Enongo
(2025/IndiePix Blu-ray)/Fiume
O Morte! (2025/Icarus
DVD)/Oil Capital
Underground
(2017/VCI*)/Twiggy: The
Woman Behind The Icon
(2025/Cleopatra/*both MVD DVD)
Picture:
B-/C/C/C Sound: B-/C+/C/C Extras: B-/D/C+/C+ Films:
C+/B-/B-/B+
Next
up are the latest documentary offerings...
Kevin
Schrech's Enongo (2025) asks about its title subject, how
should she identify (not market) herself considering she has several
talents (a nerd, rapper, PhD candidate, woman of color with very
developed tastes, ideas, etc.) that actually faces plenty of people
in media, social media and on line these days. Showing we still have
too much oversimplification in our media (and A.I. will make it
worse) we get a packed 91 minutes getting to know her in all aspects.
It
has its moments and has its thorough points, but more repetition than
usual in approach and certain locations and shots hold this back from
really being effective in total. It is pretty uncensored and honest,
not always raw to a fault and lands up making the viewer think about
themselves in the media of now and the future. Worth a look for
those interested, but I wish it has more variances in its approach.
Extras
include a full-length audio commentary track by director Kevin
Schreck, composer EmmoLei Sankofa, and animators Leah Coleman, Ruby
Miles and Ariel Paxton
Q&A
at the Hip Hop Film Festival with subject Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo,
director Kevin Schreck, and animators Shammah McVay & Anaiyah
Tatiana
Original
Theatrical Trailer
Animation-themed
Q&A at the Philadelphia Film Festival with director Kevin
Schreck and animator Anaiyah Tatiana
Music-themed
Q&A at the Denton Black Film Festival with director Kevin
Schreck and composer EmmoLei Sankofa
and
Storyboard to Final Animation comparisons
Igor
Bezinovic's
Fiume
O Morte!
(2025) is a smart, humorous look at how Italian Poet Gabriele
D'Annunzio got a group of oddballs to invade the town of Fiume (now
Croatia!) in September 1919 to create the town of the future based on
his ideas and ideology. Was he a futurist, fascist pig, both and/or
something else? Running almost two hours, Director Bezinovic takes
plenty of classic film footage, stills and even paintings and have
people who look like the people in the footage (and/or dress them up
that way) to recreate, imitate and create an ironic contrast to the
original images if the people of Rijeka.
That
includes what was once Fiume, but what results is a humorous and
darkly humorous spoof of anything fascist as the people doing the
recreations have no idea what the original images they are recreating
offers at their worst. Then when they are not acting fascist or
angry to boot, having little to no idea of said past, they can only
laugh, smile and be a little puzzled as to what they are really
doing. The result is that no matter what D'Annunzio intended over a
century ago, the fascist side is long gone and dead, giving the title
of this release a fine irony. Definitely recommended to those
interested.
Extras
include three Original Theatrical Trailers for other Icarus releases.
Bryan
Crain's Oil Capital Underground (2017) is a pretty through
piece on the rise of Punk Rock in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city with more
name music stars from other genres than you would think. Some
familiar names are joined by many only serious (note I did not say
hardcore, skipping the obvious pun) punk music genre fans would know.
At just over two hours long, with some great stills, old video and
film footage and recent interviews, it starts in the late 1970s and
goes all the way to the mid-1990s when Post Punk happened.
We
have had several such music documentaries over the years and this one
is as good and interesting as its many counterparts, you also get to
learn more about the music and the city it came from here, to the
point that you might even want to look up and listen to some of the
songs more thoroughly. If this is not your music, the look at the
industry itself and the famous city are still worth a look because it
shows a side you will rarely see. Definitely recommended to those
who are interested in any aspect of the content.
There
are sadly no extras, but an update would have been nice.
Sadie
Frost's Twiggy: The Woman Behind The Icon (2025) is an
outstanding new documentary based on the book by the legendary
international 1960s modeling icon who continued to be very successful
and popular in the entertainment and media industry long after she
might not have been, extensively, thoroughly and remarkable narrated
by the star herself.
Starting
with her birth and childhood in the U.K., she slowly lands up with a
simple modeling job and before she knows it, the photos get picked up
and suddenly, she becomes a sensation that rips through the modeling
and publishing world! The she becomes THE international fashion icon
for the late 1960s and counterculture and the rest is history. She
left modeling for an attempt at a music career and she can sing, but
it was feature films where she found her next home. The key turns
included The
Boy Friend,
The
Blues Brothers,
The
Doctor & The Devils,
Club
Paradise
and the highly underrated Madame
Sousatzka
with Shirley MacLaine, plus some impressive TV and even music video
credits.
However,
the documentary can only give so much time to that, so more than a
few films, et al, had to be skipped as the focus is her personal life
more thoroughly than expected and in a most welcome way. Based on
the book of the same name, where more detail may be there on her on
screen career, we also get some great interview moments with longtime
friends that include Paul McCartney, Stella McCartney, Brooke
Shields, Dustin Hoffman, Tommy Tune, Lulu, Pattie Boyd, Sienna Miller
and a particularly blunt, always great Joanna Lumley, who was also
model at the same time Twiggy was and tells how things changed for
the better when Twiggy broke through. Now they are both former
models of note known for their acting talents and range.
The
result is one of the best documentary autobiographies I have seen in
a while that happens to also give us a rare glimpse into several
parts of the entertainment industry over several continents and
Twiggy leads the way of showing and telling it like it was and is. I
strongly recommend this one!
Extras
includes
bonus footage, an exclusive slide show, optional intro to the
documentary, three interview bits (all by Frost and Twiggy) and an
Original Theatrical Trailer.
Now
for playback performance.
All four releases have footage that is rough, whether is is low
definition, has digititis no matter how it was shot or is down a
generation, depending. The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfer on Enongo
is the best presentation here, but can still show
the age of the materials used. However, some of the new footage can
be a little off, though the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes are not
bad, if not always consistent.
As
for the three anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the three
different DVDs, Twiggy
has some great footage (especially the older black and white film)
and the rest is either a mix of rougher and new footage (Oil)
or old and new footage trying to imitate older footage and stills
(Fiume,)
but the old DVD format holds back the better aspects of all three
releases, which would all fare better on at least Blu-ray. All three
also offer lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mixes, though Fiume
sounds a little better, something I expected from Twiggy
if any one was going to sound better. They all deserve the lossless
treatment and maybe Twiggy
could have a 5.1 boost then?
-
Nicholas Sheffo
