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Review: Downton Abbey

review | Downton Abbey

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The popular PBS series translates well to the bigger screen in this stunning 4K HDR transfer

by Dennis Burger
November 27, 2019

Home cinema fans are increasingly being presented with something of a dilemma: Buy into the digital home video release of a film a few weeks early and miss out on some enticing bonus features or wait and buy the full-fledged disc release, complete with all of the supplemental trappings but yet another damned box to clog our shelves.

In the case of Downton Abbey—the big-screen continuation of the smash-hit ITV/PBS soap opera about the decline of the aristocracy in post-Edwardian England—the calculus gets a little more complicated. While it’s true the disc slated for release on December 17 promises to deliver all manner of goodies—from cast interviews to documentaries to deleted scenes to an audio commentary by director Michael Engler—that release will be limited to Blu-ray quality at best. The Kaleidescape release, like all the other digital releases aside from iTunes, presents the film completely devoid of extras, but does come home by way of a 4K HDR transfer.

So, do you go for the best presentation of the film now or do you wait for a lesser presentation that’s backed up by some significant behind-the-scenes insight? (Or, for you Apple TV owners, do you opt for the feature-packed download?)

I can’t answer that question for you, but what I can say is that Kaleidescape’s presentation of this delightful little film is simply stunning. I saw Downton Abbey twice in local cinemas, both times in BigD (a competitor of sorts to IMAX that focuses more on wide-aspect-ratio films) and neither of those experiences came close to the sheer visual splendor of the Kaleidescape download.

That is largely due to the fantastic (although subtle) use of high dynamic range, which gives the image more pop, depth, and sparkle when such is called for. The cinematography of Downton Abbey was always one of its most undeniable strengths on the small screen, and this big-screen continuation doesn’t stray far from the style of the series. But Kaleidescape’s presentation does make me wish someone would go back and do an HDR grade for all six seasons.

One substantial way the look of the film differs from the series, aside from the HDR, is its aspect ratio. While the show was framed for 16:9 TVs, the film is presented in 2.39:1, and this does make a substantial difference in how things are framed. Wider, longer shots of the estate and the adjacent village plant Downton Abbey more firmly in its geographical surroundings. Dinners, of which there are of course plenty, also feel quite different in the movie as compared with the series. With a wider canvas to play with, cinematographer Ben Smithard manages to make each table feel like a continent instead of a collection of loosely interconnected islands.

I can’t say for certain whether this transfer was taken from a 4K digital intermediate, but I have to imagine it was, as it wants for nothing in terms of detail. I can, on the other hand, say for certain that it was shot digitally on Sony Venice cameras, which are capable of capturing images at up to 6K resolution in 2.39:1. Forget the pixel count, though. What matters is that Downton looks better than ever here, in terms of sharpness, shadow detail, depth of field, contrast, and color. The largely brown-and-grey palette, punctuated by golds, reds, oranges, and lavenders throughout, is delivered with all the lushness and warmth it deserves, and skin tones are spot on.

It should come as no surprise that the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is a largely front-focused affair, although it does lean on the surround channels a good bit to accentuate John Lunn’s iconic and familiar score. Aside from that, the surround soundstage does come into play occasionally to accentuate ambience, be it the chirping of birds or the exuberant crowds at the royal parade; but by and large you won’t be pulling this one out to blow anyone’s hair back or shake their britches legs. For the most part, this is a dialogue-and-music-driven mix, and the lossless 5.1 track renders it with wonderful clarity and richness.

It should probably go without saying that the Downton Abbey film is primarily aimed at those who are already smitten with the characters and locations (which are, in some respects, characters in and of themselves). In many ways, it feels like a Christmas special for a seventh season that never existed. (For the uninitiated: Each season for Downton Abbey since Season Two was bookended by a made-for-TV movie with a bigger budget and longer running time, broadcast on Christmas Day in the U.K. and presented as a special season finale when each year’s crop of episodes was broadcast a few months later here in the Colonies.)

I can’t see the film through anything other than the eyes of a longtime devotee, but I have to imagine those who haven’t seen the series will be a little confused by stray references to characters who aren’t introduced and relationships that aren’t spelled out for new viewers. Of course, little of this is essential to understanding the plot of the film, which is pretty self-explanatory. The King and Queen are coming to Downton, and everyone is all aflutter. Who forgot to polish the silver? Who’s responsible for cooking the big dinner? Who’s going to be whose heir? What personal tragedy will befall poor Lady Edith this time?

The magic of Downton Abbey (as both a series and film) is that, like the best of the Merchant Ivory catalog it so evokes, it manages to make such low-stakes controversies seem like a Big Deal. And the details of the plot are, as always, secondary to the wonderful character interactions and performances, especially from Dame Maggie Smith, who seems bound and determined to make this, likely her last turn as the Dowager Countess of Grantham, the performance of her life.

Thematically speaking, the screenplay by showrunner Julian Fellowes does tinker with the Downton formula a bit. The series has always ultimately been about the conflicting forces of progress and tradition, and that remains true here. As always, this struggle is presented without a thumb on the scales, and those two opposing points of view don’t split across upstairs/downstairs lines as you might expect. There are agents of progress both in service and in the aristocracy, and bastions of tradition above and below the main floor. What makes the movie a bit of cheeky fun is that Fellowes pushes many of the characters into positions of role reversal, with traditionalists defending a bit of change and change-seekers going to bat for the way things have always been done, right and proper.

When you get right down to it, the Downton Abbey film feels like returning home for a big holiday dinner. If you’re part of the family, it can be a wonderful exercise that recharges the soul. If you’re new to the family, you can feel a little awkward and out of sorts. In this case, though, the family happens to be so delightful that many a newcomer (if they bother to watch this film at all) will be drawn in enough to explore the entire run of the show, if only to have a better understanding of the relationships at the heart of this wonderful little melodrama.

Dennis Burger is an avid Star Wars scholar, Tolkien fanatic, and Corvette enthusiast who somehow also manages to find time for technological passions including high-end audio, home automation, and video gaming. He lives in the armpit of Alabama with his wife Bethany and their four-legged child Bruno, a 75-pound American Staffordshire Terrier who thinks he’s a Pomeranian.

PICTURE | Kaleidescape’s presentation is stunning due to the fantastic (although subtle) use of high dynamic range, which gives the images appropriate pop, depth, and sparkle

SOUND | The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is largely front focused, although it does lean on the surround channels to accentuate John Lunn’s iconic and familiar score

Review: Alphaville

review | Alphaville

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Who knew Godard’s future would turn out to be our now?

by Michael Gaughn
June 29, 2022

The question I constantly wrestle with when reviewing an older film is why anyone should care about the movie if they’re not already on its wavelength. The point of reviewing isn’t to share you personal favorites list with the reader, with a kind of take-it-or-leave-it attitude about whether they’ll actually enjoy it. Worse is the reviewer who just piles on, merely echoing the blind conformity of the herd. The only reason to write up any film, old or new, is to create what you hope is common ground with the reader, to give them a glimpse of what you appreciated (or disdained) in the hopes they’ll seize the ball from there and run with it, having their own experience, not just a carbon copy of your own.

Any truly sentient creature in the present should find plenty to pick up on in Alphaville. It’s probably the only valid glimpse of the future ever committed to film, riding joyously, for all its dire predictions, on the back of pulp fiction and sci-fi—and, it needs to be pointed out, given how quickly and completely Godard would soon turn against Hollywood, American pulp fiction and sci-fi.

Most visions of the future latch onto the technology, trying to second guess how science will develop—which will always be a sucker’s bet—and the characters, even when they adopt what seem to contemporary audiences odd behaviors, are always us just projected into the future essentially unchanged from who we are now. (Hello!—all you Star Trek fans out there.) What Godard does instead is anticipate the elaborate, increasingly lopsided dance between human nature and its extension in technology, with his focus squarely on the human, and, in truly uncanny ways, anticipates our rapid devolution and the world of the present, awash in a drowning tide of lost souls.

Some of his more cogent prognostications:

—The rise of the myth of the eternal present, which blocks people from considering the past or the future so that, as dire and empty as it is, the current state of things seems like the best of all possible worlds.

—Reducing culture to our most primitive urges to make it easier to control mass behavior. (Anybody who disagrees this has come to pass hasn’t been paying much attention to blockbuster movies, recent politics, or Facebook algorithms.)

—Embracing and fetishizing that Western science is only superficially rational and objective and is driven, more than anything else, by the idea of purging Original Sin. (As the movie’s supercomputer intones: “The acts of man through the centuries will gradually, logically destroy him. I, Alpha 60, am merely the logical means of this destruction.”)

The list of searing insights is much longer than the above, but this will give you the drift. Of course, my descriptions are too reductive and nothing but a travesty of what Godard actually wrought—but the point is that, his gaze steely, and undistracted by positivism and other hucksterist notions of progress, he got it all frighteningly right.

It’s not the job of any film to predict the future, of course, or be any kind of handbook or teachable moment or push any kind of social agenda. That’s the antithesis of cinema. Godard was resonating to something he sensed in the air—the imminent disappearance of the poetic soul—in other words, the soul—and worked to express that almost inexpressible event as accurately and evocatively as he could.

I know: I’ve made this all sound very cerebral and dry and bleak. It’s not—Alphaville is a truly fun film that, like all early Godard, has cinematic thrills, both big and small, in virtually every shot. And, as with A Woman Is a Woman and Contempt, he underlines at the very beginning that this is “just” a film, with the computer telling us about the importance of legend for disseminating fictions to the masses—thus providing a typically paradoxical justification for the movie’s crime-fiction and sci-fi trappings. And it’s easy to confuse Godard’s exploiting of comic-book conventions, with their broad-stroke ideology and cheap sentiments, as his own thoughts and feelings, but that’s all part of his effort to keep you off balance so you keep questioning and paying attention.

Watching Alphaville in SD on Amazon Prime, I was surprised by how good parts of it looked. Then I watched it in HD on iTunes, and I saw the same cinematography bloom. The 1080p version is murkier than the SD stream, with more contrast and with the blacks more crushed, but the additional resolution allows for more subtle gradations—something Godard and Raoul Coutard took full advantage of and which is fundamental to appreciating the film, and that isn’t even hinted at in the lower-res version. There are closeups of Anna Karina that have a richness and subtle glow reminiscent of the best black & white portrait photography, and that contrasting of the luminous with the harsh is key to conveying her position as a pod-person-like succubus who’s also the possible vessel of human salvation. The film’s famed rendering of the striking but cold interiors of modern office spaces feels bracing, almost seductive at 1080p, falls flat in SD. I don’t know if a good 4K transfer could open up the images even more, but I’d be curious to find out.

This is a particularly nuanced mono mix so polyvalent it reminded me of Phil Spector’s ability to convey layers and layers of depth in a single channel. Crude to today’s jaundiced ears, all that really matters is whether it expresses what Godard meant it to express, and it does. The strange sense of Alpha 60’s voice and the society’s electronic communications being in the immediate foreground while sounds of the actors and their environments sit in the mid ground is unsettling. And Godard’s signature mucking around with what ought to be diegetic sound—for instance, the sound of the perversely brief fight scene soon after hero Lemmy Caution checks into his hotel room suddenly drops away when Godard cuts to an angle through a window, but the music playing within the apartment continues on—comes across with plenty of presence. But also with a decent amount of distortion—but that’s OK. It rings true.

The on-set sound is very raw, full of the reverberations of the spaces, but that adds to the documentary-like sense of immediacy—the reality of this clearly fictional but sadly plausible world.

You don’t have to watch Godard to see Godard. There is hardly a film made since the early ‘60s he hasn’t influenced in some way and, with their relentless efforts to appropriate because they lack the emotional depth to actually create, many contemporary directors now mimic his tropes verbatim. But the distance between innovator and imitator couldn’t be greater—kind of like having a burger at Applebee’s instead of Boon Fly Cafe. There’s a resemblance, but the resemblance is probably the least meaningful thing about the experience. Applebee’s is safe, predictable, bland; dead, not alive. And so it goes with Godard.

Michael Gaughn—The Absolute Sound, The Perfect Vision, Wideband, Stereo Review, Sound & Vision, The Rayva Roundtable, marketing, product design, some theater designs, a couple TV shows, some commercials, and now this.

PICTURE | In 1080p on iTunes, the film is a little murky, with crushed blacks, but the resolution allows some of the images to look properly subtle and rich, creating the necessary contrast between luminous and harsh

SOUND | The mono mix is unusually nuanced, helping to convey the unsettling juxtaposition between the omnipresent supercomputer and the spellbound citizens

Review: Cha Cha Real Smooth

review | Cha Cha Real Smooth

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It might not be as big an indie win for Apple TV+ as CODA, but Cha Cha is still an endearing and diverting film

by Roger Kanno
June 27, 2022

Apple TV+ paid a record $25 million for the rights to CODA at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Judging by all the accolades, such as several major Academy Awards including Best Picture, it worked out pretty well for the streamer. This year, they spent big again at Sundance, securing the distribution rights to Cha Cha Real Smooth and making it available on their service beginning June 17.

Cooper Raiff, who wrote and directed the film, stars as Andrew, an apathetic recent college grad who moves back home and finds work at a fast-food restaurant. While chaperoning his little brother at a bat mitzvah, he is offered employment as a professional party orchestrator as several of the mothers are impressed by his party-starting skills. He also introduces himself to one of the mothers, Domino (Dakota Johnson) and her autistic daughter, Lola (Vanessa Burghardt). He establishes an immediate rapport with them, especially with Lola who is played brilliantly by Burghardt, giving her character a charm and honesty that is absolutely refreshing.

Raiff is also quite good, if somewhat formulaic in his portrayal of the goofy and sometimes annoying Andrew, and Johnson is both alluring and enigmatic as Domino. We never really get to know her as much as we would like and neither does Andrew. Johnson only ever reveals enough of her beguiling character’s backstory to maintain our interest without disclosing too many of her mysteries. The supporting cast includes Leslie Mann as Andrew’s anxious but supportive mother and Brad Garrett, who is slyly hilarious in an uncharacteristically subdued performance as stepdad Greg.

It’s far too early to make any Oscar predictions but Cha Cha Real Smooth isn’t as daring or as accomplished as CODA, so I don’t suspect it will challenge for many Academy Awards next year. Still, it’s another great Sundance find and solidifies Raiff, who previously wrote, directed and starred in S#!%house, as a filmmaker to take notice of.

I wasn’t expecting too much technically from this indie film but was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the audio presented in Dolby Atmos and the use of some memorable song selections to go along with the quirky and charming story line. Although the music is mostly constrained to the front channels, there is some effective use of the surround and height channels to subtly enhance the stereo effect for a more involving auditory experience. Grammy -winning artist Lupe Fiasco’s “The Show Goes On” sounded fantastic in the opening scenes, with the rapping and vocal harmonies sounding particularly clear. The catchy instrumentation wrapped around to the surrounds with a subtle echoing and a bit of height-channel information to expand the soundfield even further. And whether it was Jean Dawson’s “Clear Bones” accompanying the opening credits or “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc. playing at the bat mitzvah, the music always sounded full and enveloping.

Much of the film takes place indoors and at night, so there’s little natural lighting, and many of the scenes appear somewhat dark. While this isn’t distracting, as it seems quite organic, the picture is a little soft overall. Minute details in facial expressions or the texture of clothing are often not apparent, and background objects that are out of focus due to shallow depth of field seem even less distinct. Presented in 4K with Dolby Vision, the lighting was smooth and consistent even during those very dark scenes, but details never really pop like they can with a reference-quality HDR presentation.

Apple TV+ has a limited number of new releases each month but a high proportion of them, including both movies and TV series, are very well made. Cha Cha Real Smooth is another example of their high quality of programming. It might not be perfect, but it is an endearing film and well worth seeking out.

Roger Kanno began his life-long interest in home cinema almost three decades ago with a collection of LaserDiscs and a Dolby Surround Pro Logic system. Since then, he has seen a lot of movies in his home theater but has an equal fascination with high-end stereo music systems. Roger writes for both Sound & Vision and the SoundStage! Network.

PICTURE | The lighting in this Dolby Vision presentation is smooth and consistent even during very dark scenes, but details never really pop like they can with a reference-quality HDR transfer

SOUND | The Dolby Atmos mix is pleasantly surprising, with some effective use of the surround and height channels to subtly enhance the stereo effect of the music track

Review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

review | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

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Not the best entry in the MCU but certainly not the worst, Strange makes for a diverting, visually and sonically engaging experience

by John Sciacca
June 24, 2022

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is the 34th entry in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe—including series like Loki and Hawkeye on Disney+—with No. 35, Thor: Love and Thunder, set to be the next big release just two weeks from now on July 7. And at this point in the MCU, you’re probably either all in or over it. But, if you happen to be in the middle ground of “take it or leave it” when it comes to superhero fare, read on to see if Multiverse is worth your time.

Sam Raimi is an interesting choice as director. While he certainly has experience with the superhero genre, having directed the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy (not part of the MCU, though that is possibly debatable after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home), he also has a strong horror background with a zombie penchant on his résumé, including The Evil Dead 1 and 2, Army of Darkness, and Drag Me to Hell. You can clearly see Raimi leaning into the more frightening and horror elements of Multiverse as the film has an overall dark and sinister tone, with parts feeling like the classic “being chased by an unstoppable monster” horror trope and one very literal zombie. In my review notes, I wrote, “This is less superhero and more supernatural,” so keep that in mind if you have younger or sensitive viewers in your home.

The last time we saw Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) was in No Way Home, where he played a fairly significant role. That film certainly introduced us to the concept of the multiverse, opening portals, and traveling between them, and it seemed like it would be a perfect springboard for Multiverse’s plot to leap from, But there in no strong connection to Home and only passing mentions of Spidey. Of course, Thanos’ “snap” from Avengers: Infinity War continues to resonate through the films that have followed and it’s referenced again here, as are other Avengers, helping to make Multiverse feel like part of the bigger story.

While this film can be viewed on its own, getting the most out of it requires some basic knowledge of the MCU. But if you don’t have the time to go back and watch hundreds of hours to catch up, I’ve got you covered. Naturally, the best prep would be to watch Doctor Strange (2016), which introduces you to the title character, explaining his background and how he obtained his powers. This film also includes Wong (Benedict Wong), who is currently Sorcerer Supreme, Strange’s frenemy Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and provides some context to the relationship between Strange and Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams). Since Multiverse is tied so closely to Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), giving Avengers: Age of Ultron a look will introduce you to her. But you could just watch the Disney+ series WandaVision (which this movie is most closely tied to) as it provides far more insight into her powers and motivation. Finally, for some extra credit, you could check out Episodes 1, 4, and 5 of the Disney+ series What If . . ?, as they help flesh out some of the story points. You should also watch No Way Home just because it’s so good and will give you glimpses into the multiverse.

Without spoiling anything, we learn that dreams are actually glimpses of our other selves in the multiverse, and Strange encounters a young girl named America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) who has the power to open portals and travel between universes. This is a power Wanda desperately wants and she is willing to stop at nothing to get it, and the movie is essentially Strange trying to keep America safe from falling into Wanda’s clutches.

You expect a big-budget (estimated at $200 million) film to look fantastic, and Multiverse doesn’t disappoint. Shot in 8K, the home transfer is taken from a 4K digital intermediate, and images are clean, sharp, and detailed. The movie is filled with captivating visuals and effects, and it’s just cool to watch. A couple of noteworthy scenes include when Strange and America take a mind-bending genre and style trip through the multiverse (pre-bookmarked on the Kaleidescape download as “A Multiverse Escape”) that you’ll want to rewatch and pause your way through to fully appreciate, a puzzle “fun house” room in the Kamar-Taj, and a crumbling universe with physics-bending buildings that is reminiscent of the dream collapsing in Inception or the Mirror Dimension in No Way Home.

While closeups give plenty of facial detail—perhaps a little too much, as some of the eye makeup on one character near the end was a little too obvious—or letting you see single, wispy white strands of hair on the sides of Strange’s head, what really struck me were the fine details and texture in costumes. During an early wedding, Strange’s white dress shirt has a clear, fine pebbled texture, and you can also see the intricacy in Wong’s robes and Strange’s cape, err, I mean cloak. Black levels are also nice, deep, and clean, delivering full, pitch-black levels on my OLED.

The magic elements and effects cast from Strange, Wong, and Wanda in glowing yellow or sizzling red, along with the brilliant white star-shaped portals opened by America, are the perfect fodder for HDR, making for bright, vibrant images. Another scene has deeply saturated reds from a glowing landscape conjured by Wanda. Exterior day scenes in New York, the Kamar-Taj, or Earth-838 also look appropriately punchy. There are also a lot of dark interiors that benefit from nice, realistic shadow detail.

There has been a lot of grumbling over Disney’s less-than-impressive sound mixes for the home market, but the lossless Dolby TrueHD Atmos track here is deep, powerful, immersive, and engaging. Objects are frequently thrown overhead, or reach far off into the side walls and corners of the room, or fly up to impact high on the front wall. There is a mirror room where Wanda throws a fireball blast that bounces all around the room, or a collapsing building where there is the steady dripping of water all around, followed by the crunching and crumbling of concrete overhead and splintering out around the room. Another really creative moment is a battle with enchanted musical notes as the weapons (bookmarked on the Kaleidescape download as “A Strange Musical Duel”), with sonic notes traveling around the room.

As mentioned, there are some definite horror elements here, and the sound mix picks up on that as well with strange creaks and groans in a house that sonically reminded me a bit of It. Bass can also be loud and dynamic, with room-rumbling and couch-energizing low end.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn’t the best nor is it the worst of the MCU entries. While the story is a bit thin, the movie is certainly entertaining, filled with engaging visuals and packing a dynamic surround mix that will show off your system. Raimi’s style might also appeal to viewers not traditionally fans of superhero films. Plus, there are some really interesting character crossovers—including a new character’s introduction in the now requisite MCU mid-credits scene—that could point the way to future installments in the franchise.

Probably the most experienced writer on custom installation in the industry, John Sciacca is co-owner of Custom Theater & Audio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, & is known for his writing for such publications as Residential Systems and Sound & Vision. Follow him on Twitter at @SciaccaTweets and at johnsciacca.com.

PICTURE | The movie is filled with captivating visuals, and the magic elements and effects cast from Strange, Wong, and Wanda are perfect fodder for HDR, making for bright, vibrant images

SOUND | The lossless Atmos track is deep, powerful, immersive, and engaging, with room-rumbling and couch-energizing bass

Review: Hustle

review | Hustle

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Adam Sandler turns in another solid dramatic performance in this tale of a down-on-his-luck basketball scout

by Roger Kanno
June 23, 2022

Most people know Adam Sandler from his days at Saturday Night Live or his many comedic film roles since the 1990s. But, in 2019, he starred in the fantastic Safdie Brothers’ drama Uncut Gems, receiving critical acclaim for his portrayal of a gambling-addicted jeweler. He is following up this career-defining performance with another dramatic role in Hustle, this time playing a down-on-his-luck scout and sometime assistant coach for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. And while he might still be best known for his often low-brow comedies, it should be remembered that Sandler has had other successful turns as a dramatic actor in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) and Punch-Drunk Love.

Produced by Sandler and Lebron James among others, Hustle features appearances by many current and past NBA players, coaches, and sports analysts. Sandler turns in another compelling and nuanced dramatic performance as Stanley Sugerman, a scout tasked with the nearly impossible assignment of discovering the next star player the team needs to compete for a championship. He does this while maintaining his easy-going charm, and while being supported by his strong but loving wife, played convincingly by Queen Latifah, and his daughter, an aspiring film-student, played by relative newcomer, Jordan Hull. The main antagonist, the 76ers’ top executive (Ben Foster), is a bit one-dimensional in his dislike of Sugerman and contrary views on player development, but otherwise the plot is solid and compelling.

The NBA personalities mostly play themselves and are used sparingly, although former player and current analyst Kenny Smith is believable as a super-agent and Sugerman’s good friend, Leon Rich. But the film would not have worked without the credible performance of Juancho Hernangómez as Bo Cruz, the player Sugerman discovers in Spain and convinces to return with him to the US in hopes of entering him in the draft. Hernangómez is a professional basketball player, currently with the Utah Jazz, but he captures Cruz’s naivety and ultimately strong but untested character as a young, developing player. Also deserving of praise is Anthony Edwards, the 2020 first overall draft pick and star player for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who plays Kermit Wilts. While most of his dialogue is delivered in the context of on-court activities, his portrayal of a cocky, trash-talking player is convincing. You don’t have to be a basketball or even a sports fan to enjoy this film, but you will enjoy it all the more if you are.

The picture quality of Hustle isn’t very memorable, but in a good way. It isn’t so over-the-top and eye-catching to draw unnecessary attention to itself, nor is it so poor that it distracts from the narrative. Presented in Dolby Vision, the visuals are sharp and detailed, although the color palette is a bit on the cool side and lacks some saturation. This suits the film, as it takes place mostly in grittier locations around Philadelphia such as training facilities or Sugerman’s middle-class neighborhood even though the film is about the big business of professional basketball. It’s not exactly Rocky-esque, even though it takes some cues from that film, but the subdued visual presentation is fitting.

Although it is presented in Dolby Atmos, there isn’t much use of the height or even the surround channels, but music is used effectively throughout, especially during the many exhilarating basketball sequences. When Sugerman first sees Cruz, hustling at a pickup game, some extremely catchy percussion from the score by contemporary composer Dan Deacon accompanies the insane baller action. There are also a lot of great rap songs and even some cool jazz featuring Meek Mill, Rick Ross, Outkast, Slick Rick, and the Miles Davis Quintet.

Hustle is a fine collaboration between Sandler and Netflix. It might not be as engrossing as the nail-biting Uncut Gems but it is a satisfying and uplifting film, showcasing genuine performances by Sandler and Hernangómez.

PICTURE | Presented in Dolby Vision, the visuals are sharp and detailed, although the color palette is a bit on the cool side and lacks some saturation

SOUND | Although presented in Dolby Atmos, there isn’t much use of the height or even the surround channels, but music is used effectively throughout

Review: Uncut Gems

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Standout performances and obvious talent behind the camera add up to a film that’s ultimately just unpleasant to watch

by Dennis Burger
March 2, 2020

I can’t remember the last time any film left me feeling so conflicted as Benny and Josh Safdie’s Uncut Gems; conflicted because, on the one hand, it’s as distinctive an artistic expression as I’ve seen on film in who knows how long—meticulously scripted, inventively shot, masterfully edited, with performances that are award-worthy down to the level of the most minor secondary roles. On the other hand, I can’t remember any film in recent memory that filled me with such anxiety as this one did, from the opening scene straight through to the closing credits.

The film stars Adam Sandler, who turns in a pitch-perfect performance as Howard Ratner, a jewelry store proprietor and compulsive gambler who’s always one side-hustle away from either striking it rich or getting fitted for cement shoes. His fortunes seem to change when he comes into possession of a rare black opal that quickly becomes the obsession of basketball player Kevin Garnett (played equally effectively by basketball player Kevin Garnett). Rather than selling the stone to Garnett for a ridiculous sum of money, Ratner decides to scam him by way of an auction, and, well . . . so it goes for the rest of the film.

In some ways, I suppose you could call Uncut Gems a morality play, but the morality espoused seems to be pure nihilism. There isn’t a sympathetic character in the film—no one to root for, no opportunity for a satisfying resolution that isn’t morally bankrupt. And I’m not saying that makes it a bad film; I’m merely saying it was one I couldn’t enjoy–which is a shame because the Safdies draw inspiration from some of my guilty pleasures, especially the late-’80s/early-’90s output of Michael Mann, whose style they manage to evoke without aping, both visually and aurally.

Shot on the same Kodak Vision3 500T 35mm film stock that gave Marriage Story its distinctively cinematic look, Uncut Gems is the perfect marriage of photochemical chaos and cutting-edge digital precision. It’s all unapologetically crushed blacks and cranked primary hues, and in one scene in particular—at a glitzy nightclub performance by The Weeknd—the 4K HDR presentation (sourced from a 4K digital intermediate) uses its enhanced dynamic range to effectively recreate the blacklight illumination and the DayGlo neon colors that result.

Even the soundtrack is a captivating mix of retro and bleeding edge, thanks in part to a score by Daniel Lopatin that breaks all the rules of both composition and mixing. The music at times evokes the Michael Mann aesthetic, with ’80s-tastic droning synths and a pulse-pounding tempo that pushes the visuals forward; at other times, it veers into Blade Runner territory, and at other times still ventures into what can only be described as artistic porn-music territory.

The one consistent aspect of the soundtrack—and indeed the sound mix as a whole—is that supervising sound editor Warren Shaw acts as if he’s the first person to ever work in surround sound, much less Dolby Atmos. The mix exhibits a level of aggression I would normally find irritating and distracting, but here it simply works. Dialogue is forced into the left or right channels at times when it would traditionally be locked into the center. Score music often uses the surrounds as the primary channels instead of the fronts. If it weren’t all so skillfully mixed, it would come across as pure chaos, but I find myself loving it in spite of myself.

In the end, though, I have to put Uncut Gems into that growing pile of films I appreciate but just can’t enjoy. For all the visual and auditory allusions to Mann, the film ends up playing as more of a horror movie in which the lumbering antagonist isn’t a machete-wielding psychopath but rather karma itself. It could have just as easily been titled A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Person Has a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week.

And I’m not quite sure if the Safdies have created a window or a mirror. Am I supposed to feel any sympathy or empathy for Sandler’s awful character? If so, Uncut Gems fails in that respect, because I can’t. Am I supposed to root for his comeuppance? I hope not, because that feels just as gross.

And yet, for all the anxiety, conflicted feelings, and desire to bleach my eyeballs after the credits rolled, I have to admit I was absolutely captivated by the sheer talent on the screen and behind the scenes. And I don’t really like the way that realization makes me feel about myself.

PICTURE | The perfect marriage of photochemical chaos and cutting-edge digital precision, Uncut Gems is all unapologetically crushed blacks and cranked primary hues

SOUND | The Atmos mix exhibits a level of aggression that would usually be irritating and distracting but here it simply works.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Review: Everything Everywhere All at Once

review | Everything Everywhere All at Once

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Both zany and thought-provoking, this Michelle Yeoh vehicle somehow manages to be about everything, everywhere without taking on too much

by Dennis Burger
June 16, 2022

Perhaps the most troubling thing about modern popular culture—especially as it pertains to genre fiction—is that metaphors have lost all meaning. Our totems have lost their functional connections with the things they’re supposed to symbolize and have taken on disproportionate importance on their own. The trappings have come to be the entire point.

Fantasy fiction isn’t about where we’ve come from and what we’ve lost along the way—not anymore, anyway. It’s about dragons and hot chicks with pointy ears in impractical armor. Star Wars as a franchise isn’t about emergence into adulthood and a postmodernist twist on early Jungian notions of the father complex anymore, nor is it a thinly veiled critique of American imperialism, as it once was; it’s about laser-swords and space wizards and big walking weapons of war. And when it tries to be anything more than that, the loudest but least significant contingent of its fanbase makes headlines with their toxicity.

The seasoning has become our substance, the dessert our main course, and we’re paying a price for that, culturally speaking. And I say that as someone who really, really likes dessert.

If you want to understand anything about Everything Everywhere All at Once before diving in, it’s that it seems to be an outright rejection of all of the above. To point that out does run the risk of painting the film in a misleading light because it unfairly places it within the tradition of genre fiction. And when you get right down to it, Everything Everywhere doesn’t really belong to any particular genre—or so I thought on my first of four viewings in the span of 24 hours.

Sometime during my second viewing, I decided it’s actually a mashup of every genre—although mashup isn’t quite the word I’m looking for, as it connotes a sort of haphazard cribbing of the most superficially popular aspect of genres like science-fiction, fantasy, kung-fu, comedy, surrealism, drama, wuxia, and absurdism, with no real attempt at meaningful synthesis. Instead, writer/directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as “Daniels,” seem far more interested in borrowing the most resonant and meaningful aspects of these genres and assembling them into a new whole such that each distinctive element reinforces the other on some deeper level.

But none of that really matters, because in my third viewing I realized that to really understand it, you have to come to terms with the fact that it is every genre and no genre simultaneously. There’s never been a film like it and there never will be again, because any imitation would sully the intent.

Of course, that’s not to say no one will try. I imagine we’ll see all sorts of lazy attempts at putting Camus, Douglas Hofstadter, Kafka, Daniel Dennet, the Shaw Brothers, and the Wachowskis (before their work became self-parody) into a big boiling pot and stirring it all with a Grant Morrison-shaped ladle with a Salvador Dali-inspired handle. But ultimately, any such attempt at imitation will be derivative, and derivative is certainly the one thing Everything Everywhere is not, despite the numerous traditions from which it borrows.

Here is perhaps the weirdest thing about the film, though: Despite being a work of legitimate cultural significance, with a message that will still be sending shockwaves through my brain years from now, it is also incredibly accessible and wildly entertaining, not to mention slap-happily zany.

Superficially, it’s a story about a Chinese-American laundromat owner (Michelle Yeoh) who’s unknowingly on the verge of being served divorce papers by her husband (Ke Huy Quan, aka Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) and who has nearly alienated her daughter (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Stephanie Hsu) past the point of reconciliation.

During an IRS audit, she gets dragged into an adventure in which the fates of all realities are imperiled and she is the key to saving them all—including alternate universes in which she is a boulder, in which she is sort of Michelle Yeoh, in which humans evolved useless sausage appendages instead of fingers, and in which Randy Newman did the music for Ratatouille and also voiced Remy (except in this case Remy is an animatronic racoon and not a CGI rat), to name just a few.

It’s easy to read all that and think you know exactly what sort of film this is. Whatever you’re imagining, you’re wrong. This is not the Hero’s Journey, it’s not The Matrix or the MCU, and it’s not quite the film being sold by the trailer, either.

My first viewing, I thought I had settled on an interpretation of the story as sort of grappling with the anxiety of living in the modern world, where we all feel stretched too thin and are all simply cogs in the machine of bureaucracy, with no real agency. The second time around, it struck me more as a meditation on libertarian free will, and a question about whether different lived experiences would fundamentally change who we are as individuals.

The third time through, it seemed obvious the film is a juxtaposition of a mother and daughter, both at turning points in their lives. One has to contend with the near-limitless and crippling well of possibilities her life could be; the other is forced to reflect on all the choices she could have made but didn’t and contend with what could have been. And the more I think about it, the more I realize the film is all of those things and more. It kinda is about everything, everywhere, all at once.

It if isn’t clear by now, this one is a keeper, so in one sense I’m glad I have it on Kaleidescape. It’s a distinctively weird-looking film, captured as it was in the ArriRaw format in a mix of 2.8K and 3.4K resolutions and finished in a 4K intermediate, but perhaps more importantly shot through a variety of idiosyncratic lenses, including vintage Todd-AO anamorphics.

It’s not the sort of so-razor-sharp-I-can-see-every-pore perfection that delights enthusiasts, but it’s such a deliciously textural, colorful, and high-contrast image that you’ll still want to watch it on the best screen in the house. Kaleidescape’s UHD HDR10 image is practically indistinguishable from the iTunes version (viewed via the Apple TV+ app on a Roku Ultra), aside from the first few frames of the A24 logo while the stream is buffering up to full resolution. But that’s not a knock against Kaleidescape, because there’s simply no room for improvement over Apple’s encoding of the film, no matter how many extra bits you throw at it. Both are A+ presentations.

You may be wondering why I purchased the film on iTunes if I already had it on Kaleidescape. It wasn’t purely for the sake of visual comparison. The one thing iTunes has over any other provider in the digital domain is the audio commentary by Daniels, which I couldn’t resist listening to in my fourth viewing. Thankfully it doesn’t impose too much in terms of interpretation, instead digging into anecdotes about the production and post-production, including the fact that the incredible visual effects (500-ish shots in total) were created by a team of five who learned how to do effects by watching After Effects tutorials online.

It’s a real shame Kaleidescape wasn’t given access to the commentary, because the home video release isn’t a complete package without it. To be fair, though, Kaleidescape does have the full-bandwidth Dolby TrueHD version of the Atmos soundtrack, which is as perfect a blend of the sublime and the ridiculous as everything else about Everything Everywhere. Seriously, your subwoofers will need smelling salts after the closing credits roll, but it isn’t about spectacle or high-impact sound purely for the sake of high-impact sound; it’s about tying the whole chaotic and meditative audiovisual and narrative experience together into one mind-blowing whole.

PICTURE | It doesn’t offer the so-razor-sharp-I-can-see-every-pore perfection that delights enthusiasts but the image is so deliciously textural, colorful, and high-contrast that you’ll still want to watch this movie on the best screen in the house

SOUND | The Atmos soundtrack is a perfect a blend of the sublime and the ridiculous that will have you giving your subwoofers smelling salts after the closing credits roll

Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp

review | Ant-Man and the Wasp

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A modest, family-friendly addition to the MCU, with engaging performances by Rudd and Lilly

by John Sciacca
November 6, 2018

The Disney/Marvel team really has the formula dialed in when it comes to creating successful and enjoyable superhero movies. Through a deft mix of writing, casting, humor, big action pieces, and a 10-year storyline that both lives on its own and weaves between all films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Marvel films are entertaining and re-watchable, making them fantastic for viewing at home. And while many carry a PG-13 rating, as does this film, they are very family friendly in nature.

While Ant-Man and the Wasp is technically a sequel to 2015’s Ant-Man, don’t worry that you’ll be lost if you are diving in here. The opening scene lays the groundwork for the primary plot of this film: Years ago, the original Wasp (Michelle Pfeiffer) went sub-atomic to disable a missile, and she was thought to be lost forever to the Quantum Realm. Now her husband, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and daughter, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) think there is a way to bring her back. Of course, doing so requires dealing with some shady characters to obtain illegal black-market tech, causing mayhem to ensue.

The film’s big hook is that Dr. Pym’s tech can shrink—and grow—a variety of objects, adding another layer to fight and chase scenes. These Honey, I Shrunk the Kids moments work very well, both visually and for moving the story forward, as well as providing some comedic moments.

Paul Rudd (Ant-Man/Scott Lang) carries most of the film, balancing his roles as superhero and father while under house arrest for events that happened in Captain America: Civil War. (This is all explained early on by FBI agent Jimmy Woo, played with great comedic effect by Randall Park.) Rudd is just incredibly likable and easy to watch, similar—but far less foul-mouthed—to Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool, with an ability to organically inject humor into scenes without making it feel forced. Lilly is also fantastic as the Wasp, demonstrating she’s picked up some fierce fighting skills since leaving the island. (That’s a Lost reference, for those who missed it.)

The movie was filmed on a variety of Red and Arri cameras at resolutions ranging from 3.4K to 8K, while the home release comes from a 2K digital intermediate. This means it doesn’t mine every bit of resolution possible but still looks pretty terrific. A great example is the early scene where Jimmy Woo explains why Lang is under house arrest. He’s wearing a shirt with incredibly fine pinstripes that are almost a 1:1 4K resolution test. Other scenes reveal the pebbled texture and detail in Ant-Man and Wasp’s uniforms. The film’s color palette is mostly muted and natural, with a more restrained HDR pass. But the image still pops when it needs to—for example when heading into the Quantum Realm, or the computer screens in Dr. Pym’s lab. Black levels are also deep and noise-free, with lots of shadow detail.

There has been quite a bit of angst over recent Disney/Marvel home releases with their sub-standard, heavily compressed audio mixes. In fact, a petition was started to get Disney to change the audio quality in future releases, currently with over 1,000 supporters. I’m happy to say that the Dolby Atmos audio quality on Ant-Man and The Wasp is far improved over recent D/M fare. Dialogue is clear and understandable throughout, but more importantly to luxury home cinema owners, the sound mix is far more dynamic, with the overhead speakers used wisely and frequently throughout. This height layer is used for creating ambience and space in the scene, as well as creating directional cues—for example, The Wasp and other insects zipping around the room. If I had one complaint about the mix, it would be that they were a little light-handed in the deep-bass department, with moments—such as during a big chase and fight scene near the end—that would have benefitted from some extra dBs in the LFE channel.

Two scenes that really show off the strength of the audio mix are “Lost in the Quantum Realm” at just over 11 minutes in, as well as Lang’s first visit to Dr. Pym’s lab at the 16-minute mark. “Lost” has audio that swirls and shifts all around the room, simulating Lang’s travel through the realm, with voices mixed in all channels to simulate a dream state. The lab scene wonderfully uses subtle cues like buzzing fluorescent lights, flying and crawling insects, and cavernous echoes to place you smack in the middle of the screen environment.

Oh, and without spoiling anything, definitely watch through the credits as the team does a fantastic job of tying this film into the Infinity War timeline. The film also includes a host of extra features including a director’s commentary, a variety of making-of featurettes, outtakes, and deleted scenes.

PICTURE | This transfer from a 2K digital intermedia doesn’t mine every bit of resolution possible but still looks pretty terrific

SOUND | Dialogue is clear and understandable and the Atmos mix is dynamic overall, with the overhead speakers used wisely and frequently throughout

Review: The Avengers / Avengers: Age of Ultron

review | The Avengers / Avengers: Age of Ultron

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By bringing together most of the major players for the first time, the two initial Avengers films solidly took the MCU to the next level

by John Sciacca
May 2, 2019

Like millions of others, my family and I went to see Avengers: Endgame last week when it was released. Rest assured, this won’t reveal anything about that film, short of it further cementing my feelings that I would way rather watch movies in the comfort and seclusion of my own home, and that I’m an alpha candidate for day & date viewing. (Someone actually brought a toddler, who sat and watched an iPad during the entire movie! Fortunately, the Pad was out of my eyeline or I think I would have flipped out!)

After seeing Endgame, we decided we should really go back and watch some of the other 21 films that had led us to this, many of which we haven’t seen in years. Since my 12 year old had never seen the first Avengers or the followup, Age of Ultron, those seemed like two good choices to start our re-watch journey.

Fortuitously, both of these films have been recently re-released with new 4K HDR transfers with Dolby Atmos soundtracks, so that made another terrific reason to revisit. After downloading from the Kaleidescape store, we watched The Avengers on Monday and Ultron on Tuesday.

The Avengers is part of Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which includes the six films released between 2008 and 2012, and comes after each of the principal characters—Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Loki, and Captain America—have been introduced in their own films. (Clint Barton/Hawkeye [Jeremy Renner] had been introduced via a small cameo in Thor, and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow [Scarlett Johansson] was introduced in Iron Man 2.)

After teasing us with the Tesseract in a post-credits scene in Thor, and then making it a major part of Cap’s focus in Captain America: The First Avenger, the Tesseract (which holds the Space Infinity Stone) has a starring role in Avengers. While the previous films had been hinting and playing at cross-pollinating the MCU’s heroes, here they bring all the heroes together, which makes for a far more entertaining experience. I was impressed with how Joss Whedon—who both wrote and directed—was able to build a story by slowly and organically bringing all the characters together and then giving them near-equal screen time, which allowed them to interact with each other and play to their strengths and personalities.

Avengers definitely lays the groundwork for the various relationships between the characters that continues to play out over the next films. We see the ties between Hawkeye and Black Widow, the roots of animosity between Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), which culminates in Captain America: Civil War (which should really have been titled Avengers 3), and the developing frenemy-ship between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), which plays out in Thor: Ragnarok. Also, the mid-credits scene reveals ultimate baddy, Thanos—though his skin here looks far more purple than blue.

The 4K HDR transfer looks fantastic, with tons of detail and with HDR used effectively throughout, bringing pop and detail to images. The terrific detail in the costume design is revealed, letting you see the weave in Cap’s suit, and all the scrapes and damage to Iron Man. During one scene between Romanoff and Barton, you see the wear and pores in Barton’s face starkly contrasted with the smooth foundation makeup that makes Romanoff’s skin glow. The added resolution really does a wonderful job revealing those micro-details and textures throughout.

HDR is apparent from the outset, illuminating the Tesseract in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secure fortress as well as the multiple explosions. Tony Stark’s Arc Reactor, boot jets, and energy blasts also benefit nicely from the brightness boost, as does Loki’s glowing scepter and Thor’s lightning blasts. Color is rich and vivid, and wonderfully saturated. The film looks fantastic, and you’d be hard pressed to tell it is seven years old.

Sonically, The Avengers follows in Disney’s frustrating habit of recording at significantly lower levels and being inconsistent with the depth and impact of bass performance. Fortunately, the first issue is solved by just playing the film back at a higher level than you’d normally use. In my case, we went about 6 dB louder on my Marantz preamp than normal movie-watching levels. With this adjustment, Avengers delivers a pretty engaging Dolby Atmos mix, with a lot of surround- and height-channel information, specifically in the opening sequence with Loki stealing the Tesseract, the bit battle scene aboard the flying aircraft carrier, and the final battle scene in New York.

Other scenes benefit from added sonic spaciousness that really opens up both the scenes and your listening room. Bass performance is fairly uneven, providing nice thuds and low-end during some scenes, but is missing or non-existent in others. Overall, though, the Atmos mix does a good job of immersing you in the swirl of action happening onscreen, and dialogue is well recorded and easily understandable throughout.

Released in 2015, Avengers: Age of Ultron has Whedon reprising his role as writer and director, and is part of Phase Two of the MCU, which includes six films released between 2013 and 2015. Taking place approximately three years after Avengers, Ultron sees our heroes called on once again to band together to retrieve Loki’s staff Ultron (voiced by James Spader), intended to be a Stark global defense program to protects the earth, but which becomes a sentient being intent on wiping out humanity to save the earth. Ultron brings James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle) into the action and also introduces us to twins Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), as well as Jarvis-brought-to-life, Vision (Paul Bettany), making for a fuller character ensemble than the first film.

Something about James Spader voicing Ultron just takes me out of this movie. Maybe it’s his smug attitude or maybe it’s from watching him as Robert California on the The Office or as Raymond Reddington on Blacklist. But for whatever reason, this voice casting didn’t work for me, and kept Ultron from being as intimidating as he could.

While some of Ultron feels a bit like “let’s build another Death Star” in that you have our band of heroes battling a huge horde of enemies—the Chitauri in Avengers, Ultron’s robot army here—relentlessly attacking a city—New York in Avengers, Sokovia here—it still offers a lot to enjoy. The developing comradery and interactions between our heroes offers some funny moments (the group trying to pick up Thor’s hammer for one) and continues the MCU storyline that eventually brings us to Endgame. The biggest contribution to the story is that the gem inside of Loki’s scepter is actually the Mind Stone, which ends up being implanted in Vision, and revealing just how powerful Scarlet Witch is. The mid-credits scene also shows us Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet saying, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” (Cue ominous music . . .)

Visually, Ultron is a treat, with tons of detail in every scene. As with Avengers, HDR is used effectively to enhance bright objects like lightning blasts, explosions, and the glowing blue trim on Black Widow’s suit. Perhaps one of the best examples of how HDR improves the image is when you see the visualization of Jarvis as an orange glowing sphere of light along with Ultron as a blue light sphere inside the Avenger Tower. This scene just glows off the screen in this version, and has far better color depth.

Sonically, the levels are once again low, requiring a liberal adjustment of your normal listening level. Other than that, the audio is really inconsistent and anemic in the low-bass frequencies. For example, the Hulkbuster versus Hulk scene has plenty of moments that should be pounding you in the chest and making your sub flex its muscles, but there is virtually nothing in the low end until the building destruction at the end of the scene.

Same with the conclusion. There is some really low-end info when Sokovia is lifting off the ground, but very little in the remainder of the battle. For a big action film, this is definitely disappointing. The rest of the Atmos mix is enjoyable, though I didn’t find it as aggressive as Avengers, and the lack of deep-bass engagement keeps this from being as demo-worthy as it could be.

For Marvel fans, these films connect the dots to get us to where Endgame finishes this cycle of the MCU, and now in a 4K HDR presentation, they look as good as you’ve ever seen.

THE AVENGERS

PICTURE | Images are super clean, tack-sharp, and highly detailed, and the HDR grade provides nice deep blacks and lifelike shadow detail, with black levels that are truly black and noise-free

SOUND | The big star here is the fantastically immersive Dolby TrueHD Atmos soundtrack, which features terrific audio tracking as sounds move around, off screen, or overhead

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

PICTURE | Ultron is a treat, with tons of detail in every scene. HDR is used effectively throughout to enhance bright objects like lightning blasts, explosions, and the glowing blue trim on Black Widow’s suit

SOUND | Levels are once again low, requiring a liberal adjustment of your normal listening level. Beyond that, the audio is really inconsistent and anemic in the low-bass frequencies.

Review: WandaVision

review | WandaVision

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Marvel takes its fans to places they’ve never been before with this surrealist send-up of classic TV shows

by Dennis Burger
January 18, 2021

Since the 2014 release of Captain America: Winter Soldier, Marvel Studios has built up a stockpile of trust with superhero-movie fans by pretty consistently cranking out entertaining action romps that span the genre spectrum from intense ’70s-style espionage thrillers to intergalactic comedies to dramatic epics. With WandaVision, the studio is spending that trust on an offbeat experiment that will, in retrospect, be seen as either a massive success or an embarrassing failure. And two episodes into its nine-episode run, it’s nearly impossible to tell which of those outcomes is more likely.

The Disney+ limited series represents a few firsts for Marvel. It’s their first episodic short-form production (earlier, tenuously connected TV shows like the pointless Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were produced by Marvel Television, a separate subsidiary studio). It’s their first foray into the so-called Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reportedly serves as the first in a trilogy of connected stories that will continue in Jon Watts’ upcoming Spider-Man sequel and conclude with Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s also the first MCU product of any sort released since 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home.

But perhaps most importantly, it’s the first time Marvel has placed anywhere near this much trust in the intelligence and patience of its audience. And I say that because anyone who tells you they fully understand what’s going on here either has insider information or they’re lying their asses off.

WandaVision is, in one sense, a portrayal of the supposedly idyllic home life of Wanda Maximoff and the Vision, two star-crossed lovers whose first big-screen appearance was in the otherwise forgettable Avengers: Age of Ultron (one of the studio’s few truly bad movies post-Winter Soldier). The problem, of course, is that we saw the Vision die an awful death in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War—first at the hands of Wanda herself then through some temporal trickery at the hands of Phase Three’s big bad, Thanos.

So the fact that he’s seemingly alive and mostly well in WandaVision is our first clue something is amiss here. But it’s far from the last and hardly the biggest. A much more blatant clue that not all is as it seems is that the series is produced in the style of classic sitcoms, starting with a pitch-perfect homage to The Dick Van Dyke Show (Van Dyke himself was a consultant and influenced a number of creative decisions, including the choice to shoot with vintage lenses and lighting and to produce the first episode in front of a live studio audience), then bleeding into time-capsule recreations of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie and—if the series’ trailer is any indication—advancing forward in time as the story unfolds, paying loving homage to newer and newer half-hour TV shows until . . .

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? Where is this all going? What’s the point of all this classic-TV homage?

Fans of the comics that inspired the series—most notably the fantastic The Vision and the Scarlet Witch mini-series from the ’80s, the heartbreaking House of M from the early aughts, and the brilliant-but-batshit-insane Vision standalone series from 2015-2016—certainly have a clue as to what’s going on here. Or at least we think we do.

From my perspective, it seems obvious that WandaVision is a story about what happens when someone with the ability to manipulate the very fabric of reality becomes so stricken with grief that she forms a new reality around her. And there are clues sprinkled throughout the first two episodes that this is what’s going on. Wanda, unable to process the horror of losing her one true love—indeed, of being forced to kill him herself—has snapped. Unable to cope with the real world, she creates her own world to occupy, a world whose picket fences and goofball antics are all informed by the classic sitcoms she saw in her youth. It’s important to remember that Wanda grew up in war-torn Eastern Europe and as such never had the idyllic suburban life she’s attempting to fabricate. So any sort of normal life is, for her, purely fantasy.

So it makes sense that when reality begins to intrude upon that fantasy, she rejects it, once again reforming the world around her into something she can once again cope with. We see this at one point when she simply exclaims, “No!” and literally rewinds the tape on her sitcom life, only to reshape it into something a little more colorful and a little more congruous with her unexpected pregnancy.

It all sounds a little trite, but series creator/writer Jac Schaeffer and Episode 1 and 2 director Matt Shakman so fully and sincerely commit to the classic Dick Van Dyke Show/Bewitched/I Dream of Jeannie tone, style, presentation, and aesthetic for so much of the running time—without a hint of spoof or parody—that you can’t help but be drawn into it. When the series ventures more toward Twilight Zone territory, as it does when Wanda’s grasp on her faux reality begins to slip, it’s as disconcerting for the viewer as it is for the characters.

Of course, that’s simply my take after two episodes. It’s entirely possible that MCU mastermind Kevin Feige has constructed a trap for us comic-book fans, leading us astray with red herrings before yanking the rug out from under our collective feet, leaving us exactly as disoriented as I would imagine most casual viewers are after having sat through the first two episodes of this weird experiment. Maybe this isn’t all Wanda’s delusion. Maybe she isn’t shaping reality around her. Maybe it’s—who knows?—aliens tinkering with her brain. Or maybe it’s a Truman Show sort of thing.

All I can say for sure is that, two episodes in, I’m utterly intrigued by WandaVision and can’t wait for it all to unfold. My first inclination was to think that perhaps Disney+ should have broken with tradition and dumped all nine episodes into our laps at once. The more I think about, though, the more I realize the weeklong break between episodes is an absolute necessity, giving me time to re-watch, ponder, reflect, and discuss what’s happened thus far before diving into the next chapter in this slow-burn psychological mystery.

Again, by the time all nine episodes are available, it could all end up being one big exercise in pseudo-intellectual gobbledygook, à la Tenet, or it could be one of the most brilliant TV series to come along in years, and the wait to find out which it is consumes me like an itch I just can’t quite reach. But for now, I find myself in a Schrödinger’s Cat superposition of fascination and skepticism. It’s difficult to imagine any corporate machine pulling off an act of truly artistic surrealism of the sort WandaVision seems to be. But at the same time, I have to acknowledge that they’re pulling it off so far.

And that’s largely due to not only the success of the aesthetic and stylistic conceit but also the delightful performances across the board. You could easily splice stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany into old footage of classic TV shows and anyone who didn’t know the actors already wouldn’t bat an eyelash. Kathryn Hahn is also an absolute tour de force in the role of Agnes, the nosy next-door neighbor who definitely has a major part to play in this mystery. (Indeed, most comic-book fans will have likely figured out who she is by the end of the second episode, but I won’t spoil that surprise.)

But world-class acting alone isn’t enough to sustain a series that’s attempting to take as big a bite as this one is. So, more than anything, I hope WandaVision doesn’t end up choking. Because if the MCU is to remain interesting, it absolutely must keep taking artistic risks like this.

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