6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
After escaping a job gone bad, a dying small-time crook escapes to Galveston with several unanticipated companions.
Starring: Ben Foster, Elle Fanning, Lili Reinhart, Adepero Oduye, Robert AramayoThriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Action | 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 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Writer Nic Pizzolatto can't stop the producers of Galveston from promoting the film with his
name as the creator of HBO's moody True Detective, but the
credit is something of a cheat. The
film is indeed based on Pizzolatto's early novel, and he did write the original screenplay. But
French director Mélanie Laurent (best known here as an actor from Inglourious Basterds and
Now You See Me) revised the script so
substantially that Pizzolatto wanted his name off it. In the
film as released, he's credited under the pseudonym of "Jim Hammett".
Galveston is Laurent's first feature made in America and in English, and she has attracted a
superb cast to give substance to her bleak tone poem of loss and regret. But like too many actors-turned-director, she isn't a storyteller as much as
a character-explorer. Her film takes a deep dive into her characters' emotions, but she's kicked away too much of the narrative scaffolding that
would ground expressions of emotion in a story supporting the weight of those feelings.
Galveston has moments, especially at the end, where Laurent's approach pays off, but it demands
substantial forbearance from the audience before we get there.
Specific information about the shooting format of Galveston was unavailable, but it appears to be digital in origin. The cinematographer was Arnaud Potier, who previously worked with director Mélanie Laurent on Breath (Respire) and The Adopted. RLJ Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray reflects all the usual virtues of digital capture, with superior sharpness, clarity and detail—but much of it is dark, exceptionally so. Laurent and Potier were clearly aiming for a noirish atmosphere, with faces half-illuminated and large portions of the frame routinely occupied by blackness (which the Blu-ray handles well). The lighted portions of these scenes are typically tinted either amber or blue (that's blue, not "teal"), which reflects a more contemporary sensibility. Though these shadowy scenes of dark interiors and nighttime criminality predominate, they are sometimes punctuated by shots of striking scenic beauty, as Roy, Rocky and Tiffany make their way along the Gulf Coast toward the city of the title. Colors, when they're visible, range from dully realistic to picture-postcard intense. Densities are steady and consistent. RLJ has mastered Glaveston at an average bitrate of 20.99 Mbps, with a capable encode.
Galveston's 5.1 soundtrack, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, is surprisingly restrained, even in moments when big effects and active surrounds would seem to be called for (e.g., scenes of a storm from a Gulf hurricane barreling toward landfall). Except for subtle environmental ambiance, the mix is oriented toward the front, because of either budgetary limitations or filmmaker preference. (Note, for example, the scene where Roy slowly walks through the industrial laundry that is Stan Ptitko's headquarters; what should be a roaring din all around is toned down so that the surrounds contain only quiet clicks of machinery.) The dynamic range is broad, which makes the film's occasional bursts of violence register with greater impact. The track's biggest weakness is dialogue, which is frequently buried in the mix, and it doesn't help that Ben Foster has adopted a thick accent that sounds like a combination of the character's native Texas and an additional drawl acquired in New Orleans. But even Elle Fanning's lines are sometimes lost, and Beau Bridges is barely intelligible. I can't be sure whether this is a fault of the original track or the Blu-ray mastering, but it makes an already sketchy plot even more difficult to follow. The piano-heavy score by Marc Chouarain (another veteran of director Laurent's Breathe) is appropriately moody.
Ben Foster is always terrific, and in Galveston he anchors and elevates what is otherwise a
meandering tale of lost souls and hopeless lives. Fanning is also good, as is Reinhart in her brief
screen time, and among them they give the film a measure of the tragic gravity for which Nic
Pizzolatto's work is known. But I'm not surprised that the author removed his name. Whatever
Laurent was aiming for, it's a muddy outcome. Worth a rental at best.
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