Air: The Virgin Suicides Redux Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		5.0

Air: The Virgin Suicides Redux Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 29, 2025

There have been some really remarkable contributions to the art of film scoring from arguably unlikely sources in genres ostensibly far removed from providing musical accompaniment to images, but Air's distinctive sound might be particularly unexpected for a film like The Virgin Suicides. Air first started attracting attention with an album that Rhino released a little over a year ago on audio Blu-ray, Moon Safari, and among its fans was one Sofia Coppola, who felt the band's kind of "combo platter" of pulsing synths and spacy melodies would be perfect for her upcoming debut as a feature film director with The Virgin Suicides. The result is maybe surprisingly effective, though the album as a pure "listen" divorced from its imagery is a really engaging experience on its own, and the album receives a really impressive Atmos rendering on this new Blu-ray, which includes a music video which probably betrays Air's French roots (and this disc's French Warner Music branch branding) by being in 50i, meaning an appropriate player will be needed in order to access it. The audio part of the Blu-ray will play fine in a Region A player.

The album's track list can be seen in several of the screenshots of the main disc menu I've uploaded to accompany this review. There's a bit more information on the disc authoring in the video section, below.

Air: The Virgin Suicides Redux Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As mentioned above, there is some bonus video content here other than the (mostly) static menu seen in several of the screenshots accompanying this review. There is a very brief moment of animation when the disc boots where the flowers that will ultimately form the vorder and hair garland on the main menu descend and move into place. Otherwise, the menu is static other than the changes caused by selecting a track as seen in the screenshots. The music video is in 50i and so requires an appropriate player, and is kind of "vintage" and soft looking but perfectly watchable.

Air: The Virgin Suicides Redux Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Air: The Virgin Suicides Redux offers Dolby Atmos and LPCM 2.0 options. There's some rather fascinating information on Rhino's website about this release which is unfortunately not included in the actual insert booklet, beginning with this quote from Air themselves:

"We did The Virgin Suicides really quickly at the time. We made the album in 1999 on a very low budget. It was during the first era of digital home studio equipment, and the sound is very metallic and cold. We've always regretted that about the way it sounds. [The Virgin Suicides Redux] was about pushing the sound deeper in spirit and atmosphere. So we've remixed it to make it into something warmer, more organic. It's a renaissance, it's a rebirth. It's like it was in artificial light before, now it's in natural light. It's the way it should have been."

That is followed by some further information:

To mark its 25th anniversary, The Virgin Suicides will be reissued as a new edition entitled The Virgin Suicides Redux. This edition features an all-analog mix of the album produced by 'Alf' Briat and Air in April 2025. The 2CD/Blu-ray features The Virgin Suicides Redux (CD1), a selection of demo & rarities (CD2), [and] the original 2025 album in Dolby Atmos.

As such, those wanting a shiny new version of the original mix will probably need to adjust their expectations, but I found the Atmos version on this album to be particularly impressive and immersive. Several songs offer a clear separation between supporting instruments in the rear channels and either solos or in one case vocals forward, as with Playground Love, which offers strings emanating from the rear and vocals and sax from the front. A number of songs have fantastic engagement of the Atmos speakers and good use of the center channel as well, all of which can offer fun midair effects. Clouds Up lives, well, up to its name by having some really fun use of the Atmos speakers with the admittedly quaint sounding synth drum/shaker effect in particular, and there's some of that same midair presence noticeable in the pulsing synth opening of the (yes, misspelled) Cemetary Party Somewhat similarly if possibly even more immersively, the pulsing in Dark Messages revolves around the listener. Tracks like Dirty Trick are a bit more front channel-centric, but still offer some noticeable ambient spill into the rear channels. Despite the above verbiage, some may feel there's still a bit of a brash cold quality to some of the upper registers in particular.

Air: The Virgin Suicides Redux Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Music Video - Playground Love (HD-50i; 3:20) features a singing piece of gum shown in screenshot 1 which I'm assuming is distantly related to Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. Two other frames from the music video are offered in positions 5 and 10.

The nicely designed CD sized DigiPack also includes Two CDs, one of the album and another with Rarities and Demos which features the following songs:

• 1. Playground Love (Vibraphone Version)
• 2. Suicide Underground (Francis Lai)
• 3. Playground Love (Demo Strings)
• 4. Bathroom Girl (Demo 2)
• 5. Playground Love (Vocoder)
• 6. Clouds Up (Demo)
• 7. Suicide Underground (Demo)
• 8. Nosferatu (Remix by the Flower Pistols)
• 9. Dead Bodies (Demo)
• 10. Virgin Suicides (Demo)
• 11. Highschool Prom Playground Love (Rob Remix)

An insert booklet contains track listings and production credits.

Air: The Virgin Suicides Redux Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sofia Coppola had markedly good instincts in hiring Air to score The Virgin Suicides, and from that first commanding C minor chord and the evocative repeated uses of minor 6 chords give the score a really haunting elegiac quality that perfectly serves a rather dark and disturbing film. The included music video will need an appropriate player, but the audio side of this Blu-ray is superb. Highly recommended.