MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: FILM FOCUS: JENNIFER CONNELLY (1991-2003) (Imprint Collection Blu-ray Review with Screenshots)

FILM FOCUS: JENNIFER CONNELLY (1991 – 2003)

Limited Edition 3-Disc Hardbox (1500 Copies)

Imprint Collection #240 - 242

Label: Imprint Films

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: MA15+
Audio: Uncompressed Audio with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen

Director: Bryon Gordon, Keith Gordon, Vadim Perelman

Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Frank Whaley, Kieran Mulroney, Ben Kingsley, Shohreh Aghdashloo

When I think of actress Jennifer Connelly's 40 year career in Hollywood a few film in particular come to mind; for me it's Phenomena, Labyrinth, The Rocketeer, Dark City, Requiem for a Dream, and Dark Water. As I am a genre film fan it's these genre flicks that get my attention, I've been well aware of her talent for a long time, but I usually have my head so buried in cult, horror, fantasy and exploitation that sometimes I miss out on the larger filmography and Connelly has over 40 films to choose from, so I have missed out on quite a few. So divining into this 3-film set from Imprint Films collecting a trio of mid-career gems was quite a wonderful detour for me, with the added bonus that all three were first time watches.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES (1991)

Label: Imprint Films #240

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: MA15+

Duration: 82 Minutes 51 Seconds

Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English HOH Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)

Director: Bryan Gordon

Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Frank Whaley, Kieran Mulroney, John M. Jackson, John Candy, Noble Willingham, Kieran Mulroney, Barry Corbin, William Forsythe

In the John Hughes (Christmas Vacation) penned Career Opportunities (1991) Jim Dodge (Frank Whaley, Swimming with Sharks) is a small-town daydreamer seemingly known throughout the county as a smooth-talking bullshitter who has trouble keeping a job. When he loses his latest job his father (John M. Jackson, Eve of Destruction) tells his he either gets a job or he's gonna send him off to live with uncle in a neighboring state to work on his farm. He ends up getting hired by Target store manager (a fun cameo late comedy legend John Candy, Uncle Buck) as the overnight custodian, where he's left on his own to fully engage and indulge his daydreamer-ish behavior. Thinking he's all alone he is surprised to encounter the Josie McClellan (Jennifer Connelly, Phenomena), the most beautiful girl in town, who apparently fell asleep in the changing room while contemplating a shoplifting stunt designed to piss of her wealthy but inattentive father (Noble Willingham, The Howling), locked together inside they hit it off and what we end up with is a pretty typical John Hughes rom-com pairing the beauty and the dweeb. This coming right after the mega-success of Home Alone it retreads the bumbling crooks bit as a pair of inept thieves, Nestor (Dermot Mulroney, TV's Shameless) and Gil (Kieran Mulroney, The Immortals) break into the store to loot it, and hold the pair a gunpoint, leaving screw-up Frank to save the day. Not Hughes finest moment as a writer by any means but an entertaining, breezy comedy with Whaley getting a few solid quips and Connelly does her part as the angsty eye-candy with daddy issues. Also be on the lookout for Barry Corbin (TV's Northern Exposure, Dead & Buried) as Officer Don and William Forsythe (The Devils Rejects) as a shotgun toting janitor.

Special Features:
- 1080P High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- NEW Audio Commentary by director Bryan Gordon (2023)
- NEW Interior. Night. – director of photography Donald McAlpine on filming Career Opportunities (2023) (10:43) HD
- NEW Crafting Criminals – Interview with actors Dermot and Kieran Mulroney (2023) (15:52) HD
- Theatrical Trailer (2:06) HD

WAKING THE DEAD (2000)

Label: Imprint Films#241

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: MA15+

Duration: 105 Minutes 12 Seconds

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, PCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English HOH Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: Keith Gordon

Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Billy Crudup, Molly Parker, Janet McTeer, Paul Hipp, Sandra Oh, Hal Holbrook

In the densely layered Waking the Dead Billy Crudup (Watchmen) plays Coast Guard officer Fielding Pierce who has political ambition, he meets and begins dating Sara Williams (Jennifer Connelly, Labyrinth) a social justice idealist, they couldn't be more different but they are drawn to each other. The film actually opens in the early 70's with Crudup's character watching a newscast that reports on Sarah's death, she having been killed in a Minneapolis car bombing while organizing resistance tot he Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. From there the film moves back and forth from their time together in the 70's and Fielding campaign for congress a decade later, increasingly haunted by her death he begins to believe she is still alive and starts to lose his grip on reality. The Keith Gordon (the director of The Singing Detective who also had starring roles in Christine, Jaws 2 and Dressed To Kill) flick is not always easy to follow with the shifts in decades but I quite liked it, it a haunting watch as Crudup navigates loss and heartache, and both he and Connelly are terrific together, especially late in the film when she seemingly returns to bring their broken romance to a proper close, the tear flow from me every dang time, especially once the aching beautiful "Snow Come Down" by Lori Carson kicks in. The flick also features some other phenomenal tunes from Rod Stewart, David Bowie and Brian Eno, Joni Mitchell and Peter Gabriel, it's a gem of a soundtrack. The supporting cast is also terrific, be on the lookout for Hal Holbrook (Creepshow), Janet McTeer (The Menu), Molly Parker (Kissed), Sandra Oh (Sideways) and John Carroll Lynch (American Horror Story: 1984).

Special Features:
- 1080P High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- Audio Commentary by director Keith Gordon
- NEW Audio Commentary by film critic Bilge Ebiri (2023)
- NEW The Sum Total of Change – Interview with director Keith Gordon (2023)(26:04)
- NEW Desperately Clinging to Utopian Ideals – Interview with actor Billy Crudup (2023) (24:35)
- Making-Of – archival featurette (4:07)
- Deleted scenes (with optional commentary by director Keith Gordon) (49:27)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:28)

HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG (2003)

Label: Imprint Films #242

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: MA15+

Duration: 126 Minutes 12 Seconds

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, LPCM 2.0 Stereo Surround with Optional English HOH Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)

Director: Vadim Perelman

Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Shohreh Aghdashloo

The real gem of this set for me was the Oscar nominated House of Sand and Fog (2003) which I remember causing quite a buzz in 2003, but I was knee-deep in raising three toddlers at the time and my wife and I didn;t make it to the movies for quite a while, and I had long since forgotten about it. Another haunting film about an an Iranian Colonel, Massoud Behrani (Sexy Beast) forced to flee the life he once knew, emigrating to the U.S., and starting over from scratch. He's been working multiple menial jobs in an attempt to bring back his family’s former prosperity, and a bureaucratic bungle that unjustly evicts a severely depressed recovering addict Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly, The Rocketeer). This sets in motion a series of tragic events that to be honest always leave me crushed and in tears, a tragically beautiful and poetic film that is pretty damn near perfect, featuring a soul-shredding emotional outpouring from Kingsley as his character pleads with God to save a mortally wounded family member, a scene followed by several more scenes which have me reaching for the Kleenex and actively bawling till the final moments of the film.

How I slept on this for so long is a bit baffling, but seeing it now for the first time I was really bowled over by it and cannot recommend it enough. Connelly's character is like a slow-moving doom machine, not a terrible person on her own, she's actually quite sympathetic, but the series of events that transpire based on her choices and chance encounters, including a truly unhinged turn from Ron Eldard (Super 8) as a seemingly nice guy cop who literally throws it all away in a truly breathtaking turn of xenophobic actions, it's an absolutely enthralling spiral of depression and tragedy, immaculately assembled by director Vadim Perelman (The Life Before Her Eyes) with lyrical lensing by legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins (Barton Fink) and a terrific score by the late James Horner (Cocoon).

Special Features:
- 1080P High-definition presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K scan
- Audio Commentary with actor Ben Kingsley, director Vadim Perelman and novelist Andre Dubus III
- NEW When The Fog Clears – director Vadim Perelman Twenty Years Later (2023) (14:21)
- NEW Building The House – editor Lisa Zeno Churgin on House Of Sand And Fog (2023) (20:15)
- NEW Finding Nadi – a conversation with actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (2023) (20:54)
- Deleted scenes (with optional audio commentary by Vadin Perelman) (11:13)
- Behind-the-scenes – archival featurette (15:54)
- Shohreh Aghdashloo Audition Footage (6:07)
- Slide Show with comments by cast and crew (5:40)

Audio/Video: All three films arrive on region-free Blu-tray from Imprint Films, and I am assuming these are coming from existing HD masters and not new scans as they are not advertised as such. That said they all look solid, I thought Waking the Dead looked the most dated and digital of the trio, with House of Sand and Fog looking the best and more refined. All three releases have either/or uncompressed 2.0 and 5.1 audio options and sound quite good, everything is well-balanced and clean, dialogue is delivered with depth and clarity, the score sound great - no issues here,

Newly produced extras on Career Opportunities include an Audio Commentary by director Bryan Gordon; the 11-min Interior. Night. – director of photography Donald McAlpine on filming Career Opportunities (2023); the 16-min Crafting Criminals – Interview with actors Dermot and Kieran Mulroney (2023), plus an 2-min HD Theatrical Trailer.

New extras for Waking the Dead come by way of a fresh Audio Commentary by film critic Bilge Ebiri (2023); the 260-min The Sum Total of Change – Interview with director Keith Gordon (2023); and the 25-min Desperately Clinging to Utopian Ideals – Interview with actor Billy Crudup (2023). Archival bonus goodies include an Audio Commentary by director Keith Gordon; 4-min archival Making-Of featurette; 49-minutes of Deleted scenes (with optional commentary by director Keith Gordon); plus the 2-min Theatrical Trailer.

The House of Sand and Fog a set of new extras as well, we get the 14-min When The Fog Clears – director Vadim Perelman Twenty Years Later (2023); the 20-min

Building The House – editor Lisa Zeno Churgin on House Of Sand And Fog (2023); and the 21-min Finding Nadi – a conversation with actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (2023). Archival goodies include 11-min of Deleted scenes (with optional audio commentary by Vadin Perelman), the Audio Commentary with actor Ben Kingsley, director Vadim Perelman and novelist Andre Dubus III; the 15-min Behind-the-scenes featurette; 6-min Shohreh Aghdashloo Audition Footage and a 6-min Slide Show with commentary by cast and crew. It's a bummer as this is a Film Focus on Jennifer Connelly we do not get any new input from Connelly who only show up in the archival material, and then only briefly, that's certainly a disappointment, but the array of new extras are pretty terrific just the same.

The deluxe limited edition 3-disc release arrives in a handsome Hardbox that loads from the top, adorned with black and white images of Connelly in the three films with silver-foil highlights, and there's a quote from Connelly on the backside about her thoughts on acting. Lifting the top off the hardbox reveals a three 14mm clear keepcases housing the feature-films, the wraps are 2-sided but non reversible, both featuring different theatrical artworks with images from the film on the reverse side, the disc inside some of the same art as the wraps. Also tucked away inside is a 60-Page Illustrated Booklet containing the essays on the films and Connelly's career and allure by Abbey Bender, Blake Howard, and Jim Hemphill that contextualize the films quite nicely.

Screenshots from the Imprint Films Blu-ray:

Career Opportunities (1991)