6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A family man's chance encounter with a conspiracy-obsessed drifter leaves him on the run from the police and an impending event known as The Inversion.
Starring: Rami Malek, D.J. Qualls, Kate Lyn Sheil, Sukha Belle Potter, Toby HussDrama | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Rami Malek has perfect eyes for paranoia. Malek has the same slightly fish eyed appearance that made Marty Feldman (who suffered from Graves’ ophthalmopathy, a thyroid related condition) so distinctive looking. The fact that Malek can sometimes seem to be looking in two places at once perhaps provides an almost subliminal element that he’s keeping track of things that aren’t right in front of him, an aspect that has played brilliantly into his acclaimed work on a television series absolutely suffused with paranoiac sensibilities, Mr. Robot. There’s also paranoia in ample quantities wafting through the strangely surreal Buster’s Mal Heart, a film whose very title may hint at its “artier” tendencies. Buster’s Mal Heart may ultimately not make a whale of a lot of sense (whale being the operative term, as detailed below), but it has a palpable mood, and Malek is outstanding as a character (or perhaps characters — more about that in a moment) who may or may not be experiencing some kind of mental breakdown. Buster’s Mal Heart is intentionally elliptical, to the point that some less patient viewers may choose to give up on its deliberately opaque narrative structure, but the film is decidedly sui generis and may appeal to those who like similar “one offs” such as Swiss Army Man. At least somewhat in line with some elements from that film, Buster’s Mal Heart seems to be depicting the mental deterioration of a loner, in this case the titular Buster (Rami Malek), who is initially seen in what might be considered a “Ted Kaczynski” frame of mind, holed up in a cave, unkempt and seemingly unhinged. However, in the often diaphonous presentational style of writer and director Sarah Adina Smith, this may all be an illusion—or not.
Buster's Mal Heart is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. While once again the IMDb comes up empty on technical data on the film, some online sources credit the Red Dragon as the camera of choice, including at least one site that quotes director Sarah Adina Smith. There's an appealing crispness to the visuals here, despite a somewhat drab palette in both the hotel environment and even some of the outdoor "Buster" material. As can be seen in several of the screenshots accompanying this review, quite a few of the outdoor scenes are graded toward icy blue and gray tones, though detail levels remain largely intact. A number of extreme close-ups offer excellent fine detail levels, to the point that individual bristles on Buster's scraggly beard are easily identifiable. Some of the dimly lit "night shift" scenes in the hotel are a bit murky looking, something perhaps exacerbated by a kind of dowdy brown-yellow tint accompanying many of them. A couple of key scenes look green screened, and there's that typical softness to backgrounds in such moments. There are also some intentional quasi-psychedelic elements that intrude where the imagery is deliberately skewed and/or tweaked.
Buster's Mal Heart's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 provides good, if intermittent, immersion, offering suitably punchy sonic energy when things like gunfire erupt, but also providing a good, realistic accounting of the environments through which Buster and/or Jonah pass. There are a couple of near hallucinatory sequences where the sound design gets a bit "trippy", and surround activity in these moments is deliberately odd sounding. Dialogue is routinely clean and clear, with no prioritization issues whatsoever.
- The Conductor (1080p; 1:18)
- Roxy's Frog (1080p; 1:12)
- Break Time (1080p; 00:43)
- Throw a Line (1080p; 2:19)
- Grilled Cheese [1] (1080p; 00:48)
- Grilled Cheese [2] (1080p; 00:55)
- I Am Who I Am (1080p; 2:29)
I'm frankly not quite sure what to think of Buster's Mal Heart, but the fact that the film does make me think I personally take as a good sign, and a potent indicator that I'll be revisiting this film again, if only to see what (if anything) I missed the first time through. This is an odd item in any case, and probably those with more adventurous spirits and/or Art House sensibilities will be more attuned to its peculiar style and storytelling artifices. Technical merits are strong, and with caveats noted, Buster's Mal Heart comes Recommended.
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