Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

B'Twixt Now and Sunrise Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 24, 2023

There's a New Age maxim that the universe is going to deliver what you need directly to your doorstep, which may then beg the question as to why Francis Ford Coppola may seem to "need" so many problems when he sets about to make a film. His foray into near madness is well documented in Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (included on the Apocalypse Now 4K release), and while a really appealing documentary by his granddaughter Gia included on this disc charmingly shows, while Coppola was emotionally almost ebullient during this production, there was evidently no shortage of issues surrounding the shooting of this film. That mention of New Age sensibilities may be even more salient given a brief moment in Gia's documentary that shows Francis having the cast and crew join hands in a Kum-ba-yah moment that includes some kind of magical incantation. When the documentary also shows weird little vignettes like Elle Fanning evidently having been kept from the first day of shooting for some indeterminate but seemingly vindictive reason (not on the part of Fanning, just to be clear), it is almost achingly obvious that the shoot had any number of obstacles to overcome. That aspect aside, however, it may be the fact that Coppola reveals in this documentary that whatever you want to call this film (more about that in a moment), it stemmed from an "unfinished" dream Coppola was having in Istanbul when he was shocked awake by the "alarm clock" of the Muezzin calling the faithful to prayer at the veritable crack of dawn. Some Freudians and/or Jungians might suggest that basing a film on even a finished dream might be a risky proposition, but as even Coppola discusses, he was basically attempting to fill in a rather inchoate dreamscape for the "film version", and that lack of clarity and purpose suffuses the once and future B'Twixt Now and Sunrise to not especially helpful effect.

As might be gleaned from some of the above data, this film had a tortured production history, but the series of unfortunate events only continued afterward, as is discussed in Casey Broadwater's Twixt Blu-ray review of the original (brief) theatrical release of this production. This supposed "authentic cut" ostensibly returns to film to Coppola's desired version without studio impositions, but in that regard it's kind of interesting to note that whereas the theatrical cut ran 88 minutes, the database here initially showed this release to run 95 minutes, while in fact the actual running time is around 80 minutes (1:19:39, to be exact, including the Lionsgate and American Zoetrope leaders). They say brevity is the soul of wit, but not having seen the original Twixt (which may have been a good thing according to Casey's review, and those wanting a detailed plot recap are encouraged to read Casey's writing in any case), I can't authoritatively comment as to whether this version's redactions contribute to a more comprehensible story.

I will say that B'Twixt Now and Sunrise is almost glaringly obvious at times and despite Coppola's "Paintshop" approximations of a "spooky" dreamworld, the film is never very frightening, even in a supposedly devastating scene involving the murders of innocent children. The lack of a real narrative here is probably further hampered (emphasis on the ham part of that word) by an over the top performance by Bruce Dern as the local sheriff in a backwater where "bargain basement Stephen King" author Hall Baltimore (Val Kilmer) arrives on an apparently less than luxe book tour. Baltimore soon gets swept up in a just flat out bizarre and underdeveloped mishmash of plot elements that include supposed Satanists (who may be the relative "good guys") and a ghost in braces (the dental kind) named Virginia (Elle Fanning).

Coppola has famously weathered some pretty rough storms in his long and at least occasionally rather totemic Hollywood career, but this is simply a case of a massive misfire that probably couldn't be rescued in any version. There may be one point of interest in this story to anyone who may have streamed The Pale Blue Eye, as this story features the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe "aiding" Baltimore on his investigation. That similarity is so pronounced that it almost made me wonder if original novelist Louis Bayard may have seen Twixt at some point and thought, "A detective story with Poe as a character? Hold my beer."

B'Twixt Now and Sunrise Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

B'Twixt Now and Sunrise is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films and Zoetrope Studios with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1. Based on the admittedly risky screenshot comparison approach, this doesn't look to me to differ in any significant way from the now nearly decade old Blu-ray of the theatrical version. Gia's documentary actually shows some of the even then probably midrange HD cams used for the shoot, and as such, this has an undeniably "video"-esque look a lot of the time, with a somewhat flat image. As Casey mentioned in his review, a lot of the presentation is razor sharp, almost to the point that it can look artificially sharpened (though I don't think it was), and the palette is also extremely variant throughout, due to some aggressive grading choices. Casey wasn't much of a fan of the dream world's emphasis on desaturation with only one or two elements in the frame offering any hint of hue, but I rather liked it, despite the fact that in the blue gradings in particular fine detail can noticeably ebb.

B'Twixt Now and Sunrise Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

B'Twixt Now and Sunrise features Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio (though once again the menu brands it with only the standard Dolby logo, without identifying it as TrueHD). The film's lower budget can't help but penetrate to a somewhat underwhelming sound design, but there is still some clear surround activity in the dream sequences in particular. Occasional "waking moments" also offer some engagement of the side and rear channels for both ambient environmental effects and at least occasionally directional dialogue. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

B'Twixt Now and Sunrise Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Twixt: A Documentary (HD; 40:50) is a fun piece by Gia Coppola which has some really engaging behind the scenes material that show Francis Ford "doing his thing" in sometimes fraught circumstances. Casey wasn't much of a fan of this piece, but I found it an engaging candid look at a sometimes controversial director in what almost be termed a "home movie" approach.

Additionally, a digital copy is included.

B'Twixt Now and Sunrise Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's maybe either sad or hilarious or some indescribable combination thereof that Val Kilmer and Joanna Whalley reunited (kinda sorta) for this film, and that may be of some interest for trivia buffs. There's potentially little else here probably even for fans of Kilmer, Fanning and/or Dern, not to mention Francis Ford Coppola. I personally found the film's stylistic gambits to be a bit more enjoyable than Casey did, and some of the dream world material almost succeeds in capturing a diaphanous alternate reality. Technical merits are generally solid and I found the documentary by granddaughter Gia to be rather charming, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.