MOTHER, COUCH (Film Movement)

Mother, Couch
Film Movement

The Stats
Video: 1080p High Definition
Audio: LCPM 2.0 (5.1 surround available in menu)
Subtitles: SDH

Buy it HERE from Diabolik and HERE from Vinegar Syndrome

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, Staff Writer and Podcast Director

Mother, Couch comes to Blu-ray via Film Movement. Writer/director Niclas Larsson's debut feature, after a healthy career in shorter form directing, tackles very real familial concerns with the occasionally insightful, occasionally frustrating language of dreams. The bonus features and additional booklet included combine to elucidate the process of making a film like this, leading to a very satisfying overall package.

The Movie: 4.5 star

Writer / director Niclas Larsson, in his debut feature, adapts the novel Mamma i soffa by Jerker Virdborg with an all-star cast including Ewan McGregor, Taylor Russell, Rhys Ifans, Lara Flynn Boyle, F. Murray Abraham, and Ellen Burstyn in the surreal tale of a disconnected family who unite when their mother (Burstyn) refuses to leave the couch of a very uncanny furniture warehouse. McGregor, Ifans, and Boyle play siblings with different fathers who have never been especially close, but all find themselves drawn into the orbit of their manipulative and withholding mother.

Mother, Couch starts and is almost immediately disorienting. According to the commentary track, this was a deliberate choice to put the audience in the right headspace for what is to come. Ultimately, the film isn't exactly subtle, but watching it all build from these first moments, with their feeling of subtle oddness, is really quite satisfying. But none of it would work without the support of the cast. Ewan McGregor is incredible as David; desperately scrabbling for control over the events in his life and suppressing his feelings in an attempt to prove he's in control. But to whom?

Lara Flynn Boyle as older sister Linda is great, though neither she nor Rhys Ifans (as Gruffudd) have a ton to do. Their characters float in and out of David's sphere while he's trying to decipher just why exactly his mother is refusing to leave the Oakbed Furniture warehouse. They're not actively hindering David's efforts, but neither are they what you'd call helpful. David meanwhile is trying to navigate a tense situation with his wife (Lake Bell) and fulfill promises to their kids, all as his mother and siblings slowly make themselves more and more comfortable, leaving David to straighten everything out.

While McGregor gives maybe the most emotionally volatile performance of his career (?), and absolutely deserves recognition for it, my favorite character and performance is Taylor Russell as Bella. Her father owns the Oakbed Furniture warehouse, which has recently gone out of business, but still seems to be in operation. Russell radiates comfort and support as Bella, and she acts as the calm center of David's emotional storm.

I'm sure this film will earn itself comparisons to Ari Aster's Beau is Afraid (also released in 2023), but for my money, Mother, Couch is a much tighter and more focused affair while still maintaining its sense of heightened unreality. Like that film, Mother, Couch deals with parents, grief, aging, generational trauma, and the difficulties of maintaining relationships with family. Unlike Beau is Afraid however, this film is much more uplifting and hopeful; almost encouraging.

The Packaging: 4 star

The packaging here is nothing fancy. There was a slipcover with the first pressing of the disc featuring a collage-style assortment of moments from the film on the front, and a pattern of chainsaws, clouds, and keys on the back, but it has since sold out. The standard cover features an image of David's head, exposing the interior, where his mother rides the couch on a stormy sea. The release also includes a handsome booklet with an essay from film critic, author, and historian Jason Bailey.

The Video: 5 stars

The film itself looks amazing; soaked in light even in the looming, shadowy warehouse. The colors here, amber lamplight, pale green wallpaper, and stately charcoal shadows, are all thematically important as the parts of David's life begin to collapse on top of each other. Details of the furniture that surrounds them in the warehouse become important in a textual way as well once David is given a key and the vague description of the desk whose drawer it unlocks. All of which is beautifully supported with this release, which does a proper job of transferring the film to a disc fit for your home library.

The Audio: 5 stars

I checked out both the 2.0 and 5.1 sound options on my three-channel sound bar, and thought that overall, both worked perfectly well for me. The 2.0 mix was a slight bit quieter I think, but neither mix seemed to need much finesse. Once I settled on a volume level, I could just leave it be for the duration and enjoy the film.

Composer Christopher Bear shows up for the last 15-20 minutes of the commentary track and he and writer/director Niclas Larsson give some fantastic insights into how they conceptualized the score and why they chose what they chose at certain key moments.

The Special Features: 4 stars

My biggest takeaway from the special features present here is that I'm very excited for whatever writer/director Niclas Larsson does next. He is the constant on the commentary track, with four other members of the crew coming in and out in a manner very similar to the people in David's life now that I think about it. The commentary track combined with the BTS feature give great insight into the process of making this film and harnessing its very unique tone and energy. As I mentioned above, this release comes with a booklet, which I think bears mentioning alongside the disc's special features, as it similarly gives insights into the film in a foundational way that made for a very satisfying read.

• Audio commentary with writer / director Niclas Larsson, producer Sara Murphy, production designer Mikael Varhelyi, editor Carla Luffe, and composer Christopher Bear
• Between the Cushions and Behind the Scenes featurette
• Trailer
• 16 page booklet with an essay from film critic, author, and historian Jason Bailey

In Summary: 4.5 stars

The dreamlike nature of Mother, Couch might not be to everyone's tastes. Things ebb and flow in the manner of dream logic; something might be incredibly important one moment, then barely worth a second thought the next, and while David tries to sort it out, he realizes he was meant to be somewhere else, also extremely important, at the same time. Meanwhile people seem to come and go with barely any to-do.

If you're the kind of person who finds themselves thinking "Why don't they just A, B, or C?" about characters in a movie, you might not have the easiest time with Mother, Couch, which rewards introspection and quiet consideration as it defies conventional logic. It's best, at times, just to let it wash over you. Logic takes a backseat in the long run, allowing emotions to resonate in a quietly beautiful way.

THE WIZ (Criterion)

The Wiz
Criterion

The Stats
Video: 1080p High Definition on Blu-ray (2160p Dolby Vision HDR on 4K disc)
Audio: Dolby TrueHD on Blu-ray (Dolby Atmos on 4k disc)
Subtitles: SDH

Buy it HERE from Criterion or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, Staff Writer and Podcast Director

The Wiz comes to 4K and Blu-ray from Criterion. Veteran director Sidney Lumet, music legend Quincy Jones, and a cross-generational cast of icons come together to update L. Frank Baum's classic story for a then-modern audience. This Criterion release offers The Wiz in perhaps the best aural and visual fidelity ever made available, and a respectable amount of bonus features round out the package nicely.

The Movie: Excellent / 4.5 stars

I'm a sucker for musicals, and I've always enjoyed the spectacle of The Wizard of Oz, so I was bound to be a fan of The Wiz. I had the soundtrack on vinyl, and had a performance of the stage show that had aired on some channel or another duped onto a VHS. Growing up, I had no idea that it was such a divisive film. While I don't think it's flawless, it is--and this is a technical term so stay with me--Very Damn Good and Thoroughly Entertaining. Sorry for all the industry jargon.

A retelling of L.Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz but recontextualized to speak to the then contemporary African American experience of the early 1970s, The Wiz is both bold and very sweet. It takes a larger-than-life portal fantasy and combines it with enormous social issues, and gives these things scale through characters whose archetypes we're most likely quite familiar with. A detail of the original children's novel that gets lost on more modern audiences is how filled it is with allusions to America's monetary policy at the time; the yellow brick road being the gold standard of exchange, Dorothy's silver slippers representing the then-default silver standard. Here, that subtext is swapped for a look at the lives of Black Americans, with a slight focus on those in New York at the time.

Obviously, a lot of this went well over the head of the younger me, and even now there are dimensions to the choices made in this adaptation that I'm not fully cognizant of. The inclusion of the song You Can't Win, which was excised from the stage show but revived here, highlights the oppression of having to exist within a rigged system. I know that now, but young me just thought it was a bop, though we didn't use that term quite yet.

All of which highlights one of the most enduring aspects of The Wiz: it's more than just a remake of The Wizard of Oz. The layers of symbolism to the production decisions, from the types of songs and performances, to the casting choices, all enhance your viewing experiences once you've been hipped to why they were made. If your only cultural impression of The Wiz is as being a musical adaptation that bombed before finding its audience over time, there are the greater depths available to distinguish it, if you're inclined to look. 

Beyond that, the performances are amazing. Though controversial at the time, enough so that original director John Badham stepped down, Diana Ross gives a magnetic performance as a Dorothy who is afraid to take her first real steps into adulthood. Ross is so full of life and enthusiasm, which when you think about the exhausting nature of filming scenes with so much dancing is truly amazing. Michael Jackson’s wet noodle physicality as the Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell’s sourpuss Tinman, Ted Ross’ boisterous Lion, and Richard Pryor’s livewire paranoia as The Wizard all captured and held my attention at all times. Truly a joy to watch.

The Packaging: Excellent / 5 stars

This is your standard Criterion release: sturdy snap case, gorgeous cover artwork, and an interior cover Yellow Brick Road maze that I found incredibly whimsical; like the placemat you'd find at some diner in Oz. The detail of the "EASE" graffiti on the discs also really appeals to me as someone who grew up through the CD revolution and vividly remember the feeling of my mind being blown by the first disc I saw that had actual art reproduced on it, Beck's Odelay.

That aforementioned cover image, by artist Komi Olafimihan is just absolutely tremendous, accurately capturing the details of the costumes and the spirits of the characters. With very few exceptions, Criterion have figured out what works, from a packaging and design POV, and they stick to it.

The Video: Excellent / 5 stars

Even on the Blu-ray, this looks tremendous. I had actually watched The Wiz a few months ago on a whim, and it was a DVD transfer on whichever streaming service, at best. Compared to that, this is a revelation! The costumes and sets are so well-crafted and FULL of detail, finally being able to truly appreciate them feels incredibly satisfying. The lack of visual noise, and the sharpening of the colors goes a long way towards returning the magical feeling this must have conjured when it first hit the screen.

Importantly, the colors are well balanced. Evillene (Mabel King) for instance, is a very brightly-colored character but actually being able to make out the details of her costume and makeup without them getting swallowed in a blob of color-bleed is especially rewarding. There wasn't much by way of noticeable film grain until the Everybody Rejoice/A Brand New Day number near the end, which I think was exacerbated by how red everything is during that number. Other than that however, this was an incredibly clean viewing experience.

I've seen people knock the direction by Sidney Lumet for keeping the camera too far back during some of the dance numbers and missing detail, but I don't know if I'd even have agreed with that back in the day. Certainly not now. Even while zoomed way out, taking in the entire location and all the assembled dancers, this transfer never lacks for detail and enhances the organic feeling of the choreography--something discussed with more expertise than I can offer on the commentary track.

The Audio: Excellent / 5 stars

Even Criterion knows that you can't talk about The Wiz without talking about Quincy Jones. One of the special features is director Sidney Lumet discussing their film collaborations. Jones' legacy within music will be felt for a long, long time, and while his contributions to The Wiz may pale somewhat in comparison, they're no less special and in no way lack for quality. Luckily the audio transfer is wonderful! I have a three-channel soundbar, nothing fancy, just enough to enhance my viewing experience somewhat. The audio, remastered from original materials kept in the Universal Pictures vault, really gives Quincy, and the soundtrack he oversaw, its due.

The instrumentation shines, the vocals are clear and well-mixed and everything is extremely well-balanced. In that Lumet interview, he discusses how he dislikes most movie music, seeing it as muzak. Something he and Quincy saw eye-to-eye on was that a film's score should never just be reiterating what was happening on screen. They wanted it to enhance the experience for the audience, and I think watching The Wiz with that in mind and with this quality of audio, really gave me a greater appreciation for the craft of scoring a film.

The Special Features: Excellent / 5 stars

I was honestly a little surprised at how few features there were, but they were very enlightening and I had a blast watching them. The Diana Ross interview is hilarious. She's very poised, but the man interviewing her is such a bitchy asshole. It's actually pretty funny how little she reacts to his bait. The interview with Lumet was a great bit of insight into the legendary Quincy Jones, but most of the discussion focused on their first collaboration, 1964's The Pawnbroker. I especially enjoyed the commentary from Michael B. Gillespie and Alfred L. Martin. It was extremely informative, well considered, and their overall camaraderie and tone was extremely friendly and inviting. I especially liked the dives into Luther Vandross, who composed the song Everybody Rejoice/A Brand New Day, and where Richard Pryor was in his career at this time.

• Archival interview with Diana Ross
• originally aired in October 1978 for the film's theatrical premier
• Archival interview with Sidney Lumet
• originally appeared as part of the American Masters episode Quincy Jones: In the Pocket
• Theatrical trailer
• Commentary track from scholars Michael B. Gillespie and Alfred L. Martin

• Booklet includes an essay from author and film critic Aisha Harris

In Summary: Must own! / 5 stars 

About the only thing I'd ding this release on is that I feel like there's a lot to be said, and to be unpacked, culturally, about The Wiz. It's touched on here and there, as in Aisha Harris' essay where she mentions the film's weak box office showing being seen as the end of audience's interest in films with all black casts. Speaking purely for myself, I'd have been happy to sit through a lengthy dive into these areas. But I can't really fault this release for trusting me to chase those particular leads down on my own.

On whatever level you approach this release from, it won't disappoint. If you already love The Wiz, it looks and sounds better than it has in decades at least. If you just enjoy musicals and/or musical theater, the songs and costumes will speak, and sing, for themselves. If you're a nerd about one of the numerous areas of Hollywood history that The Wiz exists within, the special features are a great place to start your own personal deep dive.