FILM FRENZY

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler (Photos: Shout! Studios)

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.)

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976). “Forget the myths the media’s created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.” All the President’s Men depicts the American media during one of its finest hours of glory, when two of its brash reporters, Washington Post (RIP) journalists Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), stuck to their guns despite testy opposition and eventually blew open the Watergate scandal that toppled the presidency of Richard Nixon. This superb motion picture, expertly mounted by director Alan J. Pakula, has long been acknowledged as a classic political thriller, but watching it in today’s climate, at a point when a timid and ineffectual media is par for the course, also reveals its increasingly significant value as a time capsule piece — as one participant in one of the extra features notes, there’s no way the Watergate incident would have earned even a sideways glance by the mainstream media had it occurred in the 21st century. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actress (Jane Alexander as the bookkeeper who provided valuable inside information to the journos), it captured four: Best Supporting Actor (Jason Robards as Post editor Ben Bradlee), Adapted Screenplay (William Goldman), Art Direction & Set Decoration, and Sound.

Extras in the 4K Ultra HD + Digital Code edition include a discussion of the influence of Woodward and Bernstein on journalism; a piece on the real Deep Throat (played in the film by Hal Holbrook); and Robards’ appearance on a 1976 episode of Dinah Shore’s TV show Dinah! Oddly not carried over from previous Blu-ray editions are audio commentary by Redford and the feature-length Discovery Channel documentary All the President’s Men Revisited.

Movie: ★★★★

BEN-HUR (1959). For over 60 years, this mammoth production has held the record for the most Oscar wins with 11, a feat later tied by Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. From a technical standpoint, It’s the most impressive of the bunch: While the newer films relied heavily on CGI, this epic had to do it the old-fashioned way, with blood, sweat, and that proverbial cast of thousands. MGM rolled the dice on this one, investing a wad of dough as the studio teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. But the movie proved to be a resounding success worldwide — even its hefty 222-minute running time didn’t deter audiences from reveling in its widescreen splendor. As the Jew whose skirmishes with the Roman conquerors fuel his anger until his soul is saved by Christ, Charlton Heston wavers between stiff indignity and genuine pathos — more consistent is Stephen Boyd, whose underrated turn provides the right measure of suave sadism as Ben-Hur’s antagonist Messala. And yes, according to some sources, the obvious homosexual vibe between Ben-Hur and Messala was largely intended: Boyd, director William Wyler, and co-scripter Gore Vidal reportedly all discussed it before shooting, although they didn’t tell Heston for fear he would freak out. One of the best of the 50s glut of Biblical epics — and far superior to Heston’s other gargantuan religious flick, 1956’s The Ten Commandments — Ben-Hur is an impressive undertaking anchored by that incredible chariot race. This went 11-for-12 at the Oscars (its sole loss was Best Adapted Screenplay), including Best Picture, Actor (Heston), Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith as Sheik Ilderim), and Director.

Extras in the 4K Ultra HD + Digital Code edition include a making-of piece; a feature-length documentary on Heston; and screen tests of actors who didn’t get cast (including Leslie Nielsen as Messala).

Movie: ★★★½

GOODBYE, COLUMBUS (1969). One of my favorite college classes way back when was “Roth & Updike,” which, as the title blares, focused on select novels by Philip Roth and John Updike. I’m hard-pressed to recall whose books I preferred (although I remember being quite taken by Updike’s The Centaur), but when it comes to screen adaptations of their works, it’s no contest who’s been targeted the most. With Updike, there’s the forgotten 1970 film version of Rabbit, Run, starring James Caan, and the 1987 box office hit The Witches of Eastwick, with Jack, Cher, Michelle, and Susan. With Roth, there have been several, and while I’m a fan of 2008’s Elegy (based on Roth’s novel The Dying Animal), starring Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, and 2003’s underrated The Human Stain, with Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, the most successful is easily Goodbye, Columbus, an impressive adaptation of his novella. Richard Benjamin makes his film debut as the lower-class Neil Klugman, a quick-witted librarian who woos Jewish American Princess Brenda Patimkin (Ali MacGraw, also debuting) and subsequently has to deal with the peculiarities and prejudices of all her family members, including a father (Jack Klugman) who’s flagrantly nouveau riche, a mother (Nan Martin) who’s a snob, a brother (Michael Meyers, hilarious in his only screen appearance before becoming a doctor) who’s a clod, and a little sister (Lori Shelle) who’s a brat. A box office hit, this flavorful comedy-drama earned Arnold Schulman an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Three years later, Benjamin returned to Roth country in Portnoy’s Complaint, but that one was a critically reviled flop.

Blu-ray extras include a 2016 conversation between Benjamin, MacGraw, director Larry Peerce, Schulman, producer Stanley R. Jaffe, and others, and an interview with composer Charles Fox.

Movie: ★★★½

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FABULOUS STAINS (1982). Barely seen upon its original release to just a handful of movie theaters, this infuriatingly inconsistent film about a female punk band became better known following its late-night showings on Night Flight and eventually found its calling as both a minor cult film and as a source of inspiration for the future riot grrl movement. A teenage Diane Lane stars as Corinne Burns, a surly kid living in a downtrodden area of Pittsburgh. Corinne, her sister Tracy (Marin Kanter), and their cousin Jessica (Laura Dern in her first significant role) decide to take their garage band The Stains on the road, touring alongside the past-its-prime metal band The Metal Corpses and the rising British punk band The Looters. The girls aren’t very good as musicians, but it’s Corinne’s take-no-prisoners attitude that attracts multitudes of young women seeking female empowerment. There’s much to enjoy here, including most of the characterizations (Fee Waybill of The Tubes steals the show as lead singer Lou Corpse) as well as the prickly confrontations between individuals all seeking to elevate themselves at the expense of others. But the dialogue is frequently clunky and the climax is awful and unbelievable — reportedly, the movie was shelved for a couple of years because director Lou Adler and scripter Nancy Dowd vehemently disagreed on the ending, with Adler ultimately (and unfortunately, given the result) winning out and Dowd replacing her screen credit with the pseudonym Rob Morton.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include archival audio commentary by director Lou Adler; archival audio commentary by Lane and Dern; an archival making-of featurette; an archival audio interview with Night Flight co-creator Stuart Shapiro; deleted scenes; and an alternate opening title sequence.

Movie: ★★½

LUCIFER: THE COMPLETE SERIES (2016-2021). Based on the DC Comics character created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg as well as the Biblical character created by God, Lucifer basically borrows the “What If?” angle popular in comic books and poses the question, “What if Satan ever got tired of ruling Hell and decided to instead open a trendy bar in Los Angeles?” I suspect the real answer would be that the bar would close within the week due to its owner’s nasty tendency to flambé the guests, but this series makes the character so likable that its opening was even met by a petition from One Million Morons… excuse me, One Million Moms urging the Fox network to not air it. But Lucifer not only aired for three seasons on Fox, it was popular enough among its vocal devotees that Netflix picked it up for another three seasons. Tom Ellis is just right as Lucifer Morningstar, who runs the bar while his demonic sidekick Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt) serves as bartender. Constantly griping about God and ignoring the directives of his angelic brother Amenidiel (D.B. Woodside), Lucifer finds that he can charm any human into confessing their deepest desires to him — at least until he meets Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German), who’s impervious to his advances. Fascinated that a human is able to resist him, he tags along with her, meaning that the program all too often turns into a standard police show — Law & Order & Angels & Demons, as it were. The police cases are often the least interesting part of the series — generally more entertaining is the supernatural world-building, with the performances (particularly Ellis and Rachael Harris as Lucifer’s therapist) further driving its success.

The Blu-ray box set contains all six seasons and 93 episodes. Extras include footage from Comic-Con panels; deleted scenes; and gag reels. (Purchase this title here.)

Series: ★★★

NIGHTCRAWLER (2014). The sleeper box office hit Nightcrawler proved to be a veritable family affair: It was written and directed by Dan Gilroy, produced by his brother Tony, edited by his other brother John, and co-starred his wife, Rene Russo. Yet all that behind-the-scenes familial warmth belies the chilly — and chilling — story taking place on the screen. In a knockout performance, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Louis Bloom, an oddball who stumbles onto a nocturnal world in which cameramen film car crashes, murders, and other grisly occurrences and then sell the footage to TV stations to use on their sensationalistic newscasts. Fascinated by this sketchy profession, Bloom elects to give it a shot; he doesn’t remain a newbie for long, as he possesses both the natural skill and pitiless constitution required to make it in this sordid business. He develops an exclusive relationship with an equally ruthless TV news executive (Russo) and hires a downtrodden man (Riz Ahmed) to serve as his assistant, all the while trading barbs with a veteran of the trade (Bill Paxton) and becoming ever more obsessed with his new calling. Nightcrawler hardly breaks new ground in its depiction of network news as a breeding ground for apathy and self-interest (see Network) or even in its study of a maverick newshound encountering violence against a sociopolitical backdrop (see Medium Cool); instead, it derives its strength in its utterly merciless portrayal of Louis Bloom, the type of guy who would not only sell his own mother but would chop her up into tiny pieces to facilitate the transaction. This earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray Steelbook edition include audio commentary by the three Gilroy brothers; a making-of piece; and an interview with composer James Newton Howard.

Movie: ★★★

ROOFMAN (2025). As the tagline amusingly notes, Roofman is “Based on Actual Events and Terrible Decisions.” Filmed here in Charlotte and the surrounding area — which is where the real-life tale unfolded — this oddly endearing picture stars Channing Tatum as Jeffrey Manchester, a former Army Ranger who’s not having much luck as a civilian. An unemployed and divorced father, Jeffrey decides to burglarize McDonald’s restaurants for a living, breaking in through the roofs and robbing the joints but always making sure to be unfailingly polite to the employees on duty. He’s eventually caught and sentenced to decades in prison, but he manages to escape and then spends the next six months living undetected inside a Toys “R” Us store. Able to observe the workers without detection, he finds himself attracted to single mom Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst), and an unlikely chain of events leads to him leaving his safe place and embarking on a relationship with her. On the surface — and much of it does feel like a surface look at a complicated situation — here’s a feel-good seriocomedy about one of life’s likable but unlucky losers, one who manages to make setting up a bedroom right in the middle of a Toys “R” Us look kinda fun (plus, all the candy you can eat!). But read between the checkout lines and there are dark themes to be found, including the difficulty for soldiers to return to a comparatively normal life, the ever-shifting definition of what constitutes a “decent man,” and the degree to which one should be allowed an opportunity at a second chance. None of these knotty issues are ever spelled out, but they’re there for those interested in doing some excavating.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital Code edition include a making-of featurette; a look at the Toys “R” Us store where the movie was filmed; and deleted and alternate scenes.

Movie: ★★★

SONG SUNG BLUE (2025). If Roofman is more “feel-good” than anything, Song Sung Blue manages the neat trick of being “feel-good” and “feel-awful” in equal measure. Based on the 2008 documentary of the same name, it relates the true-life tale of Milwaukee musicians Mike and Claire Sardina (Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson). Mike’s a Neil Diamond impersonator known as “Lightning,” while Claire’s a Patsy Cline imitator — after meeting and falling in love, they decide to create the Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning and Thunder, with Claire adopting the stage name “Thunder.” They sing their way up through the ranks and become so popular that Eddie Vedder (John Beckwith) invites them to open for Pearl Jam when his band hits Milwaukee. Everything is going great for Mike and Claire, but because this is a true story, there’s bound to be some tragedy. The first wallop occurs to Claire, requiring plenty of scenes of bitterness and nastiness on her part until those inspirational “feel-good” vibes are allowed to again take over. But just when audiences are primed for a happily-ever-after with “America” blaring over the end credits, the equal-opportunity misery then takes aim at Mike. It’s a testament to the skills of writer-director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) that the movie brings out such conflicting emotions, with plenty of humor on view as well as ample instances of heartbreak. Hudson earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her career-best performance, but Jackman is just as excellent.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Brewer; a making-of featurette; a discussion by Jackman and Hudson of their characters; and extended performances of “Sweet Caroline” and “Crunchy Granola Suite.”

Movie: ★★★

SPENCER TRACY: 4-FILM COLLECTION (1936-1955). Spencer Tracy landed in the #9 slot on the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Stars list of the greatest Silver Screen legends, and there are many who might argue that his position is too low. At least two of the pictures in this set indicate why.

As noted by the district attorney (Walter Abel) in Fritz Lang’s Fury (1936), in the 49 years before this film’s release, there had been 6,000 people killed by lynch mobs in the U.S. Countless victims were innocent of any crime, which is the gist of this powerful drama. Tracy stars as Joe Wheeler, a good guy whose planned rendezvous with his fiancée (Sylvia Sidney) is interrupted when he’s hauled off to a small-town slammer by officers who think he might be part of a kidnapping outfit. Convinced that a hardened criminal is sitting in their town’s jail — and equally convinced that the law will go easy on him — the citizens decide to storm the prison and mete out their own brand of justice. And that’s just the first half of the movie. Fury was Lang’s first American film, and it’s a fine companion piece to his earlier German effort M: Whereas that 1931 classic was more ambiguous in its depiction of mob justice (what viewer wasn’t pleased when the criminal underground captured Peter Lorre’s child killer?), this one clearly shows the dangers of vigilantism. And given the January 6, 2021, terrorist attack by ignorant and ill-informed rednecks — behaving just like the rubes in this picture — Fury remains as timely as ever. Norman Krasna, who came up with the idea for the film (the screenplay was written by Lang and Bartlett Cormack), earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Story. Incidentally, if Joe’s dog looks familiar, that’s because he’s the same mutt who played Toto in The Wizard of Oz.

It would be hard to imagine a contemporary movie receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Picture but absolutely nothing else (although a few recent ones have come close with a mere two nods, including Selma, The Post, and Past Lives), but during the first decade of the Academy’s existence, no less than 14 films were up for Best Picture while snagging zero other nominations (and one of them, 1932’s Grand Hotel, went on to win). Among these one-and-dones was Libeled Lady (1936), which packed four leading stars into one film. The libeled lady in question is Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy), a socialite who sues a newspaper for $5 million after the rag prints an erroneous tidbit of gossip accusing her of stealing another woman’s husband. Desperate to save the paper (and his job), editor Warren Haggerty (Tracy) concocts an elaborate scam that will require the services of his fiancée Gladys Benton (Jean Harlow), who’s tired of being left stranded at the altar, and ex-reporter Bill Chandler (William Powell), who doesn’t like his former boss but could use a paycheck. The usual quota of madcap complications occur in this sparkling romantic comedy that earns its keep simply for the moment when Connie, expecting Bill to describe her eyes in gushing terms, is instead startled when he remarks that they look like “angry marbles.” In another interesting Oscar twist, Powell’s other 1936 film, My Man Godfrey, earned nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and in all four acting categories, yet failed to be nominated for Best Picture.

The onscreen title for Northwest Passage (1940) reads Northwest Passage (Book 1 — Rogers’ Rangers), but anyone combing eBay or Amazon for Northwest Passage (Book 2 — The Ranger Strikes Back) or Northwest Passage (Book 2 — Rogers Takes Manhattan) or some such sequel will be sorely disappointed. While Kenneth Roberts’ source novel was split up into Book I and Book II and there were plans for a filmic follow-up, it never materialized, leaving this as a solo effort. Filmed in lush Technicolor that allows the outdoor scenery to really pop (Sidney Wagner and William V. Skall shared an Oscar nomination for Best Color Cinematography), this casts Tracy as the real-life Robert Rogers, the leader of a team of frontiersmen known for their bravery, ruggedness, and unconventional methods of fighting. The entry point into the saga is through the fictional Langdon Towne (Robert Young), an artist who gets expelled from Harvard for his cartoons ridiculing prominent British officials working in the New England Colonies. After lobbing further insults and threatened with arrest, he and his equally rebellious friend “Hunk” Marriner (Walter Brennan) escape into the woods — there, they meet Rogers, who convinces them to join his band of wilderness warriors as they carry out assignments during the French and Indian War. Northwest Passage is a hard-boiled adventure yarn that doesn’t skimp on the harshness or nastiness of the situations on hand, from a starving soldier embracing insanity to an entire Native American village being slaughtered while its occupants sleep.

Despite having helmed two of the most enduring popcorn pictures of the 1960s, The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven, John Sturges’ only Best Director Oscar nomination came for the imaginatively staged Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), which also earned nods for Best Actor (Tracy) and Best Screenplay (Millard Kaufman, adapting Howard Breslin’s short story “Bad Time at Honda”). Tracy stars as John Macreedy, a one-armed stranger who arrives in the Western town of Black Rock shortly after the end of World War II. Macreedy is searching for a Japanese-American farmer but instead runs afoul of Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), the town’s bullying bigshot, and his two thuggish goons, Hector David (Lee Marvin) and Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine). Far more sympathetic to Macreedy is Doc Velie (Walter Brennan), the town undertaker; caught in the middle are Tim Horn (Dean Jagger), the perpetually drunk and frightened sheriff, and Liz Wirth (Anne Francis), the local mechanic. Few sights in this world are as beautiful as watching rednecks get their comeuppance, and Macreedy’s fistfight with Coley is indeed a thing of beauty. Stunningly shot by William C. Mellor in Cinemascope, this tight (81 minutes) thriller boldly (and atypically) alluded to the poor treatment of Japanese-Americans during and after the war.

Blu-ray extras on Fury consist of audio commentary by filmmaker and film historian Peter Bogdanovich, with audio interview excerpts of Lang, and the theatrical trailer. Extras on Libeled Lady consist of the 1935 short Keystone Hotel; the 1936 short New Shoes, featuring the voice of Mae Questel (Betty Boop); the 1936 cartoon Little Cheeser; a radio promo for the film; and the theatrical trailer. Extras on Northwest Passage consist of a 1940 promotional featurette and the theatrical trailer. Extras on Bad Day at Black Rock consist of film historian audio commentary and the theatrical trailer. (Purchase this title here.)

Fury: ★★★½

Libeled Lady: ★★★½

Northwest Passage: ★★★

Bad Day at Black Rock: ★★★½

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (1992). Francis Ford Coppola’s stunning (and fairly faithful) adaptation of the classic vampire novel is a movie lover’s dream, as the director elected to rely on old-school cinematic techniques (albeit executed with modern-day aplomb) to punch across his bold and bloody interpretation. Employing many tricks that were popular as far back as the pioneering years of the motion picture medium — double exposures, matte shots, miniatures — Coppola and scripter James V. Hart accentuate the romanticism of the story, with their Dracula (Gary Oldman) a fierce warrior whose every move springs from his love for his soulmate (Winona Ryder). After she’s killed, he lives on for centuries, eventually finding her reincarnation in a Victorian-era bride-to-be. Oldman, Ryder, and Anthony Hopkins (as Professor Van Helsing) are fine, other cast members less so (Keanu Reeves is hopelessly miscast as Jonathan Harker), but it’s the film’s intoxicating style that dominates. Bram Stoker’s Dracula earned three Oscars for Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Sound Effects Editing, yet equally noteworthy are the stunning art direction (also Oscar-nominated), Michael Ballhaus’ gliding cinematography, and especially Wojciech Kilar’s superb score, which emerged as one of the best soundtracks of its decade.

Movie: ★★★½

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (2011). Rutger Hauer is the show, the whole show, and nothing but the show in Hobo With a Shotgun, a throwback that, for all its bloodletting and supposed shock value, feels comparatively conventional and tame. A nod to ’70s grindhouse, ’80s Troma, and any era’s Death Wish-styled vigilantism, Hobo finds Hauer delivering a deeply committed, even moving, performance as the title vagrant, who lands in a town ruled by a tyrannical madman known as The Drake (Brian Downey). Disgusted by the violence he witnesses and feeling protective of a battered prostitute (Molly Dunsworth) he takes under his wing (in a relationship similar to the one between Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard in Modern Times, complete with dreams of suburban bliss), the hobo decides that it’s up to him to make this town respectable — via shotgun, obviously. Hobo With a Shotgun automatically taps into the cathartic pleasure of seeing scumbags go down — whether it’s a sadistic videographer or a pedophile in a Santa suit — but get past the organ grinding and crimson cascades and there’s very little of the go-for-broke zaniness that defined, say, Troma’s The Toxic Avenger or even a Corman caper like Death Race 2000. And as far as grindhouse homages are concerned, the previous year’s Machete easily chops this one down to size.

Movie: ★★

LONESOME DOVE (1989). It would be too limiting to merely state that Lonesome Dove represents one of the finest miniseries ever seen on television; if it hadn’t been for a (necessarily) lengthy running time of 6¼ hours, this superb Western would have been right at home on the big screen. Based on Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove follows former Texas Rangers Gus McCrea (Robert Duvall, RIP) and Woodrow F. Call (Tommy Lee Jones) as they lead a small outfit thousands of miles to Montana with the goal of creating a new home in the largely uncharted territory. Others on the journey include their reckless friend Jake Spoon (Robert Urich), their more reliable colleague Joshua Deets (Danny Glover), prostitute Lorena Wood (Diane Lane), and naive cowhand Newt (Ricky Schroder). Rich characterizations, splendid production values, and a loving (though hardly sentimental) look at the Old West combine to deliver a genuinely thrilling viewing experience, with the ensemble players expertly cast down the line (look for Steve Buscemi and Chris Cooper in supporting roles). Yet the real draw is Duvall, whose performance just might be the greatest of his long and distinguished career. Nominated for 19 Emmy Awards, it won seven (mostly technical) but somehow lost Outstanding Miniseries and Outstanding Lead Actor to War and Remembrance and My Name Is Bill W.’s James Woods, respectively.

Miniseries: ★★★★

SECONDHAND LIONS (2003). More Robert Duvall, here paired with another acting legend. This slight but affectionate yarn stars Duvall and Michael Caine (struggling with his accent, but never mind) as brothers Hub and Garth, two old coots who spend most of their time chasing away salesmen and relatives who turn up at their rickety Texas home looking for the small fortune they have hidden somewhere on the property. One such opportunist is their nitwit niece (Kyra Sedgwick), who dumps her sensitive young son Walter (Haley Joel Osment) into their care with instructions to charm the old men into willing him their entire estate. But lonely Walter seeks company, not cash, and after some initial resistance, the siblings warm up to their young charge, eventually regaling him with tales of their swashbuckling exploits from bygone years. A curious concoction that throws together Grumpy Old Men, Unstrung Heroes, and The Man Who Would Be King (to name but three), this film may be all over the map, but at least it takes viewers to some interesting places. For that, credit writer-director Tim McCanlies, who knows which situations will allow his stars to shine the brightest. Reserve the highest praise, however, for Duvall and Caine, who effectively sell this iffy material.

Movie: ★★★