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Review: Jojo Rabbit

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Jojo Rabbit (2019)

review | Jojo Rabbit

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Seemingly about a Hitler-obsessed German youth, Taika Waititi’s absurdist comedy turns out to be aimed more at the cultural absurdities of the present 

by Dennis Burger
February 7, 2020

In any other year, Jojo Rabbit would be fighting for the top spot among my favorite recent films. This absurdist lark from Taika Waititi (Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) is exactly what you would expect upon learning that the crazy bastard who actually made a great Thor movie against all odds then turned his weird attention toward the Holocaust and the Hitler Youth. 

On the surface, Jojo Rabbit is the tale of a young lad so infatuated with der Führer that he conjures Hitler out of thin air, Calvin & Hobbes-style, not only as a best imaginary friend but also as a fellow agent of unwitting chaos and something of a conscience. Things take a turn for the weirder when little Jojo discovers a Jewish girl hiding within the walls of his home and is forced to choose between the safety of his family and his commitment to an ideology he doesn’t understand in the slightest.

And if that’s as far as you decide to dig, there are loads of laughs to be had, assuming you’re not horribly offended by the premise. So many, in fact, that by the time the closing credits rolled, my cheeks legitimately hurt and I swear I felt abs forming under my tubby middle-aged tummy.  

But just as Waititi used the laugh-a-minute Thor: Ragnarok as a vehicle for some very real ruminations about colonialism and the lasting impacts thereof, he uses Jojo Rabbit to not only take the piss out of fascism, but also to explore its appeal. Seriously, what causes a precocious little boy to Sieg Heil! and buy into all manner of horrible conspiracies about the Jewish people? Furthermore, why is it that bumbling idiots seem to hold such sway over massive swaths of the general population? Waititi seems to be saying that if we can’t understand that, we’re ill-equipped to combat it.  

Unlike so many other filmmakers who have recently grappled with notions about why inherently good people do bad things, Waititi actually has answers. Pretty simple ones, when you get right down to it, but answers nonetheless. 

His primary conclusion: “We’re asking the wrong questions.” Right from the opening scene, Waititi uses a German dub of the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” cut together with screaming crowds of Nazis that are almost indistinguishable from fawning crowds of Beatlemaniacs to slyly point to the fact that cults of personality—any personality—are at least part of the problem. 

Along the way from that cheeky beginning to the inglorious end of World War II, Waititi takes shots at groupthink, cognitive dissonance, nationalism, and identity politics in equal measure, but when you get right down to it, what he seems to be saying is that the root of all our problems is a lack of genuine human connection. And he uses the anachronistic disconnect between his setting and his choice of soundtrack music, language, and mannerisms to point out that, for all our pontification about social media and modern life, this isn’t a new phenomenon. 

None of this should come as a surprise if you’re already familiar with Waititi’s work. What does come as a surprise is how often he plays it safe with this one. I guess he figured he had to tug on the reins from time to time to keep from offending literally everyone, and maybe he has a point. I wouldn’t know, since I’m not offended by much of anything. But sometimes the tonal shifts toward the conventional seem a little forced and insincere. Thankfully, the expected turn toward the sentimental at the end of the film is pulled off with such heartfelt authenticity that it’s difficult not to wooed by it all. 

My only remaining niggle—and this is entirely subjective—is that Scarlett Johansson is somewhat miscast as Jojo’s mother. And I say this as someone who thinks Johansson is actually underrated as an actor. She positively transforms her body language and her entire demeanor for the part, but something about it all doesn’t feel quite right. Especially when the rest of the casting—especially the two adolescent leads—is so spot on.

Another unexpected thing is how gorgeous the film is from beginning to end. Mihai Malaimare, Jr., in his first collaboration with Waititi as far as I can tell, proves himself to be an absolute master of color theory, bathing nearly every scene with a deft mix of rich warm hues and crisp, cool punctuation that’s delivered beautifully by Kaleidescape’s 4K HDR presentation. Jojo Rabbit was shot at 3.4K and finished in a 2K digital intermediate, so it might not satisfy the dermatologically obsessed or those who chase razor-sharp edges. But the expanded color gamut of HDR10 does wonders for the mix of subtle pastels and retina-shocking primary hues. 

Whatever concerns you may have about resolution, this is one you’ll want to watch on as large a screen as possible, by the way. Malaimare goes for some unexpected long shots at times to capture the beauty and scope of the scenery during some dialogue-heavy scenes, where other cinematographers might have opted for tight closeups instead. In a world where streaming video is squeezing commercial cinemas out of the equation more and more every year, he defiantly composes for a massive canvas, assuming (hoping?) that the images will take up as much of the viewer’s field of view as possible. 

The sound mix isn’t quite as expansive but Kaleidescape’s DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is a faultless presentation of it. The sound design is far more interested in servicing the needs of the film than exercising your speakers, and as such it’s largely a three-channel mix, spread across the front, with surround channels only used to add ambience and a sense of space until late in the film when the action gets a little Looney Tunes. But that’s exactly the approach this film needs.

As I said, in any other year, Jojo Rabbit would be hovering right near the top of my annual favorites. If there’s anything truly working against it, it’s not the instances in which Waititi plays it safe, or in which Johansson’s knack for emotional complexity works against her in a role that should be more one-note until it isn’t. No, the only thing really holding the film back is that it’s forced to share oxygen with a comedy like Parasite, which is more unapologetically unflinching and navigates its tonal shifts more effectively. 

But don’t let that keep you from watching this one. Any film that can make me guffaw as hard and as frequently as this one did without insulting my intelligence has a spot in my film library. It may not be perfect, but it’s a necessary film right now. 

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 | The film’s deft mix of rich warm hues and crisp, cool punctuation is delivered beautifully by Kaleidescape’s 4K HDR presentation

SOUND | The sound design is far more interested in servicing the needs of the film than in exercising your speakers, and as such it’s largely a three-channel affair that’s faultlessly presented by Kaleidescape’s DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix

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Review: The Godfather

The Godfather (1972)

review | The Godfather

The 4K treatment of this cinematic landmark can seem stunning—until you watch the new transfer of Part II

by Michael Gaughn
April 1, 2022

I was all prepared to write a review that boiled down to: Yes, there are problems—maybe a lot of problems—with The Godfather in 4K, but it’s ultimately worth watching because it wipes away the memory of all previous home releases, allowing you to reconnect with the film anew. But then I watched The Godfather Part II in 4K. And I realized I’d been had. I’m a little ashamed to admit that had I not watched the sequel before I wrote this, you would be reading a completely different review—one I would have had to repent for later.*

I’m going to be stepping onto Dennis Burger’s turf a little here, but that’s unavoidable. And, unlike with most any other two movies out there, I don’t think it’s unfair to review the first Godfather film in the context of Part II because it’s extremely likely vast numbers of people will watch both of these films in 4K, possibly back to back, and will end up having an experience somewhat similar to mine, although they might not reach the same conclusions. 

It all comes down to this: The Godfather Part II looks like the film Gordon Willis shot and that Paramount presented in 1974. The transfer is visually consistent throughout, whatever tweaks were made to the images are judiciously subtle, and there’s a constant flow of organic grain that gives it an appropriate analog energy and warmth. The first Godfather, though, is all over the map visually, with HDR accentuating the flaws of the not infrequent patches of compromised footage and with a lot of heavy-handed digital manipulation scrubbing away far too much of that gorgeous, essential grain. Yes, it does sometimes feel like you can reach into the frame, but that’s not the movie Willis lensed. The 4K transfer can be dazzling when you first experience it—I readily admit I fell for it like a brick—but it’s ultimately just a kind of gimmick that couldn’t run more counter to the gritty elegance that helped define the original film. 

Reviewers rarely find themselves in this position—a double-edged one that puts their necks way out there because it allows them to be held so easily accountable—but feel free to take any of the examples below from the first film and compare them to how similar material was handled in the transfer of the second. I just don’t see how anyone could argue that The Godfather transfer is the more faithful presentation of the two. And, beyond that, I don’t see how anyone could find the overall experience of The Godfather in 4K superior to the experience of Part II in the same format—unless, of course, you just never much liked Part II.

Let me cite a few things, then try to pull the threads together.

The first moment that got my attention and that, in retrospect, felt off, was early in the opening scene when it cuts to a medium shot of The Godfather sitting behind his desk. Everything until then had looked OK, but that shot had the video-like sheen that always sends my antennae shooting out a mile whenever I’m watching something in HDR. Fortunately, there are few instances that egregious in the rest of the transfer, but it was the first strong signal that this presentation might not adhere closely to either the letter or the spirit of the movie. 

A more frequent problem was that, once you decide to start cleaning and enhancing shots, you inevitably expose and accentuate the flaws in the most compromised footage, which can seriously disrupt the experience of watching the film. It’s not news that many of the outdoor shots during the wedding sequence have never synced up well visually. All of that is only hammered home here. Similarly, the reliance on stock footage was beginning to die off at the time The Godfather was released, but audiences were still willing to buy into the illusion. But all of the too crisp, too vivid original footage to either side of the stock stuff here makes the use of the latter seem inept. The shot under the el, which has always been borderline, goes full-bore late-period Monet in this transfer, in a way that would make an uninitiated viewer question the filmmakers’ competence.

Then there are the seriously crushed blacks—not consistently but often enough to stick out sorely. All of which is ironic for a film that’s legendary for its chiaroscuro style. Two easy-to-spot examples: When the Don is getting ready to leave the Genco offices with Fredo, right before he’s gunned down in the street, and the tighter shot on the black car that stops in front of the hospital while Michael and Enzo stand at the foot of the stairs. Instead of having the sense of someone lurking in the back seat, you get a glimpse into an impenetrable void.

My biggest slice of beef, though, is reserved exactly for the shots that look most stunning. With almost all trace of the grain banished, they’re pristine, vivid, and yes, like you can reach into them—but that’s not the movie that captured the public imagination back in 1972 and influenced practically every film made since. You won’t find anything like that in Part II—not because some of the footage couldn’t have been distorted that way but because whoever handled that transfer decided not to go there. The scene in the first film where Michael finds out his father has been left unprotected at the hospital loses much of its tension because, without the constant low simmer grain provides, the shots of the empty corridors just look impressive, not menacing.

I doubt any of my arguments will sway anyone in the “Look—pretty!” crowd that sees anything that’s been given an HDR buff and shine as an improvement, but chances are they’re just watching Godfather the conformist shibboleth—the something-to-have-on-in-the-background that cable’s AMC has managed to marathon into the ground—rather than the movie itself. All I can say is that they don’t know what they’re seeing, therefore, they can’t know what they’re missing.

Look: 4K will always be a very mixed blessing. When done right, it can result in transfers like The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, and The Godfather Part II that honor the films they’re meant to serve. But then there are Jabberwocks like Citizen Kane and The Godfather, disjointed experiences that take you someplace other than where the filmmakers wanted you to go. Watching The Godfather in 4K HDR can be an enjoyable, even edifying, experience, but you have to understand and make allowances for what’s feeding what you’re seeing. The Godfather Part II, though, is pure viewing pleasure, something you can surrender to utterly without ever once having your critical brain get in the way.

*This is, for me, a very unorthodox review because it focuses, from start to finish, on the transfer of the film. Traditionally there would also be some commentary on the film itself, its cultural or historical context, etc.—which, in most reviews, adds up to little more than obligatory throat-clearing. Here, it’s actually important—but not as important as telling the tale of two transfers. Which is why I’ve shuttled my comments on the movie itself to a separate column.

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

PICTURE | Crisp and bright and visually dazzling, with blacks frequently taken deep into the netherworld—but that’s not the movie that changed filmmaking forever

SOUND | It was originally mixed in mono so it should be listened to in mono. Unfortunately—and inexcusably—that’s not an option here.

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Review: The Godfather Part II

The Godfather Part II (1974)

review | The Godfather Part II

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This release sets a new standard for how an older 35mm film should be transferred to 4K HDR—unlike the new release of the original Godfather 

by Dennis Burger
April 1, 2022

As I write this, Mike Gaughn and I have been frantically calling each other at odd hours for the better part of a week, trading notes on the 4K HDR releases of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II and trying to make sense of them both. He, unfortunately, drew the short straw on purpose and has to wrap his mind around the new restoration work done for the original film, which is an order of magnitude better than any previous home video release but suffers from some glaring (and, I would argue, at times unavoidable) issues that will be irksome to cinephiles and subliminally jarring to the uninitiated. 

Just because he has the harder task doesn’t make me the lucky one, though, because I’m saddled with the challenge of explaining why the image for Part II—which is less obviously restored, obviously less manipulated, not as sharp, more consistently grainy, and less pronounced in its contrasts—is not merely the superior transfer but one of the finest film restoration and preservation projects I’ve ever seen of a 35mm film of this vintage.

The differences between the new UHD HDR releases of these two films are plain to see from almost the first frame of each. With Part II, blacks aren’t overly crushed, grain is consistent throughout, and although the image may appear softer, a closer look reveals that it genuinely contains more meaningful detail, not to mention much more organic textures. 

Why does this matter? Let’s take the early scene in which Senator Geary meets with Michael Corleone in his office. Compare it to the opening scene of the first film and you’ll see that blacks aren’t as black, contrasts aren’t as stark, and the image doesn’t pop as much. 

On a superficial level, the second film might not quite measure up to the first by videophile standards. But look closer and you’ll see that the image has more depth, nuance, and delineation in its darkest regions. Geary’s pinstripe suit, for example—nearly as lost in the shadows as it is—still reads as fabric photographed in low-light conditions. The subtle gradations come through. 

Fast-forward to the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Michael and you’ll see a similar effect. As Corleone’s men scramble through darkness punctuated by spotlights, there are times in which characters are backlit, mostly rendered in silhouette, especially right around the 36-minute mark. Judged by the criteria we normally apply to home video transfers, the image here might seem a little gray and washed out, with blacks that aren’t fully black. 

But ignore the standards by which you think you’re supposed to judge a video transfer and just take the image on its own terms, and you’ll see that there’s real shape to these figures—that even in near-total darkness they still have form. Try to bring the darkest parts of this image down to true, 0 IRE black and these figures would be reduced to construction-paper cutouts. Meaningful shadow detail would be lost. 

I could give a million other examples (perhaps more, given the length of the film), but most would boil down to the same conclusion: Unlike the new restoration of The Godfather, the work done to Part II this time around is less obvious, manipulative, and transformative . . . but in almost every respect more revelatory. 

And some of that is a consequence of the increased resolution of UHD, which allows the fine film grain and the detail inextricably intertwined within it to shine through. But much of it also has to do with the new HDR grade, which highlights the different shooting techniques used by Gordon Willis to delineate the prequel and sequel portions of the film in a way no previous home video transfer could.

The flashbacks in particular will now be my go-to demo material for illustrating the difference between contrast and dynamic range, two fundamental aspects of image reproduction that are far too often conflated in our discussions of picture quality. Watching the movie in HDR for the first time, I couldn’t shake the notion that Willis must have shot much of the film with low-contrast filters, something that has never been quite as blatantly obvious in older home video transfers. A quick internet search confirmed this. 

But the relative lack of contrast is balanced by the fact that there’s a ton of subtlety in the value scale—subtlety that couldn’t be properly captured by older home video standards. In short, this new effort proves once and for all that HDR isn’t simply about blacker blacks and whiter whites but rather the number of steps between the darkest and lightest portions of the image.

The new HDR grade also allows for a color palette that is still pushed toward the warm end of the spectrum, especially in the flashbacks, but one that lacks the bad-spray-on-tan effect that plagued previous releases. And mind you, I don’t mean to imply that the skin tones are true to life. But they certainly seem to be truer to what Willis was trying to render.

There’s one other aspect of this new release I’m grateful for: That all this necessary scrutiny prompted me to go back and listen to the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix again. It sounds like exactly the same mix that was included with the 2008 Blu-ray release, but it’s been a while since I listened to that one because the 5.1 remix of the first film is so distracting I got into the habit of watching both films in mono just for the sake of consistency.

The 5.1 remix for Part II deserves reevaluation, though. It’s very well done, and suffers from none of the odd soundstaging of diegetic music and tonal inconsistencies that make the first film so hard to digest in anything other than mono. The remix for Part II is more aggressive, more adventurous, more of a departure in many ways from the original sound experience. But it has to be admitted that it simply works. 

The one disappointment with Kaleidescape’s release of Part II is that Paramount has, for whatever reason, withheld the bonus features accompanying the UHD Blu-ray boxset, some of them created for this release. As such, I decided to also snag the films on iTunes, just to enjoy the bonuses.

Given what a proponent of streaming I am, I also couldn’t resist the urge to compare the image quality of the Apple and Kaleidescape releases, with the expectation of no significant differences. Boy howdy was I wrong. Even when viewing the iTunes release on Roku Ultra (a superior streamer to the Apple TV in almost every sense) via the Apple TV+ app, I was struck by how inferior it was to the Kaleidescape experience in every way except for the wider color gamut and expanded value scale. In streaming, the fine grain structure is almost entirely lost. And as such, much of the textural impact of the film is lost with it. 

I’m not sure I can entirely explain this. After all, I’ve seen some seriously grainy films on Apple TV+ that stood toe-to-toe with their UHD Blu-ray or equivalent releases. My best guess is that rendering grain of this sort at streaming bitrates normally forces the encoder to lean hard on the mode-dependent coefficient scanning capabilities of HEVC to prioritize higher frequencies. But for The Godfather and The Godfather Part II especially, the image requires smaller coefficients across the board to faithfully capture both high- and low-frequency image data, and that necessitates much higher bitrates. 

All of which is a mouthful of a way to say that streaming just doesn’t cut it for this one. You need to experience The Godfather Part II at the highest bitrates possible to truly appreciate the work done on this restoration. 

Until something better comes along, which hardly seems likely any time soon, this will be my new reference standard for how older 35mm films should be restored, remastered, and encoded for UHD HDR. 

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 | The increased resolution of UHD allows the fine film grain and the detail inextricably intertwined within it to shine through, while the HDR grade displays a ton of subtlety in the value scale, showing that HDR isn’t just about blacker blacks and whiter whites 

SOUND | The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is more aggressive and adventurous than the original mono but is very well done overall

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Review: Parallel Mothers

Parallel Mothers (2021)

review | Parallel Mothers

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Almodóvar’s latest is melodrama as art, done with the flair of New Wave-era Godard

by Dennis Burger
March 22, 2022

I was recently chatting with a dear friend about a particularly awful movie I’d just finished watching. In the course of the conversation, I likened it in ways to a Rubik’s Cube that had been “solved” by someone who simply pulled off the stickers and reaffixed them, with no real understanding of the fundamentals of a standard 3×3 cube layout (e.g., red is always opposite orange, blue opposite green, etc., and the center squares of each side never move relative to one another). I won’t call that movie out, since it hardly matters. I only bring it up because Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers also reminds me in many ways of a distinctive solution to a Rubik’s Cube.

Rather than a ham-fisted, amateur attempt at lazy deception, this film brought to mind watching my favorite blindfolded cubers, who are forced to solve the puzzle in their heads before temporarily losing use of their eyes, and who rely on complicated mnemonic memory aids that I just barely understand. If they make a mistake somewhere in the middle of the solution, they usually don’t know until it’s too late. And if they do flub a turn and somehow catch themselves and course-correct, it’s almost more impressive than a perfect solve. 

And in case it wasn’t obvious, I’m talking about Rubik’s Cubes because I don’t want to talk about Parallel Mothers on its own terms. There’s simply too much for one review to contain and far too many surprises I could spoil. But here’s the gist: The film follows two parallel storylines, both centered on Penélope Cruz’s character Janis. One follows her ongoing efforts to have a Spanish Civil War-era mass grave in her hometown excavated so her forebears and others can receive proper burials. The other involves two unplanned pregnancies and a hospital oversight that results in her newborn being swapped with another. And in weaving these stories together, Almodóvar manages to say something truly meaningful and resonant about generational differences, intergenerational trauma, and the idiosyncratic familial bonds that form between humans, related and unrelated alike.

That’s enough info to give you a sense that Parallel Mothers is ultimately melodrama. But it’s melodrama elevated to the level of art due to skillful and at times subtle scripting, meaningful character development, brilliant performances all the way around, and some cinematic techniques that occasionally reminded me of Godard’s best New Wave-period films. It’s a shame it’s not amongst this year’s Best Picture nominees since it belongs in the conversation alongside Dune and CODA as one of 2021’s better cinematic efforts. 

As of this writing, Parallel Mothers is only available in the U.S. as a PVOD rental from most major digital retailers, and I point that out because I suspect the quality of its presentation might be affected by that. Even on Kaleidescape, the film is only available in SDR, although the resolution is UHD. 

The former isn’t as impactful as you might suspect. Despite being shot digitally and recorded in Sony’s X-OCN (extended tonal range Original Camera Negative) format at 16 bits, and despite being an incredibly vibrant film with wonderful color design throughout, the image doesn’t seem to be constrained by its 8-bit presentation. I spotted a brief instance of what looked like white-clipping in one shot, but other than that, the delicious color palette and tonal scale seem to fit comfortably within the constricted gamut of SDR. 

The cinematography is exceptional and detail is at times just lovely. But—and this is a big but—there are some issues with the presentation whose causes I can’t quite figure out. The image is pretty noisy, and I’m not sure if that noise was captured in the camera or involves some sort of film-look process including faux grain. What’s more, even on Kaleidescape, there are misplaced textures and glitches of the sort you might associate with extremely low streaming bitrates—far lower than those employed by better services like Disney+ and Apple TV+. But that hardly makes sense, given that this is a full-bandwidth download. So I strongly suspect the problems come from the files provided by Sony. 

Mind you, these problems only really rear their heads at large cinematic proportions. Sitting 6.5 feet from my 75-inch display (~45.5 degrees field of view), I found the noise and the odd movement of textures distracting. When I moved back to around 7.5 feet, though (~40 degrees field of view, comparable to a 120-inch projection screen viewed from a distance of 12 feet), the image was consistently lovely, and the impact of the weird noise and apparent encoding issues all but disappeared. So if you’re viewing this in your home cinema and your preferred seat is in the first row, maybe move back to the second row. 

Kaleidescape presents the film with its original Spanish mix, encoded in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, with forced English subtitles in yellow. For the most part, it’s an understandably front-focused mix, aside from the score music, which often dances out into the room. But the shape of the sound mix changes near the end, thanks to some artfully employed surround effects that pull you into the screen, seemingly placing you between the camera and its subjects. It’s a neat effect, and its judicious application makes it all the more effective. 

Hopefully by the time Sony Pictures prepares the film for a proper North American home video release, the issues with the noise and funky textures will have been resolved, because this one is a keeper for me. It’s probably Almodóvar’s best film since 2006’s Volver, and it’s a damn sight better than most of this year’s Best Picture noms. Just know going in that if you rent the film during its PVOD window, you might find the somewhat flawed presentation of its lovely cinematography a little distracting—or maybe this is just what the film looks like. I honestly can’t know for sure.

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 | The delicious color palette and tonal scale seem to fit comfortably within the constricted gamut of the rental’s UHD SDR presentation, but there are some issues with glitches, noise, and misplaced textures that seem to stem from Sony’s transfer files

SOUND | The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix is understandably front-focused, aside from the score music, which often dances out into the room

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Review: Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane (1941)

review | Citizen Kane

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Perhaps the most innovative and audacious movie ever makes the move to 4K

by Michael Gaughn
March 21, 2022

No matter how you slice it, a 4K HDR release of Citizen Kane is a big deal. Whether or not you agree that it’s the greatest American film, it is undeniably a hugely important one, and its leap to UHD is inevitably to going draw more attention than it would for most other movies.

So let’s get this out of the way: If you come to this expecting an audio/video experience that’s significantly better than has been delivered on the earlier home releases of Kane, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re approaching Kane for the first time and are expecting the 4K to help sell you on the film, it likely won’t. And if you’re skeptical of Kane and its reputation, this release could very well help shore up your biases.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t check it out—you should; but just don’t expect the picture or sound to be any kind of tremendously revelatory experience. Adjust your expectations accordingly. There are revelations here, but they’re mostly reserved for attentive viewers already familiar with the film who are willing to tolerate some pretty erratic fluctuations in the presentation. For them, it will be the first home release that even hints at what Kane was like when it was released in May 1941.

The good stuff first: There are certain shots—typically medium shots and closeups —that have a subtle gradation and a luminous quality that suggest what Kane looked like when the first prints were struck. Since the original negative is lost, it will never be possible to confirm that conjecture but, if true, it suggests that Orson Welles and cinematographer Greg Toland were going for a much more nuanced look than was usually found in Hollywood films. And, if true, it was likely a (successful) effort to give Kane a quiet emotional resonance, to help temper the often blind and sometimes brutal actions of its lead character.

Taking in those shots, and then imagining that look applied to the whole film, Kane becomes a different experience—one very similar to my recent encounter with the 4K HDR release of A Clockwork Orange, which had never felt right in any of its earlier home releases. Orange is a nasty film, but Kubrick never meant for it to be that relentlessly nasty, and seeing the cinematography finally done right gave it wit and verve, restoring the original aesthetic balance.

Certain shots in Kane have a startling depth and subtlety very much reminiscent of what Alfred Stieglitz was able to achieve with the platinum prints of his photos. (See, for instance, the shots listed in the “Reference Images” sidebar.) Little of the rest of Kane in this 4K release—and none of Kane in the earlier home releases—looks much like this, and it’s hard to know how many of those deviations in the look, sometimes extreme, are attributable to having to make up for the lost negative, for the elaborate compositing and optical printing used in many of the shots, or other factors. 

All of the above might sound like esoterica—it’s not. If Kane was meant to have a look more toward those tighter shots I cited, then we’re talking about a different, and more profound, film. “Rosebud” has frequently been dismissed as just a gimmick, a way to keep the audience hooked during Welles’ elaborate time-jumping, but if the original photographic style was meant to give certain shots and scenes a subtle but sustained emotional subtext, then Rosebud becomes something much more than a sop for the masses.

It also goes beyond just being a gratuitous reference to Marion Davies’ pudenda. Famously, the film opens with Kane’s death and it effectively ends when he staggers across the terrace after Susan’s departure. That moment has never really carried its proper weight before, and I suspect that’s because Susan has never been properly presented before. You have to literally see how much Kane is projecting onto her to glimpse the core of the film and to fully understand what drives his character.

Like I said, this transfer is a bit of a mess and its visual inconsistency will likely throw the casual and uninitiated, who might be better off approaching the film through a lower-res presentation, where a lot of the unevenness would be smoothed over. But it’s a tantalizing opportunity for anyone who’s wondered whether Kane deserves its reputation. Yes, you have to work at it, but the dividends are huge.

Because it’s hard to nail down exactly what contributed to which flaws, there’s little point in listing all the various problems with the transfer. But I need to point to two things in particular. Many of the shots seem unnecessarily contrasty and harsh, abuzz with noise that doesn’t seem to be organic grain. And somebody needs to be slapped with a big penalty for consistently pushing the whites to 100 percent. That is not how this film was meant to look. The various white-on-black title cards all stick out jarringly—partly because of that extreme whiteness, partly because they look static, frozen. (Titles were created knowing they would be run through a film gate and reflected off a screen.) 

Just as bad are the moments when certain whites are pumped so hard they make some of the scenes look artificially digital. One is the end of the scene in Bernstein’s chairman-of-the-board office where the flames in the fireplace are so distractingly bright they look matted in. Another is Kane’s dress shirt during the legendary low-angle confrontation between him and Leland, which is so white it occasionally seems to float in mid air, independent of Welles’ body.

One last little bit of carping on my way out the door: Why does this release, from the transfer to the extras to even the cover art, feel so half-hearted and perfunctory? It’s like all involved vaguely understood this is an important film but they weren’t really into it. The extras are the same stuff that’s been floating around for decades, presented in a somewhat slapdash way. Kane, of all films, cries out for some context and some new perspectives—there are none here. The cover art looks like it was thrown together in about 20 minutes in Photoshop by some office lackey. What gives?

Does Kane deserve its reputation? Hell, yeah—every square inch of it. And mainly not for the reasons that are usually trotted out. Welles, with this film, beat the studio system at its own game and reinvented filmmaking. The problem is that his innovations were so radical—and I’m talking about things, like thematic material, aesthetics, and the reflexive deployment of movies, that go well beyond technical considerations—that it took more than 50 years before even some of it, half-digested and mostly superficially, began to make its way into mainstream filmmaking. Eighty one years on, we have barely even begun to mine this particularly rich vein, and there are good reasons to think we never will.

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

PICTURE | The transfer’s visual inconsistency will likely throw the casual and uninitiated. But the upping in resolution creates a tantalizing opportunity for anyone who’s wondered whether Kane deserves its reputation.

SOUND | The track exhibits an impressive dynamic range but, for Jiminy’s sake, opt for mono not stereo because that’s how it was meant to be heard

Reference Images

52:26 | medium closeup of Emily Kane
Chapter 15 | the closeups of Susan during her first meeting with Kane
1:01:33 | Emily Kane and her son at the political rally 
1:30:54 & 1:30:59 | the alternating closeups of Kane and Susan during her opera performance

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Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

review | Spider-Man: Far From Home

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This second entry in the third franchise reboot helps firmly cement Spider-Man’s position in the MCU

by John Sciacca
September 20, 2019

Like James Bonds—and maybe even Batmans—people undoubtedly have a favorite Spider-Man between Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland, the latest webslinger to wear the red and blue. For me it has less to do with the man behind the mask—although, I’ll admit to being partial to Holland’s portrayal—and more to do with the storyline and relationships that makes the latest Spider-Man films the best of the bunch.

This third franchise reboot can trace its roots back to Captain America: Civil War, where Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) took young Spidey under his Iron wing, gave him a better suit, and helped him in his fight against Cap and the Avengers. That mentor relationship continued in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Holland’s first turn carrying a film as Peter Parker and Spidey and one that, thankfully, didn’t make us relive the entire “bit by a spider, hunted down my uncle’s killer” origin. Of course, Spider-Man’s relationship with Tony Stark played a role in both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, and Far from Home picks up and continues that storyline.

There will be some major story spoilers if you’ve yet to see Endgame, as much of Far from Home’s first act revolves around the ramifications of both Infinity and Endgame. So I would strongly suggest watching both of those films first—plus, they’re just a ton of fun to watch.

Home picks up about 8 months after Endgame, and the world has come to call this time “the Blip.” We get a nice bit of exposition in an opening newscast from Peter’s high school, where we find how the kids are dealing with the ramifications of the Blip, where some have missed five years of their lives, while others who were previously much younger are now older. (If you’ve seen Endgame, you understand.) Peter is still personally reeling from Stark’s death, and he sees signs of Tony/Iron Man literally everywhere. 

During a class trip to Europe, Peter is called on by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to help a new superhero, Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who comes from another earth in the Multiverse, battle giant Elementals bent on destroying the planet. Peter is reluctant to help, wanting to just have a chance to relax and be a kid and profess his love for MJ (Zendaya), but Fury rearranges the trip’s itinerary to continue putting Peter in a position to help. Of course, not all is as it seems, and Peter is forced to make some tough decisions while trying to win the girl, save his friends, and keep his identity secret.

As I mentioned, it’s the continued relationships developed over the years of the MCU that make these latest Spidey films so much more enjoyable and feel so much richer. In Home, we get Happy (Jon Favreau) trying to step in as a Stark mentor replacement, while also romancing Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), who looks terrific here. Fury is trying to restructure after losing so many Avengers, and trying to get Spider-Man to step up to fill a bigger role. 

The relationship between Peter and man-in-the-chair Ned (Jacob Batalon) continues, but complicated by a new romantic interest, along with douchey Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori), who admires Spider-Man but loathes Parker. The humor is deftly handled, and there are several references to other Marvel characters. (Pay close attention to the movie options Peter browses for his in-flight film!)

Definitely stick around for both the mid-credits scene—which potentially alters Peter’s life forever—and the post-credits scene, which has a nice callback to another recent Marvel film. And, while it in no way impacts the movie, there is sadly no Stan Lee cameo here.

Far from Home looks fantastic. Filmed in a combination of 2.8 and 3.4K resolution, this transfer is taken from a 2K digital intermediate but it is never wanting for pop or detail. This is a marquee title and it absolutely looks it. Both closeup and long shots have great detail and texture and razor-sharp edge detail with incredible depth and dimension—things like the metallic texture of Spidey’s Iron Spider suit or the fine detail in Ned’s hat. 

The film travels through three major European cities, which all have their own look. While in Venice, many of the scenes are outdoors during the day, and the city looks so beautiful you could be watching a travelogue. At night, interiors are lit by the soft glow of lamps, revealing warm and natural colors. In contrast, much of the scenes in Prague are at night, and we get the bright lights and color of fireworks at a carnival.

Home definitely benefits from the high dynamic range and wide color gamut of UltraHD, and both are used well throughout to push images to their best. From the vivid red of Spidey’s suit, to Mysterio’s green blasts, to the broiling red-orange of the Fire Elemental, images pop off the screen when they should. Also, HDR just lends an overall better sense of depth to the image. Black levels are also deep and clean, with clear differences between shades of black, such as Happy’s black suit, Peter’s black shirt and pants and Fury’s black leather trench coat and turtleneck. The images are all reference-quality and offer no room for criticism.

The Dolby Atmos track is also an absolute treat, with near constant and aggressive use of the surround and height speakers. There’s a scene in a hotel in Venice where you hear workers hammering overhead even with no visible construction happening on screen, which is a great audio moment letting you know exactly what’s going on even without seeing it. 

The battles also offer a complete hemispherical experience, with things crashing and being destroyed all around or water splashing and raining down from the ceiling. Another scene where Spidey is inside the Illusion has voices swirling constantly overhead, moving from speaker to speaker all around and above you, creating a sonic illusion I don’t think I’ve heard in any other film. 

Available now for download in 4K HDR from the Kaleidescape Store a full two weeks before the physical disc is released, Spider-Man: Far from Home is a fun and engaging movie that looks and sounds fantastic, making for a great home cinema selection. 

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 transfer is taken from a 2K digital intermediate but is never wanting for pop or detail

SOUND | The Atmos track is an absolute treat, with near constant and aggressive use of the surround and height speakers

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Review: Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man (2021)

review | Spider-Man: No Way Home

This billion-dollar-grossing endorphin rush is packed with demo scenes that will give your home theater a workout

by John Sciacca
March 18, 2022

Many people had looked at the recent dire returns at the box office and declared the death of commercial cinema. But then along came Spider-Man: No Way Home to shatter all manner of box-office records: Highest-grossing film (by far) in 2021 after just two weeks at the box office, sixth highest-grossing film ever, first film since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019 to gross over $1 billion, third-fastest film ever to reach the Big B milestone, and first to do so in the pandemic era. 

So, clearly, if you give the people what they want, they’ll come back to the theater to see it. And what they want seems to be the escapism of big-budget superhero films. (Need further proof? The Batman is currently the highest-grossing film of 2022. No Way Home is second.)

This is the third film in Tom Holland’s Spider arc and is a direct sequel to 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, but much in the way Avengers: Endgame was the culmination of 11 years and 21 films’ worth of Marvel Cinematic Universe buildup, No Way Home is far more than just a single film. And while it’s certainly possible to enjoy this movie on its own, to really appreciate the entirety of the story you should at least watch the two previous Holland films. 

But those looking for the deepest dive and the most emotional connection (and payoff) should also revisit the original Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy (2002, 2004, and 2007) and the Andrew Garfield The Amazing Spider-Man (2012 and 2014) films as well as the animated Spider-man Into the Spider-Verse. Fortunately, this is a perfect time for a rewatch as all of those films (with the exception of the first Spider-Man) are available in 4K HDR with new Atmos mixes via Kaleidescape, and I can attest that they all look and sound fantastic, with some really exciting and immersive surround. 

No Way Home begins immediately after the mid-credits scene from Far From Home, right after Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) frames Spidey for the UK attacks and then announces to the world that Spider-Man is really Peter Parker, with the film’s first act having Peter (Holland), girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), and best friend/guy-in-the-chair Ned (Jacob Batalon) coming to terms with the world suddenly knowing Peter’s identity. 

Of course, when you’re friends with a wizard named Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), you can just ask him to cast a forgetting spell that makes the world forget who Spider-Man is. But when Strange is interrupted during the casting process, well, the broken spell causes a rift in the multi-verse, drawing people from other universes.

I really enjoyed this movie, and it is up there as one of my favorites in the entire MCU. I saw it in the theater and couldn’t wait to watch it again at home, and I’m happy to say that not only did it hold up on a second viewing, the 4K HDR picture and Dolby TrueHD Atmos sound from the Kaleidescape download were truly reference-quality throughout.

Shot on Arri at 4.5K, this transfer is taken from a 2K digital intermediate but you’d never know it as images are pristine and full of detail throughout. From the opening moments, you’ll notice just how clean, clear, and razor-sharp everything looks, letting you appreciate all the texture and detail of Spidey’s suit. Edges of buildings are also sharp and clearly defined with no jaggies or aliasing. There’s also a ton of depth to the images, with several shots appearing near 3D such as when Spidey is swinging along or an overhead pan looking down on the city from way up, and another shot in a cemetery with the individual branches and limbs of a tree having a ton of dimensionality. You also get incredibly fine facial detail on closeups or the ability to see individual grains of sand that drop and shift off one character. 

The HDR grade gives the images a ton of pop but also delivers really natural-looking outside daytime shots on the city streets or low-lit interior and exterior night shots. There are a few shots at sunset that have a wonderful warm, golden glow, and also some scenes in Strange’s “crypt” lit by low overhead lights casting the room in nice shadow. 

One scene that really stood out was after a nighttime attack on an apartment building where there was hazy smoke all around. In the chaos, there are car headlights, flashing police lights, fire, and even lasers. There’s a ton happening here visually compounded by all the light diffusing through the smoke and darkness without any banding or other video artifacts. 

While black levels throughout the film are mostly deep, the opening credits, end credits, and one complete fade to nothing in the middle of the film are just a dark grey—noticeably far lighter in color than the pure black of the letterbox bars above and below the image. Having become accustomed to the utter and complete blackness my Sony OLED can produce, this was worth mentioning.

Other highlights include Spidey’s suit, which is a deeply saturated red, effects like Doctor Strange’s magic with its glowing golden rings, bright blasts of electricity that crackle and streak across the sky, the vibrant greens of the Daily Fix studios and monitors, and a vibrant purple that rips across the sky. 

The Dolby TrueHD Atmos soundtrack will give your theater a workout with tons of immersive audio that comes from all around and overhead. There are lots of small atmospheric moments like winds that whistle and the echo of voices while talking in Strange’s mansion, water drips falling around the room in Strange’s crypt, the wide-open sounds of a forest at night, or the general traffic noises in the city. 

There are also plenty of the big, demo-worthy surround moments you’d expect, including numerous helicopters throughout that hover high up in front of the room or sail off into the sides and back or zip overhead. Other examples include a scene where a glider swoops overhead, or one inside the “mirror dimension” when the sound wraps up from the sides and overhead, or when a villain flings cars and items that crash and smash all around. Or check out the magic circles that swirl overhead and around the room, or when Peter goes on top of a car and you hear his voice travel overhead and across the top of the room. 

There’s also plenty of deep low-frequency info for your sub to dig into and energize the room. Whether it’s the heavy thunk of Strange’s doors opening or closing, the massive impact sounds of one villain’s arms smashing and grabbing things, the crackle and rumble as the multi-verse tears open, shattering concrete and collapsing girders, or bombs exploding, the bass is big and tactile. 

At 148 minutes, No Way Home is long, but it’s so filled with action, characters, humor, and heart-filled moments that it zips by. By the time you get to the finale—which is huge, cinematic, and full of heart, risk, and payoff, and crammed with effects and sonic bombast—you’ll have that endorphin rush that almost feels like you’ve completed a workout. This movie is reference-quality throughout, and is easy to recommend! 

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 transfer is taken from a 2K digital intermediate but you’d never know it as images are pristine and full of detail throughout 

SOUND | The Atmos soundtrack will give your theater a workout with tons of immersive audio that comes from all around and overhead 

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Review: Joker

Joker (2019)

review | Joker

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More character study than comic-book epic and definitely not an exercise in escapism, this genre evocation of ’70s NYC is very much anchored in Joaquin Phoenix’s performance

by Dennis Burger
December 18, 2019

I had to watch Todd Phillips’ Joker twice to write this review. And it required two viewings because I realized, as the credits rolled the first time, I had absolutely nothing meaningful to say about the video transfer or the sound mix. From beginning to end, I was so hypnotized (and horrified) by Joaquin Phoenix’ performance as the titular character that I honestly forgot I was supposed to be reviewing a home video release. 

Had I gone ahead and put fingers to keyboard after that first viewing based on my hazy impressions, I would have told you a story about a grungy, filmic 4K HDR transfer that evoked the gritty neo-noir classics of the 1970s and ’80s. It took a second pass to realize that Joker’s cinematography is actually pristine, which makes sense given that it was captured digitally in a mix of 3.4K, 4.5K, and 5.1K resolutions, and finished in a 4K digital intermediate. It’s the set dressing, the lighting, the framing, and indeed the movement of the camera that evokes the look of the cinematic era the film aspires to. When you get right down to it, though, Joker is an objectively gorgeous film with a wonderfully revealing home video presentation.

The sound mix, too, would have gotten an inaccurate assessment had I not gone back for a double-dip. Hildur Guðnadóttir’s brilliant, minimalist cello score would have certainly been the focus of my discussion, as it dominates the mix, or at least one’s memory of it. But other than that, nothing really stuck to my ribs in terms of the overall delivery of audio, aside from a few distant ringing phones, ignored in the background, which struck me as being rendered with a wonderful illusion of space.

It wasn’t until the second time through that I even realized the soundtrack for the Kaleidescape release of the film is Atmos, but you shouldn’t take that oversight as an indication that the mix is subtle. Focusing more on the technical presentation than the performance at the heart of the film, it’s an ambitious and at times aggressive mix, one that uses its height channels to enhance the vertical elements of the filth-ridden cityscape of Gotham. (Not the stylized Gotham of the Burton or Nolan films, but a blatant homage to the New York City of ’70s cinema.) The fact that I barely noticed the height channels the first time is as much a credit to the artistry of the mix as it is to Phoenix’ mesmerizing performance. As with the imagery, the sound simply works in service of the narrative and never serves to distract from it. 

If it seems as if the only aspect of the film itself I can focus on is the acting of its lead, there’s a reason for that. Joker isn’t story-driven. It’s as pure a character study as I’ve seen in ages. For those of us who love comic books and the movies based on them, it’s easy to go into a film like this—ostensibly an origin story about a character who has never had a consistent canonical backstory—with a ton of baggage. The thing is, though, Joker isn’t interested in your baggage. It isn’t interested in the 79-year history of the character as Batman’s archnemesis. Hell, it isn’t interested in Batman at all. Indeed, the overall mythology of Gotham City and its most famous residents is so tangential that it could have been left out of the film altogether and it wouldn’t have had any major effect on the plot, what little of it there is. 

Director/co-writer Phillips seems so completely uninterested in any of the normal trappings of comic-book films that to call this a comic-book film at all feels dishonest. To discuss it in relation to the four-color serialized stories on which it is (very) loosely based would be to miss the point entirely. To understand the film, we have to view it for what it is: An exploration of the internal and external forces—personal and societal—that combine to create not merely a villain or a criminal but an unabashed agent of chaos, one that is, in this film, more man than myth.

In exploring all of this, Phillips touches upon a lot of conflict familiar to modern audiences—wealth inequality and the rage of the working class aimed at the apathetic ruling class, the failures of bureaucracy, media bias, our weird attitudes toward mental illness, our complex and often contradictory attitudes toward nonconformity. 

As I mentioned, there isn’t a lot by way of plot here and it’s often difficult to figure out what Phillips wants us to take away from the film on any of these topics. Indeed, in the supplemental material included with the Kaleidescape download (and due to be included on the UHD Blu-ray release in January), he claims that the film isn’t really about any of these things. I’m not sure I buy that. I think it was easier to hide behind that dismissal than it was to admit that he doesn’t really have the answers—he simply wants us as an audience to do some of the heavy lifting and accept the unique part we play in creating such monsters, individually and collectively.

But it’s entirely possible you’ll come away from the film with completely different impressions than I did about whatever underlying message there may be. I, for example, couldn’t help but read into the narrative some serious thematic exploration about agency and free will, both topics I think about quite a bit. But in a few brief discussions with others who’ve seen the film, I seem to be alone in that, at least within my friend circle.

A lot of that has to do with how abstract Joker is at times. I referred to it as pure character study, and I stick by that. There are plenty of wonderful actors sharing the screen with Phoenix, namely Zazie Beetz, as well as Robert De Niro, whose character is largely a nod to The King of Comedy, a film that very much inspired elements of this one. But Arthur Fleck, aka “Joker,” is the film’s only real character. 

As well as pure character study, Joker is also pure cinema—a work of art that simply couldn’t have existed in any other form than as a motion picture. Imagery and audio sit in the passenger seat alongside character development and story just sort of seems to be dragged along for the chaotic ride, hanging onto the rear bumper for dear life (and I assure you, I don’t mean that as a slight in any way).

That focus on fundamental human truths combined with the undeniable ’70s and ’80s aesthetic keep Joker from feeling too zeitgeisty, despite the current subject matter it grapples with. There is one thing, though, that betrays the film as absolutely not a product of the era it emulates. Many parallels have been drawn between Joker and Taxi Driver, and they’re not unfair. One crucial difference, though, is that this film’s titular character could not, in any light, be viewed as a hero or anti-hero or anything other than a force of nature unleashed by circumstance and his own weaknesses. To write it off as a mere mashup of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, would be intellectual laziness of the highest (and snottiest) order. 

Phillips walks a very thin line: He wants you to understand this character without sympathizing with him. He doesn’t want you to want to watch the world burn—he simply wants you to recognize and acknowledge why some people do. And as with the best interpretations of this character (or at least the character that goes by this name) in print and on screen, Phillips wants you to admit that, as wrong as he may be and as dangerous as he may be, there’s an alluring element of truth behind the Joker’s lies, and refusing to admit as much is why we struggle to honestly understand the seemingly senseless acts of violence that have become so commonplace they barely register in the 24-hour news cycle unless the body count is truly catastrophic. To tiptoe right up to that line without crossing over into the territory of glorification is perhaps this film’s neatest trick.

In the end, though, I can imagine some viewers taking uncomfortable issue with this approach, with the lack of moralizing, the lack of overt condemnation for this murderous clown. Speaking for myself alone, I don’t think the film needs it. I think it’s implicit. I can’t imagine anyone cheering at the end of this cinematic tone poem. Then again, I didn’t see Joker in commercial cinemas, and I’m glad I didn’t. Because anything other than slack-jawed silence as its credits rolled would have confirmed my worst suspicions about humanity.  

Viewed at home, via my own AV system, with no rustling snack packaging, whispering, cellphones glaring from the peripheral, or obtrusive snickering at the two or three overt references to comics history the film makes when it serves its purposes—in other words, taken on its own terms, and viewed without distraction—I can honestly say that this is one of the best films of 2019. 

I can also say, without hesitation, that it’s one I’ll return to again and again, to meditate on its themes, its red herrings, and most importantly one of the most captivating, heartbreaking, frustrating, and fascinating character portrayals I’ve witnessed in ages. But it almost seems vulgar to discuss how beautifully shot it is, and how wonderful this home video presentation preserves its sumptuous cinematography.  

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 | Joker’s cinematography is pristine, resulting in an objectively gorgeous film with a wonderfully revealing home video presentation

SOUND | This is an ambitious and at times aggressive Atmos mix that uses its height channels to enhance the vertical elements of the filth-ridden cityscape of Gotham

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Review: Parasite

Parasite (2020)

review | Parasite

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Kaleidescape offers a sumptuous 4K HDR presentation of this 2020 Best Picture recipient 

by Dennis Burger
January 15, 2020

Three thoughts occurred to me pretty much simultaneously as I sat and reflected upon Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite as the closing credits scrolled by. Thought the first: How on earth am I going to say anything meaningful about this film without spoiling the entire experience? I’ve never been one for rehashing plots, so it’s easy enough to shy away from giving away story beats or plot twists. What a film means and how well it’s made are generally far more interesting to me than the what-had-happened-was of it all. 

With Parasite, though, the themes are so nuanced and ever-evolving that to go down that road would be to rob you of half the experience of watching the film. Just as you think you’ve figured out what Parasite is really about, it becomes about something subtly different, in a way that seems shocking at first but utterly inevitable in retrospect. 

Thought the second: What a fascinating counterpart to Todd Phillips’ Joker this film is. It isn’t, I think, a spoiler to say that on the surface Parasite is about wealth inequality and class struggles, territory Joker explored as well. But while Phillips uses this thematic kick-starter primarily as fuel for one of the most enthralling character studies of the past few years, Bong uses it as the bedrock of a tightly scripted narrative that doesn’t merely encourage rapt attention—it downright demands it. 

While Joker lives or dies by Joaquin Phoenix’ improvisation, and indeed feels like it could have been cut together a hundred different ways resulting in a hundred different films, Parasite by contrast comes across as a meticulous orchestration that hinges upon every piece of punctuation in the screenplay. Shorten one lingering glance or snip one line of dialogue, and I can’t help but feel as if it would be akin to playing Rush’s “YYZ” in 4/4 time. 

Of course, comparisons between the two films can only go so far, as one is a drama based on a comic book and the other is a wholly original black comedy that morphs into farce before shifting gears into thriller territory before evolving into . . . well, something else altogether. And yet, I can’t help but see the two films as opposite sides of the same coin—perhaps due to the proximity of their release? Maybe. But it feels like there’s a deeper connection going on here, something both zeitgeisty and timeless. 

In addition to surface thematic similarities, the films do share one other thing in common: Stunning cinematography and absolutely unimpeachable home video presentations. Kaleidescape’s UHD HDR release of Parasite wonderfully presents the 4K digital intermediate of the film, which was shot on Arri Alexa 65 cameras and captured at 6.5K resolution. The transfer doesn’t lean too heavily on intense highlights but has a high-contrast look that makes most use of its expanded dynamic range at the lower end of the value scale. Colors are simply sumptuous, but more than anything else, it’s cinematographer Hong Gyeong-pyo’s eye for framing and composition that makes Parasite such a visual feast.

Kaleidescape presents the film with your choice of 5.1 or stereo sound, both in Korean despite being labeled as English. There are no caption options, as subtitles are baked into the transfer and positioned within the 2.39:1 frame. 

There will be some controversy, I’m sure, over the fact that Universal decided to release the film without its original Atmos soundtrack here in the U.S. This is true of both its digital release now as well as its disc release (Blu-ray only, no UHD) later in the month. Interestingly, other local distributors (The Jokers Films in France, for example) are delivering Parasite with its object-based audio intact, and I’ll admit even I’m intrigued to hear what that sounds like, because the surround mix is as bold and cheeky as the film itself. Aggressive pans from the surround soundstage into the front channels are employed frequently, though not gratuitously, to redirect the viewer’s attention and extend the fabricated reality of the film out into the room.

If I had to speculate about why we’re not getting Atmos in the U.S. (and let’s be clear here, this is nothing more than speculation), I would guess that the 5.1 option we’ve received is a new nearfield mix intended for the relatively more intimate confines of home theaters or media rooms. Whatever the reality, it’s hard to complain about such a brilliantly crafted audio experience, and it does up-mix quite nicely into Atmos, if that’s your preference. 

Thought the third: If Parasite wins a condescending Best International Feature Film Oscar and gets snubbed for Best Picture, I’m going to pitch a hissy. (And I say this as someone who normally puts as much stock in the Academy Awards as I do the serving-size suggestions on a box of Cheez-Its.) This isn’t the sort of token foreign film Hollywood trots out every year and then dislocates its collective shoulders in an effort to pat its own back for patronizingly celebrating a film with subtitles. It’s a universally applicable work of art whose themes resonate across cultural boundaries. 

It’s also one of those rare films that manages to be both poignant and approachable. It asks tough questions without offering pandering answers and it somehow manages to not be even slightly opaque in the process. Quite frankly, if it doesn’t win Best Picture, I can only assume it’s because the Academy jealously recognizes that few modern American directors would have had the courage to make this film, at least not in quite this way.

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 UHD HDR release wonderfully presents the 4K digital intermediate of the film, with a transfer that doesn’t lean too heavily on intense highlights but has a high-contrast look that makes most use of its expanded dynamic range at the lower end of the value scale

SOUND | The 5.1 surround mix is as bold and cheeky as the film itself. Aggressive pans from the surround soundstage into the front channels are used to redirect the viewer’s attention and extend the fabricated reality of the film out into the room.

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Review: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2019)

review | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

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This Oscar winner inventively scrambles what you’d expect from an animated feature, forever rewriting the rules 

by John Sciacca
March 6, 2019

I didn’t really have a lot of desire to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse when it was in movie theaters. Nothing about the trailer really grabbed me, but when it started getting rave reviews both from critics (97% on Rotten Tomatoes, with comments like “It is a game changer”) and audiences (94% positive), I figured maybe the trailer didn’t resonate with me but the film would. Then, when it took home the Academy Award this year for Animated Feature Film, that clinched it.

This is and also totally isn’t the Spider-Man story you know. It begins with the Peter Parker (voiced by Chris Pine) we’ve always known and has animated versions of several of the marquee scenes you’ll likely remember from the multiple live-action Spider-Man movies from recent years. But the real star is teenaged Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), who was unknowingly bitten by a radioactive spider (don’t you hate when that happens?) and then crosses paths with Parker while he is in the midst of battling some baddies to save Brooklyn (again). During the battle, a particle accelerator opens up portals to alternate universes, bringing five alternate Spider-people into Brooklyn, where they all work together to stop Kingpin from unleashing the accelerator that could destroy not only our world but the entire universe. 

I loved Spider-Man: Homecoming for a few of reasons. One, it didn’t get bogged down in its own origin story, forcing us to relive —once again—how Spider-Man becomes Spider-Man. At this point we all know the story, and this was a theme Spider-Verse repeatedly poked fun at. Two, after the recent Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield outings, Tom Holland’s Spidey just felt fresh and new, more wide-eyed and trying to figure things out. Three, it gave us a great sidekick in Ned (Jacob Batalon), who provided a much needed second personality as well as adding enough Tony Stark/Iron Man to keep the film feeling bigger than just “another Spider-Man” movie, while also giving it a place in the much larger Marvel universe.

Those things equally apply to Spider-Verse, which feels both the same (but in a good way) and yet totally new and fresh. What really sets this movie apart is its unique visual style. As much as I loved Ralph Breaks the Internet and The Incredibles 2—also nominated in the Best Animated Feature category—after watching Spider-Verse, it’s not a surprise it took home the Oscar as it has an innovative style and look unlike anything that has come before it. You can tell you’re in for something different right from the opening Columbia title screen. 

Animation always looks fantastic in 4K HDR and this is no different. The colors are bright and vivid and pushed to the boundaries, with the reds of Spidey’s suit particularly vibrant and heavily saturated. The blacks are also deep, with HDR used throughout to provide extra punch. 

The look of Spider-Verse constantly changes throughout the movie, often during the same scene, and it definitely embraces its comic-book roots, with a style that often feels like comic panels brought to life. At times, images are near photo-realistic, then switch to a cartoon panel-style, then to the Pop Art style of Roy Lichtenstein. The image has an incredible depth of focus that looks truly 3D at times. Frequently, things in the near- or background are heavily blurred to make you focus on specific portions of the frame. The style in some scenes reminded me of the film-noir storytelling style of the Max Payne video game from years ago.

Beyond the visuals, a modern animated film often succeeds or fails based on the quality of the story and voice acting. While the theme of a band of strangers coming together to defeat a common enemy is nothing new, Spider-Verse never feels like a retread and manages to work in enough pop culture references to be clever.

The voicing is great, with Nicolas Cage as the black & white Spider-Man Noir, a private eye from 1933 who likes to drink egg creams and fight Nazis. Jake Johnson brings his hilarious Nick Miller New Girl vibe and mannerisms to Peter B. Parker, a Spidey who has gone through a nasty breakup and let himself go. John Mulaney does a good job with Peter Porker, aka Spider-Ham, though something about his delivery reminded me of Nathan Lane’s Timon from The Lion King. (Also, I couldn’t get “Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig, does whatever a Spider Pig does. . .” out of my head whenever I saw Spider-Ham.) 

The Dolby Atmos audio mix is very aggressive, with many discrete effects routed to all channels and lots of height information. There is also some serious low-frequency information that will rattle your windows and slam you in the chest. Dialogue is well recorded and remains easy to understand regardless what world-ending event is happening onscreen. 

Spider-Verse is a fresh take on the superhero genre and a visually stunning film that will look fantastic in a home theater and is sure to entertain family members of all ages. 

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 | Colors are bright and vivid and pushed to the boundaries, with the reds of Spider-Man’s suit particularly vibrant and heavily saturated. The blacks are also deep, with HDR used throughout to provide extra punch. 

SOUND | The Atmos mix is very aggressive, with many discrete effects routed to all channels and lots of overhead height information

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