DVD Review: BIG STAR: NOTHING CAN HURT ME (2012)

BIG STAR: NOTHING CAN HURT ME (2012) 

Label: Magnolia Releasing

Region: 1 NTSC

Rating: PG-13

Duration: 111 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English SDH, French and Spanish Subtitles

Video: 16:9 Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: Drew DeNicola

Big Star: Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens,
Chris Bell and Andy Hummel

My introduction to the music of Big Star came in 1997 while tuned into Radio Limbo 103.3 FM - a pirate radio station here in Tucson, AZ late one night when across my speakers came the sublime slice of pop "September Gurls" which floated across the room and into my ears, it was love at first listen and the next day I bought both "#1 Record/Radio City" and Third/Sister Lovers" and never looked back, they're that kind of band, once they get their hooks into you your snagged, for life. 

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (2012) is a touching portrait of the power-pop rockers Big Star who emerged from Memphis music scene in the early 1970's following the break-up of The Box Tops when singer Alex Chilton met singer-songwriter-guitarist Chris Bell. The fated meeting soon spawned Big Star who were born in the belly of Ardent Studios as a recording project. Truly something magic happened during those early sessions and the result was a classic first album, the ironically titled '#1 Album'. Big Star created gorgeous pop songs with a unique guitar sound and tone, heart melting harmonies and poignant lyrics that were at once naive, cynical and seemed to divulge simple truths about love and life, a very honest album. 

While the album received critical acclaim it was a commercial failure. In a way it reminds me of the trajectory of The Velvet Underground who were never a commercial success but as legend has it everyone who heard VU started a band, Big Star definitely went onto influence a great number of bands including Elliot Smith, R.E.M. and The Replacements just to name but a few.

Alex Chilton

The doc tells the story of the studio magic, the tumultuous relationship of Alex Chilton and Chris Bell and their separation following the first albums commercial failure.  We follow their disparate paths following '#1 Record' as Chilton continues the band for two more albums while Bell attempted to secure a solo record deal. It's both inspiring and heart-breaking, particularly the story of Chris Bell, a seeker who dabbled in drugs in search of spirituality who passed on in 1978. Through the story we come to realize that Bell was sort of the soul of the band and when he and Chilton reunite on the Chris Bell solo single "I Am the Cosmos" years later the results are eerie and beautiful.  

We have a wealth of early pictures of the band, stories from the studio from the surviving band mates Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel, the Bell family, radio interview with Chilton, studio techs and producers, rare studio outtakes and vintage performance video of Big Star, Alex Chilton, The Cramps and Panther Burns, plus testimony from musicians (Stephen Drodz of the Flaming Lips, Ken Stringfellow of The Posies, Mike Mills of R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcock, Cheap Trick) and critics (Lester Bangs,  which attest to the profound influence of the music Big Star music and legacy. The film follows up to it's logical conclusion, the 1993 reunion of the band and subsequent touring on through to Chilton's 2010 death and the touching all-star tribute to the band's legacy at the South By Southwest. 

This is a documentary with a lot of re watch value, one of the best music docs of the past few years. It's right up there with the phenomenal A Band Called Death (2012) doc which tells the story of early 70's Detroit proto-punk rockers Death, which if you haven't seen it is streaming on Netflix as is the Big star doc. 

Chris Bell

DVD: Magnolia Picture's DVD presents the film in the original anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio and it looks solid. Sourced from varying images and interview segments, vintage photos and video clips, and press clippings the images, of varying quality, flow to comes through wonderfully with a nicely balanced English language Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Optional English SDH, Spanish and French language subtitles are provided. 

Onto the special features we have a mini treasure cnsisting of ten minutes of deleted scenes that center on the band's touring from '72-'74 plus two featurettes  focusing particularly on Chris Bell and Alex Chilton, the making-of the third album is quite interesting as are the New York years.  There's also a featurette of behind-the-scenes super 8mm, studio outtakes and commentary on the in-studio experience from Ardent Studios alum who were on hand for the '#1 Record' and "Radio City" sessions, it's great stuff and the audiophiles will be delighted as they talk about the unorthodox recording methods the band used to capture their specific sound and guitar tones in the studio, the science of the recordings, loved it. 

DVD Special Features: 

- Deleted Scenes (10:32) 

- Chris Bell (18:32) 

- Alex Chilton (24:08)

- Big Star in the Studio (15:13) 

- Trailer (2:22) 
- Magnolia Trailers: Good Ol' Freda (2:21), Black Fish (2:25), Prince Avalanche (2:20), A Hijacking (2:02) 

Verdict: A gorgeous documentary that fans of Big Star will adore and the story so captivating that I imagine the uninitiated will be drawn into the soulful pop music, and that's a wonderful thing. Big Star are a seminal band right up there with Velvet Underground, one of the unsung heroes of pop music in the 1970's and this doc is a truly moving document of a band that just got lost in the shuffle during their time but have since gained a cult following through the decades and it continues to grow. 4.5 Outta 5  

DVD Review: ABSENTIA (2010)

ABSENTIA (2010)

Label: Phase 4 Films

Region Code: 1 NTSC

Rating: R

Duration: 91 mins

Video: 16:9 Widescreen (1.78:1)

Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital

Director: Mike Flanagan

Cast: Kate Parker, Courtney Bell, Dave Levine, Morgan Peter Brown, Justin Gordon, James Flanagan

At the start of director Mike Flanagan's creepy supernatural thriller Absentia Tricia (Courtney Bell) is a woman struggling with her husband Daniel's (Morgan Peter Brown) unexplained disappearance seven years previously. Trying to move on with her life she's 0n the verge of processing paperwork declaring him 'dead in absentia' but the process proves unnerving and she's tormented by frightening visions, not helping matters she's pregnant with another man's child and racked with guilt. To help her through this emotionally difficult time her younger sister Callie (Katie Parker) comes to stay with her but she comes with her own demons, namely a history of drug abuse and homelessness.

Callie's daily jogs through the neighborhood bring her to a pedestrian walkway that runs underneath the freeway across the street, it's here that she encounters a strange spectre-like man (Doug Jones), the odd encounter is unnerving but she shakes it off, the following day she encounters a strange young man who warns her to stay away from the tunnel. Drawn to the tunnel she develops a bit of an obsession with the ominous place and learns that a rash of disappearances have occurred in and around the tunnel since the turn of the century.

No sooner has Tricia put pen to paper declaring her husband dead when he turns up outside her home in a near catatonic state, traumatized and disturbed. The sudden reappearance throws the distraught Tricia into a tailspin as she struggles to deal with the pregnancy and what Daniel's reappearance means. As she wrestles to maintain her sanity Daniel becomes a bit more coherent and confesses to Tricia's sister that he was abducted by a large insectoid creature and transported to a netherworld. At this point Callie is completely enraptured with the strangeness associated with the tunnel, she's already heard strange noises in the house and when Daniel says that there's something living in the walls she ready to believe but it may already be too late for it seems the creature wants Daniel back.

 

The film is low-budget but has high production standards, cinematically it looks well beyond it's means and is quite attractive. The cinematography sets a definite atmosphere which is enhanced in no small part by Ryan David Leack's hauntingly repetitive  score. The scares aren't cheap, this is a tense and chilling film that earns it's fright factor.

Absentia runs lean and strong beginning with a strong script and solid performances from the leads. The only bit of the film I felt was extraneous were the detectives whom felt forced and stereotyped, had they been excised I think it may have made for an even stronger film. Absentia is an indie creeper done right, an indie chiller that casts a haunting spell. 3.5 outta 5

DVD Special Features:

- Absentia: A Retrospective (33:15) 16:9

- Producer and Actor Commentary

- Camera Teaser Teaser (1:16) 16:9

- Deleted Scenes (5:15) 16:9

- Trailer(1:27) 16:9

DVD Review: Live Animals (2009)

LIVE ANIMALS (2009)

Echo Bridge Entertainment


TAGLINE: Buy, Sell, Trade, the Market's Open.
RATED: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 80 Min.
DIRECTOR: Jeremy Benson
CAST: John Still (Wayne), Christian Walker (Nick), Jeanette Comans (Erin), Stacy Still (Kathy), Patrick Cox (Edgar)

SUMMARY: In the quiet of the country, a sick twisted man kidnaps young adults in the dark of night, binds them by heavy chains to stalls in an isolated barn. They are trained to obey with torture, broken like horses, prepared for merciless slaughter. Their screeches of pain go ignored - many others were once here, many more will arrive. But one batch of prisoners has the chance to escape. Too bad they've underestimated their killer...

 FILM: As a night of partying at a lake house comes to an end a horny group of five 20-somethings are stalked and kidnapped by a hulking masked-figure armed with a dart gun. They awake the next morning and discover that they have been abducted and are being held captive in a horse stable. The captor is a ruthless man named Wayne (John Still), turns out he's a cold-hearted trafficker of white slaves that are sold on the black market to the highest bidder ...and he looks a bit like the world's meanest Santa Clause with that big white beard. He let's the 20-somethings know that they are his property now, they're like animals and they will be broken as such. And so he does with the assistance of his accomplice Edgar, a burly and mean looking Patrick Cox. Also among the captive is Kathy (Stacy Still), a seemingly mentally feeble woman who to my eyes strongly recalled the great Grace Zabriskie (Galaxy of Terror) in her appearance as woman at her wits end. She's singing fairy tales and generally being nutty. The film is fairly depressing as they're stripped of their dignity, tortured and broken, one of them loses their tongue in the process. The torture isn't overdone, but it is well executed and dreadful just the same. When one of their group is sold to a well-dressed businessman and shipped out of the country the group quickly realize they need to do anything they can to escape. When given the opportunity they make a break for it which leads to a bloody confrontation with their captor and a twist(ed) ending.

The acting is quite good throughout, particularly John Still as the menacing Wayne. I found myself thinking during the film what would I do in a similar situation,  but I didn't particularly relate to any of the 20-somethings which made it hard feel for them. Another aspect of the film I didn't care pertained to a revelation involving the character of Kathy. It seemed a bit of a convenience and I didn't buy into it. It proved to be a very convenient plot device. It didn't ruin the film for me, but I felt it was the weakest part of an overall good film.
The film has an artful style, it looked great with good lighting and concise editing. The story was pretty streamlined and didn't have a lot of fluff, it's a brisk 80 minute film, not a lot of lulls.

While watching the film I was reminded of another recent white slavery flick which I enjoyed a bit more called Shuttle (2008), they tread similar territory. White slavery isn't something
addressed in films the way it was in the exploitation cinema of late 60's and 70's and it's good to see it touched on now and again. The subject matter isn't handled particularly deeply here but it's a good concept and I wound up enjoying the film much more than it's "torture porn" reputation would have had me believe.

DVD: Live Animals is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with a 2.0 stereo audio track. It's a good looking film shot digitally and the stereo sound is decent. There are 3 bonus features that run about 45 min. combined comprised of behind the scenes stuff, interviews and a tutorial on creating digital effects, not bad.


Special Features
- A View from the Crate: The Making of Live Animals (17 min.)
- Deleted Scenes (15 min.)
- Behind the Digital Curtain (22 min.)

VERDICT: The term "torture porn" is thrown around quite a bit and I've heard it tossed at Live Animals as well, but it doesn't fit in my opinion. The marketing itself reaches out to fans of films like Saw and Hostel and I can see this connecting with them, I just don't but into the term "torture porn". While not a spectacular film Live Animals was a good low-budget indie thriller with good production and artful execution. **1/2 (2.5out of 5 stars)

-McBASTARD