The Daniel Clowes Filmography

Comic writer/ artist Daniel Clowes' most celebrated film is, of course, Ghost World (Clowes was even nominated for an Oscar!), which I've already covered here.  But it's not the whole of his filmography.  Heck, it might not even be his best film.  Well... okay, actually it is.  But still, I'd argue his other movies come a lot closer than you may've been lead to believe or remember.  I had been happily living without these films in my collection, but upon a recent revisit, I realized this could not stand.  And as a bonus, these blus are rather cheap these days.  👍

Following Bad Santa, 2006 saw director Terry Zwigoff reunite with his most famous collaborator for Art School Confidential, based on a simple 4-page strip in an issue of Eightball, though Clowes also wrote the screenplay.  In both cases, I can see why these movies didn't really land.  In this case, it's sort of a defiantly artsy indie flick, but at the same time, first feels too indebted to lower common denominator comedies like Porky's, Superbad or Revenge Of the Nerds.  The first half in particular borrows pretty heavily from the young men on a quest to lose their virginity formula.  But I'd say that's more of a marketing issue, leaving this movie struggling to find its audience with a "who is this for" dilemma.  When it came out, I remember thinking Funny Pages was the movie this had failed to be.

But looking beyond that, this is an acerbic look on the art school world, from the students to the faculty and the entire institution.  And it's a thoughtful dialogue on art itself, all wrapped up in a clever murder mystery plot.  It's actually the film Velvet Buzzsaw wanted and failed to be.  And since Ghost World was so acclaimed, this movie was able to secure a fantastic cast all eager to be a part of this, including Anjelica Houston, John Malkovich (who also produced), returning Steve Buscemi, Mallrats' own Ethan Suplee, The Last Days of Disco's Matt Keeslar and the great Jim Broadbent.  The ending is ingenious, and Clowes unique writing definitely shines through the conventions.

2006 Sony DVD top; 2018 MVD BD bottom.

So MVD is clearly using the same base master as the original Sony, with essentially identical color timing, brightness levels, framing, etc.  Well, I say the framing is "essentially" identical, because both discs are 1.84:1, but the DVD is slightly vertically pinched, which the BD corrects.  ASC was shot on film, but you'd never know it from looking at these smooth, grainless transfers.  Still, the BD is sharper and less compressed than the DVD, so it's a fine jump to basic HD improving on the DVD, just an old transfer.

Sony's DVD features a 5.1 mix with optional English subtitles, plus a bunch of foreign subs and dubs.  MVD keeps all of that, bumping the 5.1 up to DTS-HD, and also adds a stereo mix in LPCM.

For extras, I wouldn't call it a proper special edition, but we get some decent stuff.  Both discs are virtually the same in this department, except the DVD has more bonus trailers.  We get a basic, promotional 'making of' featurette and a second featurette covering the film's debut at Cannes, both of which feature brief interviews with many of the cast and crew.  Then there's about fifteen minutes of deleted scenes (there are some amusing bits, but nothing major), and a short blooper reel.  Only the blu-ray includes the actual ASC trailer.

A decade later, we get the next Clowes film, 2017's Wilson.  Clowes wrote this screenplay too, adapted from his own comic of the same name, though now they've got a new director: Craig Johnson.  soft ending.  Fox execs probably got involved and said, this is a legit rom-com starring Woody Harrelson now.  We can't end it so bleakly.  It's not a bad ending, but it does feel like a cop-out.

But except for that, this film is still a pretty excellent, on point Clowes adaptation.  If you're not familiar with the source material,. I can guarantee you won't predict all the places this story goes to.  And while Harrelson's casting might be a little outsized, the rest of the cast is perfect, from co-star Laura Dern to minor supporting players like Mary Lynn Rajskub, Cheryl Hines, Margo Martindale, Brett Gelman and Isabella Amara.  I get why mainstream audiences expect a cute, sunny comedy would bounce off of this, and the ending is a bit off a let down if you've read Clowes original, but it's still a surprisingly good film if you go in with the right mindset.

2017 Fox DVD top; 2017 Fox BD bottom.

As a combopack, you could safely assume you're getting the same basic transfer on two separate discs, with the only difference being the HD boost the BD allows.  And you'd be mostly correct, but there is a small, unexpected difference: The DVD is 1.83:1, while the blu is 1.85.  Basically, the DVD has a slight vertical pinch (maybe in solidarity with Art School? haha), which the BD again corrects.  Besides that, it's just the normal boost in clarity you'd expect from the BD, fixing the light soft focus of the DVD compression.  This film was shot on digital and finished in 2k, so it's looking about as good as it ever will, which in this case is absolutely fine.  I'm sure you could get a superior encode on a UHD, but it would be a slim gain and I wouldn't hold my breath for such any such release.

Fox's release features Wilson's original 5.1 track (in DTS-HD on the blu), with French and Spanish 5.1 dubs, plus an English Audio Descriptive track.  It also includes optional English and Spanish subtitles.

Wilson has featurettes, too - three of 'em - but they're even shorter.  Like two minutes or less each.  But taken together, they add up to one okay little featurette.  Besides a bunch of soundbites from the cast and crew, which at least impart a little information, they do some panel to frame comparisons, which give you a good feel for how the movie stacks up against the graphic novel.  They even animate the chat bubbles.  Somebody cared.  Better though, is the almost 20 minutes of deleted scenes, many of which may've hurt the film's pace, but otherwise are pretty funny or add some more character nuance.  There's also a stills gallery, the trailer and a couple bonus trailers.

So neither film comes with the deep special edition we'd like, but they're better than barebones, so fans will get some value out of 'em.  Both are easy recommendations.

Eddington

And to fully complete the picture of Danial Clowes' filmography, I should mention that in 2011, actress and former Beastie Boys love interest Ione Skye directed a short film adaptation of Ice Haven called David Goldberg.  Predictably but sadly, it's not available on home video at all (but you can find it on Youtube).  I imagine it wouldn't be a simple prospect, but if a label like Criterion were ever to pick up one of these movies for a fancier, 4k release, David Goldberg would be a sweet special feature.  And additionally, Clowes appears in the 2010 documentary Shut Up, Little Man, which is available on DVD, and fleetingly in Ari Aster's Eddington, which is out on DVD, BD and UHD.  But now we've veered off into hardcore devotee territory.  I'd recommend Art School Confidential and Wilson to anybody, however, and their current treatment on blu-ray isn't exactly exciting, but they're fine, and definitely worth having.

Creepshow 2... Corrected!

So, Arrow recently licensed and released a new, limited special edition of Creepshow 2 in the US.  It's pretty sweet; and we'll delve into every detail.  But there also seems to be something a little amiss.  Something that will be familiar to owners of Arrow's Scarlet Box.  Yes, like Hellraiser 3, it not only reveals new picture information, but what looks to be too much picture information.  Now, I'm not the first to notice this.  I saw it brought up by user JohnCarpenterFan in the blu-ray forums back in October, but it seemed to get shot down fairly quickly.  Well, I hate to re-stir a calmed pot, but I've finally had a chance to sit down with my copy, and the "amateur sleuths" there seemed to have a legitimate point.

Update 2/23/17 - 5/9/17: This post isn't just about the framing issue, however.  And to that end, I've enriched it a little by including another older edition - Anchor Bay's original, 2001 DVD - for additional PQ comparison.

Update 11/21/25: Controversy concluded!  Arrow has - thank goodness - used the opportunity of their new 4k upgrade to fix their botched framing of Creepshow 2.  Plus, as a bonus, we get a new 4k upgrade.

Creepshow 2 isn't quite up to Creepshow, but hey, it's no Creepshow 3.  Gone are George Romero's stylish comic book scrims and lighting effects, leaving us with a more generic looking horror anthology.  There are only three stories this time around, and the first one's a bit of an old fashioned clunker (though charming enough), but the second two still pack a nice little punch.  It's not a great film, but still a fine, enjoyable time for more dedicated horror lovers.  We get plenty of cool effects, an animated wrap-around, a less impressive but still respectable cast including George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour and cameos by Tom Savini and Stephen King himself.  For the longest time, this film had been relegated to barebones DVDs until Anchor Bay finally gave it a nice special edition in the UK only [Whoops!  They released it in the US, too.  See the comments].  That opened the doors for a blu-ray from 88 Films in the UK, and then the supposedly ultimate edition from Arrow in late 2016.  You tell me, which one looks incorrect to you?

1) 2001 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2005 Anchor Bay DVD; 3) 2016 Arrow BD.

Okay, to be fair, I just cherry-picked the very worst shot I could find.  But yeah, that's a big floating sea of random black space on the left-hand side of the Arrow blu.  It's a quick shot (just a couple seconds), so maybe whoever was doing Quality Control blinked.  Hey, it happens.  But you can't tell me (or the poor guys trying to bring this up in the blu-ray forums) that it's supposed to look like that.

1) 2001 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2005 Anchor Bay DVD; 3) 2016 Arrow BD.

Forget what the bullies are going to do to him, his face is disappearing!  See, for their new edition, Arrow made a new 2k scan from the original negatives.  And their version pulls in a lot of picture (most notably on the left, but really on all four sides), which sounds great.  Except, as with Hellraiser 3, they seem to have included a part of the frame that was intended by the filmmakers to be cropped out.  Sometimes it looks fine.  People and reviews have been saying it looks more centered and appealing.  But clearly they've gone at least a little too far.

1) 2001 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2005 Anchor Bay DVD; 3) 2016 Arrow BD.

Now there's some lighting equipment in shot.  And maybe you'd argue that the characters ran a shop full of all kinds of stuff, so maybe they'd have a big light standing in front of their door, but then it's not in other shots.

...Maybe the characters just moved it because they realized it didn't make sense to have a big light blocking their entrance.  There are plenty of shots where, if you stretch, you could argue a justification for the random stuff that was never visible before the Arrow release.

1) 2001 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2005 Anchor Bay DVD; 3) 2016 Arrow BD.

Maybe that orange safety stuff is supposed to be there.  Maybe the characters are driving past some road work, but it was only visible in the very left of frame in that one shot.  I really don't think so; but I'll concede it's open to interpretation.  The unfinished animation stuff is a lot harder to argue.

And sometimes it's on the right side, too.

Can anyone honestly say they think we're supposed to see where the animators stopped drawing the characters?  And there are so many examples throughout the whole film.  Sometimes it's much subtler cell lines in the animations where the colors don't match (you can see it in a bit on the left-hand side of that shot above with the boot and the unfinished tire), or just floating bits of negative space, like this:

1) 2001 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2005 Anchor Bay DVD; 3) 2016 Arrow BD.

To be fair, you could catch a fleeting glimpse of the crewman's hand even in the older editions, so go ahead and blame the original filmmakers on that one.  But only now can you really get a look at it and tell what it is, as opposed to a quick flash of what you'd just assume is the actress's knee or something.

This one might look okay as a still frame, but in motion, that out of focus white business on the left of the frame is clearly attached to the camera (my guess: a lens hood) and tracks with the actors through the whole moving shot.  Absolutely no way it's meant to be there.

But it has to be said that this isn't just like Arrow's Hellraiser 3 in that the framing is a bit off (or that Arrow coincidentally got both from Lakeshore Entertainment).  It's also like it in the sense that, even despite that issue, it had been the best, most definitive release of the film we've ever had.  Despite the adjusted framing, both the newer DVD and blu are framed to exactly 1.85:1 (the 2001 DVD is more like 1.81:1, with a little less on the left and a little more on the bottom).  The updated 2k scan though is so much clearer, with stronger detail and light but authentic grain.  The colors look much more natural, and actually a bit closer to the old DVD.

2025 Arrow UHD.

But now we have the UHD; no more compromises!  The aspect ratio is still exactly 1.85:1, but as you can see above, it frames the image tighter, matting the image more vertically, so it no longer has all the dead space, incomplete animation or crew equipment.  Except the crewman's hand in that one shot - that's just a flaw with the original film that's never going away.  But it still shows more around the edges than the older DVDs.  Arrow clearly paid close attention this time and got it exactly right.  And this is a new 4k scan of the original 35mm OCN in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, so we're upgrading the upgrade.  You know I'm always pointing out how HDR shots look darker when not viewed in HDR, i.e. on your computer screen.  But you would be right to look at the screenshots above and think this transfer is truly darker.  Both are true; this new 4k presentation is a bit darker.  But the colors are vivid, and it looks great in HDR.  The boost to 4k is even more obvious, with small edges and perfectly captured film grain, even in the animated segments.

The 2001 DVD just had the original mono track with no subtitles, while the special edition gave us mono, stereo and 5.1, though still no subtitles.  In 2016, Arrow made it all lossless, with the mono and a stereo mixes both in LPCM, and the 5.1 in DTS-HD.  They added optional English subtitles, too.  And they kept it all exactly the same on their new 2025 release.

And special features?  Yes sir!  The 2001 DVD just had the trailer and a stills gallery, but the 2010 Anchor Bay DVD had a engaging audio commentary by director Michael Gornick, who really lays the story of this film down in an excellent, direct manner.  In addition, there's a great featurette with Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger on the crazy, behind the scenes stories of this film's effects (they're not afraid to dish on who got fired, etc), plus a brief bonus featurette about Berger's friendship with Rick Baker, two trailers, and a nice, 4-page insert with notes by Adam Rockoff.

Thankfully, Arrow carried all of that over (except the insert).  When 88 Films released their blu-ray in the UK, they recorded two new interviews: one with George Romero and one with Tom Savini, including some extra behind-the-scenes footage of his as The Creep.  Arrow carried that over, too.  So it's got "all legacy extras," as Sony would say.  And they've got two new, on-camera interviews, with actors Daniel Beer and Tom Wright.  These new interviews are by Red Shirt and up to their top of the line quality.  The limited edition comes in a nice, hardbox sleeve in either red or purple (for the US and Canadian editions, respectively), has reversible cover art, a 20-page booklet with notes by Michael Blythe, and a really exciting additional comic book.  The comic is really substantial, has a square spine, and it gives you the complete lost "Pinfall" story that was supposed to be filmed for Creepshow 2 but got cut out for budgetary purposes.  I have to admit, I just quickly flipped through the comics Arrow included with Society and Bride of Re-Animator, but as this is the lost story from the film, it was a must-read for me, and a strong reason to spring for the limited edition instead of waiting for a standard release.

And all of that is the same in the new 2025 edition.  Nothing new except for the usual Arrow card (I got Excalibur), but everything is preserved, including the comic, reversible artwork and everything.  So, hey.  I kinda felt like Arrow should've issued replacement discs in 2016.  But the double-dip (or whatever number you're on personally) is a lot less painful when the correction is being paired with a strong 4k upgrade.  Both factors help justify the cost; it's all water under the bridge.  And we're left with an amazing edition of a fun little horror movie that still holds up.

Soavi's Masterpiece, Dellamorte Dellamore

Ah man, it's been a long wait for a proper HD release of Michele Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore, the demented comic book adaptation that's often called the last great Italian horror film.  It had some fine releases on DVD, and I've owned a few of them over the years, but on BD, they were both rare and uninspiring.  You'd be happy to pay to import a German, barebones disc with the old DVD master just because it wasn't compressed to 720p.  We were all excited when Shameless finally announced a BD special edition for 2018 until somebody asked them for the specs and it turned out the frame-rate was botched.  Still, a lot of desperate fans bought it anyway.  But happily, you can put all that behind you now.  Severin has a brand new 4k restoration from the negative with a whole ton of special features on BD and 4k Ultra HD with Dolby Vision HDR, fancy packaging and everything you could want.

Dellamorte Dellamore is based on Italian horror comic Dylan Dog, or more precisely Tiziano Sclavi's prototypical novel about a similar character in the DD universe, Francesco Dellamorte.  Both characters were drawn to resemble Rupert Everett, so it was quite a coup for Soavi to cast him here, not just for the coincidence, but the pitch-perfect performance Everett was able to deliver in a film where, after all, a lot of the cast is dubbed.  And it's not just Everett who's pitch-perfect here; the stylish direction, score, practical effects, supporting cast and the writer's clever blend of humor and genuine ennui are all operating on a level I'm not sure the original source material even fully deserved.  The elements have aligned to lift up an above average graphic novel to a bit of a cinematic masterpiece.

1) 2006 Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2012 Shameless DVD;
3) 2023 Severin BD; 4) 2023 Severin UHD.

Each of these discs pretty much preserve the slightly pillar-boxed aspect ratio of 1.66:1, though if you look closely, you'll see Anchor Bay's disc is cropped a little tighter and really framed at 1.62:1.  I only replaced the AB DVD with the Shameless because it subtitled the Italian commentary for the first time, but I never realized until I started doing this comparison how they improved the picture.  It's not just the framing, which the 4k restoration has mirrored, but they've got more natural colors and toned down the edge enhancement/ contrast.  Of course, that's all academic now.  The colors are even more natural now and fine detail, like the mayor's hair, has been restored.  Of course, we're comparing UHD to DVD, so they have a huge advantage; but happily they didn't blow it.  Grain is still tough to discern, which seems to be a thing with Severin - are they lightly DNRing their UHDs (or is the Italian company that owns the film materials)?  Because the feature's only about 100 minutes and they've given it nearly 80GB, so it shouldn't be a compression issue.  Not that this looks like Predator anything.  And everything else, like the black levels (especially considering how much of this film is set at night) and the naturalism of the 4k are quite strong.

We're given a surprising amount of options for the audio: a Dolby Atmos track, a 5.1 and a 2.0, both in DTS-HD, all of which sound bold, clear and frankly rather similar.  We also get the Italian 2.0 in DTS-HD, and optional English subtitles for both the English and Italian audio tracks.  I'd recommend the English audio, since Rupert is speaking English in his own voice, but a number of supporting characters are dubbed, so both are valid options.

As far as extras?  Oh boy, Severin has us covered.  But they're not the only special features in town.  Anchor Bay had a nice half-hour featurette, which talked to a number of the key players, including Soavi, screenwriter Gianni Romoli, Sergio Stivaletti and Anna Falchi.  Shameless dropped that, but they preserved that aforementioned commentary from the 2008 Medusa DVD, and they added English subtitles for the first time.  It's Soavi and Romoli together, and it's pretty great.  They go at a good pace and cover a lot, including a few details that don't pop up in other extras.  Both discs also included inserts with notes, the trailer and a bunch of bonus trailers (especially Shameless, they have like fifteen!).

Thankfully, Severin keeps the commentary, too; though they almost don't need it, since the new interviews they conducted are pretty comprehensive and cover just about every topic mentioned and ignored by that commentary.  Romoli's interview goes for a good hour.  And they manage to get a great sit-down with Rupert Everett, which is impressive.  They also got a new interview with Falchi, plus cinematographer Mauro Marchetti, Stefano Masciarelli who played the mayor, Fabiana Formica who played the mayor's daughter, composer Riccardo Biseo, set designer Antonello Geleng and of course Sergio Stivaletti.  There's also a brief interview with Alan Jones to fill in the last few informational details, though he clearly doesn't know what he's talking about regarding the comics.  He goes into a whole explanation of "why hasn't there ever been a Dylan Dog film," when of course there was.  It's no Dellamorte Dellamore, but it has its qualities.  Jones also points out that "in Dylan Dog, the sidekick is based on Groucho Marx.  Here, I don't quite understand what he was doing."  I've never read an issue, and even I know Dylan Dog's sidekick was Groucho, not Dellamorte's, so of course he's not doing the Groucho schtick.  But hey, he's a film guy, not a comic book guy; what do you want?

Also on here is the old featurette that also used to be on that Medusa disc, though this one had subtitles even at the time.  It's good because it was made during production, so it has on-set footage and interviews with a couple people, including the editor and François Hadji-Lazaro, who couldn't contribute to the new features.  The Anchor Bay featurette wasn't so fortunate to make the transition, but that's fine, since nobody says anything in that that they don't also say in these other extras.  There are also two theatrical trailers, the complete soundtrack CD, a glossy full-color 50 page book, and a stylish slipbox.

So this is unquestionably recommended.  A fantastic film that's been in dire need of a fully loaded special edition since the concept existed, finally gets one.  This and Spider Labyrinth in the same month has Severin taking some serious cracks at Italian Horror fans' want lists.  What could be next... Demons 5?