Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (Blu-ray) <small>by Stuart Galbraith IV</small><hr /> When it was new, I remember seeing Chuck Berry Hail! Hail Rock n' Roll (1987) at the cavernous Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, the 1,000-plus seat audience packed with a lively, appreciative audience, all marveling at the undiminished skill and energy of pioneering singer-songwriter-guitarist Chuck Berry. I mean, the man was pushing sixty! To us 20-somethings in the audience, he was old, as old as the moon, still doing his one-legged hop to "Nadine," still wowing disciples like Keith Richards and Eric Clapton on his Gibson guitar. Imagine - 60! Now, more than 30 years later, the novelty of a rock n' roll performer old enough to collect social security has worn off considerably. Berry himself continued performing until shortly before his death in 2017 at age ninety. The seemingly immortal Keith Richards is still active at 75, and another of the documentary's interviewees, ...Read the entire review »

Until the End of the World (Blu-ray) <small>by DVD Savant</small><hr /> Reviewed by Glenn Erickson Where there's a Wim, there's a way. Science fiction films of classic stature haven't been that frequent since 1968, when 2001: A Space Odyssey raised the bar for what audiences expected to see in futuristic special effects. Century City has torn down some of the buildings that represented the far future in the Planet of the Apes sequels. Jetsons- like architecture went out of style, anyway: when post-apocalyptic scenarios became the norm, it was replaced by rubble, blast craters and recycled muscle cars. But the most ambitious film of post-modern sci-fi prognostication is a pure original, not part of either of those trends. Made just as CGI was transf...Read the entire review »

Now, Voyager (Blu-ray) <small>by Stuart Galbraith IV</small><hr /> The kind of "weepie" this critic generally avoids, Now, Voyager (1942) was a - if not the - high-water mark of classical Hollywood melodrama centering around a female protagonist. Adapted from the 1941 novel by Olive Higgins Prouty (Stella Dallas), the Bette Davis vehicle directed by Irving Rapper is something of a revelation. Its heightened stylization in the manner of such films, coupled with Warner Bros.'s distinctive house style, with its rich score by Max Steiner, its kinetic montages by Don Siegel, etc., outwardly make it appear singularly unreal. Yet, emotionally, Now, Voyager is almost searing with authenticity, the psychological struggles of its protagonist, and later a child she identifies with, resonate with profound earned emotion. Prouty herself suffered from depression and nervous breakdowns, which along with psychological therapy is dramatized here with, by...Read the entire review »

Hustlers 4K <small>by Ryan Keefer</small><hr /> The Movie: I recently watched The Kitchen, a movie I had no knowledge about, which included some above the title leading actresses who turn in decent performances in an underachieving movie. Well now I've seen Hustlers, a movie I had no knowledge about, which included a couple of above the title leading actresses who turn in excellent performances in a movie that lives up to and exceeds its potential.. Lorene Scafaria (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World) adapted the Jessica Pressler story from New York Magazine which she directed as well. It looks at Destiny (Constance Wu, Crazy Rich Asians) and her just starting out in a New York strip club. She strikes up a friendship with Ramona (Jennifer...Read the entire review »

The Bells of St. Mary's (Blu-ray) <small>by Stuart Galbraith IV</small><hr /> I can't begrudge affection anyone might feel toward The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), the still-popular holiday film Bing Crosby reprising his Father O'Malley character from Going My Way (1944), this time butting heads with nun Ingrid Bergman. Both ooze charm, Der Bingle gets to sing a few songs, there are cute kids doing cute stuff, and the film has a low-key likeability. Dramatically, however, there's barely enough conflict for a 63-minute B-movie, and this runs twice that, a protracted two-hours-and-six minutes. It seems that in wanting the Catholic Church's official stamp of approval, what conflict there is handled so gingerly and obtusely the picture itself is like being in church. Everything is carefully measured, even mild offense is avoided at all costs, and nobody even raises their voice a little. What problems our protagonists face is, for the most part, archly contrived and un...Read the entire review »

Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration! <small>by Jesse Skeen</small><hr /> This second DVD release from Shout Factory Kids celebrating Sesame Street's 50th anniversary consists of a special made this year for prime time on both HBO (where the show has moved for its first run episodes) and PBS (which still presents the show delayed after the HBO showings, and with an annoying "E/I" symbol at the top of the screen to count towards the FCC's required hours of "educational programming" each week- in that regard it's likely for the better that its new primary home is HBO.) Like the 25th anniversary special, which was one of the very first DVD releases back in 1997, this focuses mostly on songs from the show but most of them are new performances, done on the show's set, rather than archival clips. There's a number of celebrity appearances but for some reason Joseph Gordon-Levitt, born after I had already outgrown the show on TV, was chosen to be the main "star". He takes a cab t...Read the entire review »