Georgia Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Georgia Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 27, 2023

Ulu Grosbard's "Georgia" (1995) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new program with actor/musician John Doe; exclusive audio commentary recorded by critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry; archival interviews with cast and crew members; and vintage trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

It must be the most depressing feeling. You are surrounded by people that genuinely care for you, even when they disagree with you and scold you for doing something they disapprove of, but are unable to connect with them. You talk to them and do things to make them see the person you are, but the harder you try, the stronger their conviction becomes that you are awful at living your life. Your life. Sometimes you get so angry you vow to permanently walk away from them, but then you realize that you need these people in your life because they are supposed to be there. They are your family, your best friends. But how do you keep on living? You do not want to spend your entire life trying and failing to make them discover the real you when they are not even looking at you as they should, hearing what you have to say as they should.

Sadie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) has struggled with this awful feeling for years but figured out how to numb it. It is not a permanent fix. The drugs she takes make her feel better for a few hours, sometimes even an entire day, but after her body flushes out the poison, it comes back to her. Sadie has been drinking too, but alcohol has not been a reliable substitute for the drugs. In fact, more than a few times it has made her feel even worse.

Her older sister, Georgia (Mare Winningham), a famous country folk singer, tried to help her but concluded that she has a life to live, too. Sadie desperately wanted to be like Georgia and to prove it even started singing like her. Sort of. At first, while on the stage, Sadie tried to imitate Georgia by singing the same songs she did, but when the crowds did not respond as expected, she stopped doing it. It was a risky move, but the feeling was liberating, even euphoric. The new Sadie was different. Most of the time she was not even singing. Sadie would just pour out her soul and tell the world about the misery she struggled with.

By the time Axel (Max Perlich) came into her life, Sadie already knew that the misery would stay with her until the end. Even Axel, who genuinely loved her, could not see her right and misinterpreted her pain. When Axel left her alone in Seattle and went back to Chicago to see his ill mother, she doubled down on the drugs but now they were doing more harm than good. She got sick and nearly died. It was then, after the doctors brought her back on her feet, that she vowed to go back to singing. Sort of. If that is what they wanted to call it, so be it.

Ulu Grosbard’s film Georgia is not going to make a whole lot of sense to folks that have never sampled the feeling Sadie struggles with. Georgia does not tell a conventional story with a conventional beginning and end -- it taps into this feeling and then taps out of it. As odd as it may sound, Sadie is just a vessel for this feeling, too.

While a very sad film, Georgia is not one of those hard-hitting miserabilist films that makes you feel awful about belonging to the human race. It is full of beautiful moments where you can easily detect the presence of love and hope. However, it is a very effective reminder that we all have important parts to play in other people’s lives and some of us are not very good performers, so its sadness is a byproduct of its honesty.

What does Sadie’s future look like? Georga was shot in Seattle, during the final days of the grunge movement, when heroin had already killed a lot of young people like Sadie. A lot of them were musicians, too. I was living in the area at the time and had friends that shared Sadie’s misery and were in a similar state of mind. Some were very heavy drug users, musicians too, and were simply living in the moment, but some were not and had plans for the future. I think that the stronger ones managed to move on, as it looks like Sadie does at the end of the film. However, the weaker ones surrendered to drugs and alcohol and ruined their lives.

*In an exclusive new program that is included on this release, John Doe, the founder of the punk rock band X, who has an important part in Georgia, explains how he managed to walk away from heroin and reset his life. I think it is fair to say that Doe was one of the lucky ones.

Georgia Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.81:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Georgia arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment.

The release is sourced from an older master that was apparently supplied by TF1 Video. This master has obvious limitations, so if Georgia is properly redone in 2K or 4K, it will look better in high-definition. However, there are no traces of recent digital corrections to repolish the master and make the film look better, which is why the overall quality of the presentation is quite decent, in some areas even good. For example, close-ups tend to look pleasing, though grain does not have to solid healthy appearance that could have strengthened them even more. Fine nuances are a mixed bag, but there is more to like than dislike. The wider panoramic shots reveal the most prominent weaknesses of the master -- clarity and depth are not as good as they need to be -- but a lot of them tend to be darker and feature color lighting, so many of these weaknesses become easier to ignore. Color balance is stable. However, this is another area where various improvements can be introduced that will make the overall appearance of the film more convincing. Saturation could be better managed and some of the darker supporting nuances should be expanded. Image stability is good. I did not see any large distracting debris, cuts, damage marks, warped or torn frames to report. All in all, I would say that the quality of the presentation ranges between 3.25/5.00 and 3.5/5.00, with most of the visuals gravitating closer to 3.5/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Georgia Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is clear and stable, so all exchanges throughout the film are very easy to follow. Dynamic balance is good, too. However, I think that if the audio is remastered in the future, in some areas the sound will be slightly fuller and better rounded. At the moment, there are a few spots where it feels like the audio could be a bit more convincing.

Georgia Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• "The Flipside of the Static" - in this exclusive new program, critic Bryan Reesman interviews John Doe, the founder of the punk rock band X, who has an important part in Georgia. Mr. Doe reveals that his contribution to Georgia was the highlight of his acting career, and discusses his work with director Ulu Grosbard, his admiration of Jennifer Jason Leigh, the critical reception of the film and some key themes in it that mainstream critics missed, as well as the music scene he was part of and his experience with heroin. In English, not subtitled. (45 min).

• Archival Interviews - the bulk of the information that is shared in the four interviews, noted below, addresses the genesis and production of Georgia, its characters, and themes. The four interviews were conducted in 1995. In English, not subtitled.
  
  1. Jennifer Jason Leigh. (6 min).
  2. Mare Winningham. (5 min).
  3. John Doe. (5 min).
  4. Writer Barbara Turner. (5 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry. It is very easy to tell that the two commentators are fans of Georgia, which is a good thing because they identify a lot of its key qualities and themes that make it good, such as the great chemistry between the stars and nature of the music performances. The comments about the film's "bohemian" side are simply spot on because the "bohemian" culture that fueled the music scene in Seattle during the late 1980s and 1990s -- which was everything from grunge rock to folk rock to the evolving heavy metal -- was flooded with the drugs that destroyed countless lives. The commentators have a lot of interesting comments about the different actors that made the film and their careers.

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage trailer for Georgia. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

Georgia Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you see Ulu Grosbard's Georgia and Doug Pray's documentary Hype! on the same night, you will get an almost perfect summation of the Seattle music scene during the 1990s. At the time, there were a lot of interesting musicians there, but they were not just making and performing music. Some of them, like Sadie in Georgia, were gambling with their lives while trying to overcome frustrations and anger that had made them almost unbearable. I think that this was the reason a lot of the music that emerged from the area -- grunge rock, folk rock, hardcore, etc. -- at least initially created a lot of confusion, too. And yes, this is the reason many mainstream critics did not get Georgia as well. Via Vision Entertainment's release is sourced from an older but rather decent master that was supplied by TF1 Video. It is Region-Free. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.