Preston Barta // Features Editor
To describe most of these films would seem like they came from the deepest, darkest corners of the human mind. Yet, many of them are based on or rooted in truth or get the blood pumping and send your imagination running with some wild thoughts. That’s quality cinema for you, and there are plenty of good recently-released offerings to absorb on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD discs.
Let’s break them down in some bite-sized reviews, from what’s most worth purchasing to what’s better to rent or leave alone.
WOMEN TALKING
Rated PG-13, 104 min.
Director: Sarah Polley
Cast: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, Ben Whishaw, August Winter, Liv McNeil, Shayla Brown and Frances McDormand
Available today
With an exemplary cast, this exhilarating adaptation of Miriam Toews’ novel tells a 12 Angry Men-like verbal battle and quest for truth and justice. Set largely within a single location, we watch as eight trauma survivors gather in a hayloft to think, plan and, yes, talk about the abuses they’ve suffered in their remote Mennonite community and the uncertainty that awaits following their decision to stay, fight or leave.
Skillfully constructed with compelling poetry and massive heart by director Sarah Polley (who recently and deservedly earned an Academy Award for her script here), Women Talking is a magnificent display of the weight and power of words. These exchanges are so well drawn and moving that the viewer’s mind can see beyond the narrative borders.
It leaves the action and violence to the imagination, allowing the tension and emotions to hit with thunderous impact through the use of dialogue and body language. You can feel the history of pain and love through the characters’ honest voices and small gestures. Whether it’s washing each other’s feet without haste or how the women speak about children and the ideas that are filled in their heads, there’s much to soak up and sift through.
While, unfortunately, the Blu-ray-DVD combo release is as plain as disc releases come, with no added features, this truly is a beautiful adaptation that demonstrates the effectiveness of simplicity. Give it your time, and the emotional and mental currency it supplies will bring much value to your life.
Movie Grade: A+ / Disc Grade: B-
BABYLON
Rated R, 188 min.
Director: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, Lukas Haas, Eric Roberts, Patrick Fugit, Kaia Gerber, Flea, Olivia Wilde, Spike Jonze and Tobey Maguire
Available today
Watching Damien Chazelle’s Babylon may be as close as we’ll get to seeing a blown-out version of the “tunnel of terror” sequence in 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Instead of face-crawling bugs and decapitated chickens flashing on the screen, you’ll witness a rat-eating muscle man, Eyes Wide Shut parties, and enough early Hollywood chaos to choke on. It’s a spectacular (and hilarious) trainwreck you can’t turn away from.
Set during the transitional period of silent filmmaking to talkies, Chazelle’s unhinged B-side to his Oscar-winning La La Land traces the rise and fall of a slew of characters (a dynamite Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Diego Dalva, to name a few) with outsized ambitions and wild lifestyles. And I mean wild! The first few minutes of Babylon will make you question if this film was truly directed by the same storyteller who captured Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone dancing around a “city of stars.”
Rather than dig back into the days of dreamers and tremendous stardom, Chazelle takes us through the backdoor, Goodfellas style, to shine a spotlight on its depravity. So much blood, sweat and tears went into shaping cinema’s tallest artistic mountains, and here we are examining the contents that history swept under the rug.
If you look beyond the surface shocks, disturbances and crazy antics (just wait for Tobey Maguire’s unforgettable part) – you’ll uncover some Kubrickian-level genius. While the sight of snake fights and car crashes may hold a road flare up to your attention, your brain and heart will plug into the tangents between the notes where you get thoughtful and chewy dialogue, like: “While your time may be done, you’ll spend an eternity with angels and ghosts.”
With a sharp 4K image (to capture every disgusting moment) and a stunningly illustrated steelbook packaging (complete with over 40 minutes of special features), brace yourselves for a thoroughly compelling extravaganza of human wickedness. Chazelle’s work will cause you to rethink the way you approach and take in art. It’s one of the last year’s very best films, and it deserves the space on your shelf.
Movie Grade: A / Disc Grade: A
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS
Rated R, 147 min.
Director: Ruben Östlund
Cast: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Vicki Berlin, Dolly De Leon, Alicia Eriksson, Zlatko Buric, Sunnyi Melles, Amanda Walker, Oliver Ford Davies, Henrik Dorsin, Arvin Kananian and Woody Harrelson
Available 4/25
To watch a Ruben Östlund film is to sit uncomfortably for two-plus hours. I don’t mean that as an insult to the filmmaker either. He knows it and thrives making narratives about all the things that bring us tremendous anxiety and make us feel disgusting as people. 2014’s Force Majeure made us live with one father/husband’s feelings as he makes a selfish decision, and 2017’s The Square (my personal favorite) is a cinematic collection of human errors and consequences. Östlund’s latest, Triangle of Sadness, is another exploration of awkwardness and terrible people making stupid/human decisions. It kicks up the wild meter and delivers a more narratively scattered work. Still, it hangs in the mind and is intelligent filmmaking.
Through its centering on a luxury cruise for the absurdly rich, a rundown of your reactions to the material might be as follows: 1) “Oh, wow. This analysis of social classes is really interesting and quite funny.” 2) “Now, this is like watching that one episode of The Office when Michael forgets he promised students he would pay for the college when they graduate.” 3) “I am never going on a cruise ever again because I am quite certain this is exactly how it would go down.” 4) “Oh, my God! This is like Lord of the Flies, and it’s awful. But I can’t turn away. I have to see where this goes!” 5) “Well, after 147 minutes, I’m not sure what to think. It was super compelling despite being a difficult watch. But something tells me thinking about this film will end up being more unique than my actual viewing experience.” 6) [Cut to a few days later] “Yeah, I can’t stop thinking about it. I still don’t think its execution is as great as its ideas, but what a whirlwind!”
Triangle of Sadness managed to stay in people’s minds enough to earn itself a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars and a place in the Criterion Collection. Considering it’s such a thinking person’s film, I am not surprised one bit. I could even see my rating going up over time as it continues to warp my brain.
But from where I stand now, it’s an incredible feat and one magnificently presented and packaged Criterion 4K UHD/Blu-ray release. The cover illustration of the golden hand grenade with a sparkly liquid raining down around it (see the movie to know what kind of liquid it is) is so humorously and impactfully done. It’s another perfect exercise in simplicity – and the bonus material, while not stacked and without a much-wanted audio commentary, adds some fascinating touches of paint.
The extras include a short-but-neat interview with Östlund (moderated by filmmaker/actor Johan Jonason); two featurettes (an eye-opening special about the brilliant use of FX that we wouldn’t have otherwise detected and one hilarious mini-doc about a producer stepping up to be an extra and taking human excrement to the face in a stairwell); deleted scenes; a trailer; and one darn-good essay by film critic A.S. Hamrah, included in the booklet within the hard plastic case.
Movie Grade: B+ / Disc Grade: B+
SECRET ADMIRER
Rated R, 90 min.
Director: David Greenwalt
Cast: C. Thomas Howell, Lori Loughlin, Kelly Preston, Dee Wallace, Fred Ward, Leigh Taylor-Young, Cliff De Young, Casey Siemaszko, Geoffrey Blake, Rodney Pearson, J.J. Cohen and Corey Haim
Available today
This 1985 comedy of errors is a total surprise and undervalued movie. It doesn’t capitalize on its full potential, but it’s damn funny and admittedly charming when it goes for it. And Kino Lorber’s 2K scan (of the 35mm interpositive) and slick cardboard slipcover give it a nice spitshine for new consumption.
Secret Admirer – starring a hilariously committed cast, including C. Thomas Howell, Lori Loughlin and Kelly Preston – is like watching Cyrano mixed with 10 Things I Hate About You and a dash of Crash. The story involves an anonymous love letter that sets off a romantic chain-mail reaction. Someone thinks the letter is about them and that it’s from this particular person when it’s not. It’s about misreadings and our fantasies aligning or not aligning with reality.
David Greenwalt (director of select episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Wonder Years) puts together a side-splitting concept. Imagining a scenario like this in real life would be absolutely crazy, and the film takes it to some fun places. (One bridge party sequence that goes full WWE plants a goofy smile.) However, once you begin to think more about what scenes are here and not here, the film logically falls apart. It’s as if the storytellers ignored actual human conversations, and we get a Hollywoodized version of reality. If some of these characters just talked to one another like real people would, then much of this wouldn’t have happened. But if you can suspend disbelief and roll with what’s presented, then it’s a good time that keeps the laughs coming. (Oh, Fred Ward’s f-bombs. Magic.)
The only notable bonus feature is an audio commentary with the filmmakers, moderated by historian and filmmaker Daniel Kremer. They discuss what the film was originally going to be, who it originally was going to star (Gene Wilder? What?!), and all these neat little anecdotes. It’s entertaining and insightful. So, uncover this hidden gem!
Movie Grade: B / Disc Grade: B
COCAINE BEAR
Rated R, 95 min.
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Cast: Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Isiah Whitlock Jr., Brooklynn Prince, Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Kristofer Hivju, Scott Seiss, Ayoola Smart, Hannah Hoekstra, Christian Convery and Ray Liotta
Available 4/18
Here’s another film that had incredible potential but lost itself along the way. The marketing for Cocaine Bear was killer-good. Everything pointed to a movie that would be equal parts goofy and amazing. The fact that it comes inspired by a 1985 true story (about a 175-pound black bear that ingested cocaine in a Georgia forest) gives it an especially wacky flavor.
That said, while there are certainly moments of fun (the needle drops and the image of a bear doing a line of coke off a severed leg), it’s never quite as deliciously mad as it could have been. One expects a movie titled Cocaine Bear, with all its star power, to have crazy amounts of B-movie entertainment and laugh-a-minute dialogue, and it’s not confident enough to take it to the edge. Instead, it spends too much time with characters you could care less about when all you want is a drug-fueled bear tearing people apart (and getting a cinematic revenge story that’s different from what really happened to the bear). We don’t need character arcs and all that jazz. Just get to the meat right away and throw out the fat. It’s not needed.
Cocaine Bear is a disappointment to those who know what’s better. All the pieces are here. It just didn’t know how to shred them and make them ooze with the joy the movie promised.
Movie Grade: C+ / Disc Grade: B+
