Digital Week – November 20

It only took 36 years for the sequel to Tim Burton’s winsomely offbeat supernatural black comedy to finally arrive, and if it doesn’t reach the giddy heights of the original, it still has the potent satirical presence of Michael Keaton in the title role as well as the welcome return of both Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara as daughter and mother. Additionally, the disarming and winning Jenna Ortega plays Ryder’s daughter, and she, Keaton and Burton are enough to make this watchable. There’s an excellent UHD transfer; extras include Burton’s commentary and several behind the scenes featurettes. 

The ultimate western parody is definitely not Mel Brooks’ best film—it has more dry patches and juvenile jokes than many of his other films—but the fact that this came out the same year (1974) as what is his best film, “Young Frankenstein,” is a miracle in itself. And, of course, it’s stuffed with legendary comic moments courtesy of Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens and Madeline Kahn. The film looks sparkling in 4K; extras include Brooks’ scene-specific commentary and several featurettes and additional scenes.

German composer Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) created this masterpiece of German romantic opera in 1821; even its rickety fairy-tale plot including the supernatural and a magic bullet doesn’t put a pall on it. This colorful production, on the lake at Austria’s Bregenz Festival this past summer, pulls together great musicmaking, singing and staging for a memorable viewing. The ace performances are led by sopranos Nikola Hillebrand and Katharina Ruckgaber, while Philipp Stölzl’s direction and set design are unimpeachable. The exemplary Vienna Philharmonic and Bregenz Festival Choir are led by conductor Enrique Mazzola. Hi-def video and audio are impeccable; lone extra is a making-of featurette.      

Brazilian maverick director Rogério Sganzerla was part of the late 1960s’ Cinema Marginal movement, and this often dazzling 1968 entry about a celebrated Sao Paolo thief (based on a real-life incident) who steals from the rich, makes fools of the police and charms the public is a real hoot, despite the crudeness expected of a 21-year-old filmmaker. But it’s so energetic and confident—and the acting of Paulo Villaça and Helena Ignez is so winningly persuasive—that falling in with its rhythms is easy. Too bad there’s not a great print available, but even in this merely OK transfer, the startling B&W imagery comes through. Extras include an Ignez interview, several Sganzerla shorts and an interview with film conservationist Paulo Sacramento. 

One of director James Ivory, producer Ismael Merchant and writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s lesser collaborations was this slight, almost amateurish 1977 omnibus film about several people, mainly older women and younger men, who meet and dance at the famed dance hall in midtown Manhattan. There are nicely observed scenes (notably in the first section with a wonderful Teresa Wright), but even though actors like Geraldine Chaplin and a young Christopher Walken try their hardest, there’s not much to this character study that works now as a time capsule of late ’70s NYC. The film looks decent on Blu; lone extra is a recent Ivory interview.

The latest Blumhouse scarefest pillages Danish director Christian Tafdrup’s 2022 film to tell the story of a naïve family—mom, dad, teenage daughter—befriended by a strange couple and their mute son who are unable to leave when they visit and discover murder is in the offing. Director-writer James Watkins has softened the original’s nihilistic worldview (similar to the U.S. remake of that seminal psychological horror film “The Vanishing”) by dutifully putting these people through their paces until a bloody but obvious climax. James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi and Scoot McNairy as the adults and Alix West Lefler and Dan Hough as the kids are fine but can’t transcend the material. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer; extras include behind the scenes featurettes and interviews.