Cluny
Brown (1946/Fox*)/The
Daytrippers (1996/*both
Criterion Blu-rays)/Good
Boys (2019/Universal
Blu-ray w/DVD)/Love, Gilda
(2018/Magnolia DVD)/Lucky
(2016/Umbrella Region 4 PAL Import DVD)/Sando
(2018/Acorn DVD)
Picture:
B/B/B & C/C+/C+/B Sound: C+/B-/B & C+/C+/C+/B Extras:
B-/B-/C/B-/D/C Main Programs: C+/B-/C/C+/B/B+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Lucky
Import DVD is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD
players that can handle the PAL format and can be ordered from the
link below.
The
following comedies have highs, lows, darkness and sadness, including
a documentary about one of the funniest women of all time...
Ernst
Lubitsch's Cluny
Brown
(1946) turned out to be the last film of the director's he got to
finish on his own and it is an amusing comedy about a suppressed
young woman (the underrated Jennifer Jones as the title character)
who can do all kinds of things, but her gender, family,
socio-economic class and men she meets keep holding her back. This
is handled with some irony and some good comedy, some of which is
slapstick.
Taking
place in England during WWII, Charles Boyer is a man with some
mystery about him as he has apparently fled Nazi persecution, or
something even more, A young Peter Lawford shows up as part of the
supporting cast along with C. Aubrey Smith, Helen Walker, Reginald
Owen, Richard Haydn, Florence Bates and Reginald Gardiner.
Though
often associated with Paramount and MGM, Lubitsch made this final
film for Fox and it has some funny moments and nice moments when the
cast clicks, which is often. I do wish it worked more often, but it
is good enough that everyone should see it at least once. Nice it
has been taken care of with this solid new Criterion edition.
Extras
include a high quality paper foldout with an essay by novelist and
essayist Siri Hustvedt, while the disc adds a new conversation
between film critics Molly Haskell and Farran Smith Nehme on
unconventional female characters in Ernst Lubitsch's films, new video
essay by film scholar Kristin Thompson, The
Lubitsch Touch,
an interview with film scholar Bernard Eisenschitz from 2004 and a
Lux
Radio Theatre
adaptation of the film from 1947, featuring Olivia de Havilland and
Charles Boyer.
Greg
Mottola's
The
Daytrippers
(1996) is the underrated filmmaker's first feature film, a comedy
(like his later Adventureland)
about how people interact for better, worse and in strangely comic
ways they might not even be totally aware of. Lucking out by having
a bunch of then-new actors soon to be stars and critically acclaimed,
Hope Davis and Stanley Tucci play a loving couple who seem very happy
together, sexually and otherwise, but after another great night
together, she discovers a piece of paper that suggests he might
actually be having an affair.
How
could this be? Was last night a big lie? If so, what is wrong with
him? Usually, that would mean she decides to try to find out on her
own, but her whole family and others connected to them and the result
is a daytime road trip to New York City to find out just what he is
really doing.
Anne
Meara and John McNamara are her parents, Parker Posey her cynical
sister and Liev Schreiber her boyfriend, so they join in the trip and
the madness begins. Campbell Scott and Marcia Gay Harden also show
up in pivotal roles delivering great work and the result is the kind
of fun, smart, risk taking piece of independent cinema we used to see
all the time, but has been crowded out of cineplexes in recent years
thanks to the current slate of overstuffed blockbusters (and not just
superhero films), reminding us strongly of what we miss when we do
not have this kind of vital cinema: we miss a better film future.
The
film has some ups and downs in quality, but it is often remarkable
under the circumstances, budget and that so much talent landed up
together so early on, though it would still hold its own if even
Meara was an unknown. Once again, its Criterion to the rescue of
another cinematic experience everyone should check out.
Extras
include a high quality paper foldout with an essay by critic Emily
Nussbaum, while the disc adds a new feature-length audio commentary
featuring Mottola, editor Anne McCabe, and producer Steven
Soderbergh, new interviews with Mottola and cast members Hope Davis,
Parker Posey, Liev Schreiber, and Campbell Scott and The
Hatbox,
a 1985 short film by Mottola, with audio commentary by the director.
Gene
Stupnitsky's
Good
Boys
(2019) is a new outrageous comedy co-produced by Seth Rogen and his
usual company of comedy-minded creators, but the team that gave us
Superbad
has created a formula film about three pre-teen males (Jacob
Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, Brady Noon) that has gross moments,
sexual 'jokes' that are supposed to shock and other moments that are
of the 'that's real wrong' variety, but now that we are in an era
that is that every day, this film seems trite on the one hand and
exploitive of the children involved on the other hand.
It
does not help that many of the adults are written as idiots and
worse, but to explain the many problems with this film would take an
essay with too many spoilers to go into, but even in this
R-rated-only version (I cannon imagine NC-17/unrated) here, anyone
could have made this film and only because this had name producers
did this ever get any kind of release. Yes, there are a few amusing
moments, but it is just lazy, flat, dull and mostly forgettable.
Still,
I had problems with the age of the children being in the midst of
this kind of comedy. If the film did not go too far, it went too low
for our own good. Don't expect much.
Extras
(per the press release) include an UNRATED ALTERNATE ENDING
UNRATED
DELETED AND EXTENDED SCENES
Turtle
vs. Tortoise
Benji
Don't Like That
Customer
Service
Ball
Pit Shenanigans
Tracking
Molly
Stealing
a Glance
Upsell
Fail
Max
Explodes
Best
Friends
Traffic
Jam
First
Kiss Heartbreak
GAG
REEL
BOYS
FOR REAL - A look into the casting process and real-life friendships
that evolved on-set.
WELCOME
TO VANCOUVER - Watch as Jacob Tremblay shows off some of his
favorite things about his home town.
A
FINE LINE - Hear filmmakers and cast discuss how the film's stars
delivered such colorful dialogue without necessarily knowing what
the words mean.
ASK
YOUR PARENTS - Cast and filmmakers talk about how they were able to
navigate adult questions from curious child actors.
BAD
GIRLS - Molly Gordon and Midori Francis discuss how they were able
to ramp up the mean, and how Annabelle was able to raise the comedy
stakes.
GUEST
STARS - Take a closer look at some of the hilarious guest stars that
lent their unique talents to the film.
and
a FEATURE-LENGTH AUDIO COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR & CO-WRITER GENE
STUPNITSKY AND PRODUCER & CO-WRITER LEE EISENBERG.
Lisa
D'Apolito's
Love,
Gilda
(2018) is an excellent look at one of the greatest comedy talents of
the 20th
Century, the late, great Gilda Radner. Best known for being in the
first season of NBC's
Saturday Night,
now still on the air as Saturday
Night Live,
she was actually the first to audition, coming off of work with
Second City (who eventually got their own TV show) and National
Lampoon live comedy team (who turned down doing the show that became
SNL!),
so she was as ready as anyone in the cast to take on comedy.
Especially after 11:30PM EST, where they could get away with a little
more adult content than what prime time hours allowed at the time.
However,
we get an entire biography starting with her childhood, its ups and
downs, then her personal problems and loves as she finally becomes a
comic. Turns out her move to Canada gets her into a group of talents
who proved highly prolific as they take on the musical Godspell
opening in that country for the first time and its a stunning
Cinderella story to a great extent for Radner in the beginning.
After
making SNL
a classic, she is established as hilarious, though she is having
unidentified problems that turn out to be depression tied with weight
gain, weight loss and self-image issues at a time when no one quite
knew what they were about. It also deals with her taking a break
form the business, getting involved again, how she found the love of
her life with the great Gene Wilder and then, getting cancer. She
fights back as best she can, but the treatments then are not as good
as now and it is still
a problem (one that should have been solved by now) and we see how
she deals with it all.
Turns
out not only are there are good number of home movies and pictures to
go with her public performance work, but she audiotaped extensively
her thoughts about her life and those tapes survived, so we get to
hear her have the final word on just about everything and it is a
revelation. It also shows who we lost, what we lost and why she
should never be forgotten. If you've seen how funny she is, you
don't forget.
Interviews
include family, friends, archival interviews, later SNL cast members,
members of SNL she worked with including Larraine Newman, Martin
Short and Paul Schaffer, now best known for heading the band for all
of David Letterman's TV shows. He offers particularly excellent
insight.
Anyone
serious about comedy, the entertainment industry or history needs to
make this one a must-see.
Extras
include extended interviews, home movies, original theatrical
trailers and Gilda's Gallery.
John
Carroll Lynch's Lucky
(2016) is essentially a lead showcase for one of the greatest
character actors of all time, Harry Dean Stanton. He plays the
90-year-old title character, a 90-year-old atheist whose name has
some irony to it, but has had it his way to find himself, the world
and what he wanted for the most part, save serious wealth.
Happiness? Sometimes.
The
script is good and has the characters discuss many matters without it
ever getting preachy or silly, thanks in part to a supporting cast
that includes Beth Grant, Tom Skerritt (his co-star from Alien),
Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr., James Darren and David Lynch in a rare
acting role where he gets more than a few scenes.
Apparently
getting a better release overseas, I'll hypothesize it was somewhat
censored and banned in the United States not because of its quality
or anything shocking, but because the lead is an atheist and there
has been a war on such people since around... 1980. That's a shame
because there is a larger audience for this film everywhere, even if
I thought it was uneven. It is ambitious, adult and an all too rare
look at aging and mortality to boot, so if you are interested,m
you'll want to go out of your way for it.
There
are no extras.
Finally,
we have the TV comedy Sando
(2018)
with Sacha Horler as Victoria 'Sando' Sandringham, the queen of
discount furniture, but on her daughter's wedding day, just before
she got married, Sando and the rest of the family finds out she is
pregnant ...with her daughter's groom. Ten years later and being
kicked out of Sando's Warehouse Inc. Sando is forced to move back
with the rest of her family. Only problem is everyone hates her
...but Sando is the Queen the Deals.
Sando
is a selfish, get rich quick, grandmother who would sell her own
daughter off if she thought she could get laid (which she did). Both
her daughter and son have major mommy issues, Susie hates her mother
for manipulating her and the entire family for their entire life.
Eric has an Oedipus and inferiority complex with his mother. Her
ex-husband Don is secretly sleeping with Nicky, Susie's
live-in-therapist/best friend. And her current husband Gary is
secretly addicted to skinny dipping in the backyard pool whenever he
is stressed. As Sando fixes and worms her way back into her company
(and her family), the very thing that drives them crazy may be also
be the thing that can save the family.
This
series is comedy with a matriarch character who is able to
manipulate, blackmail and sell anything with a wink, smile and deal.
She is hated by her whole family, but she manages to somehow always
blackmail her way back into the family. Extras include cast
interviews, Sando Warehouse commercial, 'Real Deal' music video and
trailers
Episodes
include...
Prodigal
Mum -
An affair and 10 years later, Sando returns to her family while her
own company thrown her out.
Sorry
- Sando tries to convince her daughter to let her stay and tries to
cut a 'deal' saying she ready to be a 'good' mother with a fake
apology.
New
Mum -
Sando discovers Don and Nicky are nymphomaniacs and Gary's addiction
to skinny dipping and then blackmails them to help her stay. Eric
tries to work in the family business but instead causes disaster.
Therapy
- Sando is hypnotized to be completely kind, generous and unselfish
which freaks the entire family out and they eventually decide
(grudgingly) they prefer the old Sando back.
Lockdown
- Don tries to follow his dreams and write songs instead of jingles.
Gary discovers a scary picture of Susie when she was young.
Family
Business
- Sando must make a 'family' commercial to try and convince the board
to let her back in the family business.
Now
for playback performance.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Cluny
Brown
can show the age of the materials used which is a 4K scan from a
composite 35mm fine grain archival print, but it is certain superior
a transfer to all previous releases of the film and looks good
throughout despite not always being perfect.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Daytrippers
was shot on Kodak film negative in the Super 16mm format and though
you can see some grain here and there, this looks good and is well
shot, also from a 4K scan, this time from the original camera
negative.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Good Boys
is a HD shoot that looks good for what it is, but nothing special, so
the anamorphically enhanced DVD included is the softest presentation
on the list and hard to watch. Stick with the Blu-ray.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Love,
Gilda
is as good as can be expected for the format (this deserves a Blu-ray
release) and includes home movies shot both on photochemical film
(some of which only survive on VHS copies) and actual VHS tapings.
Add professional video from her TV work and other archival footage
and you get a mix of formats throughout. Analog videotape flaws
including video noise, video banding, telecine flicker, tape
scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage. The newly HD
shot interviews are fine, but the 35mm film footage of her along with
still pictures are the best of her on camera here.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Lucky
is well shot and an HD shoot, but nothing to extraordinary, though it
keeps its rugged look intact throughout.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Sando
is as good looking as any of the DVDs here and is a nice, newly shot
HD production with consistent color. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo is solid as well.
Sound
for the rest of the titles are good, starting with the DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Boys,
mostly dialogue and joke based, but the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on
the DVD is a bit harder to follow in spots.
The
PCM 2.0 Mono on Cluny
Brown
shows its age, but sounds as warm and clear here as we are likely to
ever hear it, while the PCM 2.0 Stereo on Daytrippers
has some minor location audio issues and shows its budget limits
being an analog recording (unless this is early digital), being
slightly on the weak side. Still, it is as good as almost anything
here.
That
leaves the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Gilda
and Lucky
about even, the former a mix of old mono, new mono and new stereo
recordings with music added, while the latter is dialogue-based and
takes its time.
To
order the
Sando
Umbrella import DVD, go to this link for it and other hard to find
releases at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo and Ricky Chiang (Sando)
