THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990) (Film Movement Blu-ray Review)

THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990) 

Label: Film Movement Classics 
Region Code: Region-Free
Duration: 96 minutes
Rating: R
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen(1.85:1) 
Audio: English PCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Philip Ridley
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Cooper, Sheila Moore, Duncan Fraser

The Reflecting Skin (1990) is a warped David Lynchian-Norman Rockwell-ish nightmare, wherein an impressionable and slightly disturbed eight-year-old named Seth
(Jeremy Cooper) is coming of age in rural 1950's Idaho. It's a slow-burning American Gothic tale populated by some strange characters, including a murderous band of greasers who travel the back roads in a shiny, black Cadillac looking for children to murder. It's the sort of place where bored young boys resort to blowing-up frogs for fun, and where Seth's young playmates are murdered one by one until his only companion in the world is the rotting corpse of a baby fetus he keeps in a box beneath his bed. 

Yeah, this is a weird one, and that's just the tip of the strangeness-iceberg, let's not forget the English widow down the road named Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan, Body Parts) whom Seth begins to believes is a vampire out to drain his older brother Cameron (Viggo Mortensen, 
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III)
of his precious bodily fluids. Then there's his overbearing mother whose manages to drive her troubled husband to commit suicide in a gasoline-fueled inferno. Lots of weird stuff, so strap yourself in and prepare yourself for a melancholic Americana nightmare set to endless fields of yellow grain and big blue sky.

Audio/Video: The Reflecting Skin (1990) arrives on Blu-ray from Film Movement as part of their Film Movement Classics line-up, presenting the film in 1.85:1 widescreen and sourced from a 2K restoration from the original film elements. The image is crisp and clean, perhaps a bit too clean, with what looks to be some DNR-smoothing having been applied, with certain scenes looking a bit waxy, which is unfortunate. Digital scrubbing aside this otherwise looks solid, it's the first time I've seen it in proper widescreen on home video, and the color-grading is very pleasing, far superior to the shite fullframe DVD I had of it previously, a pleasing though not perfect upgrade.

Audio on the disc comes by way of an English PCM 20 stereo presentation with optional English subtitles. Everything is crisp and clean sounding, there were no issues with hiss or distortion, and the big score from Nick Bicât is magnificent and sounds terrific. 
   
Extras include an audio commentary with writer/director Philip Ridley that digs deep into the making of the film, plus a 44-min making of retrospective 'Angels & Atom Bombs: The Making of The Reflecting Skin' with interviews from the director, Viggo Mortenson,  plus a 20-page booklet with notes on the restoration from the director, plus a pair of essays on the film by writers Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche. For the sake of comparison I now that the UK Blu-ray from Soda Pictures also features a pair of Philip Ridley's short films and an isolated music score, which are not found on this release. 

The single-disc release comes housed in a clear Blu-ray keepcase with a two-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster, with the reverse side featuring a scene from the film, with the disc featuring the same artwork as the wrap.

Special Features: 
- Angels & Atom Bombs: The Making of The Reflecting Skin (44 min)
- Audio Commentary with writer/director Philip Ridley
- Booklet with introduction by Philip Ridley and new essay by Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche 

Fans of  disturbed youth cinema like Butcher Boy (1997) or The Other (1972) definitely need to check this one out, it's a kindred spirit, a film that channels the small town dread of Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) with a bit of that enigmatic children's allegory of The Spirit of the Beehive (1973). It's great to see this one finally getting a good-looking Blu-ray in the proper aspect ratio in the U.S., hopefully it brings this under-seen gem some deserved glory, and also be sure to check out Ridley Philip's haunting film Heartless (2009). 

THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990) (Echo Bridge DVD Review)

THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990) 

Label: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Duration: 96 Minutes
Rating:  R
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 

Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1) 

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Cooper, Duncan Fraser, Lindsay Duncan

Director: Philip Ridley 

Tagline: Sometimes terrible things happen quite naturally.

Seth is an impressionable and disturbed eight-year-old growing up in the rural America of the 1950, a warped David Lynchian-Norman Rockwell nightmare, an American Gothic tale populated by murderous greasers and an eccentric one-eyed sheriff with a prosthetic arm. The kind of place where a bored young boys resort to exploding frogs for fun and a child's friends are murdered one by one until his only companion is the discarded corpse of a fetus kept in a box under his bed. The sort of place where the widow down the road is certainly a vampire, where a domineering wife drives her husband to to commit suicide in a gasoline fueled dust devil. Prepare yourself for a melancholic nightmare set to endless fields of grain and big sky.

For years director Phillip Ridley haunting debut film The Reflecting Skin (1990) was unavailable on DVD and sat in the Miramax vault gathering dust. Echo Bridge Home Entertainment licensed a number of titles from Weinstein's and now we have it on DVD for the first time. Unfortunately the transfer is a fullframe port of what would appear to be a VHS master or Laserdisc with the grain smeared away. The image is undefined, drab and plagued by artifacting. The Dolby Digital stereo audio is soft and the levels fluctuate wildly, it's just not a pretty sight.  

This is a gorgeously shot film and for it to languish on such a poor DVD is quite a crime, this might not be a lost classic but it's certainly a neglected slice of 90's cinema deserving of a new HD transfer. Fans of  disturbed youth cinema like Butcher Boy (1997) or The Other (1972) definitely need to check this one out, it's a kindred spirit. 

Film Review: Heartless (2009)

HEARTLESS (2009)

“The darker it gets the more you see”

RATED: R
RUNNING TIME: 114 Min.
DIRECTOR: Philip Ridley
CAST: Jim Sturgess, Noel Clark, Joseph Mawle, Eddie Marsan, Timothy Spall,

ANECDOTAL: HEARTLESS is directed by Philip Ridley whom has not directed a film in 14 years, welcome back dude. His previous films are THE PASSION OF THE DARKLY NOON (1995) and THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990), neither of which I’ve seen, but having watched HEARTLESS, I’ll need to remedy this oversight ASAP.

SYNOPSIS: A troubled young man, taking note of the increased violence and odd happening in his neighborhood, suspects demonic foot soldiers are on the prowl in London.

THE FILM: Jamie Morgan (Jim Sturgess, Across the Universe) was born with a large heart-shaped facial birthmark. This disfigurement makes it difficult for James to feel part of normal society, he feels depressed and awkward. Lacking affection from the opposite sex he focuses his energies into photography. Sturgess’ portrayal of Jamie is very natural and convincing, underplayed, not too quirky. While on an evening photographic expedition he encounters a shrieking, demonic-faced youth wearing a hoodie. His encounter combined with reports of murderous masked figures brutally setting people aflame convinces Jim that something more than random acts of violence are occurring. Not long afterwards Jim and his mother are attacked; his mother dies a fiery death. James, wracked by grief, and in want of revenge, decides he must discover the truth behind the escalating violence and his mother gruesome death. His pursuit leads to a meeting with the dark figure known as Papa B (Joseph Mawle). James soon discovers that this character is seemingly the mastermind behind the recent plague of evil deeds. After a failed attempt to avenge his mother’s death James makes a Faustian Deal with Papa B, whom promises him that his disfiguring birthmark will disappear, in exchange for some minor acts of vandalism. As with all Faustian Deals, it’s not as black and white as it would appear. Along the way James falls in love with Tia (Clemence Poesy), and meets The Weapons Man, played in a brief, but scene stealing performance by Edie Marsan, it’s a great bit, played with humor, and it works.


DVD: HEARTLESS is filmed in high definition and it looks amazing. The 2.35:1 HD digital cinematography captures the urban sprawl of East London quite well .The film has been making the festival circuit; a DVD release is slated for October in the US. The Region 2 DVD is currently available.

VERDICT: HEARTLESS is a fantasy-horror film, a modern day Faustian-tale, and it’s played for realism, it is never so fantastic that I fell out the reality of the film. I was enraptured from start to finish. This is a haunting film; I was similarly affected upon my first viewing of DONNIE DARKO. The FX, both practical and CGI are well done, it’s not a splatter fest, but it is highly satisfying. I strongly recommend this film.
**** (4 out of 5 stars)