The Luxury Antiviral

With Brandon Cronenberg's more recent films getting lavished with all kinds of fancy, 4k editions, it's nice that Severin has seen fit to go back and give the same treatment to his 2012 debut, Antiviral, which I still hold this out as his best work  With it's creative and genuinely insightful science fiction take, and first class execution, it was the film that suggested this nepo baby might actually be the successor capable of picking up the ball his father had seemingly dropped when he moved into more milquetoast drama.  The concept, the look, the performances (Caleb Landry Jones really goes for it), the score... every element really comes together; it instantly turned by from a skeptic to a convert.  So a fancy, new 3-disc limited edition?  Hell yeah!
IFC originally released Antiviral as a new release on separate DVD and blu-ray releases in 2013.  They've been the sole, go-to discs in the US until now.  Severin has issued a new, limited edition 4k 3-disc set, consisting of a brand new 4k scan of a 35mm protection internegative on UHD, that same transfer on 1080p BD, and a second BD including an earlier cut from its Cannes premiere.  Cronenberg tells us in the intro to the Cannes cut that "it's not better version or the director's cut, but it is a part of the film's history that was lost until now."  It's mostly the same as the final theatrical cut, but with the deleted scenes back in, and a few other minor alterations, satisfactorily concluding a subplot for a secondary character.  A standard edition has already been announced for March, but it will just be a 2-disc set, without the Cannes cut.
a scene only in the Cannes cut
So this is an interesting one.  For starters, Antiviral was shot digitally in 2k, so why are we getting a 4k scan of a 35mm protection internegative?  Isn't that just going a generation further removed?  Fortunately Cronenberg and his DP, Karim Hussain, are on hand in the special features to explain.  And it basically boils down to the limits of the color timing at the time of release - particularly in the subtle variations of white - where they had to time it differently for DCP screenings and for film prints.  This new transfer's HDR allows them to essentially merge the best of both worlds.  But this should temper your expectations for any gains in resolution with the 4k.  And it should also be pointed out that the Cannes cut included on the 3rd disc utilizes the digital transfer for anyone who would still prefer that version over the new film scan.  So let's get into it.
1) 2013 IFC DVD; 2) 2013 IFC BD; 3) 2024 Severin BD;
4) 2024 Severin UHD; 5) 2024 Severin (Cannes cut) BD.

An unexpected change right off the bat, we've gone from the IFC discs being 1.85:1 to the Severin discs (all transfers) are now 1.78:1.  That sounds like a small step backwards, but seeing how heavily involved Cronenberg Hussain seem to have been with the new restoration, I guess 1.78 is how they prefer it.  The difference amounts to a little more picture along the top and bottom of the newer transfer rather than anything extra along the sides of the old ones.  And another surprise?  IFC's DVD is interlaced.  That's pretty unusual for an HD-concurrent release that modern.  Thankfully their BD is not similarly affected, but that means there's a bigger jump in quality between the two IFC discs besides the fundamental distinction between standard and high definition.

Severin's new transfer naturally adds a layer of grain to the image that the IFC discs lack, because it's the only one taken from film.  That grain is still surprisingly soft, even on the UHD, but I guess that's no great loss since it kinda doesn't belong there anyway.  Severin's Cannes cut, naturally, does not have this grain element, and some purists will be glad to have it for that reason.  Zooming in super close to all of these reveals practically no discernible distinction in actual detail from the original picture in any of these transfers (except, of course, in the DVD, which is naturally cloudier).  But it should be noted that the UHD is able to retain imagery that all the other discs crush out in the shadows, evident in the second set of shots.  In summary, I'd say the UHD does have the generally best transfer, but it's a distinction most viewers wouldn't even notice.  And some sticklers might still prefer the IFC blu for not adding the... not fake, but extraneous grain, and maybe even for keeping the traditional theatrical AR.

Antiviral started life with a 5.1 mix, and it's on every disc.  The DVD is lossy, whereas all the blus and UHD present the film in DTS-HD.  Severin also adds a stereo mix, also in DTS-HD.  Every release also includes optional English subtitles, with IFC also throwing in Spanish ones.
In terms of special features, IFC was already satisfactorily decked out.  It has a pretty great audio commentary by Cronenberg and Hussain, which occasionally gets a little silly and immature (I recommend switching it off before their original "I want to snort your nail clippings" song over the closing credits), but is 99% very illuminating.  And then there's a terrific, half-hour making of documentary, comprised of interviews with the cast and crew and on-set footage.  There's also just over five minutes of interesting deleted scenes, with optional commentary by Cronenberg.  And there are a handful of 2-3 minute featurettes, which are pretty skippable, since they're mostly cut from the same footage used in the doc.  There may be one or two brief soundbites that are unique to them, but it's not worth sifting through.  Finally, there's the trailer and a couple bonus trailers.  Oh, and some brief test footage from their infrared cameras, used in some background shots.
Broken Tulips
Severin carries all of that over, and they add some great new stuff.  There's a new on-camera interview with Cronenberg and Hussain, which is described as them discussing the new restoration.  And they do for the first couple minutes, but then they go on to talk about the film in plenty more retrospective aspects.  And they include the short film Cronenberg made to sell this film to investors called Broken Tulips (also in 1.78).  Cronenberg and Hussain have also recorded a new introduction for the Cannes cut, though that and the infrared test footage are only on the 3-disc version.  Also exclusive to the 3-disc set is the fancy slipcover, a 30-page booklet by author Claire Donner.
I called The Mask of Satan the gem of Severin's latest Black Friday releases, but that doesn't mean it's the only one worth getting.  This is a top shelf release of an underrated classic.  Although, with that said, anyone who doesn't consider themselves an extreme fan may be content with the original IFC release, since the new transfer and additional bells & whistles aren't that far beyond what we've already got.  This is the premium, luxury edition for those who've got to have the very best.  Everyone else may be happy to save a few - or more than a few - bucks and splurge elsewhere.

Demons Part VIY: The Mask Of Satan

Ooh, I've been waiting for this one!  And I don't just mean that it took Severin approximately two months to ship my Black Friday order. 😉  Lamberto Bava's Mask of Satan is a title I've been eager to own since the days of laserdisc, but it's never been released on any format.  The best I'd been able to manage was a bootleg DVDR I purchased at a horror convention years and years ago; and I was happy to get that.  So, while this may not be the single greatest I-horror title in the pantheon, I was thrilled when Severin announced it as a special edition blu-ray.  Curiously, they describe their release as "the first time ever in North America," which is typically a delicate way to hype a quasi-debut without mentioning the film's already been released in other parts of the world, sort of like saying a scan is from "original film elements" when a label can't find the original negatives.  But if there's another blu out there anywhere in the world - Japan, Italy, Spain, anywhere - I've never heard of it, and believe me, I've searched!  I would've bought it.  But if it is out there, I'm glad I never found it now, because I'd be double-dipping for this anyway.
Mask Of Satan has always struck me as the most Demons-like of all the unofficial Demons sequels (this one was known as Demons 5).  Ostensibly, of course, it's a remake of his father, Mario Bava's Mask of Satan, a.k.a. Black Sunday, where a woman is accused of witchcraft, killed by having a spiked mask hammered into her face, and resurrected a hundred or so years later to seek revenge.  But they immediately, with Barbara Steele and her zombified husband lurking around a mansion in the original, and a bunch of yuppies turning into monstrous maniacs in an ice cave here.  And hey, Demons also had a Black Sunday-inspired metal mask starting off the horror, worn by Michele Soavi, who also has a major role in this.  The only thing really separating this from the Demons franchise proper is the fact that the demonically possessed in this film spend most of their time behaving like rude pranksters rather than feral killers.
Rewatching this more recently, I was surprised to see Nikolay Gogol's name in the credits.  Indeed, both this and the original Mask of Satan claim to be remakes of his famous story Viy, famously adapted directly in 1967.  And sure, both films feature a resurrected witch, but otherwise Mario's Mask feels even more dissimilar to Viy than it does Demons.  However, watching Lamberto's Mask with Viy in mind, yeah, now I see it.  Sure, it's a modern updating that takes plenty of liberties, but there's definitely more Viy in here than Black Sunday or Demons, especially the climax, when our hero draws a protected ring around himself in the haunted church while various monsters and spirits fly circles around him.
Putting aside its associations to other films and stories, though, 1989's Mask of Satan is a good time in its own right.  Bava's pretty much got the band back together with some wild special effects by Sergio Stivaletti (one in particular really stands out!) and an lush score by Simon Boswell.  Everything takes place on one elaborate set, enhanced by one or two impressive outdoor locations, with the kind of colorful photography we've all come to love and expect in classic I-horror (for no reason at all, one nook in the ice cave emanates a bright green glow).  You do feel the lack of gore, which is probably an unavoidable consequence of this being a made-for-TV project.  I wouldn't hold this up as high as the official Demons movies, but it's a respectable runner up.
2024 Severin BD.
Presented in a pillarboxed 1.67:1, we're told Severin's blu is a 2k scan taken from the original negative and, in terms of colors, contrast, etc, it looks pretty great.  The film's grain is barely even hinted at, though, and I know 2k ain't 4k, but you'd never see a 2k scan on 1080p looking like this come out of Arrow.  It is a dual-layer disc, with the film taking up more than half the space itself, but I wouldn't be at all surprised this is a transfer Severin was just handed from an Italian lab.  Honestly, it's the kind of thing that will irritate the "pixel peepers" among us, but most viewers won't mind or even notice, because it's such an attractive transfer otherwise.  Talk about colors "popping," that one girl's ski jacket practically irradiates your living room with pinkness whenever it's in front of the camera.

Interestingly, there is no English dub, but besides the Italian, there is also a Spanish track, both of which are in DTS-HD.  And Severin has gone the extra mile to include two sets of English subtitles, one matching each dub.
Mary Sellers
Severin's blu isn't over-crowded with special features, but what it's got is excellent.  Basically, there are three on-camera interviews, and each one is a great addition.  First, Bava himself gives an enthusiastic and comprehensive overview (except he doesn't address the Demons connection at all), talking about everything from how this was originally planned as a six-part international film series of witchcraft to the fact that this film hasn't been available on disc until now is because the negatives were lost and just recently located.  Then we've got tighter interviews with two of the lead actresses: Mary Sellers and Debora Caprioglio, who talk about their experiences on this film and their careers in general.  Yes, Debora is asked and explains her relationship with Klaus Kinski.  Besides that, though, there's not much else.  But this does come in a super cool, embossed slipcover if you order it direct from the label.
So do I recommend this?  Heck yeah, I'm dancin' in the end zone!  Not that it's a classic, but it is good - it impresses a little more now, too, seeing it in full quality - and ticks a very long awaited title off of our lists.  This is a film fans have been pestering Anchor Bay and everybody else about for decades.

Separated: Errol Morris In Standard Def

Speaking of one of the world’s greatest documentary filmmaker’s latest works coming out on DVD only, today sees the release of Errol Morris’s Separated from Kino Lorber.  Now, Morris films have unfortunately been relegated to DVD only or not at all for a long time now, starting with Virgil’s last minute scrapping of their announced blu-ray of The B-Side in 2017.  Since then, we’ve also had American Dharma on DVD, and Wormwood, My Psychedelic Love Story, Pigeon Tunnel and last year’s Tune Out the Noise all go unreleased.  I don't even know how or if anyone can watch that last one, online or anywhere.  Apparently, it's about advisors?  Maybe it's more of a feature-length work-for-hire advertisement, and that's why not much has been made of it.  But it played at festivals, so who knows?  Anyway, given that environment, I guess getting this DVD at all is cause for minor celebration.
Earlier this year, I saw Morris Tweet his dissatisfaction at NBC, who co-funded and maintained the initial rights to broadcast, for not showing it before the November election.  A warning coming too late.  Though seeing how that bore out, I doubt it would have swayed the results.  And looking at it from the opposite vantage: what would a pre-election airing have done for his doc?  Well, better timing may’ve elevated its perceived relevancy and maybe netted a few more political junkies’ eyes on it.  But with the new administration, and their 2016 policies swinging back into action, the subject matter will unfortunately still probably prove highly relevant for years to come.  And this movie shouldn’t be reliant on momentary buzz; for anyone who knows and appreciates cinema, a new Errol Morris doc is a newsworthy event in its own right.
If it hasn't already been obvious from the cover image, etc, Separated is about the child separation that was being enacted at the US's Southern border, where migrants and their children were being split apart as a deterrent to illegal immigration.  Officially, it's based on the book Separated: Inside an American Tragedy by NBC News' Jacob Sobokoff, who did some crucial first-hand investigation for Dateline at the time.  "It is not a partisan movie. It's about a policy that was disgusting and should not be allowed to happen again. Make your own inferences," Morris advised.
I was initially concerned this might be a quick NBC news item expanded into feature with Morris' name on the cover.  But no, in the music, the editing, the shooting style and his interview style, this definitely feels like an Errol Morris movie, albeit more like Standard Operating Procedure than Vernon, FL.  He gets some strong responses from his interview subjects, and the photography is impressive throughout.  But what proves a little distracting is his use of recreation to dramatize the immigrants' experience.  Morris famously used recreation to great and consequential effect in A Thin Blue Line, but since Wormwood, it feels more like maybe Morris is getting bored with the constraints of traditional documentary filmmaking, and like Josh Oppenheim, is looking to push the envelope for its own sake.  Here, it's certainly effective in illustrating every step of crossing the border, being detained, divided and deported again (in this instance with a happy ending of reunion, though the doc makes clear this has still never happened for over a thousand cases).  But the fact that he never talks with a single parent, child or anyone who's attempted that journey for real is a weak spot.
2024 Kino DVD.
Kino presents Separated in 2.38:1 (the case says 2.40, but close enough), with occasional exceptions for archival footage and creative reshaping.  Yes, this is progressive and anamorphic, no unfortunate surprises here.  And it's at least a dual-layered disc, so compression is strong for standard definition.  But small detail does look fuzzy and slightly out of focus, something which would look much stronger in HD.  But c'est la vie.  We're presented with the choice of 2.0 and 5.1 audio tracks and optional English SDH subtitles, with a handful of foreign language subs burnt in (see the second comparison shot).  The only extra is the trailer and a handful of bonus trailers.

So, it's not exactly the Criterion 4k special edition I would've liked, but I'm glad to have this on my shelf.

Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros, On BD For the French and DVD For Us Lowly Americans

Well, it's a new year, and we have a new Frederick Wiseman doc from Zipporah Films: 2024's Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros, his 47th film (48th if we count the weird short film, I Miss Sonia Henie, which he collaborated on early in his career).  It's now available as a 2-DVD set direct from the production company.  Yes, I was very disappointed they decided not to blu this one, a practice they'd happily adopted for his last handful of films, starting with National Gallery.  Now there is a French Menus-Plaisirs BD from Jour 2 Fête.  Apparently it even features a bonus interview with Wiseman, something the director has rather famously always eschewed, plus a 20-page booklet.  But it's not English-friendly.  All of us relying on an English translation just have the Zipporah DVDs.  At least they've graduated from DVDRs to pressed discs.
Menus-Plaisirs (which translates roughly to "small pleasures"), looks at the family restaurant owned by the renowned chef Michel Troigros, which he may or may not be preparing to pass down to his sons, Cesar and Leo.  This is an incredibly thorough documentation of the scrupulous and even absurd lengths they go to in order to create the perfectionist, hand-crafted meals that costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.  We examine every stage, from buying the ingredients, and even touring the facilities where the ingredients are grown, to the army of chefs meticulously laboring over every step.  In true Wiseman-fashion, we also step back to witness every other step in the organization, from planning the menus to booking overnight reservations (diners are encouraged to stay overnight and take all their meals there, not just dinner) and yes, mopping the floors... all the way down to the patrons being served (an elaborate and complex process!) and enjoying their meals.  It was funny to note all the Americans taking out their phones to snap pictures of their food, as opposed to the locals who were considerably cooler about the whole thing.
Boy, if I ever ate at this place, I'd be whispering to everyone: we're going to Popeye's on the way home.  The insane amount of money, labor time and art that these people put into a single plate makes this an interesting counterpoint to 1976's Meat.  Wiseman seems very taken with the family and the place, which makes this feel at times like a four-hour advertisement for their establishment, free of some of the slier observation that sometimes subtly slips into his earlier work.  This gave me more "eat the rich" vibes, and I felt a little less under the spell than many critics seem to be.  I probably prefer to see him documenting places he's a little less buddy-buddy with, but that does seem to be a particular attitude he adopts in his French docs, where he allows himself to be a little less objective and more openly a fawning admirer of his subjects' art (like in La Comédie-Française ou L'amour joué, La Danse and Crazy Horse).  And like those, this is surely a portrait that will stay with anyone who's seen it for a very long time.
2024 Zipporah Films DVD.
Zipporah frames this at a slightly unusual 1.81:1 aspect ratio.  I don't know if that means the DVD is a pinch off, or if it's just a sign of the times where a digital film may as well be framed at whatever the director feels like, since we're no longer adhering to the actual size of film.  But I suspect it's the former.  Listings for the French BD say it's 1.85:1, and I wouldn't be surprised if it actually is, exactly.  Anyway, it's a very minor quibble, more disappointing is just how soft and compressed this film looks, even spread across two discs; and how much cleaner it would likely be in HD.  Oh well.  Otherwise the colors and everything are fine; ad this transfer is probably taken from the same DCP every other stream or disc is.
The back of the case promises stereo and 5.1 mixes, like the French blu, but the actual discs just have the one 5.1 mix.  But that's fine; our TVs can handle the fold down just fine without needing a second separate track.  I'm more just jealous of the BD's mixes being lossless DTS-HD.  But again, importing would be useless, since only this release has English subtitles, which by the way, are burnt in.

And there are no extras, of course, not even the trailer.
By the way, you may've noticed we jumped from covering Wiseman's 45th film to his 47th.  No, DVDExotica didn't pass over one; Zipporah did.  Sadly, they never put out a DVD or BD of A Couple, even though it's a film I prefer to Menus.  There was a French Jour 2 Fête DVD in 2023, with another Wiseman interview and booklet.  But since it's also a French-language film and the disc offers no English subtitles, that means there is still no English-friendly release available anywhere in the world.  So hopefully this post doesn't come across as too salty.  It's at least nice that Zipporah came back to give us Menus on DVD.  I was beginning to worry we'd never get any discs from them ever again.

We've Definitively Found Looking For Mr. Goodbar!

This is probably the most surprising "M.I.A." post I'll ever write on this blog. It's crazy that this was never, ever released on DVD, yet alone blu. Like, I'd be delighted to see one of my favorite cult labels procure the rights for a restored, special edition of Spirits of Jupiter. But I also realize that probably puts me on a very short list of cinephiles.  But Looking for Mr. Goodbar is a major studio, Academy Award-nominated film by a huge director, based on a bestselling novel, that made the career of two big Hollywood actors, and stars a couple more. And I can keep going.  It was highly critically regarded, a box office success and controversial for its time, but not so controversial that the studios would have any reason to worry about releasing it today. And it has its roots in a famous true crime story that still draws attention to this day. How is it possible there was never even a generic, full frame, MOD disc released ever, in any country?

Update 8/2/16 - 11/7/22: Is it possible there's really, truly a legit widescreen Looking for Mr. Goodbar available overseas!?  Well, "legit" is a bit shaky, but the situation has definitely at least improved since I last reported on this gem of a drama.  Viva la Update Week!

Update 1/14/25: Forget every questionable, dodgy, import, bootleg or grey market discs; we have a definitive, official release!  Vinegar Syndrome has put out a fully licensed, 4k restoration on BD and UHD, so we can finally close the ledger on Looking for Mr. Goodbar.  Though that's not to say it's 100% free of imperfections...
Diane Keaton gives really one of her strongest performances as a young, New York City school teacher who rebels against the very conservative, restrictive life built for her by her family and career. She steps into the liberated night life only to stumble across the darker side that naturally develops in a repressed society. She finds herself caught up living the double life many young women were faced with during the sexual revolution of the 1970s; and as I already mentioned this is based on a famous true crime, I don't think I'm spoiling anything by simply saying it ends in violence.
Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof) focuses on creating almost morbidly sincere performances in bringing Judith Rossner's study of a character whose soul is slowly dying. You can feel that it's based on truth even if you didn't know it was based on an actual case, although admittedly, her relationship with her parents does feel like its taken from "Dover's Big Book of Overly Familiar Cliches." If you've seen Carrie's mom or The Great Santini, you know what you're in for. But fortunately she gets out of the house quickly enough and surrounds herself with more relatable, nuanced characters.

And did I say this film launched careers? Yeah, Richard Gere and Tom Berenger both launched out of this film, and neither have yet managed to make very many films to rival this one. And the cast doesn't stop there, with more additional strong turns by Tuesday Weld (who netted one of this film's Academy Award nominations), Brian Dennehy, a very dramatic William Atherton (Ghostbusters' Walter Peck), and keep your eyes open for a young Levar Burton.
And yet this has never been released on DVD until, sort of, recently. What we've been looking at here is my copy of Paramount's 1983 laserdisc release. Not '93, '83. Most people weren't even aware laserdiscs existed back then. It's so old, it doesn't even have chapters, let alone special features. But it was the best release you could get. Things got shook up a bit in recent years by the appearance of a widescreen television broadcast leaked online, allowing us to see the film in its original aspect ratio since it first played theatrically in 1977. But since I made this post comparing those two transfers, there have been some developments.  I'll describe the least interesting first.  Australian label La Entertainment released this on DVD in 2020.  It is 4x3, however, and I wouldn't be surprised if they're using the same master as the laserdisc, a la previous Australian exclusives of Paramount titles like The Keep and Ordinary People.

That still might've been rather newsworthy if they hadn't been beaten to the punch in Spain.  They released it as a 16x9 widescreen (and yes, Region free) DVD.  Is it official?  Well, it's got a UPC listed in many databases and is being carried by a lot of mainstream outlets, but Spain is known for some shady grey-market discs.  It's at least a pressed disc and less of a bootleg than those that've been passed around for years, but, well, you know.  We can write that one off now, too, thanks to Vinegar Syndrome's fancy 4k restoration on both BD and UHD.
1) 1983 laserdisc; 2) widescreen TV rip; 3) 2018 DVD;
4) 2024 BD; 5) 2024 UHD.


Now, there's no reason to delve deep into the comparison between the laserdisc and the downloaded rip - presumably from Italian television, since it has Italian audio as its primary track - as it's not even a secondary purchase option. It's soft and murky, far from an impressive HD transfer. But it tells us about the framing. Vertically, the 1.77:1 rip is a perfect match to the 1.33:1 transfer we've all lived with for decades, so we don't have an open matte transfer here. All the fullscreen version did is the very old school move of chopping off the sides. It just made you pine that much more for how great an official Paramount release would be. Because what we've got is such a low contrast, washed out mess. Even the laserdisc cover is soft and blurry!

And the Spanish disc isn't heaps better.  But it is a way to buy the widescreen version.  And the DVD is a little bit more of an upgrade.  The very slightly windowboxed framing is now 1.78:1 instead of 1.77, gaining a few extra pixels of info along all four edges.  This tells us, though, that they didn't just take the old online rip and slap it onto a disc.  You can't uncover extra picture doing that, no matter how slight.  Also the PQ, while still rather low quality, is another tiny step forward.  It's sharper and restores a bit more detail.  Unfortunately, it also restores compression noise... one thing about the old online rip: it was so compressed it acted as a sort of DNR.  But if you actually zoom in, the image is genuinely sharper and renders a little bit more actual picture info as well.
gamma raised by 500% to clarify my point
But thankfully, we'll never have reason to zoom into those old releases again, because VS has blown them out of the water - their UHD is a whopping 96GB!  They've framed the film at a proper 1.85:1, not my matting the image any, but by unveiling more picture along the sides.  Compression noise and other issues are replaced by the first appearance of actual film grain, which is immaculately captured on the UHD, and nearly as well on the BD.  Colors are stronger, and a bit warmer compared to the Spanish disc, making imagery more distinct onscreen without betraying its often muted, subtle scheme.  And information that was crushed out of existence in all the earlier versions (like, for example, Atherton's top button from the second set of shots, as highlighted above) is now visible, even on the blu.
the scene in question
Besides the original mono track on the laserdisc, rip and 2018 DVD, the Spanish disc also includes a Spanish dub and optional/ unforced Spanish subtitles.  The VS releases bump the audio up to DTS-HD and add optional English subtitles (and forgo the Spanish, naturally), but here's the bit that may get controversial.  There's been a music swap in the audio track (which tells us, yes, the music rights were probably the problem all along).  Roughly half an hour into the film, a lengthy scene is set to "All Of Me" by Frank Sinatra.  Interestingly, that song was never listed with the others in the credits.  Anyway, past releases have it, including the Spanish DVD (on both the English and Spanish tracks), but VS has a more generic, old timey song, which, based on the lyrics, might be titled "say hello?"  It's not as good, but the song was always mixed down under the dialogue, so it's not a huge upset, but it's a bit of a bummer.  DIY fans might want to get both the Spanish and VS releases and mux a composited, ideal audio track; but otherwise, we're just going to have to settle and pick a version to watch on disc.
There are of course no extras, not even a trailer, on any previous edition.  But VS has come up with a bunch, including the trailer.  There's also an expert audio commentary by aspiring filmmaker Gillian Wallace Horvat, an expert interview with Douglass K. Daniel, who wrote a book on Richard Brooks, a 30-minute audiobook reading about an obscenity trial that came about when this film was released in Utah, a couple radio spots, and best of all, an audio-only vintage interview with Judith Rossner.  All together, that's a pretty dry collection of mostly audio-only features by experts, but it's hardly a fair expectation for Vinegar Syndrome to have pulled Diane Keaton and Richard Gere down to their offices to record a commentary.  They made an effort and did their best.  Their release also includes reversible artwork and, If you ordered their limited edition, a 40-page booklet with essays by Marya E. Gates, Marc Edward Heuck, Elizabeth Purchell & Jourdain Searles, with a side-loading slipcase and a slipcover that fits over the amary case but inside the outer case.
Oh, and just as an aside, there was a made-for-TV sequel in 1983 called Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer. Of course, without Diane Keaton's character, who was entirely what the original film was about, there's not a lot to return to.So instead, this is largely a police procedural, with George Segal as a detective going through a divorce as he investigates the murder from the first film, cross cut with Tom Berenger's character, now played by Shannon Presby, going on the lam. Shelley Hack plays one of Keaton's fellow school teachers who Segal takes to nightclubs to help spot the killer. And Joe Spinell has a feature role as Keaton's former doorman, who's questioned by the cops and pressured into picking somebody out of a line-up.

It's pretty boring. Segal's sappy drama with his wife and daughter, who's leaving for college, almost winds up getting more focus than the case of the Goodbar killer. I think the idea is that Segal's worried his daughter is on the verge of entering the same kind of scary, radical feminist life Keaton led; but the film never manages to quite get there. There's just lots of pedantic dialogue scenes that tend not to connect with each other. Segal has scenes with his wife, trying to hold his marriage together, and we never find out if he does or not. He keeps going back to Hack, who was never needed to catch the killer. And there's a bunch of other cops pursuing other suspects, who aren't even red herrings because we know who did it from the very start. Ultimately, it's really just flat, Segal's lead holds absolutely zero of the fascination Keaton's did, and it's far less surprising that this flick never made it to DVD.
Anyway.  Goodbye, M.I.A. tag!  The Spanish DVD was an alright placeholder, but now we've got a proper release.  Is there room for improvement?  Possibly, if somebody managed to release this 4k transfer in another region that could get away with the Sinatra track, and maybe even rope Keaton or somebody into an interview.  But I wouldn't hold my breath, and this is an extremely satisfying release in the meantime, like a ginormous upgrade.

Finally, I have to mention that there's a playback issue with the UHD, where watching it with Dolby Vision on causes it to stop mid-movie.  You can turn off the HDR to watch it in the meantime, but obviously that's not a satisfying solution and VS has already announced a replacement disc program.  If you ordered the film directly from VS, you're already on their list to receive it.  Everyone else just has to contact them with proof of purchase.