Blowing Up Right Now Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Blowing Up Right Now Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 15, 2020

What happens to a longstanding relationship already on the rocks when nuclear armageddon threatens to blow up their world, literally and figuratively? Director Tom Morris' Blowing Up Right Now explores the fallout that radiates through a couple's lives when faced with that very question. Pending disaster is a catalyst for truth and maybe reconciliation. But it's going to be a rocky road for a couple that is trying to foresee a future that might be nothing more than whatever fleeting moments remain in the present and whatever memories define the past.

Shep (Danny Jolles) is an artist who has been dating Mandy (Sujata Day), who works in advertising, for five years now. He’s happy with the relationship, but she believes things are headed towards the end. She still loves him, but “something’s missing,” she tells her friend. She’s seeing someone on the side, but Shep is blissfully unaware that anything is wrong. In fact, he thinks things are going great and has plans to move her from Los Angeles to Oregon where he has just earned an “artist residency” that he believes will propel his career forward. That’s another nail in the coffin; she has no interest in packing up and leaving her friends and career (and the new hunk in her life). Just as she delivers her rehearsed breakup speech, her phone alerts her that a ballistic missile is inbound for Los Angeles. Rather than flee, the couple decides to hunker down at home. Maybe the threat of nuclear annihilation is just what the relationship needs to survive, even if it’s only for the next few minutes.

The film creates a nice balance between relational humor, intimate drama, and a bit of external terror that is the catalyst for mounting fear amid the couple's growing distance and possible reconciliation. The film doesn’t take many risks and plays along the relational curve towards the usual peaks and valleys, but Jolles and Day are up to the challenge, as minimal as it may be, and they build reasonably authentic and likable characters whom the audience will come to like by film’s end.

Blowing Up Right Now Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gravitas Ventures presents Blowing Up Right Now on a burned BD-R Blu-ray disc. The digitally sourced image is clear and accurate. It's clearly a step or two below from more costly, more complex studio productions. Sharpness comes steadily and details are satisfyingly intimate, right down to core skin textures, clothing materials, and location details, primarily around Mindy and Shep's house where mounds of popcorn, kitchen appliances, bathroom tile, and other odds and ends seen in key scenes appear with the proper levels of digital high definition clarity. Colors are fine, enjoying a neutral contrast that presents those same characteristics mentioned above -- skin, clothes, home accents and details -- with perfectly stable accuracy and dependability. A few lower light shots handle shadows well enough, but these scenes do reveal some noise (an outdoor café in chapter seven). Fortunately, there are no signs of banding, which is often a frequent eyesore in these lower grade digital productions. In total, a quality Blu-ray image from Gravitas.

Blowing Up Right Now Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blowing Up Right Now doesn't really explode on Blu-ray with its DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. For the most part, this configuration suffices for the dialogue-intensive production. The spoken word images well towards the center. It's clear, well prioritized, and the sonic stalwart. Music plays with pleasant width and detail. It is in the few of the more sonically intense moments that the track misses out on a more expansive configuration. A helicopter flyby in chapter four is followed by what sounds like a missile or jet fighter screaming across a few moments later. Both fare well enough in context but the lack of larger engagement and additional channels limits the effectiveness. There are one or two crunchy effects; rustling bedsheets at the end of the opening scene stand as the most obvious example. Otherwise, everything is in good working order.

Blowing Up Right Now Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All that's included is the film's Trailer (1080p, 1:38). No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Blowing Up Right Now Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Blowing Up Right Now finds an agreeable sincerity to its intimate exposure of a relationship lost and found over the course of a single, unforgettable day. The performances are fine and the film's construction, while unremarkable, gets the job done. Video and audio qualities are fine for a production of this quality. No meaningful extras are included. Worth a look on the cheap.