The week’s DVDs begin in post-war Italy:
DVDs for Jan. 13 by Boo Allen
This week we begin in post-World War II Italy:
The Skin (***)
Italian director Liliana Cavani takes a grim look at her country, and Naples in particular, near the end and immediately after World War II in this 1981 film debuting on DVD and Blu-ray. The digitally remastered version contains the full length of 142 minutes. Cavani shows the degradation her fellow Italians suffered first from the Germans and then later from the poverty that overwhelmed the country. Marcello Mastroianni stars as Curzio Malaparte, a real life journalist whose articles provide the basis for the episodic film. Near the end of the war, he serves as a liaison between Allied and Italian forces, as well as the locals. Malaparte travels the area, witnessing Italians, mostly women, fighting for food, selling themselves and even their children, and indulging in other indignities in order to survive. Malaparte, and Cavani, try to find meaning if not comfort in this desolation. Burt Lancaster brings his customary brio to his role as Mark Clark, the American General of the conquering Fifth Army.
Not rated, 142 minutes.
Extras: commentary, a 24 minute featurette featuring Cavani and production designer Dante Ferretti, six minutes with Ferretti revisiting Napoli, seven minutes on Malaparte, and eight minutes on “The Individual and History.”
Bad Turn Worse (**1/2)
A trio of young performers enlivens this often far-fetched heist saga. Three life-long friends (Mackenzie Davis, Logan Huffman, Jeremy Allen White) live in the greater Corpus Christi area. Loud-mouth B.J. (Huffman) steals money from local bad guy Griff (Mark Pellegrino). But circumstances intervene and Bobby (White) confesses to the crime to keep an innocent migrant worker from being killed. Griff forces them and B.J.’s girlfriend Sue (Davis) to break into the business of local gangster Big Red (William Devane, seen briefly) and rob his safe. Of course, nothing goes as planned with the result being a surplus of explosive confrontations and dead bodies. This Texas-noir from brother-directors Simon and Zeke Hawkins suffers from a plot in which the threesome agree to something extreme with what looks like little coercion. Still, good seedy atmospherics.
Not rated, 92 minutes.
Zodiac: Signs of the Apocalypse (**1/2)
The gang at the Syfy channel unleashes their latest goofy, effects-laden, science fiction thriller, following the network’s recognizable but usually entertaining formula. Joel Gretch plays Neil Martin, a scientist who stands defiantly alone in recognizing the signs of the zodiac playing out when a series of natural disasters strike the planet. Comets, volcano eruptions and other cataclysmic events seem to be telling us something. But what could it be? Museum curator Kathryn Keen (Emily Holmes) defies the authorities and believes Martin, joining him to assemble a collection of ancient artifacts that might save the day. We can only hope. Christopher Lloyd plays Harry Setag, a reclusive seer who saw it all coming. And, naturally, a case of puppy love plays out with Martin’s son Colin (Reilly Dolman) joining in on the hunt with Sophie (Andrea Brooks).
Not rated, 90 minutes.
Who Killed Alex Spourdalakis? (***)
Andy Wakefield directed this layered, probing documentary covering several important topics. The film follows the title Alex, an autistic Chicago teenager who suffered a series of fatal misdiagnoses, with much of the blame seeming to be directed at a faulty healthcare system. His case received an abundance of media attention at the time. But the further Wakefield looked at his subject, the more it became obvious that plenty of blame could be spread around.
Not rated, 66 minutes.
Extras: a ten minute interview with Andy Wakefield, the four minute featurette “A Success Story.”
Viktor (**)
All the ingredients are here for a Liam Neeson-Taken type thriller: a father out to avenge an offspring, a foreign setting, cartoonish villains, car chases, violence, and gratuitous appearances of beautiful women. Instead, Gerard Depardieu waddles around Moscow looking like the Pillsbury dough boy on anti-depressants. He grunts out his brief English phrases while stating that after seven years in prison, he now wants to track down those responsible for the death of his son. His quest takes him into conflict with several Russian mobsters, a sultry nightclub owner (Elizabeth Hurley), and various other recognizable types. The film’s highlight comes when Viktor must travel to Chechnya, a lush, mountainous locale that provides the film with some incongruously glorious visuals.
Not rated, 97 minutes.
Also on DVD: Bird People, The Canal, The Color of Time, May in the Summer, A Walk Among the Tombstones.