford’s
best work of late.
Extras include
Ultraviolet Digital Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes-capable devices, Press
Conference featurette, On The Red Carpet
featurette and a Behind The Scenes featurette.
Chris
James Thompson’s The Jeffrey Dahmer
Files (2012) sounds like an idea that could go very badly, but it does
not. It is not as exploitive as The Secret Life: Jeffrey Dahmer or
outright bad like idiotic garbage like Dahmer
Vs. Gacy (both reviewed elsewhere on this site), the film mixes interesting
reenactments, actual archive footage and new interviews with real eyewitnesses
to the ugly, sad serial killer case to show us a new angle to the case, the
ugly fallout, how human nature did not help Dahmer get caught enough (and some
things so bad, you wonder where the lawsuits are) and adds up to a rare key
look at a dark chapter in American Crime that people are still talking about.
It also
reminds us how nothing has changed for the better in the ways these cases
become celebrated uglinesses and to think this was all before the Internet
glorified anger, hate and illiteracy. If
you can handle the graphicness of the case, this one is worth your time.
Extras
include Deleted Scenes, the Original Theatrical Trailer, Kickstarter Video and
Q&A At Hot Docs 2012 featurette.
Chanda
Chevannes’ Living Downstream (2010)
is an excellent adaptation and exploration of the book by Sandra Steingraber on
how consumer products, dirty factories, deadly deregulation and general neglect
are giving people record cases of cancer not just nationwide, but
worldwide. Steingraber reads from her
book, conducts many interviews, explains very clearly what is really going on
and gives us the facts and the hard truth on how it has all become a vicious
cycle that is helping no one except those making tons of money off of the
deaths of others.
The great
Rachel Carson (who wrote the classic book Silent
Spring that got the environmental movement started) is rightly referenced
many times, but Miss Steingraber is picking up the story in the post-Reagan
world where things have become much worse than when that classic book was
published so many decades ago. She shows
the many connections in each case discussed and along with her interview
subject, spell out the urgency of getting things reversed before cancer and
other health issues become even more epidemic.
This is a must-see documentary worth going out of your way for.
Extras include
five Mini Docs which ask additional questions and two feature length audio
commentary tracks on the making of the documentary.
That also
gave me an excuse to finally get you all caught up on the equally remarkable
Samantha King documentary Pink Ribbons,
Inc. (2011) about how you might think something is being done to stop
breast cancer just because you see products and fund raisers everywhere on the
subject, especially associated with the Susan Komen Foundation. Despite the good will of the women and other
people participating in what sounds like a good idea, this program rightly
argues that something not so good is going on behind the scenes.
Only 20%
of the funds being raised are making it to research on the disease and
environmental causes, so what about the other money? It argues the campaign uses the “naďve
optimism” of women to waste their energy on an empty promise so they will not
rise as a new retro-feminist force that would force the society to transform
for the better, even mocking said women.
With only 98 minutes of time, some of the darker aspects of this are
sadly only touched on, but it is all worth considering in a sense of true
mature, critical thinking.
It is
also argued that the cause has been rendered a moneymaker first instead of
being one to find a cure, plus that some of the participant companies are the
cause of the cancers and other illnesses
by the products they still knowingly produce despite what is going on. Interestingly, the piece argues this is not
any kind of conspiracy, but a snowballing of carelessness in a world where
women are still too often second-class citizens. Consider it another must-see documentary.
Extras
include DVD-ROM downloadable PDF material covering all aspects of potentially
contaminating materials in everyday products and more, plus an on camera
interview with Director Pool and Producer Din.
Last and
not least is Amy Berg’s West Of Memphis
(2012), a very important documentary about injustice in America and how bad one
case was that dragged on for decades because of the politics, laws, hatreds and
ignorance of one community who was tricked into believing three innocent men
had killed and even mutilated three under-aged young boys just because they
might be into things (Satanism, Rock Music, etc.) that the community might be
uncomfortable with.
As
covered in many new reports and no less than three HBO specials, Jason Baldwin,
Damien Echols and Jesse Misskelley were arrested, framed and initially
convicted of murder with death sentences for killing the three 8-year-olds
despite not doing it. As this always
intense (and worth your time) 147 minutes moves forward, we find out how people
were coerced and manipulated into saying things they knew was untrue (including
with threats attached) and other misconduct that should still call for some
kind of federal investigation simply because some police and lawmakers in
Tennessee did not want to do their jobs properly or truthfully.
It is an
ugly story and for this one we know, how many are still hidden? How many have DNA not resolved yet, if
ever? The makers ask these vital
questions all over again and we see the detective work finally done that should
have been done by those in power in the first place, giving us a much darker
answer than you might imagine. I will
not say anything else as not to ruin the story, but this is a great piece of investigative
journalism and an amazing work everyone need sot see as well.
Extras
include Deleted Scenes, Damien’s Past Recreations, Toronto International Film
Festival featurette and a feature length audio commentary track with Berg,
Echols and Davis.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Company was shot on 35mm film in the 3-perf Super 35mm format with
the latest Kodak Vision 3 negative stocks and it looks fine and refined
throughout, distinguishing itself from so many generic HD shoots that it starts
as a pure cinematic experience and stays that way visually throughout. Detail and depth are impressive, the use of
the scope frame better than most releases of late and anyone concerned about
grain is not watching the film like those who complained about black bars when
widescreen images came to the home video market not so long ago.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Dahmer,
Downstream & Ribbons and 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High
Definition image on Memphis all have
new interview footage, vintage analog video and (especially Dahmer) reenactment footage resulting
in similar editing approaches and needs, but Dahmer obviously suffers more being the only standard definition
presentation here. All look as good as
they could in their respective formats.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on both Company and Memphis are
towards the front speakers as Company
is dialogue-based and more towards the front than I would have liked and Memphis has a combination of new audio,
old analog (sometimes monophonic) audio and location recording to contend with,
so it is no surprise that they are equaled by the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix
on Dahmer that has the same audio
issues as Memphis. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on Ribbons and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo on Downstream are a little
rougher and patchy since so much audio is monophonic or simple stereo and done
under odd circumstances (some clips are rough copies) so they are not as
sonically competent, but just fine for documentaries in general.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
