Jason Bailey
Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalogue titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This twice-monthly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.
PICK OF THE WEEK:
To Die For: It’s all but impossible to imagine, but once upon a time, people didn’t really take Nicole Kidman all that seriously; she was Tom Cruise’s wife first and an actor second, and her early starring vehicles (Far and Away, Billy Bathgate, My Life, Batman Forever) didn’t do much to dispute that. But this black comedy from director Gus Van Sant changed all that, casting Kidman as a seemingly chipper suburban wife and would-be TV journalist with ice water running through her veins. Buck Henry’s whip-smart script satirizes and analyzes the mid-‘90s media landscape with all the precision and subtlety that Natural Born Killers eschewed, while Van Sant showed, for the first time, that he could direct a mainstream-leaning movie with all the style and intelligence of his indies. It’s well cast from top to bottom (Matt Dillon is at his lunkheaded best as her ill-fated husband, while Joaquin Phoenix dazzles as the teen she seduces and destroys), but this is Kidman’s show, and she crushes it. (Includes audio commentary, deleted scenes, and trailer.)
ON HULU:
Anatomy of a Fall: The opening line of Justine Triet’s thorny crime drama (fresh from its Oscar win for best original screenplay) is “What do you want to know?” It’s a casual question, at the beginning of a semi-formal interview, but it becomes Triet’s key inquiry; it is asked by Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller, staggering), a novelist whose husband dies a few minutes into that grabber of an opening. He fell from a high window, so maybe he killed himself, or maybe he was pushed by his wife; Triet pointedly does not tell us, and Hüller’s performance is similarly enigmatic, creating quiet yet searing suspense throughout the investigation and trial that follows. Acting is tip-top across the board, not just from Hüller but from young Milo Machado Graner as her son, who has secrets and reserves of his own.
ON BLU-RAY / DVD / VOD:
The Iron Claw: It’s easy to see what drew director Sean Durkin, a lifelong wrestling fan, to the stranger-than-fiction tale of the Von Erich family, well-known and loved during that sport’s rise to cultural ubiquity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, who were beset by a series of tragedies, accidents, and suicides. There’s so much tragedy in their story, in fact, that it diffuses the dramatic tension; at a certain point, we’re just waiting for more bad things to happen to them. But there’s still much to recommend here: Durkin is a genuinely gifted filmmaker, and all of his performers get at least one moment to shine. (Includes featurette, Q&A, and trailer.)
Saint Omer: Alice Diop’s Venice Silver Lion winner begins as the story of Rama (Kayije Kagame), a researcher and teacher who is confident in the classroom and out of her element everywhere else. She travels to Saint-Omer to observe the trial of a woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old child, though Rama’s reason for attending is obscured, it eventually becomes too real, too personal, too unthinkable, reconnecting her with memories she locked away long ago, and the cycles of abuse, neglect, and regret that they seem to share. Saint Omer is well made and the performances are tip-top (Guslagie Malanga as the accused mother is incredible). But it goes at its themes both head-on directly and obliquely, which can be discombobulating; it packs an emotional punch, but it sure does take a roundabout route there. (Includes new and archival interviews.)
Lynch/Oz: This thoughtful essay doc on David Lynch’s career-long obsession with The Wizard of Oz is the latest from director Alexandre O. Philippe, who indulges in digressions and detours similar to his excellent Psycho examination 78/52. But he’s not repeating himself; rather than replicate the clips-and-talking-heads format of the earlier film, Philippe breaks Lynch/Oz into thematically organized chapters, each one narrated by a different expert (most of them fellow filmmakers, though ace film critic and historian Amy Nicholson kicks things off, and well.) The results are something closer to Room 237 – whose director, Rodney Ascher, is one of the participants – than a conventional documentary, and the film is better for it, tackling both Oz and the Lynch filmography from multiple angles, perspectives, and degrees of reverence. (Includes interview and trailer.)
ON 4K:
Phase IV: Saul Bass designed some of the most iconic posters and opening credit sequences in movie history—but he only got one shot at directing a feature film, so it’s a little surprising (and, frankly, kind of admirable) that he chose to make it so peculiar and alienating. This story of desert biological experiments is a strange goulash of heeby-jeeby insect scares, shock edits, body horror, Stonehenge allusions, trippy close-ups, and primitive computer fetishism, told in an unsettling style and an oddly mournful tone; it’s ultimately part of that old sci-fi tradition of man (and his technology) versus nature, but there’s nothing familiar or comforting in how Bass approaches his material, or his stubborn and sometimes inscrutable characters. A commercial failure upon release (unsurprisingly), it has since accumulated a small but loyal cult following; Vinegar Syndrome’s new 4K may bring you into the fold, particularly if you’re in the right (perhaps chemically altered) state of mind. (Includes audio commentary, alternate preview version, featurettes, deleted scenes, and trailer.)
North Dallas Forty: Ted Kotcheff’s football drama first finds star Nick Nolte zonked out with nose bloodied; when he comes to, he’s hung over, and moves in wincing pain from the hits he took at Sunday’s game. He’s good on the field, great even, but pushes back against the demands of his coaches and front office — “I’m gonna tell you something for your own good,” says his quarterback and buddy (Mac Davis, terrific), “you better learn to play the game, and I don’t just mean the game of football.” He does, shooting up and popping pills to ease the pain and get the job done, though the benefits are ultimately dubious. North Dallas is based on a novel by Peter Gent, who played for the Dallas Cowboys, and it plays like the roman à clef it most certainly was, awash in the dirty details the NFL would rather you didn’t know. The romantic subplot is a dud, but everything else works, and well — especially Nolte’s performance, loaded with his reliable mixture of gravel-voiced resignation and righteous indignation. (Includes audio commentary, introduction, interview, featurette, and trailer.)
Changing Lanes: Director Roger Michell was best known for light rom-coms like Notting Hill when he took on this brutal dramatic thriller in 2002. But it’s a mode he does well, burrowing into the psyches of two stubborn men (Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson, both in top form) whose unfortunate fender-bender sends both of their lives into a tailspin. Michell packs the supporting cast with MVPs (including Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Amanda Peet, and Sydney Pollack), and the fiercely intelligent screenplay by Michael Tolkin (The Player) and Chap Taylor sees their story through to its logical, and decidedly non-Hollywood, conclusion. (Includes audio commentary, featurettes, deleted/extended scenes, and trailer.)
The Manchurian Candidate: Jonathan Demme’s head-scratching decision to even choose to remake one of the best movies of the 1960s (especially after his failed remake of Charade two years earlier) clouded a fair amount of the judgment at the time of its 2004 release; yes, it’s an ill-advised film, but there’s much to admire about it anyway. At the top of its list of virtues is the tortured and terrific Denzel Washington performance at its center; he’s not trying to replicate or top Sinatra, both wise decisions. Liev Schreiber is also excellent as the pliable title character, and Meryl Streep fuses Angela Lansbury’s matriarch/villain with Hillary Clinton and comes up with a truly terrifying hybrid. (Includes audio commentary, featurettes, Schreiber screen test, deleted/extended scenes, outtakes, and trailer.)
ON BLU-RAY:
The Runner: Iranian director Amir Naderi’s lyrical drama (new to the Criterion Collection) has the feel of postwar Italian neorealism about it, that same sense of life on the fringes captured with a verisimilitude that borders on documentary. Madjid Niroumand is marvelous as the young orphan at the story’s center, passing his time in constant pursuit of a little pocket change, engaging in fierce competitions for recyclables, yelling at passing ships (“take me with you!”), and eventually attempting to attend school and learn to read. Naderi’s style is so episodic and observant that you may not realize it’s accumulating to anything — and then it does, with a borderline miraculous conclusion that pulls every thread into its proper place. (Includes interviews, Naderi short film, and trailer.)
Over the Edge: Jonathan Kaplan helms this tough, uncompromising snapshot of suburban youth in disarray, set in the pre-fab community of “New Granada,” where juvenile delinquency isn’t just harming youths — it’s starting to affect (gasp) property values. Kaplan’s training under Roger Corman means he knows how to mix social commentary and exploitation sensationalism, and while the subject matter threatens to divert the picture into AfterSchool Special territory, it’s done with enough honesty and authenticity that it makes its points and hits its beats. The youthful cast (including baby Matt Dillon, with an “introducing” credit and everything) is top-notch, the ending is a real barn- (well, school-) burner, and Shout Selects’ typically copious extras are excellent. (Includes audio commentaries, interviews, featurette, isolated music and effects track, full educational film excerpt, trailers, and TV spots.)
Brain Donors: Pat Proft, who collaborated with the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker boys on such modern classics as the Naked Gun and Hot Shot movies — as well as such lesser knock-offs as Police Academy, Wrongfully Accused, and Scary Movie 3 — penned this affectionate tribute to the classic comedies of the ‘30s and ‘40s (new on Blu from KL Studio Classics). His central trio is clearly modeled on the Marx Brothers (and future Sopranos co-star Nancy Marchand is doing an A+ Margaret Dumont), though there are dashes of W.C. Fields, Abbott & Costello, and the Three Stooges thrown in for good measure. The picture never really reaches those heights — what could? — but Proft’s script is fast and furious, Dennis Dugan’s direction is energetic, and where else are you going to see John Turturro doing Groucho Marx for 79 minutes? (Includes audio commentaries and trailer.)
Target: This is somehow the third Matt Dillon movie in this week’s round-up, which is mostly just a coincidence, but also speaks to the high quality of work this underrated actor has done throughout his career. Here, he plays the son of Gene Hackman, and the early scenes exploring their strained parent/child dynamic are among the best in the picture. Things soon kick into high gear, though, when Dillon’s mother is kidnapped during an overseas vacation, and he discovers that his milquetoast old man actually used to work for the CIA. Hackman is smashing, deftly conveying the duality of the character, and the beats mining a familial relationship are rich and satisfying. There are a few too many chases and shoot-outs (and director Arthur Penn’s heart clearly isn’t in them), but the sure-handed acting keeps Target moving at a nice clip. (Includes audio commentary and trailer.)
The Lincoln Conspiracy: It’s a name forgotten by all but the most diehard trash cinema enthusiasts, but Sunn Classic Pictures was a huge force in the otherwise-scant independent film landscape of the 1970s, producing and distributing G-rated family entertainment like The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams and dubiously-sourced documentaries like In Search of Noah’s Ark and The Bermuda Triangle, which they’d “four-wall” into theaters, targeting specific demos, and making a mint. This 1977 effort is something of a hybrid, mostly using dramatizations and re-enactments of its Lincoln assassination conspiracy theory. It’s something of a JFK for the Reconstruction era, though the production is rather rinky-dink, and most of the acting is either stiff or over the top, yet it’s a fascinating curio, and a reminder of the financial heft once acquired by this comparatively tiny organization. (Includes audio commentary.)
The Shootist: Director Don Siegel ingeniously opens this 1976 Western (new to Blu from Arrow Video) with clips from John Wayne’s old films as flashbacks for his character in this one, reminding us that there may be no actor more immediately and urgently identified with that genre. This was Wayne’s final film role, and he plays a gunslinger dying of cancer (which would take Wayne’s own life three years later), and it plays like a combination of eulogy and elegy, complete with appearances by old friends like James Stewart and Lauren Bacall. Siegel navigates the material gracefully, indulging in sentimentality without veering into the saccharine, and Wayne is doing some of his finest acting here, crafting a performance of genuine vulnerability and gravitas. “I’m a dying man, scared of the dark,” he notes late in the picture, and if you can hear that from an oak like the Duke without misting up, well, you’re made of stronger stuff than I. (Includes audio commentary, interview, new and archival featurettes, and trailer.)
