Here's a film you have to import pretty much just because it's too dark. Sites like Wikipedia even categorize this as a horror movie, though to that I would say no. It's actually bleaker and more disturbing than that. As its title suggests, 2007's
An American Crime tells the all too-real of a tragic true crime case, specifically the torture and murder of a teenage girl by a single mother and her children in the 1960s, small town America. It's a truly disturbing, morbid case, quite well told, which seems to have put US distributors off, unfortunately.
Elliot Page was a rising star at the time of this release, and
James Franco has a smaller, supporting role, as did
Bradley Whitford.
But really, this is
Catherine Keener's
film. At this point, I think she's pretty widely recognized as a great
actress, despite decades of mostly being relegated to "the wife" roles
or romantic comedies. She surely made an impression on audiences in
Get Out.
But wow, this is a tour de force. That, coupled with this film's
unflinching honesty (and, to a lesser degree, its skill at capturing the
period) really packs a powerful wallop. One many audiences might
reasonably choose to avoid. But if you like your art challenging...
That said, it's uncompromising nature wasn't the only thing that gave
An American Crime a hard time during its release. Another movie based on the same murder happened to come out the same year.
The Girl Next Door is an adaptation of
Jack Ketchum's
novel of the same name, that basically takes the same incident and runs
it through his detective fictionalization filter. Ketchum isn't
exactly known for softening up his subject matter, but I've seen both
movies, and there's no comparison. It's got so much artifice
Crime thankfully lacks (although, to be fair,
Crime
takes one weird little liberty, too, in the last act), taking as its
source just the genuine court transcripts. But being the better movie
doesn't help much when you're the second film on the same subject to hit
the market. Just ask
The Last Days of Disco that had to follow all the hype of
54.
Crime wound
up losing its theatrical release and debuting on Showtime. It did win
some awards, but it's still less than this film deserved.
So
An American Crime
was released as a barebones new release DVD by First Look Studios in
2008 and... that's been the whole story in the US. But fortunately,
there are HD options overseas, including from Norway, Sweden and, most
obtainably, Germany on Capelight's 2009 BD release.
 |
2008 US First Look DVD top; 2009 DE Capelight BD bottom.
|
So,
as a then new release, it's naturally the same master being used. But
there are some very welcome improvements from Capelight. Starting off
as I usually do with the aspect ratio, I'll point out that First Look's
2.32:1 has been corrected to 2.35. This doesn't actually reveal anymore
along the sides, but corrects a tiny vertical stretching. Much more
importantly, the US DVD is interlaced, which is pretty shocking for a
modern theatrical release disc as recent as 2008. Thankfully, Capelight
resolves that, and also gives us a generally sharper, HD image free of
the soft smudginess of standard def. It's a distinct upgrade.
And
unlike Import Week Day 2, Capelight's English audio is properly
lossless in DTS-HD. Both discs have the original 5.1, with Capelight
also adding a 5.1 DTS-HD German dub. First Look's sole advantage is
optional English subtitles, while Capelight naturally just has German.
First Look also has a 2.0 mix-down and optional Spanish subtitles.
Unfortunately,
all options are essentially barebones. First Look just has the trailer
and a bunch of bonus trailers. Capelight also has the trailer, in
English and German, and its own collection of bonus trailers. It also
includes reversible artwork to hide that giant, ugly ratings logo. But
that's it. Still, simply in terms of presenting the film itself, it's pretty flawless, which is a lot more than you can say for the American DVD.
No comments:
Post a Comment