Apples Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Apples Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 20, 2022

If you're like many, maybe even most, people, there have probably been times in your life when you'd like to forget whatever you've been through and simply move on, unobstructed. But what if an unexplained global phenomenon basically robbed you of your memory? Both of these elements actually play into the often intriguing and maybe just slightly obfuscatory Apples, the first feature from Greek co-writer and director Christos Nikou. Nikou probably didn't realize how reflective of actual (pandemic) events his film would be when it was being shot, and if there aren't actual overt mentions of a seemingly unstoppable disease infecting vast hordes of humankind, that is most certainly a perplexing foundational element to the film, which in fact never actually names its focal character, played by Aris Servetalis. The film begins with a quasi- montage of a seemingly abandoned apartment, albeit one with a recurrent thumping sound reverberating through the subwoofer, a sound which is ultimately revealed to be Aris pummeling his head against the wall in some obvious sort of frustration. A quick news broadcast talks about a wave of amnesia sweeping the world, and that some patients are being transferred into new facilities to help them rebuild shattered lives.

The opening vignettes with Aris are probably intentionally a little ambivalent as to whether he is already experiencing symptoms, but soon enough there's absolutely no question, when he's found sleeping on a bus which has come to the end of its line, and upon being awakened has no clue as to whom he might be or where in fact he may have been headed. That soon delivers him into the hands of a hospital which has been tasked with treating the sudden rash of people with no memories. There he starts enduring a series of tests fashioned by two neurologists, played by Anna Kalaitzidou and Argyris Bakirtzis.

Anna definitely seems more sympathetic to Aris than Argyris does, and eventually when no one shows up to claim Aris, as happens with some other patients in the ward, Anna suggests Aris should participate in a new program that has been designed to offer patients basically the flip side of witness protection, in that these identity-less people are given new if arguably unimproved lives, albeit so out in the open (as opposed to a witness under protection) that they are tasked with documenting their progress in establishing their new identity courtesy of a Polaroid camera which they need to utilize to craft a scrapbook made up of snapshots of assignments given to them by the doctors. That sets Aris off on a patently absurd "scavenger hunt" of sorts that supposedly will help him to forge a new personality and life.

There are a number of small hints that things may not be exactly as they're being depicted, and in fact there's one really tantalizing if intentionally brief moment where Aris comes in contact with a dog who was seen in the film's opening moments, an interaction which would seem to offer Aris a way to establish whom he "used to be", which makes his hasty exit from the park where the dog comes running up to him kind of a head scratcher, but answers, at least discursive ones, are offered in the film's wind up. That denouement may in fact give everything that's gone before the slight whiff of a so-called shaggy dog story, but it's obvious that Nikou may not be all that concerned with Aris' motivations and instead wants to fashion a piece about identity and memory.

Despite what might be called a melancholic, bittersweet and maybe even outright tragic subtext, Apples has a very peculiar, incredibly wry, sense of humor, and in fact things are played with a kind of deadpan black comedy approach a lot of the time, something that is aided and betted by Aris' almost Buster Keaton-esque lack of varying facial expressions. I'm not sure the film ever really stands up to logic or an in depth analysis in terms of some of its underlying concepts, but it ends up having an unexpected amount of emotion once things play out. That emotion may in fact depend on a certain amount of subterfuge, which may lead some viewers into thinking they've been tricked, but even that element tends to support the "everything's askew" environment that Nikou adeptly creates.

Apples Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Apples is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa, and I'm assuming the DI was finished at 2K (if anyone has authoritative information to the contrary, message me and I'll happily update the review). I've often been on record stating my preference for Red captures over Arri Alexa captures, but this is a really appealing looking transfer almost all of the time. As can probably be gleaned from some of the screenshots accompanying this review, large swaths of the film have either been lit or graded to sometimes unusual hues, with a prevalence of kind or orange tinged burnt umbers and cooler blue-green tones that give things a slightly artificial look, something that probably plays at least subliminally into how off kilter things feel throughout the story. Detail levels are still remarkably consistent despite these stylistic choices, and a glut of close-ups offer really nice fine detail levels. There's still a smattering of what I've termed "Alexa murk" in the most dimly lit scenes, where shadow detail can be pretty minimal. The "old school" aspect ratio definitely gives things an appropriately claustrophobic ambience, something that adds to Aris' frustration in supposedly not knowing whom he is or what exactly is in store for him going forward.

Apples Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Apples features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options in the original Greek. This is not a really intricately designed film from a soundtrack perspective, and as such there is probably less of a major difference between the stereo and surround tracks, though the 5.1 offering does significantly open up some of the ambient environmental effects, especially in some of the passing outdoor material. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. This is another foreign language offering from Cohen Media Group that features forced English subtitles.

Apples Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Taika Waititi in Conversation with Christos Nikou (HD; 34:13) is a fun Zoom like dialogue, though Waititi is in kind of a goofy mood.


• A Conversation with director Christos Nikou and executive producer Cate Blanchett moderated by journalist Ann Thompson (HD; 28:16) is another Zoom like affair, albeit a bit more straightforward than the Waititi piece.


• Trailer (HD; 2:40)

Apples Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a perhaps questionable aphorism in some hidden nooks and crannies of psychology that suggests you can behave your way into a new identity, and that's an underlying tenet here, though the reason for that behavior may not be exactly as the surface depiction here may indicate. This is a fascinating film from any number of standpoints, and Cohen offers a Blu-ray with secure technical merits and appealing supplements. Highly recommended.