Code Unknown Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Juliette Binoche, Thierry Neuvic, Luminita Gheorghiu

Director: Michael Haneke

Format: Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, AC-3, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen

Language: French

Subtitles: English

Number of discs: 1

Rated: Unrated

Studio: Criterion Collection

Release Date: November 10, 2015

Run Time: 117 minutes

 

        Code Unknown often feels more like a film by Krzysztof Kieślowski than Michael Haneke’s follow-up to Funny Games (1997), and I say this with the highest regard. It is not just that Code Unknown stars Juliette Binoche, who starred in one of the films in Kieślowski’s Three Colors trilogy, but also a similarity in theme and style. Though the narrative construct is different, this film continues discussion of social themes often found in Kieślowski’s work, such as Blind Chance (1981). And like much of Kieślowski’s work, there is an ambiguity to Haneke’s narrative, forcing the audience to participate in the deconstruction of its meaning.

 

The Golden Cane Warrior Blu-ray Review

     Actors: Christine Hakim, Tara Basro, Nicholas Saputra

Director: Ifa Isfansyah

Format: Blu-ray, Dolby, NTSC, THX, Widescreen

Language: Indonesian

Subtitles: English

Region: Region A/1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: Unrated

Studio: Well Go USA

Release Date: November 3, 2015

Run Time: 111 minutes

 

 

        The Indonesian film industry has seen a boom in recent years, primarily due to the success of a few influential films in the international marketplace. This includes the financial success of the action franchise which began in 2011 with The Raid (the sequel was funded in part by selling the rights for a Hollywood remake currently in the works), as well as the critical reception to Indonesian-based documentaries, The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014). But each of these movies, however successfully they worked within the Indonesian film industry, was directed by foreign filmmakers. The Golden Cane Warrior, on the other hand, proves that an Indonesian director can also create a technically polished film.

 

Seymour: An Introduction DVD Review

     Actors: Seymour Bernstein, Ethan Hawke

Director: Ethan Hawke

Format: Multiple Formats, Color, Widescreen, NTSC

Language: English

Region: Region 1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: PG

Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO

DVD Release Date: November 3, 2015

Run Time: 81 minutes

 

 

        There is a magnificently unexpected moment within Seymour: An Introduction, from which the tagline of the film was born. Filmmaker Ethan Hawke is having a conversation with legendary pianist Seymour Bernstein about the struggles of striving to live life “more beautifully.” Bernstein questions whether Hawke can achieve this through his career in film, a question which leaves the actor tongue-tied. If a life dedicated to the arts is not about commercial or financial success, what is the ultimate goal? These are the questions investigated in Seymour: An Introduction, a film chronicling one man’s decision to leave behind fame and wealth for a modest life teaching his art form as way to “play life more beautifully.”

 

Do I Sound Gay? DVD Review

     Actors: David Thorpe, George Takei, Tim Gunn

Director: David Thorpe

Format: Multiple Formats, Color, Widescreen, NTSC

Language: English

Region: Region 1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: NR

Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO

DVD Release Date: November 3, 2015

Run Time: 77 minutes

 

 

        Documentaries recently have begun to fall into distinct sub-genres, with a majority made up of biographies and those with political and/or social agendas. Though you could argue elements of the latter in Do I Sound Gay?, it is more of an investigation of a specific social phenomenon, never taking a strong stance or carrying a specific purpose. The answer may be too simplistic for a feature-film discussion, which is why the personalization of the topic by filmmaker and journalist David Thorpe helps to pad the narrative.

 

Hungry Hearts DVD Review

      Actors: Adam Driver, Alba Rohrwacher

Director: Saverio Costanzo

Format: Multiple Formats, Color, Widescreen, NTSC

Language: English

Region: Region 1

Number of discs: 1

Rated: Unrated

Studio: MPI Home Video

Release Date: October 20, 2015

Run Time: 113 minutes

 

 

        Even after completing Hungry Hearts, I’m not entirely clear on what type of film writer/director Saverio Costanzo intended to make; what begins with a scene that suggests a subtle romance slowly sinks into a schizophrenic narrative about mental illness unable to decide whether it is a thriller or a drama. Even when it seems clear that the screenplay would have us treat the material as somber melodrama, the music and stylistic camera choices that Costanzo use suggest that Hungry Hearts a psychological horror film in the tradition of 1970s Roman Polanski. Either way that I consider the film, it doesn’t work for me, though I will admit that elements of the narrative certainly succeeded in leaving me unnerved.