Digital Week – September 2

Griffin Dunne’s pleasant enough 1998 movie about a family of women witches and the men who nearly upset their bond didn’t set the box office on fire but has become a cult item well-liked enough to merit a sequel, coming out next week. Based on Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel, it’s not a patch on something more sinister like “The Witches of Eastwick” (either John Updike’s novel or George Miller’s flawed but fun 1987 adaptation), but an entertaining cast led by Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as sisters, Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing as their aunts and Goran Visnjic and Aidan Quinn as the meddling men helps it to the finish line. The film looks great in UHD; extras comprise a commentary with Dunne, Bullock, producer Denise DiNovi and composer Alan Silvestri as well as two short vintage featurettes.

In his likably raunchy, nearly-hardcore sex comedies, Italian director Tinto Brass unapologetically puts the female form front and center, probing his fresh-faced models nearly gynecologically. This 1995 feature, as its title implies, is an “adaptation” of fan letters he received, bringing to life erotic trysts and fantasies that he oversees onscreen. If it lacks the artfulness of his other films like “Frivolous Lola” and “Cheeky,” it’s still the product of a singular creator of erotica. Dante Dalla Torre’s cinematography and the many ladies parading in front sparkle in 4K; extras include the film on a Blu-ray disc, a new commentary, Italian and English language tracks, and a 1995 Brass interview.

In this often lacerating dark comedy, Marija, who runs a thriving startup in Vilnius, Lithuania, tells her floundering husband Vytus that she wants to break up—but the very next day, Russia invades Ukraine, making the couple’s lives more difficult to navigate in a suddenly topsy-turvy world that includes refugees, new loves and bitter acrimony. Writer-director Andrius Blaževičius successfully balances emotional drama with biting satire as the couple’s fraught breakup becomes a stark metaphor for how forces from within and without can damage even the sturdiest relationship. It’s immaculately acted by Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė (Marija), Marius Repšys (Vytas) and especially the precociously talented Amelija Adomaitytė as young daughter Dovilė.

In her auspicious debut as a writer-director-actor, the winning Lauren Caster plays Ro, a failed dancer who returns to SoCal from NYC to meet her birth father Gregory while also juggling a tempestuous relationship with her lesbian mother Susan, a possible boyfriend in coworker Zach and a new job at a senior care facility, Leisure World, that gives her a new perspective on life (and gives Caster the chance to amusingly riff on that name, i.e., Seizure World). Caster is a refreshingly guileless screen presence, and her generosity as a triple-threat extends to the characters she’s written. The excellent cast also includes Tate Donovan (Gregory), Amy Aquino (Susan), Conor Donnally (Zach) and Marianne Muellerleile as Ethel, the orneriest of the seniors she works with.

Based on a true story, this beguiling comedy follows the antics of down-on-their-luck residents of a forgotten region of Sardinia up in arms over the steadfast refusal of elderly shepherd Efisio to sell his ancestral land to a greedy Milan developer, who wants to build a luxury resort on the sparkling local beach. Director Riccardo Milani sometimes lays on the us-vs-them, working-class-vs-elite parallels too thickly, but there’s no denying the pointed comic, dramatic and even political points he scores throughout. Non-actor Giuseppe Ignazio Loi is perfectly cast as the barely literate Efisio, while Virginia Raffaele is marvelously affecting as his stubborn daughter Francesca, his biggest ally after her initial skepticism.