FILM FRENZY

Chris Hemsworth (center) in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Austin Butler in The Bikeriders (Photos: Furiosa, Warner; Bikeriders, Universal & Focus)

By Matt Brunson

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

THE BAT WHISPERS (1931). Where to begin when discussing The Bat Whispers, a motion picture whose relative obscurity today belies the fact that it had once been largely influential on a handful of fronts? Should one start with the tidbit that Bob Kane always cited it as one of the main inspirations for his creation of Batman? Or the fact that it was one of a handful of widescreen movies made a couple of decades before Hollywood was ready to start producing widescreen movies en masse? Or that it was one of the first — perhaps the first? — movies to end with its star emerging from behind an on-screen curtain to implore audience members not to reveal the twist ending to friends and family members? Originally a 1920 Broadway hit called The Bat, the story was given the film treatment in a 1926 silent movie also called The Bat. Directed by Roland West, that version proved to be such a mammoth success that West decided to remake it a few years later as a talkie and retitle it The Bat Whispers. The tale is a murder-mystery with plenty of broad humor taking over the spotlight, as a masked figure known as “The Bat” has confounded police with his string of crimes. Now relocating to the country, he appears to be the one terrorizing a household whose occupants become involved in the search for missing money that had been pinched in a bank robbery. The plot is convoluted and the comedy overplayed — as far as vintage “old dark house” movies are concerned, 1927’s The Cat and the Canary and 1932’s The Old Dark House are both vastly superior — but the visual design is spectacular, as are the visual effects and the cinematography.

The Bat was filmed one more time, and that later version is included as a bonus feature (or, as the box copy states, “just for fun!”) in this two-disc set produced by VCI, UCLA Library Film & Television Archive, and The Mary Pickford Foundation. That would be The Bat, a 1959 release that in some ways is even sillier than the 1931 version. Yet what it lacks in smart scripting it makes up for in smart casting, with Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead both on hand. Moorehead is a mystery writer renting a house that becomes a hotbed of criminal activity, while Price plays an unscrupulous doctor on the hunt for hidden loot. While the general plot outline is the same as in The Bat Whispers, the specifics are frequently so different that a back-to-back double feature can be enjoyed without succumbing to feelings of déjà vu. But the denouement of this version somehow manages to be even more absurd than that of its predecessor.

This excellent Blu-ray edition contains three versions of The Bat Whispers: the standard U.S. version, a standard British cut, and the widescreen “Magnifilm” presentation (the last-named long considered a lost film until a print was discovered among the late Mary Pickford’s belongings in the 1980s). Extras include film historian audio commentary; comparisons of different shots between the standard and widescreen versions of The Bat Whispers; comparisons of different shots between 1926’s The Bat and The Bat Whispers; and a photo gallery.

The Bat Whispers: ★★½

The Bat: ★★½

THE BIKERIDERS (2024). Austin Butler did a better job of channeling his inner Elvis Presley in 2022’s Elvis than he does of locating his inner Marlon Brando (or James Dean, if you will) in The Bikeriders. Writer-director Jeff Nichols had a good idea, one that he had been nurturing for quite some time: He would fictionalize and flesh out Danny Lyons’ 1968 photography book The Bikeriders, which centered on the controversial Outlaws Motorcycle Club. The film offers the fabricated Vandals Motorcycle Club, with Lyons (Challengers’ Mike Faist) photographing and interviewing the members and their lady loves. Among those that he records are Johnny Davis (Tom Hardy), the gang’s mumbling founder and leader, and Kathy (Jodie Comer), the girlfriend and eventual wife of surly, soft-spoken cyclist Benny Cross (Butler). Given its source material, it’s perhaps not surprising that The Bikeriders is a visually active but strangely flat picture that largely operates only on the surface. It doesn’t seem especially curious about its characters or their circumstances, a fault that can primarily be blamed on the decision to filter almost everything through Kathy’s endless exposition as she patiently explains the particulars to Danny and his tape recorder. Nichols initially struggles to define these men — are they misunderstood romantics or dimwitted louts? — yet switches gears when newer members come along and turn the outfit into a drug-and-prostitute-running operation; suddenly, the older bad guys are now the good guys and the new guys are the badder guys, or something like that. The performances by Comer and Hardy are defined by their accents, while a boring Butler disappears in a role that struggles to remain even one-dimensional.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital Code edition consist of audio commentary by Nichols and a handful of making-of featurettes.

Movie: ★★

BLACK MASS (2015). Practically unrecognizable with that bald pate and those blue-sky contact lenses, Johnny Depp projects ferocious intensity as real-life crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger, whose Trivial Pursuit claim to fame is that he spent over a decade as the #2 man on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, right under some loser named Osama bin Laden. Throughout this film, we’re privy to the activities that lead to his wanted status, including murder and racketeering, and we watch as he builds an empire with the help of the FBI. Or, to be specific, with the help of one FBI agent: John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), who grew up with Bulger in South Boston and allowed his childhood admiration to seep into his honorable career and poison it. Indeed, it’s the presence of Edgerton’s character which allows this to play as more than just an also-ran in the “mob movie” sweepstakes. In many ways, Connolly is just as immoral as Bulger, ratting out informants to stay in the gangster’s good graces and even putting their relationship above those he enjoys with family and friends. Edgerton plays the part with the right mix of braggadocio and unctuousness, strutting with a skewered sense of self-purpose yet unable to completely conceal the sweat and grime triggered by his underhanded moves. He provides a nice counterpart to Depp’s steely menace, and with both actors supported by a stellar supporting roster (Benedict Cumberbatch, Corey Stoll, Peter Sarsgaard, Julianne Nicholson, and more), Black Mass ably demonstrates that there’s still some life left in a genre that, just when we think we’re out, pulls us back in.

4K UHD extras consist of a making-of featurette; a piece on Depp’s transformation into Bulger; and a look at the real-life manhunt for Bulger, who, three years after this film’s release, was beaten to death in prison.

Movie: ★★★

DEMONS (1985) / DEMONS 2 (1986). Previously available on 4K UHD only in a special limited edition, this demonic twofer from the dynamic duo of writer-director Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento (here serving as producer and co-scripter) has been reissued individually.

The setting of Demons is inspired: a Berlin movie theater offering a sneak preview to a new horror film. After one of the attendees gets nicked by a mysterious mask showcased in the lobby, she turns into a frightful demon whose bite in turn transforms her friend into a similarly snarling monster. Because the exits are blocked, it soon becomes the infected versus the uninfected, with the latter’s ranks growing smaller and smaller as more moviegoers get gored. This is no match for the meatier likes of The Evil Dead or Dawn of the Dead, but on its own terms, it’s the sort of horror show the ‘80s often did fairly well. Good, clean fun? Hardly. But it is disreputable fun.

Demons 2 is more of the same, albeit with more narrative sloppiness and a change in venue. Here, it’s a high-rise apartment building, and a demon on a TV screen breaks on through to the other side and infects a woman throwing a birthday party. There’s no shortage of variety in the characters — a pregnant woman and her husband, a close-knit family (the daughter is played by 10-year-old Asia Argento), a gym full of bodybuilders, etc. — but the decision to include a ridiculous baby demon straight out of Ghoulies cheapens the mood, and an entire subplot involving a carload of angry punks leads absolutely nowhere. Still, the last survivors provide a rooting interest, and the garage battle is pretty epic.

The Demons package offers two cuts of the film: the original in English and Italian, and the shorter U.S. version with alternate dubbing. Extras include audio commentary by Bava and other key personnel; a visual essay on Bava’s career; and an interview with longtime Dario Argento collaborator Luigi Cozzi (writer-director of the one and only Starcrash). Extras on Demons 2 include a discussion on the history of Italian horror; an interview with Dario Argento; and a visual essay on the employment of space and technology in both movies.

Demons: ★★★

Demons 2: ★★½

ELECTION (1999). This adaptation of Tom Perrota’s novel, from the team of writer-director Alexander Payne and writer Jim Taylor, is a movie of unexpected savagery and caustic wit — and one that retains its edge and importance even a quarter century down the road. Matthew Broderick delivers one of his finest performances as Jim McAllister, a popular high school teacher who fosters a personal vendetta against Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), a brainy overachiever who will stop at nothing to be elected president of the student government. Tracy initially has no competition for the post, but Mr. McAllister manages to talk dim but sweet-natured jock Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) into running against her; the field becomes even more crowded once Paul’s younger sister (Jessica Campbell) throws her hat into the ring as an outsider (Perrotta’s source material was a thinly veiled look at the Clinton-Bush-Perot race). Witherspoon’s breakthrough work here remains a career high point: As Tracy Flick, the actress adopts a pinched speaking manner and a superficially perky demeanor that in themselves speak volumes about her character’s mental makeup. Tracy is a dynamic figure, and as Mr. McAllister’s coup d’etat against her reverses itself and allows her to deal him a coup de grace, we chillingly realize who’s providing the real education in these hallowed halls. Payne and Taylor earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay — they would win in that category for 2004’s Sideways, with Payne later nabbing another scripting Oscar for 2011’s The Descendants.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital Code edition include audio commentary by Payne and making-of featurettes.

Movie: ★★★★

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (2024). Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was a notorious box office underachiever, and even given its growing popularity over the decades, it was startling to see Warner Bros. dump so much money into Blade Runner 2049 and downright baffling to wonder how they could have been surprised at its disappointing grosses. It’s the same situation with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, with Warner financing a follow-up to a movie that didn’t exactly explode at the box office and then scratching their heads when the new one similarly failed to connect with enough audiences. Both a prequel to and a spinoff of the formidable Mad Max: Fury Road rather than an actual sequel, this traces the origin story of Furiosa, the fierce warrior woman memorably played by Charlize Theron in the previous picture. Here, it’s Anya Taylor-Joy who’s been tapped to play the character as a younger woman (and Alyla Browne as a child in the earliest sequences). In this installment, Furiosa not only becomes involved with Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) and the other deplorable members of his inner circle at the Citadel but, more crucially (at least at this point in her tale), also with a rival warlord named Dementus (Chris Hemsworth, sporting the most sizable fake proboscis since Bradley Cooper in Maestro). Furiosa isn’t as narratively stripped down as Fury Road, and while the addition of more plot might sound like a plus, it’s the story that prevents this from duplicating the pure adrenaline rush that made its predecessor one of the best action films of this century. That’s not to say it’s a bad origin story, just one whose revenge ‘n’ retribution themes are rather expected, and there’s plenty of spectacle to be had through some thrillingly staged vehicular chases.

Blu-ray extras consist of a making-of featurette and a breakdown of one of the action set-pieces.

Movie: ★★★

IF (2024). John Krasinki’s The Hollars just missed making my 10 Worst of 2016 list; conversely, Krasinki’s A Quiet Place just missed making my 10 Best of 2018 list. So will the real John Krasinski please stand up? Based on the evidence of IF, methinks it’s the guy who turns pathos into a deadly weapon. If The Hollars was (as per my original review) “an agonizing exercise in indie quirk,” then IF is a torturous dive into mainstream mirth, the sort of treacle that confuses “heartwarming” with “heartburn.” Just as Logan included a shot of Shane on a TV set to ensure that even the slowest viewers would understand the steal, this one does likewise with the James Stewart IF fantasy Harvey similarly playing on the boob tube. Also drawing from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Inside Out — to say nothing of a bit of “I see dead people” trickery a la The Sixth Sense — this stars Cailey Fleming as Bea, a young girl who has lost her mother to cancer and now fears she might lose her dad (Krasinski) during his heart surgery. While at the apartment of her grandmother (Fiona Shaw), she learns that she can see imaginary friends that have long been forgotten by children who have grown up. Keeping tabs on these IFs is Cal (Ryan Reynolds), a neighbor who grows frustrated by the antics of his charges. Bea thus decides to make it her mission to help place these imaginary orphans with those who might need them. Curiously inert from an emotional standpoint, IF largely fails because there’s no logic or consistency in the fantasy world that Krasinski has created — it also doesn’t help that the IFs (voiced by Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, George Clooney, Emily Blunt, Bradley Cooper, and on and on and on) aren’t a particularly memorable bunch of misfits.

Extras in the 4K + Digital Code edition include a look at the visual effects; a piece on the voice casting; and a gag reel.

Movie: ★½

JUST MERCY (2019). With the world as his oyster, Harvard graduate Bryan Stevenson chose to shuck the easy career path and instead devote himself to prying open the racial inequality that existed in Alabama. That, in a nutshell, is the impetus for the based-on-fact story at the center of Just Mercy. Written (with Andrew Lanham) and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, this centers on the case of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), a black man who in 1987 was arrested and prematurely placed on Death Row for the murder of a white teenage girl. The evidence supporting McMillian’s claims of innocence was overwhelming, but because he had previously been having an affair with a white woman, because the local law had no other suspects, and because, well, this was Alabama, Sheriff Tom Tate (Michael Harding) and his fellow racists not only buried important evidence but also coerced a handful of people (mainly criminals already serving time) to provide false testimony that further implicated McMillian. It isn’t until Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) arrives on the scene that there’s even a glimmer of hope that McMillian will be exonerated and thus avoid the electric chair. Still, it’s an uphill battle, with the hill about as daunting as Everest. An earnest and important movie, Just Mercy is consistently involving, with the particulars of the case as well as the falsehoods used as a battering ram against McMillian’s innocence both triggering ample waves of viewer outrage. I won’t reveal McMillian’s ultimate courtroom fate (although it’s not hard to guess, given that title), but I will allow that it’s not a happily-ever-after tale in one respect. The real-life Sheriff Tate was never punished for his abhorrent behavior but was instead re-elected seven more times after the incident by the, uh, good people of Alabama.

4K UHD extras include a making-of featurette and deleted scenes.

Movie: ★★★

THE LAST EMPEROR (1987). The Last Emperor is an epic in every sense except one: As depicted here, its protagonist is a small figure, one who had greatness (or at least a facsimile thereof) thrust upon him, rather than a man who would in any meaningful way control his own life. In 1908, 3-year-old Pu Yi becomes the emperor of China. As a lonely teen who’s essentially kept prisoner within the walls of the Forbidden City, he learns that his country’s changing winds have rendered him nothing more than a figurehead; once he becomes an adult (John Lone), he’s ousted from the only home he’s ever known and subsequently moves through a variety of roles, among them a puppet for the Japanese government, a Western-styled playboy, a political prisoner of the Communists, and, finally, a humble gardener. This is no dull, dusty biopic that’s forced to solely fall back on its good looks: Despite the often impenetrable nature of Pu Yi, the performances of the various actors who play the role humanize this character, and writer-director Bernardo Bertolucci and co-scripter Mark Peploe locate the sorrow in this story about a person who became a pawn of history itself. Peter O’Toole appears in a choice role as Pu Yi’s sly Scottish tutor, and there’s an exquisite music score provided by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cong Su, and Talking Heads’ David Byrne. In one of those unfortunate “sweep mentality” years, this went 9-for-9 at the Oscars, winning every award for which it was nominated (including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Original Score).

In addition to the 163-minute theatrical version, the 4K + Blu-ray edition also contains the 218-minute television cut. Extras include audio commentary by Bertolucci, Peploe, Sakamoto, and producer Jeremy Thomas; a pair of making-of documentaries; a 1989 interview with Bertolucci; and a 2008 interview with Byrne.

Movie: ★★★½

99 RIVER STREET (1953). Has any other cinematic genre offered as many buried treasures as film noir? Here’s another unpolished gem to add to the stack, a bruising yarn that makes quota in the requisite areas of femme fatales, tantalizing double-crosses, sordid murders, and existential anti-heroes. Director Phil Karlson and actor John Payne, who teamed in 1952 for the excellent noir offering Kansas City Confidential, are back together for this grim account of Ernie Driscoll (Payne), a former boxer who just missed out on a championship ring and now has to make a meager living as a cab driver. His wife Pauline (Peggie Castle), angry at how her life has turned out, steps out behind his back with a slick character named Victor Rawlins (Brad Dexter, forever known as the least known of The Magnificent Seven), a hoodlum who has just pulled off a diamond heist. Ernie himself is no angel: While his relationship with aspiring actress Linda James (Evelyn Keyes) is purely platonic, he does possess a hot temper that threatens to repeatedly land him in trouble. In fact, he’s the perfect patsy for a scheme that will result in a corpse being conveniently stashed in his taxi cab. Noir vet Jack Lambert is suitably menacing as a slap-happy hood; amusingly, Frank Faylen, best known as the friendly cab driver Ernie in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, here plays the friendly cab company dispatcher Stan.

Blu-ray extras consist of audio commentary by film noir historian Eddie Muller; the theatrical trailer; and trailers for four other noir flicks on the Kino label.

Movie: ★★★

OBSERVE AND REPORT (2009). Here’s a film which tries to combine the twisted trappings of a black comedy with the more accepted slapstick shenanigans of a mainstream outing. It’s extremely difficult to synchronize these approaches into one fluid viewing experience — Terry Zwigoff largely pulled it off with Bad Santa, but Hill never locates the proper balance that would make this more than just a hit-and-miss curio. Seth Rogen is Ronnie Barnhardt, a schlub who takes great pride in his work as the head of security at a popular mall. Ronnie is a disturbed individual, required to remain on his meds lest his destructive tendencies and delusions of grandeur take over. But he’s largely oblivious to his own inner demons — he’s too busy lusting after a makeup counter employee (Anna Faris), attempting to apprehend a flasher who’s been terrorizing the mall, and engaging in a war of words with a detective (Ray Liotta). Much of the picture is aimless and lackadaisical — a burglary subplot could have been dropped without really affecting anything — yet the script’s biggest problem rests with its non-PC content. There’s nothing wrong with ruffling feathers — a little vulgarity is good for the soul, as Mel Brooks used to prove on a regular basis. But the material needs to be funny as well as potentially shocking, and almost none of the film’s targets — alcoholism, racial profiling, date rape, etc. — are skewered in a manner that elicits much in the way of laughs. The exception is the rampant male nudity seen during the bloody climax; I won’t ruin it here, but let’s just say this might mark the only time that a movie manages to go limp and out with a bang at the same time.

Blu-ray extras include picture-in-picture commentary by Rogen, Faris, and writer-director Jody Hill; an interview with Hill; additional scenes; and a gag reel.

Movie: ★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

BLADE RUNNER (1982). Rarely in the annals of film history has a movie received a complete critical and popular reevaluation in as short a period of time as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. When it originally appeared in the summer of 1982, it was dismissed by the majority of critics, who found it too murky, and by virtually all audiences, who were disappointed that Harrison Ford wasn’t playing another swashbuckler in the Indiana Jones/Han Solo mode. But a funny thing happened on the way to the ’90s. Over the ensuing years, viewers discovered it on home video while film scribes took another look (and those of us who championed it since Day One plugged it at every opportunity), and today it’s considered a landmark science fiction film on the order of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars. Based on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, this finds Ford cast as Rick Deckard, a weary detective called upon to track down a gang of murderous “replicants” (led by enigmatic Rutger Hauer) in the cluttered, polluted Los Angeles of the near-future. Jordan Cronenweth’s cinematography, Vangelis’ music score, and Lawrence G. Paull’s production design rank with the best of that decade, and the fact that the piece works as a film noir as much as a sci-fi outing makes me prefer Deckard’s voice-over narration in the original over the sound of silence in Ridley’s subsequent tinkering. This earned two Academy Award nominations, and while I accept and understand E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial beating it for Best Visual Effects (although today, the Blade Runner FX are clearly superior), there’s no way in Heaven or Hell that the familiar sights in Gandhi deserved to beat the revolutionary landscape presented here for the Best Art Direction & Set Decoration Oscar.

Movie: ★★★★

GLORIA (1980). The great Gena Rowlands passed away earlier this week at the age of 94. And while Gloria may not be one of her (or husband John Cassavetes’) best films, it does feature one of her best performances. Gloria has often been described as Cassavetes’ most mainstream movie, but as anyone familiar with the writer-director’s oeuvre can attest, that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement. Cassavetes was always at his best when he was making raw and uncompromising indies that, against all odds, found favor in many circles (e.g. Faces, Shadows), and he was invariably always less interesting when he tried to guess what general audiences wanted to see. Indeed, it’s no surprise that he hadn’t planned on directing Gloria — he wrote it simply to sell the screenplay to Columbia in exchange for some dough — but once the studio opted to cast Rowlands in the title role, he reluctantly agreed to oversee it himself. Rowlands’ Gloria Swenson is the film’s best ingredient, a gangster’s moll patterned after those seen in countless ‘40s flicks. Gloria ends up protecting a little boy (John Adames) after his family is wiped out by mobsters, but the movie turns repetitive in its beats and the boy himself isn’t very interesting. Rowlands earned a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, and it’s easy to see why — she’s alternately tough and tender, and always terrific. Adames earned a Worst Supporting Actor Razzie Award (tying with Laurence Olivier for The Jazz Singer), and it’s not as easy to see why — he’s not especially good, but he’s no worse than many other child actors in similar roles. Gloria was remade in 1999, with Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men) at the helm and Sharon Stone in the title role; it proved to be both a critical and commercial disaster.

Movie: ★★½

HOUSE OF BAMBOO (1955). With tough-guy director Samuel Fuller crouched behind the camera and tough-guy actor Robert Ryan looming large in front of it, House of Bamboo feels like the sort of quintessential film noir generally shot in grainy black-and-white and smoke-choked from all those Surgeon General-unfriendly cigarettes fingered by practically every cast member. Instead, the picture is often as rainbow-hued as any splashy MGM musical from the era, thanks to the inspired use of CinemaScope and its celluloid soulmate, DeLuxe Color. Set in post-WWII Japan, this stars Robert Stack as an American military cop who poses as a thug named Eddie Spanier in order to infiltrate a gang of Yanks engaged in criminal activities in and around Tokyo. The outfit is led by the urbane Sandy Dawson (Ryan), who finds himself drawn to the rough-and-tumble Eddie — much to the annoyance of Dawson’s second-in-command, the volatile Griff (Cameron Mitchell). To help maintain his cover, Eddie receives invaluable assistance from Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi), who must endure all manner of humiliation (including being ostracized by her neighbors) while posing as Eddie’s kept woman. The main storyline isn’t nearly as interesting as the multiple themes resting beneath the surface (homoeroticism, mixed-race relationships, U.S. appropriation of foreign interests, etc.), yet even those take a back seat to the dazzling shots staged by Fuller and captured by cinematographer Joe MacDonald. Look for DeForest Kelley (Star Trek’s Dr. McCoy) and Robert Quarry (Count Yorga, Vampire) as two of Dawson’s thugs; both are uncredited, although Kelley’s role is rather substantial.

Movie: ★★★

Review links for movies referenced in this column (links open in new windows):
Blade Runner 2049 
The Cat and the Canary 
Challengers 
Elvis 
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 
Film 2016: The Best & Worst 
Film 2018: The Best & Worst 
Ghoulies 
The Hollars 
It’s a Wonderful Life 
Kansas City Confidential 
Mad Max: Fury Road 
The Magnificent Seven 
The Old Dark House 
A Quiet Place 
A Quiet Place Part II 
12 Angry Men