American
Bomber (2013/Indiepix
DVD)/Inch'Allah
(2012/E1 DVD)/Jayne
Mansfield's Car
(2012/Anchor Bay Blu-ray)/Samson
& Delilah
(2009)/Women Without Men
(2010/Indiepix DVDs)
Picture:
C+/C+/B/C/C Sound: C+ (Jane:
B-) Extras: B-/C/C-/C/B- Films: B-/B/B-/C+/B-
It
is awards season and this extends to some of the more challenging
films of recent make arriving on home video as these releases will
attest.
Eric
Trencamp's American Bomber
(2013) not only at first sounds like the same title we have seen
issued dozens of times since 9/11, but as an HD shoot like most
pre-HD digital slop jobs we have seen over the last 20, but we get
something much more interesting in one of the best surprises of the
year. Thanks to a good script, a brisk tempo that is not too fast,
the right tone and energy, this story of how a young U.S.-born male
who was a solider for the same country would decide to do any kind of
bombing is not done in the usual dumb, corny, flat, stupid,
unconvincing they-suddenly-decided-to-do-it way that can only tell us
to watch out because we will die and it will be unfortunate for our
society and world.
Instead,
the believability is matched by more than some phony psychological or
empty reason as it suggests he even knows this will be useless, but
does it anyhow. He still does it! That comes with palpable
circumstances that take the story in a new direction and that is why
I was so surprised it managed to shed all the phoniness of its
predecessors. It is definitely worth a look, especially for those
who would like to see how to use HD properly instead of generically.
Extras
include the short film that inspired the feature, a feature length
audio commentary track by the actors, Director of Photography and
Director, Outtake Reel, Original Theatrical Trailer and Q&A with
the Director and terrorism expert Dr. Michael Kaune.
Anais
Barbeau-Lavalette's Inch'Allah
(2012) remarkably addresses some of the same issues as a Chloe
(Evetne Brochu), a Canadian doctor working to help people in the
middle of madness in the West Bank in ways that challenges her
professionalism and when she gets involved in a few relationships
that compromise her for some personally (even when it is not their
business), things get worse. Then she decides for all kinds of
reasons to get involved with what she thinks will be n act of terror
that will somehow help the situation, but the twisted result is so
profound that the film manages to say something very important about
these occurrences that propel this picture into a higher level of
filmmaking (including what it has to say about women and Islam) than
anyone could have expected. It is also well cast, acted, made and is
the best entry on this impressive list.
Extras
include a brief short by Kevin Papatie entitled Nous
Sommes and Deleted
Scenes.
Billy
Bob Thornton is back directing and taking a smaller role in Jayne
Mansfield's Car (2012),
which is a fascinating combination of autobiography looking at his
past family life, offering the conflict of the Vietnam fiasco
protested and debated at home (in 1969 Alabama) and also a constant
theme of dark Americana as his father (played here perfectly by the
great Robert Duvall) investigates car accidents while deeply
fascinated by them as an expert. This leads to the title of the film
in a creepy scene where everyone can pay top see the actual car the
actress and sexual bombshell Jayne Mansfield was killed in.
Though
her involvement with Satanism is never stated, it is easy to read
into things, then the father investigator talks about the even with
amazing detail and intimacy. Add the other car accidents,
fascination with death, obliviousness to it via Vietnam (the pro
military friends and family extend to British in-laws in a great
twist) and you have a pretty ambitious film that works more than not.
It has its down moments, but also inadvertently becomes a sister
film to David Cronenberg's film of Crash,
so you should have an idea of where this is going.
Then
there is the great cast including Duvall, Thornton, John Hurt, Kevin
Bacon, Robert Patrick, Ray Stevenson, Frances O'Connor, Shawnee
Smith, Tippi Hendren, Irma P. Hall and a surprise performance by
stand up comedian Ron White that makes this another underrated film
worth going out of your way for.
The
only extra is a Behind The Scenes
featurette.
Not
to be confused with the Biblical tale, Warwick Thornton's Samson
& Delilah (2009) is
an Aboriginal love story of sorts taking place in the middle of a
rough, poor section of Central Australia. Playing as a modern turn
on Walkabout
on some level the way the reggae film Rockers
plays to The Harder They
Come (modern versus
classic contemporary), the film has its moments and leads are not
bad, nor is the rest of the cast. Passages without dialogue are a
plus too, but in the end, the 100 minutes should have had a little
more impact. However, it is an interesting, ambitious film that
tries to take us somewhere we have never or rarely been before,
though the pain of poverty is as universal as ever.
Extras
include Cast/Crew Interviews, Behind The Scenes, Original Theatrical
Trailer and short film The
Things They Said by
Survival.
Finally,
we have Shirin Neshat's Women
Without Men (2010), the
first feature film of the visual arts, photographer & short film
director who has decided to take on women in Iran in this tale of
several women dealing with elitism, sexism, Islam and the CIA-backed
1953 takeover of the country. It is a bold, nuanced, darkly
beautiful and thought-provoking 95 minutes that has much to say about
the country, it's troubled history and how women have always been
mistreated and marginalized. The script ultimately implies that all
the changes never helped women and that is why ultimately, the 1979
Islamic Revolution (with its overt hatred of women and ability to con
and/or push other women to go along whether they like it or not) is
loud and clear in the conclusion implied.
We
have sadly seen some of the ugly situations here before, but they
need to be reiterated to make the points necessary for the film to
work. A remarkable debut film, it too is worth going out of your way
for.
Extras
include a booklet inside the paperboard slipcase packaging with
DigiPak holder for the DVD including informative text, Director
Interview, Director Statement, Director Biography & Political &
Historical Background, while the DVD adds two slideshows, brief reel
of the Director's previous work, Behind The Scenes featurette,
Walker Art Center Q&A and Original Theatrical Trailer.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Jayne is
easily the visual champ here, shot in the 3-perf Super 35mm film
format by Director of Photography Barry Markowitz, A.S.C., who shot
Thornton’s previous films. Though it is a 500-speed Vision 3 Kodak
film used, they manage to pull off a decent period look.
Of
the DVDs, the anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Inch'Allah
uses the same exact film stock as Jayne,
but in 2-perf Super 35mm format known as Techniscope, but takes place
in current times and is not as stylized. It is just a little softer
than I would have liked, it, but would very likely look better on a
Blu-ray. The HD shot Bomber
offers an anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image that is also soft
and by its faux documentary nature a bit blurred at times, but it
looks better than mot such productions since it does not add fake
image manipulations that become a spoof of themselves.
The
softest two entries are the anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on
Samson, which is shot on 35mm film also using that same Kodak
Vision 3 500 film as the other two films above, but they have also
added Vision 2 50D stocks. Unfortunately, the transfer here can
make it look more like a refined HD shoot than it should. Women
is also a 35mm film shoot and it looks like it, but it is still
softer than I would have liked, but both films also deserve Blu-ray
editions which would bring out much more of the intended look. The
look of all five entries here are effective and professional, which
is increasingly rare these days.
As
for sound, Jayne
wins out again with a dialogue-based lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1
presentation that has its share of warmth and is towards the front
channels, but works just fine. Of the DVDs, Inch'Allah is the only
one to offer a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, but it too is
dialogue-based and towards the front channels, so the lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo on the rest of the DVDs can more than compete and
sound good for the format. All four deserve lossless presentation
and may get them down the line.
-
Nicholas Sheffo