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Review: Fire of Love

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Fire of Love (2022)

review | Fire of Love

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A quirky but fascinating Oscar-nominated documentary about two quirky but fascinating scientists

by Dennis Burger
February 13, 2023

If you were looking for the perfect person to review Fire of Love, I’d likely be the last person you’d pick. I say that because I watch nature and science documentaries the way some people watch partisan cable news. I visit the National Geographic tab on Disney+ more often than the Disney tab. I already knew the story of Maurice and Katia Krafft, the married volcanologists whose work is the subject of this film. And more than anything else, that’s what puts me at something of a disadvantage here, as getting to know these two is at least half the thrill of Fire of Love.

It does give me something of an advantage, though, too, as it lends me a bit of authority when I say things like this: Director Sara Dosa seems to understand these weird human beings. She gets what made them tick. In digging through hours and hours of archival footage shot by the Kraffts themselves in attempting to tell the story of who they were, she seems to have let them be the guides. And what’s fascinating about that is that it results in a portrait of two nuanced humans who in some ways contradict the stereotypical caricature of what a scientist is and in some ways embody it almost to the point of parody.

As such, the film is a little messy and a lot contradictory, exactly as a biographical snapshot of two people over the course of more than two decades should be. It captures the scientific curiosity of Maurice and Katia so well that at times I couldn’t exorcise from my head Richard Feynman’s humorous comparison between physics and sex: “Sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it.” But it also does justice to the passionate mission that evolved out of their curiosity—a desire to understand volcanos so fewer people would be killed by them.

That duality is always bubbling just under the surface of the film, and it’s reflected in a sort of dichotomous tone that defines its style. On the one hand, there’s a reverence here, not merely for the Kraffts but also the work that they did. On the other, there’s an unabashed playfulness that’s reflected in things like the Gilliamesque animation that bridges the gaps in the archival footage and the Wes Anderson-like style that propels the narrative.

Frankly, a lot of the latter comes from narrator Miranda July, whose work on the film is one of the few things I’m not gaga about. I adore July’s writing, and I’ve enjoyed seeing her in other films, but in this one she seems to have been instructed to read the script with a detached hipster aloofness that is out of sorts with the imagery and the words. She reads lines like “Understanding is love’s other name” with the affectation of a stoned-but-bored Aubrey Plaza doing an intentionally half-assed Sarah Vowell impersonation.

Still, even that isn’t enough to rob the film of its power. I think a lesser filmmaker would have let this one fall apart in oh so many ways, especially in trying to deal with Maurice as a sympathetic figure. He is, mind you. The guy was a hoot. But he was also foolhardy and a bit of a showboat. He was the sort of fellow who could sound completely sane and rational while describing a plot to ride an insulated raft inspired by the Gemini spacecraft down a lava flow and into the ocean, no matter how crazy an idea it actually is. He’s the sort of fellow it’s hard not to have a conflicted opinion about. And yet, aside from the obvious editorial choices of what footage to include and what to leave in the archives, Dosa doesn’t seem to impose her opinion at all.

She also shows restraint in another key way I found particularly impressive. Toward the end of the film—and as such, toward the end of their lives—we start to get a sense of Maurice and Katia’s frustration, resulting from a disaster in Colombia that would have been wholly preventable had the local authorities simply listened to the scientists and evacuated the villages surrounding Nevado del Ruiz before it erupted. But the bureaucrats feared the evacuation would be too expensive, and as a result at least 20,000 of the area’s 29,000 residents were killed.

It’s difficult bordering on impossible to watch this without drawing parallels between the work of the Kraffts and that of latter-day climatologists frustratedly attempting to warn us of the impacts of the ongoing climate crisis, and I think most documentarians—especially in this Netflix era of “documentary” filmmaking—wouldn’t have been able to resist the urge to underline those parallels, italicize them, bold them, and rub the viewer’s nose in them. But the script doesn’t even allude to them, leaving the viewer to connect such obvious dots.

It’s that sort of approach that makes this my preferred film about the Kraffts released in the last year—the other being Werner Herzog’s  The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft. Herzog seems to have cleaned up and processed the imagery a bit more than did Dosa, as the bulk of Fire of Love is comprised of unrestored 16mm footage, mostly shot in the 1970s and ’80s in a 4:3 aspect ratio. While a few shots appear duped (perhaps taken from the Kraffts’ numerous films), a lot of it looks to come straight from the camera negative, and as such is fairly clean. But this is still relatively TV-quality imagery that was (mostly) shot more for scientific than entertainment purposes, so it isn’t exactly home theater demo material. All the same, you’ll likely find yourself awed by the subjects of the cinematography and quickly forget issues of detail, color purity, etc.

The 5.1-channel soundtrack, on the other hand, does get a little big for its britches on occasion, trying to add some dynamic zhuzh to footage that doesn’t need zhuzhing. But the all-important dialogue is clear and the hyperactive sound mix doesn’t detract from the story being told.

Of the two documentary films cobbled together last year from footage shot by Maurice and Katia Krafft over the course of their adult lives, Fire of Love is ultimately the better one for a number of reasons. Dosa doesn’t cram her own personality into the film the way Herzog does, but she also takes a more childlike and irreverent approach to the material that I think suits its subjects and its subject matter better. I’d love it if you watched both because there are some ways in which Herzog’s film is superior. But if you have to pick one, make it this one, whether it wins the Oscar or not.

Dennis Burger is an avid Star Wars scholar, Tolkien fanatic, and Corvette enthusiast who somehow also manages to find time for technological passions including high-end audio, home automation, and video gaming. He lives in the armpit of Alabama with his wife Bethany and their four-legged child Bruno, a 75-pound American Staffordshire Terrier who thinks he’s a Pomeranian.

PICTURE | Comprised of unrestored 16mm footage, the documentary is made up of relatively TV-quality imagery shot more for scientific than entertainment purposes, so it isn’t exactly home theater demo material

SOUND | The 5.1-channel soundtrack gets a little big for its britches on occasion, but the all-important dialogue is clear and the hyperactive sound mix doesn’t detract from the story being told

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Review: You People

You People (2023)

review | You People

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This star-filled romantic comedy on Netflix is amusing enough but never lives up to its potential

by Roger Kanno
February 12, 2023

Ezra Cohen (Jonah Hill) is a financial professional and podcaster who falls in love with costume designer Amira Mohammed (Lauren London). However, Amira’s father Akbar (Eddie Murphy) doesn’t like or trust Ezra, and Ezra’s mother Shelley (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), is prone to saying wildly inappropriate things on a fairly regular basis. After Amira accepts Ezra’s marriage proposal, the two families come together with the predictable resulting tension as the interracial couple navigates the cultural differences between their families.

You People, which began streaming on Netflix on January 27, has a screenplay co-written by Hill and Kenya Barris, creator of the award-winning television series Black-ish, and a star-studded cast that also includes Nia Long and David Duchovny along with many celebrity cameos. Additionally, Barris directs and with such a stacked cast and established team behind the production, all of the ingredients are present for some outrageous comedy and biting social commentary. And while the dialogue is often clever and amusing, it is seldomly laugh out loud funny, and cultural themes are mostly superficially addressed.

As Ezra and his podcast partner Mo (Sam Jay) riff on his inability to maintain a healthy romantic relationship with multiple references to Drake, the resulting rapid-fire dialogue is mildly comical and charming but isn’t as funny or daring as I would have expected it to be. When Eddie Murphy first appears on screen as the serious and non-nonsense Akbar, his severe demeanor and swagger are palpable. But what seems so promising at first soon blends into the rest of the film and its predictable jokes and slightly cringey scenes that don’t quite seem to go far enough to make them uproariously funny or make any astute societal observations.

Nonetheless, Murphy is charismatic, and his intense energy is fascinating to watch even if his character doesn’t have all that much to do in the film. And yet he still manages to make Akbar both relatable and sympathetic. London and Hill are likable as the leads but they too aren’t given much to work with to develop their characters. The onscreen chemistry between them never really goes anywhere even as we watch their relationship develop and deepen. Much the same can be said of the other characters, but with such an excellent cast, the film is buoyed by their performances even if it plays it relatively safe and results in a pretty standard romantic comedy with relatively few truly funny moments.

The cast may be loaded, but so too is the highly engaging music soundtrack presented in Dolby Atmos with fantastic songs from the late Nipsey Hussle, James Brown, Ice-T, DJ Khaled, and Barry White, just to name a few. The music is marvelously integrated into the overall sound design with many scenes introduced by a fabulous flourish of hip hop jams. The songs feature a truly immersive object-based mix to provide a wonderfully wide and spacious sound with plenty of deep bass. From the opening scenes featuring “Chitty Bang” by Leikeli47, the music surrounded and enveloped me in scene after scene with an infectious beat. And when things slowed down during Amira and Ezra’s first date, Brittany Howard’s silky smooth “Stay High” was smoothly and coherently mixed into all channels to deliver a truly enveloping and dreamy effect.

Picture quality was nearly as impressive as the audio. The clothing and furnishings in the backgrounds of the many upscale shops Ezra and Amira visit look totally realistic, with each carefully crafted scene filled with a plethora of pleasing colors. Fashion lovers will appreciate the extensive use of contemporary clothing and sneakers utilized by costume designer Michelle R. Cole. The exquisitely detailed stitching and the beautiful pink, blue, and yellow pastel shades of corduroy looked absolutely perfect with a Dolby Vision color grade that brought out the subtle differences in the soft pale hues. Colors did pop when required as with a Southwest airlines plane, whose deep-blue fuselage looked absolutely gorgeous in a sharply detailed establishing shot.

The slick-looking visuals and excellent sound design of You People were a pleasant surprise from this rom-com but considering the film’s promising pedigree, I was disappointed in its formulaic plot and lack of cutting-edge comedy.

Roger Kanno began his life-long interest in home cinema almost three decades ago with a collection of LaserDiscs and a Dolby Surround Pro Logic system. Since then, he has seen a lot of movies in his home theater but has an equal fascination with high-end stereo music systems. Roger writes for both Sound & Vision and the SoundStage! Network.

PICTURE | Clothing and furnishings looked realistic, with each scene filled with a plethora of pleasing colors. The pink, blue, and yellow pastel shades of corduroy looked perfect with a Dolby Vision color grade that brought out the subtle differences in the soft hues. 

SOUND | The truly immersive object-based Atmos mix provides the film’s many songs with a wonderfully wide and spacious sound with plenty of deep bass.

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Review: Triangle of Sadness

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

review | Triangle of Sadness

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This pointlessly excessive critique of excess is only available in HD on streaming but, given its hypocritical and cruel take on the wealthy, that might be all for the best

by Dennis Burger
February 8, 2023

With Triangle of Sadness, it’s nearly impossible to tell if writer/director Ruben Östlund desires to watch the ultra-wealthy suffer himself or if he simply assumes his audience is cruel and morally bankrupt. Either way, this muddled and overly long exercise in unfocused schadenfreude manages to be both shallow and thematically incoherent, callous and distant, shockingly disgusting and punishingly boring, and even its contradictions aren’t enough to make it interesting.

By the time it finally manages to say something in the third act, after two hours of heartless mockery and seemingly endless scenes of people soiling and regurgitating all over themselves, it’s almost impossible to care, mostly because what it does say is so predictable as to be insulting. The film tries its best to be a sort of Parasite meets Trading Places by way of Lord of the Flies, but ends up being equally ineffective as social commentary and black comedy.

There are bright spots, mind you—mostly in the performance of Charlbi Dean. She brings far more to the role of a spoiled influencer who joins the ranks of the privileged by virtue of her good looks than the role deserves. But one world-class performance (and, to be fair, a lot of other very good performances) can’t save this wretched excess posing as a critique of excess from being as revolting as it is hypocritically banal.

If, for whatever reason, the trailer (which is nothing more than the film with all the boring bits cut out) has so piqued your curiosity that you’re willing to suffer the punishment of the film just to say you’ve experienced it, I might encourage you to wait a few months. For now, it’s only available in HD via streaming, and the limitations of both resolution and dynamic range are distracting at times. Criterion is working on a director-approved UHD/HDR release, taken from the 4K digital intermediate, which was itself assembled from a mix of 4.5K, 5K, and 8K cinematography, but that won’t hit shelves until long after the buzz surrounding the film has evaporated.

Not having seen the theatrical presentation or the 4K home video master, I can only speculate about how much better it would look in UHD, but there are numerous scenes throughout the HD stream on iTunes where detail and definition are lost in the shadows, where nuance seems to be missing from the color palette, where flesh tones look a little sunburnt even when they shouldn’t, and where the AVC codec struggles with material that requires an equal mix of high- and low-frequency information to fully resolve the picture without some hash. To be clear, it all looks fine if you’re watching with a viewing angle on par with the typical TV in the typical living room, but at cinematic proportions it all sort of falls apart on occasion.

It looks like the Criterion UHD Blu-ray will also carry over the same 5.1-channel mix accompanying the iTunes stream—though in DTS-HD Master Audio instead of Dolby Digital Plus—instead of the Dolby Atmos mix prepared for theatrical exhibition. I’m not sure it makes much of a difference, because Apple’s 5.1 presentation up-mixes really beautifully into Atmos.

Subtle and not-so-subtle ambient sound effects abound in the surround soundfield, including some effects that do quite a good job of enhancing immersion. The resonant rattle of the HVAC system on the yacht in which the second act unfolds is ever-present above and behind you, serving at times almost as white noise and as other times as a persistent irritant. Panning across the front soundstage is also aggressive, but so artfully done as to be almost subliminal. All things considered, the sound mix is stunning.

Again, though, it isn’t enough to save this film from its own disgusting compulsion to wallow in the muck, to obsess over the worst aspects of human nature, to throw half-baked ideas at the screen in the desperate hope that any of them sticks with anything resembling coherency. To be blunt, it’s one of the most soulless and repugnant works of cinema I’ve seen in ages, and the fact that it’s getting any attention this awards season is as scathing an indictment of entertainment industry as I can imagine.

Dennis Burger is an avid Star Wars scholar, Tolkien fanatic, and Corvette enthusiast who somehow also manages to find time for technological passions including high-end audio, home automation, and video gaming. He lives in the armpit of Alabama with his wife Bethany and their four-legged child Bruno, a 75-pound American Staffordshire Terrier who thinks he’s a Pomeranian.

PICTURE | The HD stream on iTunes exhibits numerous scenes where detail and definition are lost in the shadows, nuance seems to be missing from the color palette, and flesh tones look a little sunburnt even when they shouldn’t

SOUND | All things considered, the 5.1 sound mix is stunning. Subtle and not-so-subtle ambient sound effects abound in the surround soundfield, including some effects that do quite a good job of enhancing immersion.

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Review: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

review | The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

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Even John Ford at his second best is better than almost any other filmmaker

by Michael Gaughn
February 7, 2023

Thomas Kuhn’s notion of paradigms doesn’t just apply to scientists but to practically anyone—including, or especially, movie directors. If goes something like this: No matter how brilliant you are, you tend to stay emotionally wedded to the concepts that made your career, which can make it difficult or impossible to grasp or accept any later innovations that challenge those core convictions.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is very-late-period John Ford, and the changes in shooting styles, production logistics, and public taste emerging in the early ‘60s all chip away at the film throughout—so relentlessly that it almost doesn’t survive the onslaught. What’s amazing—and distinguishes an artist from a dilettante—is that Ford uses all that disorientation to lay the groundwork for successors (and usurpers) like Leone and Peckinpah. (How much of that was conscious and how much intuitive is for another day.)

Rattling off Lee Marvin, Lee Van Cleef, Strother Martin, and Woody Strode is like reading a roll call of actors who would soon become synonymous with the most prominent efforts to redefine the western. And their influence, and the influence of Valance, can be felt all the way to the present, thanks to hopeless film geeks like Tarantino.

Also influential was the film’s darkness, almost viciousness. Uncharacteristic of Ford, it emerged in some of his later films, especially The Searchers, and feels not unlike the sadistic bitterness of Hitchcock’s late films. In Searchers, Valance, and Cheyenne Autumn, you sense Ford tormented, challenging the convictions that defined his body of work while trying to ward off challenges from the larger culture, which was becoming similarly disenchanted with the defining myth of the American west.

Everything about the film feels slightly out of sync, most obviously with the performances. John Wayne specialized in playing flaming assholes, and as long as your worldview aligned with his, you saw his actions as righteous. But while it’s hard not to have ambiguous feelings about Wayne’s Ethan Edwards, his character here puts you very much in a yer-either-for-’im-or-ag’in’-‘im position that can make the film seem despairing, even nihilistic. And while Jimmy Stewart turns in a typically accomplished and untypically daring performance, the relentless bullying of the Wayne character makes Stewart look unnecessarily pathetic.

The visual style is similarly off, out of alignment with Ford’s defining aesthetic. Ford was a master visual stylist—possibly the greatest of the Studio Era—but he seems lost here. The sets and painted backdrops are all blatantly artificial, and the flat, high-contrast lighting makes Valence look like an episode of The Rifleman. We are many, many miles here from the depth and richness of How Green Was My Valley, The Long Voyage Home, Young Mr. Lincoln, My Darling Clementine, and Fort Apache. Having cut his teeth in the silent era, and with the classic studio techniques deep in his bones, Ford always had faith his production team would conjure up the film he wanted. But he had reached a point here where he could no longer bend the techniques to his will.

To be clear: I’m not damning Valance. It’s one of those very few films everyone should see at least once. It’s not Ford at the top of his form; but at his second best, like here, he was still breathing air at a strata the vast majority of filmmakers never come near. It’s fascinating and even enthralling to see him pushing back at forces he often doesn’t understand yet still sometimes finding a way to come out on top. And it’s, all else aside, a solid western—even if it looks more like a stage play or something shot in Edison’s Black Maria.

The transfer streaming on Prime might not be reference-quality but it’s a solid presentation without any jarring flaws. I realize those kinds of comments about streaming content are becoming redundant, but that’s a hugely promising sign. With the proliferation of wider bandwidth and the continual improvement of codecs, there’s every reason to think reference-quality releases of older films will be the norm on the major streaming services within just a couple years. Which raises the question: Why will we need anything other than streaming when that day finally arrives?

Michael Gaughn—The Absolute Sound, The Perfect Vision, Wideband, Stereo Review, Sound & Vision, The Rayva Roundtablemarketing, product design, some theater designs, a couple TV shows, some commercials, and now this.

PICTURE | The transfer might not be reference-quality but it’s a solid presentation without any jarring flaws—which is quickly becoming the norm with classic films on streaming services like Prime

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Review: Causeway

Causeway (2022)

review | Causeway

Jennifer Lawrence stars in this under-the-radar Apple TV+ release about a veteran’s struggles to recover from traumatic war injuries

by Roger Kanno
February 4, 2023

Causeway is another release from the highly successful and independent film-distribution company A24. It was released on Apple TV+ late last year after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival and then given a limited theatrical release. And while it was helmed by first-time director Lila Neugebauer, it stars and was co-produced by Jennifer Lawrence, so there is definitely some Hollywood star power behind it even though it has managed to fly mostly under the radar since its debut. The film also stars the versatile and talented Brian Tyree Henry, who has appeared in diverse roles on television, in film, and on the stage over the past ten-plus years. There are other fine supporting performances in Causeway but the dynamic that drives the film is between Lynsey (Lawrence), a veteran who has suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in Afghanistan, and James (Henry), a mechanic who forges a special bond with her.

The story initially unfolds at an incredibly slow pace as Lynsey recovers from her injuries and struggles with routine daily tasks. But once she recovers sufficiently to move back home and tries to find some normalcy in her life, we get a better glimpse into the source of her pain and the obstacles she faces. It’s there that she meets James and the unlikely pair strike up a friendship as they go on a mutual journey of discovery to confront their deep emotional scars. At times, this is difficult to watch as the raw emotion feels so real, but mostly the film is an introspective and thoughtful story about two people just trying to navigate their way through the grief and trauma that they have experienced. 

When the two leads are onscreen together, the back and forth between them seems totally authentic. Lawrence’s performance is reminiscent of her breakthrough role in Winter’s Bone although her character this time around isn’t quite as dynamic as in the earlier film. Nonetheless, the strength and emotion she brings to her portrayal of Lynsey is equally as captivating. And Henry matches Lawrence’s performance scene for scene with his absolutely effortless portrayal of James, the quiet and sensible one who has his own issues to contend with. While it was bit surprising that James received a nomination in the Supporting Actor category for this year’s Oscars due to the limited buzz surrounding this film, it is certainly well-deserved.

Like the story itself, the picture quality is somewhat subdued, but upon closer inspection is lifelike and natural, if not eye-catching. Don’t look for any majestic panoramic shots or super-saturated colors here; instead, the cinematography consists of simply composed images featuring the rather drab and ordinary-looking architecture of Lynsey’s suburban neighborhood. The color grading and use of HDR highlights effectively bring out the detail in facial expressions, clothing, and background objects without drawing gratuitous attention to the visuals. While the lighting of outdoor scenes might seem a bit gloomy, it too is actually quite natural as if captured on an overcast or hazy day, with the fine detail of unkempt grass and shrubs and the peeling paint on houses looking realistic.

Similarly, the Dolby Atmos soundtrack is restrained and mostly centered on the dialogue, yet there is ample use of the surround and height channels to create just a touch of surround ambience in most scenes. When Lynsey and James are riding in his car, the road and engine noise are just present enough to make the setting seem real, and even the music sounds a little boomy, as it often can when played on a car stereo. Most importantly though, the dialogue remains crystal-clear throughout so that we can appreciate the excellent script and finely nuanced performances.

Causeway may be a small film that hasn’t received much attention but it is an exquisitely crafted character study with two very fine performances by Lawrence and Henry that elevate it to something special.

Roger Kanno began his life-long interest in home cinema almost three decades ago with a collection of LaserDiscs and a Dolby Surround Pro Logic system. Since then, he has seen a lot of movies in his home theater but has an equal fascination with high-end stereo music systems. Roger writes for both Sound & Vision and the SoundStage! Network.

PICTURE | The picture quality is somewhat subdued but lifelike and natural, with the color grading and HDR highlights effectively bringing out the detail in facial expressions, clothing, and background objects without drawing gratuitous attention to the visuals

SOUND | The Atmos soundtrack is similarly restrained and mostly centered on the dialogue, yet there is ample use of the surround and height channels to create just a touch of surround ambience in most scenes

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Review: RRR

RRR (2022)

review | RRR

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Chucking plausibility for almost continuous action has had a lot to do with making this the most popular Indian movie to ever hit Netflix

by Roger Kanno
January 31, 2023

Rise Roar Revolt, or simply RRR as it is more commonly known, is one of the biggest and most successful movies to ever come out of India. And while most people are aware of the Bollywood movie scene, few have ever likely seen a Hindi feature from the Bollywood film industry based in Mumbai. And while RRR is available in many languages including the language of Bollywood films, Hindi, its primary release was in the Telugu language, actually making it a Tollywood film. Whatever the origins of RRR or its box office success, which was substantial, according to Netflix it is also their most popular film to originate from India and has met with almost universal critical acclaim.

Perhaps a little surprisingly, RRR wasn’t India’s entry in the Best International Feature category at this year’s Academy Awards but it did receive a nomination for best song for the extremely catchy and infectious “Naatu Naatu,” with music by M. M. Keeravani and lyrics by Chandrabose. While it didn’t garner any other Oscar nominations, it’s still one of the most entertaining films of 2022. The screenplay by S. S. Rajamouli, who also directed, is an epic, melodramatic, action-packed, and fictionalized story of historical Indian figures Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan Teja) and Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.).

The sprawling film spans over three hours but with so much action going on, it hardly ever seems to lag and trying to describe its plot in a few sentences is difficult. But it does imagine a burgeoning friendship between Raju and Bheem before they became renowned revolutionaries and their shared loyalty, sense of duty, and heroism as they struggle against British colonialism. The totally over-the-top fight scenes are super-cool, with plenty of slo-mo to allow for the admiration of the intricate choreography interspersed with long lingering shots filled with thematic imagery. The direction and screenplay by Rajamouli and the actors’ performances aren’t exactly subtle but the sensational action and melodrama suit the film’s improbable sensibilities and are a ton of fun to watch.

RRR wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable without its fine music score to accompany the onscreen action, and in addition to “Naatu Naatu,” there are plenty of equally catchy songs and a majestic score to enrich the fantastic visuals. The music is mixed aggressively in Dolby Atmos with various instruments and vocals emanating from all around the room with great depth and width to the soundstage. There is often deep, ominous bass as sound effects swirl frantically in all directions, taking full advantage of the object-oriented mix to provide a totally holographic and immersive auditory experience. The Atmos soundtrack is only available in Hindi on Netflix (Canada), while English, Portuguese, and Spanish language soundtracks are available in Dolby 5.1. Make sure to choose the Atmos mix to fully enjoy this film if your system is equipped for it. Because this is the Hindi dub of the film, the version of the Oscar-nominated song is called “Naacho Naacho” but still sounds excellent. And if you have an Apple TV 4K connected to your system and subscribe to Apple Music, be sure to listen to the lossless Atmos version of the song available on the music streaming service for a real treat. The vocals and drums are mixed even more aggressively into all of the channels to provide an even more dizzying and intoxicating adrenaline rush even without the accompaniment of the amazing visuals of the film.

The cinematography is striking, with the many symbolic images bringing the director’s bold vision to life. However, the color grading is a bit on the faint side of things with many scenes having a slight yellowish hue. This results in many shots exhibiting a somewhat washed-out look, with bright colors and highlights not popping quite as much as I am used to with most Dolby Vision presentations. The sharpness and detail are a little variable and some of the CGI effects appear slightly soft, but I didn’t find this particularly distracting as I was constantly impressed by the wealth of daring imagery and the entertainingly fast pace of the film.

RRR may not have been India’s entry in the Academy Award International Feature category this year, but it is a hugely successful and highly accessible film that you don’t have to be a film connoisseur to enjoy. So check out this not so hidden gem of a film on Netflix if you haven’t already.

Roger Kanno began his life-long interest in home cinema almost three decades ago with a collection of LaserDiscs and a Dolby Surround Pro Logic system. Since then, he has seen a lot of movies in his home theater but has an equal fascination with high-end stereo music systems. Roger writes for both Sound & Vision and the SoundStage! Network.

PICTURE | The cinematography is striking but the color grading is a bit faint, with bright colors and highlights not popping as much as you would expect from a Dolby Vision presentation

SOUND | The music is mixed aggressively in Atmos, with instruments and vocals emanating from all around the room. There is often deep, ominous bass as sound effects swirl frantically in all directions, taking full advantage of the object-oriented mix to provide a totally holographic and immersive auditory experience.

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Review: Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

review | Where the Crawdads Sing

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Captivating cinematography can’t make up for the many  shortcomings in this all too indie and literal adaptation of a wild-child murder mystery

by Dennis Burger
January 26, 2023

Watching the trailer for Where the Crawdads Sing, you might get the sense it’s sort of a Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe meets The Silence of the Lambs kind of thing. You’d be wrong. This toothless adaptation of Delia Owens’ bestselling coming-of-age murder mystery is so half-baked it’s hard to really figure out what it is or wants to be.

Maybe that’s the fault of the book. I don’t know; I’ve never read it. But in weaving together two different timelines in the life of a so-called “marsh girl” named Kya—whose family deserts her and who mostly raises herself in the wilderness of coastal North Carolina until she learns to read, quicky thereafter writes and illustrates a successful nature book, and is then accused of murdering a local creep—the film fails to justify its own existence. Flashbacks and flashforwards seem shuffled together with no real consideration given to narrative or thematic coherence, and when it all does manage to cohere on occasion, it becomes so implausible as to be insulting.

And all of the above may have been forgivable if there were any real humanity to sink one’s teeth into but most of the characterization is one-note at best and the players have a habit of speaking in almost precisely the way real people don’t. The southern accents also reside deep in the Uncanny Valley for the most part, aside from that of star Daisy Edgar-Jones, a Brit whose performance is just about the only redeemable thing about this whole darned affair.

I say “almost,” because the cinematography by Polly Morgan also deserves some recognition. Mute the sound and simply watch the imagery flow by, and Where the Crawdads Sing is truly captivating. Shot in Arriraw at 4.5K resolution, the footage has been film-looked a bit, mostly through a warm color grade but also with the addition of some subtle faux grain that actually registers as grain instead of noise (assuming you’re viewing this thing at cinematic proportions, that is—otherwise you likely won’t notice it at all). That simulated grain does knock the edge off the crisp edges, but Crawdads is nonetheless a treat for the eyes, and Kaleidescape’s 4K HDR10 presentation is simply delicious, with abundant textures and subtle-but-effective high dynamic range that primarily serves to mimic the quality of natural light.

The Dolby TrueHD Atmos sound mix will also delight home theater enthusiasts who want all of their speakers to make some noise at regular intervals. Deep bass is employed from time to time to ape the quality of sound underwater, and the overhead and surround channels spring to life frequently to deliver the ambience of the Louisiana swamps that stand in for the book’s North Carolina marshlands. The score is a bit too aggressively mixed into the surround soundfield for my taste, though, and dialogue occasionally gets obscured.

Those complaints might carry more weight if the film were more worthy in other respects, but Where the Crawdads Sing is the very definition of a lazy book adaptation where everyone involved seemed to think the best way to convert page to screen was to type it all up with characters’ names centered on the page between lines of dialogue, then cut out the most boring bits and point a camera at what remains.

If you’re super interested, iTunes also sells the film with a handful of bonus features Sony didn’t see fit to release to Kaleidescape, but I can’t imagine anyone being moved by them. If morbid curiosity gets the better of you and you simply can’t resist this one, wait until it’s available for free on Netflix or Hulu or what have you. Or just watch the trailer again for free on YouTube. All the best bits are there anyway.

Dennis Burger is an avid Star Wars scholar, Tolkien fanatic, and Corvette enthusiast who somehow also manages to find time for technological passions including high-end audio, home automation, and video gaming. He lives in the armpit of Alabama with his wife Bethany and their four-legged child Bruno, a 75-pound American Staffordshire Terrier who thinks he’s a Pomeranian.

PICTURE | Kaleidescape’s 4K HDR10 presentation is simply delicious, with abundant textures and subtle-but-effective high dynamic range that primarily serves to mimic the quality of natural light

SOUND | The Dolby TrueHD Atmos sound mix will delight home theater enthusiasts who want all of their speakers to make some noise at regular intervals

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Review: Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical

Matilda the Musical (2022)

review | Matilda the Musical

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The award-winning musical makeover of the Roald Dahl classic vividly comes alive on Netflix 

by Roger Kanno
January 22, 2023

Netflix has been on a roll in recent months with the release of films such as All Quiet on the Western Front and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, as well as the both critically acclaimed and soon to be one of their most viewed films of all time, Glass Onion. So, you might have initially missed catching, as I did, Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical with all the other releases around last year’s holiday season.

Based on the award-winning 2010 stage musical originally produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company that was inspired by Dahl’s most successful novel, Matilda, this film enjoyed an exclusive and hugely successful theatrical release in the UK last November prior to its worldwide Netflix release on Christmas Day. I’ll admit that I am not a huge fan of musicals but it’s easy to see why this delightful adaptation of the Dahl classic has done so well at the box office and also via streaming. The production values are simply spectacular along with the many entertaining performances of the infectiously catchy songs by Tim Minchin. The opening musical number will immediately grab your attention with a large-scale production involving intricate tracking shots, loads of dancers with complex choreography, and a playful color palette filled with myriad soft pastels. We also first meet Matilda’s parents here, the Wormwoods, played hysterically by Andrea Riseborough and Steven Graham, who usually inhabit grittier, more dramatic roles, but appear totally at home in this charming musical.

Emma Thompson is also unrecognizable in her makeup as Agatha Trunchbull, the evil headmistress of Crunchem Hall, where Matilda attends school. While Thompson’s physical transformation and performance are remarkable, the story is most engaging when revolving around Miss Honey (Lashana Lynch), a teacher who develops a special bond with the delightfully precocious Matilda, played impeccably by Alisha Weir. Lynch may be better known for her action-packed roles in the Marvel universe, the latest Bond film, or The Woman King, but she portrays Miss Honey with an endearing vulnerability and humility.

Matilda the Musical is full of fantastic performances of Minchin’s songs but the production of “When I Grow Up” is especially memorable, with emotive and appealing visual imagery and touching lyrics poignantly performed by the entire cast of children that had me humming the song long after I had finished watching the film. Another highlight is the performance of “Revolting Children,” with its frenetic choreography featuring scores of children and a massive scale of production that covers the entirety of the interior and grounds of Crunchem Hall for this brilliantly energetic composition.

Video quality is exceptional. The opening scenes are eye-catching with their many pastel shades of rooms in the hospital where Matilda is born and the medical staff’s uniforms creating a fairy-tale-like atmosphere, filling the screen with a sense of whimsy. This color scheme is carried over to the décor of the Wormwood’s home, which is a deliciously tacky, memento-filled homage to the 1970s, and the carefully curated set decoration is a visual feast.

While the indoor scenes look crisp and detailed even with their pale pastel coloration creating a surreal atmosphere, when Matilda attends Crunchem, the colors and lighting of outdoor scenes appears extremely natural with a gorgeous-looking picture. The children’s uniforms are mostly drably gray, but there is an authenticity to the textures and the varying shades of the woolen garments that looks spot-on. The red detailing, such as piping, really pops but still looks organic when contrasted with the other, more somber tones. As the children walk across the school grounds, the manner in which light reflects off the many shades of green in the uneven grass mixed with a few weeds looks smooth and natural. Not only is the Dolby Vision color grade nearly perfect but the HDR highlights give the visuals a filmlike quality by providing plenty of detail to display a bright, sharp picture with just the right amount of contrast.

The actors’ complexions also look totally realistic, especially during extreme closeups. The pores and faint blood vessels and even the stray hairs on Trunchbull’s chin, though her face is enhanced with prosthetics, look completely convincing, as do her crooked and yellowing teeth. The superb video quality showcases the tremendous artistry and attention to detail in the makeup transforming Thompson into the monstrous Miss Trunchbull.

The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is very good although it is used infrequently for discrete directional effects, but when it is, it is done so effectively. For example, when Trunchbull speaks over the PA system, her voice reverberates ominously and omnipresently all around the children. The songs are well recorded with a solid presence in the front speakers, but the stereo effect is also enhanced significantly by the use of the surround and height channels. This provides additional depth and width to the presentation so that the sound filled the entire front hemisphere of my room and stretched well outside of the speakers and back behind them.

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical has rousing musical numbers, marvelous production values, outstanding performances, and excellent picture and sound quality. There are some dark themes as with other Dahl stories, including a few intense scenes, so it might not be suitable for very young children. Nonetheless, it is a simply wonderful and immensely enjoyable film.

Roger Kanno began his life-long interest in home cinema almost three decades ago with a collection of LaserDiscs and a Dolby Surround Pro Logic system. Since then, he has seen a lot of movies in his home theater but has an equal fascination with high-end stereo music systems. Roger writes for both Sound & Vision and the SoundStage! Network.

PICTURE | Video quality is exceptional, with the indoor scenes looking crisp & detailed even with their pale pastel coloration, and with the colors & lighting of outdoor scenes appearing extremely natural

SOUND | The Atmos soundtrack is used infrequently for discrete directional effects but when it is, it is done so effectively

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Review: The Pale Blue Eye

The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

review | The Pale Blue Eye

Strong performances and striking visuals make this slow-burn 1800s murder mystery worth a look on Netflix

by Roger Kanno
January 14, 2023

The Pale Blue Eye, based on the book of the same name by Louis Bayard, is the third project to star Christian Bale and be helmed by writer-director Scott Cooper, both having previously worked together on Hostiles and Out of the Furnace. This dark murder mystery unravels as Augustus Landor (Bale) investigates the death of a young cadet at West Point in 1830. He is aided by another cadet, aspiring writer Edgar Allen Poe (Harry Melling), and together they set out to conduct the investigation. As with many films from streaming services, The Pale Blue Eye received a limited release in theaters on December 23, 2022 prior to its debut on Netflix beginning January 6. 

The story unfolds in a relatively linear manner as cadet Poe and Landor, a retired detective enlisted by the senior officers at the academy, delve into the mysterious and tragic events. There are occasional flashbacks, with little dialogue, of Landor and his daughter Mattie, whom he says ran off, and is obviously haunted by her memory. And while he is tortured by her absence, the flashbacks serve mostly to demonstrate his pain, and do not explore the depth of  their relationship, making it difficult to fully empathize with Landor or feel his sense of loss.

The cast includes several veteran and emerging actors who are excellent in their supporting roles, but the talents of Gillian Anderson and Robert Duvall especially are somewhat underutilized. That said, it is the performances of Bale and Melling that elevate this film. At first, the characterization of a young, exuberant Poe seems slightly over the top and out of place next to the stoic and measured nature of Landor. But as the story progresses, we see that this mirrors Poe’s station at West Point as a sensitive and aspiring writer in a rigid military academy. And in the end, his character and Melling’s performance are the equal of Landor and of Bale’s performance. 

The visual style perfectly captures the gothic atmosphere of the story. Outdoor scenes are bathed in a soft bluish-white light, giving everything an austere appearance. Plenty of detail is captured in the texture of thick wool fabrics of the winter attire that conveys their density and heavy weight, with deep, rich blacks in the men’s overcoats and fine differentiation of the blues and grays in the cadet’s uniforms. The cinematography of Masanobu Takayanagi is striking, with overhead shots of snow-covered forests and lingering images of weathered buildings, many with light dustings of bright white snow to contrast with the somber grays of the architecture.

The relatively brighter and richer Dolby Vision color grade of wintery shots of landscapes and structures are eye-catching, but interior night scenes have an entirely different but equally impressive visual aesthetic. Many of these scenes are bathed only in faint candle light, creating flickering shadows on the actors’ faces that are surprisingly detailed yet have a smooth and organic quality. The low levels of light illuminate the backgrounds, making them appear slightly obscured as they would in reality with the dancing flames of the candles brightly popping but not excessively so. In one scene where Poe walks through the woods, the foggy backgrounds illuminated by his lantern appear eerily gray and gloomy while his absolutely jet-black silhouette is perfectly etched into the foreground. The result is a stunning visual that will look superb on displays with superb black levels. 

The Dolby Atmos audio presentation is not particularly dynamic and lacks bass energy but is successful in providing a delicate and fitting accompaniment to the onscreen action. At the beginning of the film, a bucolic scene features Landor washing his hands in a stream as the flowing currents gurgle around him, and the music swells briefly then recedes to be replaced by the far-off fanfare of a bugle in a wonderfully atmospheric manner. The sound design is subtly effective throughout the film but there are a few instances where the object-oriented capability of Atmos is utilized to provide extremely conspicuous effects within the soundfield, such as voices or wind outside of the building where the scene is set. While this sounds very realistic, it is slightly distracting as it occurs infrequently, and only during a few scenes.

The Pale Blue Eye is a bit of a slow burn but the strong performances by the film’s two leads and some truly beautiful cinematography make it worth setting aside some time to stream this brooding mystery.

Roger Kanno began his life-long interest in home cinema almost three decades ago with a collection of LaserDiscs and a Dolby Surround Pro Logic system. Since then, he has seen a lot of movies in his home theater but has an equal fascination with high-end stereo music systems. Roger writes for both Sound & Vision and the SoundStage! Network.

PICTURE | The relatively brighter and richer Dolby Vision color grade of wintery shots of landscapes and structures are eye-catching but interior night scenes have an entirely different but equally impressive visual aesthetic

SOUND | The Atmos audio presentation isn’t particularly dynamic and lacks bass energy but succeeds in providing a delicate and fitting accompaniment to the onscreen action

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Review: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

review | Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

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Probably the most influential porn film ever, Russ Meyer’s evisceration of both the entertainment industry and the counterculture still packs a hell of a punch

by Michael Gaughn
January 13, 2023

This once-X-rated opening salvo in the effort to get soft porn out of sleazy “adult film” houses and into mainstream theaters is surprisingly well made, something of a masterpiece, and, by taking on a self-parodic tone no one had ever quite experienced before, yielded one of the most influential movies ever. It’s also spooked, channeling both the Manson murders and “The Teen Tycoon of Rock” Phil Spector, uncannily predicting Spector’s death-dealing future by 33 years, which can make watching it more than a little unnerving. Constantly poking and jabbing at the “no there there” of LA culture, coming at it from both above and below, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is the kind of film it never should have been possible to get made within the traditional studio system.

All movies are, in a sense, a product of their moment but few ever get to feed on that present as ravenously as Beyond, which devours it raw and with relish. It couldn’t have been made a year earlier, and would have just seemed tacky and sad done a year later. It had to spring from the cultural nadir of 1970, when all bets were off in a rudderless Hollywood desperate to seize on anything that worked. And realizing the once unthinkable idea of giving a pornographer the keys to the kingdom—not unlike Orson Welles given free rein of RKO to make Citizen Kane—lends this movie an infectious exuberance that somehow makes everything in it not just palatable but sublime.

Beyond is both very much of its time and an experience that hasn’t aged a day—partly because it’s so rampantly heedless and maniacally inspired and partly because it still serves as a wellhead for other movies, with no one yet able to top it. In a sense, like all great films, it just knows too much for anyone to completely exhaust it. If somebody had forced Douglas Sirk’s hand, it would have looked something like this; and it’s easy to trace a beeline straight from here to Alex Cox’s Repo Man. It’s like a boot camp for iconoclasts—and one of their last stands.

Simultaneously the lurid Victorian melodrama it says it is and its own parody, Beyond brought Nouvelle Vague-type self-reflexivity to American film, deploying it with a seemingly effortless dexterity. Its montage sequences—which are both integral to the story and standalone set-pieces of unparalleled goofiness but without ever succumbing to the temptation to pat themselves on the back—have never been bettered. (“In the Long Run” ranks with Eisenstein’s Odessa Steps as one of the genius moments of cinema.) It’s one of the first instances—you can also see it happening in Leone around the same time—of movies starting to feed on themselves, munching on their own tails. And, like the most satisfying art, it’s as deeply conservative as it is provocatively radical, deriving its energy from the collision, and symbiosis, of those fundamentally opposed moral and aesthetic spheres, transmuting that volatile act into something that miraculously hangs together—and that you feel compelled to watch exactly because of the sense it could all fly apart at any moment.

Beyond opens with the cheekiest credit sequence since Kiss Me Deadly, and, like Deadly, starts by knocking viewers off balance then does everything possible to keep them dizzy and disoriented for the duration. After a title card that basically tells the audience they’ve been lured into the movie under false pretenses, it then gives away the climactic scene, bringing a whole new meaning to “teaser.” But that big reveal, meaning little out of context, basically reveals nothing, and while it plays like something from a horror film, you ultimately find out it’s not more than a step or two removed from the Marx Brothers.

No one has ever equalled what Russ Meyer pulled off here, getting consistently strong portrayals out of a bunch of second- and third-stringers who ultimately wouldn’t fare any better than the characters they portray. John Lazar’s Z-Man is one of the iconic movie performances, a tightrope walk of virtuoso ham acting that somehow works but could never breathe for a second outside the confines of this film, which supplies all its oxygen. Yet Lazar, as great as he is in Beyond, would spend the rest of his career bouncing from one C-grade exploitation film to another. The top-billed Dolly Read made out even worse, scoring just a bare handful of minor one-off roles in series like Charlie’s Angels, Vegas, and Fantasy Island before disappearing forever beneath the waves. Meyer’s cast could hold its own against its counterpart in any A-list film, but its members all went exactly nowhere. 

The 1080p streaming presentation on Apple TV is surprisingly true to the original film, with no obvious flaws when viewed on a big screen. There’s probably more that could be pulled out of the elements in a 4K release, but what’s here honors both the spirit of the film and of the time, and only the only fussiest could find serious fault with this incarnation.

The same can’t be said for the sound, unfortunately. While I suspect the problems are mostly or completely with the source tracks, some judicious cleanup could make some of the muddier moments more presentable and some basic balancing between scenes could help even things out. Be prepared to have to occasionally goose your levels once they’re set since some sections are so muffled and low they can sound like you’re hearing somebody having a conversation in the next room.

If you haven’t come across this film before and use criteria more meaningful than Oscars won or Rotten Tomato scores tallied to judge the worth of a movie, you’ll likely find an evening spent with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls a bit of revelation. While it’s no longer considered forbidden fruit and, having lost a lot of its original shock value, can seem even quaint to the jaded, there’s still more than enough here to offend contemporary sensibilities. Beyond is very much its own animal, both exhilarating and disturbing, with DNA so unique it’s been spared the indignity of being franchised. Very, very few movies approach the level of pure film. Beyond is one of them, and one of the best. 

Michael Gaughn—The Absolute Sound, The Perfect Vision, Wideband, Stereo Review, Sound & Vision, The Rayva Roundtablemarketing, product design, some theater designs, a couple TV shows, some commercials, and now this.

PICTURE | The 1080p streaming presentation on Apple TV is surprisingly true to the original film, with no obvious flaws when viewed on a big screen

SOUND | There are issues with clarity and with balance from scene to scene, so be prepared to adjust your levels as the film goes along

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