I’ve been kept busy with commissions from a variety of Blu-ray companies, providing booklet essays, to-camera pieces and commentaries (the latter usually in the company of Kim Newman). Recent entries as below…

THE SISTERS BROTHERS, Jacques Audiard, director/Arrow  The Western film – once such a staple of the cinema — had largely lain moribund until Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven brought the genre back in no uncertain terms. That film was very much a revisionist Western, and the notion of a more realistic, psychologically truthful evocation of the old West has now become the norm. A key example? Jacques Audiard’s remarkable The Sisters Brothers, which — while observing the key demands of the genre (not least its frequent bursts of kinetic action) — is an intense and penetrating psychodrama of the mutually destructive relationship between two brothers who stray to the wrong side of the law. The film is notable for its insightful direction by Audiard, but its raw strength lies in the central performances (as the eponymous brothers) by Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly. Since re-invigorating the prison film with the award-winning A Prophet, Audiard opted to adapt Patrick DeWitt’s well-received novel, in which Charlie and Eli Sisters, a duo of violent bounty hunters, are commissioned by their sinister boss The Commodore to hunt down chemist Hermann Kermit Warm (sensitively played by Riz Ahmed), with the aid of private eye John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal), The odyssey that follow is utterly compelling.. The film’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation is in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible), 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sound, along with (as the publicity reads!) ‘a brand new video essay by film critic Barry Forshaw on The Sisters Brothers and the psychological Western genre.’

THE ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY, various directors/Network I provided a booklet essay for the much-loved The Adventures of Black Beauty; the 1972-1973 version now available on Blu-ray, which is also (it reads here!): ‘Complete with a commemorative booklet by Barry Forshaw, who looks back at the source novel and its adaptations, plus many more special features.’ The fact that the man in charge of the series was the respected Ted Willis was a guarantee of quality, but other talents were proven elements. The executive producer was Paul Knight, and the very capable Sidney Cole – veteran of many a television success – was the line producer. Efficient writers were hired to provide scripts, including Richard Carpenter and David Butler. But a key ingredient of the series (and a key reason for its success) were the directors chosen to helm the various episodes. Charles Crichton was one of the legendary Ealing Studios’ most adroit directors and was the perfect choice for this material (the director was to enjoy something of a comeback with the comedy A Fish Called Wanda in 1988). A charming  set with a strong nostalgic tug.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, James Hill, director/Indicator  Here’s a film I covered in The Sherlock Holmes Book, as well as providing a commentary for the disc with Kim Newman. For Anthony Harvey’s They Might Be Giants, I wrote: ‘Acting heavyweight George C. Scott plays a New York lawyer who thinks, and indeed acts, like The Great Detective; the bleak comedy They Might Be Giants features the first female Watson, beautifully played by Joanne Woodward. It’s a quirky neglected offering which will be of great interest – and not just to Holmesians.

The EXECUTIONER COLLECTION, various directors/Arrow  Ryuichi Koga (Sonny Chiba) is a scion of the Koga Ninja school, reduced to earning a crust as a gun for hire. When an assignment to incapacitate a drug cartel with aid of Hayabusa (Makoto Sato), an out-of-favour disgraced former narcotics detective, and rebel Aikido specialist Sakura (Eiji Gō), conflict is inevitable. Koga is back in the follow up, Karate Inferno, in charge of a group of thieves pursuing a priceless jewel. Making its High Definition home video debut, this is lively, bone-crunching fare, with Sonny Chiba as mesmeric as ever.

THE LUKAS MOODYSSON COLLECTION (Limited Edition) /Arrow

Inaugurating your career with an encomium from no less than Ingmar Bergman might set up rather heavy expectations for one subsequent work, but ever since director Lukas Moodysson debut was acclaimed by the greatest of all Swedish directors as “a young master’s first masterpiece” Moodysson has maintained the trajectories career as one of his country’s most unusual filmmakers, ever ready to spring something new and unorthodox on the viewer. As Arrow Films remind us in their copy: ’Moodysson’s first film, Fucking Åmål (released overseas as Show Me Love), describes the narrative of a awkward smalltown teenager Agnes and her crush on popular classmate Elin, which unexpectedly blossoms into real-life romance; it was quickly heralded as a new queer cinema touchstone and one of the most authentic portrayals of youthful relationships on film. He swiftly followed this with the bittersweet, satirical 1970s-set Together, in which the inhabitants of a commune try to reconcile their ideals with their hearts’ desires. Having made a name for himself as the new master of tragicomic, feelgood humanism, Moodysson suddenly frustrated expectations with a trio of startlingly confrontational works: the hauntingly bleak Lilya 4ever, based on a real life case of a Russian girl sold into sex trafficking in Sweden; the abrasive and semi improvised A Hole in My Heart, detailing the messy (un)making of an amateur porn video; and the avantgarde Container, narrated in its English version by Jena Malone (Donnie Darko). After making his mainstream English language debut with the expansive Mammoth, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams, Moodysson returned to his roots with We Are The Best! (based on a graphic novel by his wife and ‘consigliere’ Coco), the charming and funny tale of three schoolgirls starting a punk band in early1980s Stockholm.

Available together for the first time, Moodysson’s eclectic filmography can now be appreciated as the work of a singular filmmaking voice, as avowedly uncompromising and unabashedly political as it is keenly observed, deeply felt and frequently hilarious.’

THE FORGIVEN, John Michael McDonagh, director/Mediumrare  Mediumrare has a knack for finding unorthodox films along with more conventional entries, and that’s very much the case with this striking drama, much enhanced by its stellar cast. Director John Michael McDonagh has lined up some remarkable actors for his tale of tragedy and redemption set in Morocco. Leading actors Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain are joined by Matt Smith and other talents for a drama based on the bestselling book by Lawrence Osborne.

REMEMBER THE NIGHT, Mitchell Leisen, director/Indicator To cinéastes, the names Preston Sturges and Mitchell Leisen have a particular lustre, with their sure command of the vintage comedy idiom – as this lively and enjoyable outing proves. Remeber the Night is a comedy written by Preston Sturges (best known for the wonderful Sullivan’s Travels) and directed by Mitchell Leisen, the film pairs the multi-talented Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray (both would  later coruscate in Billy Wilder’s diamond-hard Double Indemnity). A treat.

VIOLENT STREETS TIMES TWO Two identically titled new Blu-ray releases may be confusing, but potential viewers should be aware that both have considerable interest. Let’s look at them individually…

VIOLENT STREETS, Hideo Gosha, director/Eureka Entertainment  Hideo Gosha’s ambitious Violent Streets is one of the most visually impressive Yakuza exploitation films in the genre and looks eye-popping in its new iteration as part of The Masters of Cinema Series, from a 2K restoration. One of most acclaimed makers of Japanese chambara, Hideo Gosha also demonstrated his command of the yakuza genre, as with this film. The most successful of such entries is generally considered to be this study of a retired yakuza who gets forced into a bloody gang war by his former associates. For aficionados of the genre, Gosha’s film needs no recommendation

Onto another entry with the same title, this time from the enterprising Severin label…

VIOLENT STREETS: THE UMBERTO LENZI/TOMAS MILIAN COLLECTION, Umberto Lenzi, director/Severin  While the names of directors such as Bava, Argento and Martino have acquired the patina of a certain respectability, Umberto Lenzi has more notoriety attached to his name, notably for such films as Eaten Alive and Cannibal Ferox, grisly entries in the cannibal stakes that so upset the censors back in the 1980s. But the recent re-emergence of such films as The Killer Must Kill Again, a tortuous giallo played out with real gusto, has reawakened interest in his immensely prolific career. This collection of his energetic crime movies positively leap off the screen, energised by the presence of the eccentric but hypnotic Cuban actor Tomas Milian. Lenzi began directing in 1961, and his films. range from adventures of the Batman-like super-criminal Kriminal in the late 1960s, a selection of punchy Italian Westerns, and such gialli as Così Dolce… Così Perversa (So Sweet… So Perverse, 1969), and the deliriously named Sette Orchidee Macchiate Rosso (Seven Bloodstained Orchids, 1972). And while violent action films such as Il Trucido e lo Spirro (Free Hand for a Tough Cop, 1976) and the gloriously sardonic Il Cinico, l’Infame e il Violento (The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist, 1977) were made with a craftsmanlike skill, they rarely exhibited the delirious, imaginative filigrees of Argento and Co. (although Spasmo (1974) and Gatti Rossi in un Labirinto di Vetro (Eyeball, also 1974) at times approached the achievement of the uncrowned king of the giallo, Argento.