The week’s DVDs begin on an island:
DVDs for Aug. 6 by Boo Allen
This week we begin on an island:
Mud (***1/2)
Lacking a better analogy, Mud may be this year’s Winter’s Bone—a relatively small but excellent film, and one destined for further acclaim and awards. Jeff Nichols wrote and directed this flavorful mixture of mystery, coming-of-age, and violent thriller. Matthew McConaughey plays the title character, a feral outcast hiding on an isolated island in the Mississippi. Two boys, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), stumble onto Mud’s hiding place. In return, he regales them with tall tales, boasting of his many girlfriends (including Reese Witherspoon) and of all the men looking for him. While the two youngsters doubt his gab, they discover that Mud has great reason to hide out. Eventually, the boys must decide whether to help their strange new friend or to heed their better judgment. Nichols weaves a variety of elements to create suspense and an ever present element of danger. He has also created a roster filled with characters worthy of acquaintance.
Rated PG-13, 130 minutes. The DVD, in all formats, includes commentary with Nichols, a 12 minute “making of” featurette, a seven minute featurette on the characters and the cast, a six minute segment on the film’s shooting in Arkansas, and a brief look at the snakes used in the film.
Seconds (****)
“Re-born” had a different meaning in this chilling 1966 psychological thriller from director John Frankenheimer now being released in Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection. After his now classic political thrillers The Manchurian Candidate and Seven Days in May, Frankenheimer took David Ely’s novel to render the story of a middle-aged man, Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph), faced with the possibility of leaving his boring middle class existence and becoming a completely new man, i.e., re-born. Contacted by a secret organization headed by a grandfatherly figure (Will Geer, soon to be TV’s grandfather Walton), the dissatisfied bank executive undergoes extensive medical procedures to turn him into a younger Mr. Wilson, played by ever stoic Rock Hudson. Re-situated from Manhattan to Los Angeles, the new man struggles to fit into his new persona, that of a successful artist. But even the attentions of a beautiful yet mysterious woman (Salome Jens) fail to satisfy Mr. Wilson. Before long, he yearns for his former life, a possibility not favored by the secret organization. Frankenheimer teams with legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe for a succession of beautifully rendered scenes, filled with stark and evocatively shaded lighting, perfectly composed individual shots, and scenes reminiscent of German Expressionism, outwardly expressing an inner turmoil. Together, with Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting score, they create chilling scenes of Kafka-esque angst and dread.
Not rated, 107 minutes. The new remastered Blu-ray offers the self-explanatory 19 minute featurette “A Second Look,” a 14 minute interview with Alec Baldwin on the film, 13 minutes of analysis with films scholars Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance, and ten minutes of archival footage of Frankenheimer appearing on the 1965 TV program “Hollywood on the Hudson.” Plus: a 16 page accompanying booklet with essay by film scholar David Sterritt.
Wise Guys (**), The Spitfire Grill (***)
By 1986, Director Brian DePalma had already fashioned a career with productions of stylish violence (Scarface), Hitchcock re-makes (Dressed to Kill), creative horror films (Carrie), and derivative thrillers (Obsession). But in Wise Guys (rated R, 91 minutes), for some reason, he tried his hand at mobster-comedy. This clunky piece of satire stars Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo as two neighbors and life-long friends who languish near the bottom of the local mob hierarchy. When they cost their boss (Dan Hedaya) a small fortune, he, the boss, secretly instructs each one of them to kill the other. Chaos ensues. DePalma shows no hand at orchestrating comedy, with actors yelling at each other, mugging, taking prat-falls, and all while dodging bullets or suffering beatings. The blend never blends as it would later in films such as Analyze This. The Spitfire Grill (1996, rated PG-13, 116 minutes) follows a predictable path of redemption but does so with an authentic sense of humanity. Alison Elliott plays Percy Talbott, who, when first seen, finishes up her time in prison for manslaughter. Afterward, prison officials help her find a menial job in Gillead, Maine at the Spitfire Grill, run by local treasure Hannah Ferguson (Ellen Burstyn). Before long, Percy has become a town favorite, proving invaluable to Hannah and the grill. But Hannah’s nephew Nahum (Will Patton) feels his inheritance threatened and tries to drive Percy away, even after she befriends Nahum’s wife Shelby (Marcia Gay Harden). The story from writer-director Lee David Zlotoff delivers the expected redemption but not before some third act surprises that prove Percy’s mettle and solid character, while also revealing her troubled past. Both films are available manufactured on demand from Warner Archives.
Zombie Massacre (**)
In this week’s zombie entry, the writing and directing team of Marco Ristori and Luca Boni go nuclear. When a governmental bacteriological program goes awry, leaving a small town filled with zombies, a military squad embarks on a mission to enter the town and set off an atomic bomb inside a nuclear processing plant. What could possibly go wrong?
Not rated, 90 minutes. The DVD contains a 42 minute “making of” featurette, and a storyboard prologue to complement the storyboards.
And, finally, from this week’s TV arrivals:
The Twilight Zone—season four
Note to teen-age girls: the Twilight of The Twilight Zone has nothing to do with vampires or love-sick teens. Instead, it was a popular TV series in the 1960s created and mostly written by Rod Serling, surely one of the most original minds ever to work on television. And this fourth season shows no slack off from his previous three. The season’s 18 episodes, on five, no-frills, episode-only discs, run around 52 minutes, about twice the episode length in earlier seasons. The fourth season continued to draw impressive guest stars, including Robert Duvall, Burt Reynolds, Bill Bixby (the original “Hulk”), Dennis Hopper, Ann Jillian, Anne Francis, James Whitmore, James Best, George Grizzard (taking a dual role in the clever In His Image), and many others. The season also featured some of the best known segments from the series: Death Ship, He’s Alive, I Dream of Genie, The New Exhibit, On Thursday We Leave for Home, and others that remain fresh and chilling.
Not rated, 935 minutes.
Also on DVD: Oblivion, On the Road, The Place Beyond the Pines, To the Wonder, West of Memphis.