Girls:
The Complete Fifth Season
(2016/HBO Blu-ray set)/Lazy
Eye (2015/Breaking Glass
DVD)/Petersen
(1974/Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVD)
Picture:
B/C+/C+ Sound: B/C+/C Extras: C/C+/C Main Programs:
C/C+/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Petersen
Import DVD is now only available from our friends Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on Blu-ray players that can
handle the PAL DVD format and can be ordered from the link below.
Sexuality
and nudity in film and now on TV can be a joke and just plain
pointless these days, but there are those releases that have it as
part of their narrative and these three new titles are on that short
list...
Girls:
The Complete Fifth Season
(2016) is
Lena Dunham's hit HBO series starting to show its age. Staying in
what has now become a formula approach, the show lost Adam Driver
much of last season due to major feature film commitments and now
that he is back, it is similar to the time Marla Gibbs left The
Jeffersons
for a failed spin-off TV show. A key character returns and the show
is still never the same again, with his character in a new subplot I
never bought, though even the regulars seem lost and you wonder where
new characters or character growth is.
It
is not that there are not some good moments or the actors are
suddenly bad, but they are doing things that seem contrived and to be
blunt, most people look bored this time out. Unless you are a big
fan, this is probably not the season for you.
Inside
The Episodes and Deleted & Extended Scenes are the only extras.
Tim
Kirkman's Lazy
Eye
(2015) is
a return of the repressed relationship melodrama where one man (Lucas
Near-Verbbrugghe) and an old lover (Aaron Costa Ganis) reacquaint for
more than just a sexual tryst. It is years later and they deal with
a past that is not awful, but reminds them how things did not work
out. What is different is that the makers are not concerned with
hardcore or even softcore sex as much as they are in showing extended
physical, though sexual, intimacy. This is rare in any film dealing
with sexuality, gay or not, so this reminded me of the 1974 classic A
Very Natural Thing
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) if not as good or bold.
However,
I also felt there were a few missed opportunities and the overall
film I uneven despite the ambition of how they interact. Interesting
and successful in that ambition for sure, it is only going to
interest a limited audience, but that one might not just be one of
gay males.
Extras
include a Director's feature length audio commentary track, Behind
The Scenes, Deleted Scene, Photo Gallery, Post-Screening Q&A and
A Closer Look at Lazy Eye featurette.
Finally
we have the Australian Ozploitation romp, Tim Burstall's Petersen
(1974) with a young (and soon to be iconic) Jack Thompson as a guy
who 'sleeps around' during the counterculture of the time and also
juggles what he'll do next and what his future will be. Oscar
nominee Jacki Weaver was a big deal sexually at the time and thus,
they have their scenes and moments, but the film also serves as a
time capsule of that period in that country.
There
is of course, similarities to films like it in the U.K. and U.S., yet
there is still something special and distinctive on how Australia
experienced these times and how their cinema like this resulted from
it. There is also a controversial scene that has brought up issues
of sexual assault (and rape), dealt with in the extras, but the film
offers much more. However, being the kind of film it is, the
storyline lags more than a few times. Still, this is worth a look
for what works and what be a minor classic of the genre.
A
Photo Gallery, Original Theatrical Trailer and 20-minutes interview
section with Alan Finney, David Williamson, Robin Copping, Wendy
Hughes, Jack Thompson & Jacki Weaver are the extras.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Girls
is easily the best image performer here as expected, but the
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Eye
(shot well enough in HD) and anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image
on Petersen
make fine showings here and Petersen
was shot very well on Eastman Color Kodak 35mm film stocks at the
time. This is a fine representation of how good the film looked and
that means a Blu-ray would obviously be more impressive.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Girls
is also the best release here sonically, well mixed and presented
down to new music and hit records, but the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo on Eye
is pretty good too, though the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on
Petersen
could sound a bit better.
To
order the
Petersen
Umbrella import DVD and other hard-to-get releases, go to this link
to order:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
