6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A free-spirited woman in her 50s seeks out love at L.A. dance clubs.
Starring: Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Caren Pistorius, Michael Cera, Brad GarrettDrama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Chile’s Sebastián Lelio has joined the ranks of foreign directors remaking an effort of theirs originally in a foreign language for the United States (or perhaps more broadly the English speaking) market, with Gloria Bell Americanizing Lelio’s acclaimed 2013 opus Gloria. As supposedly modern as either Gloria and/or Gloria Bell might be thought of as being, especially in terms of providing a “female empowerment” angle for what a making of featurette on this disc repeatedly refers to as “a woman of a certain age” (I’m pretty “certain” that’s a euphemism for over 50 — at least), both films are perhaps a little bit more old fashioned than even Lelio would be prone to admit. The story of a single older woman trying to find love, or at least a fling or two, in a dance hall may in fact remind some older viewers of a long ago and much acclaimed made for television film from the 1970s, Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, but the whole angle of a steely female forging her own identity after her marriage breaks up may harken back to good old “women’s pictures” from the Golden Age of Hollywood like Mildred Pierce. Much as with the original Gloria, Gloria Bell is a showcase for its luminous star, with Julianne Moore doing fantastic work as a woman who loves to dance and who maybe (emphasis on maybe) has a shot at finding “true love” with a recently divorced man named Arnold (John Turturro) she meets at a bar one night. While there is definitely a through line to the screenplay (adapted from the original by Lelio, who also co-wrote that version, and Alice Johnson Boher), a lot of Gloria Bell tends to play out in a somewhat vignette driven way. That ultimately may deprive the film of a really definitive, satisfying conclusion, but it at least does offer the semblance of a catharsis once Gloria follows her own advice to Arnold, if obviously metaphorically, when she decides to “grow a pair” and not surrender to the vagaries of fate (and/or boorish males) without a fight.
Gloria is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. The IMDb is once again fairly nondescript in providing much technical data on the shoot, but a bit of internet digging uncovered the fact that cinematographer Natasha Braier shot with Arri Alexas, and I'm once again assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. Among the datapoints I dug up in background research on the film was this winning interview with Braier, where she waxes poetic about her love affair with light, which is kind of ironic given the kind of hazy, strobe lit environments in which Gloria regularly finds herself. That said, I personally was kind of nicely surprised by how strongly detail levels managed to "poke" through some of the dimly lit miasma of various club scenes. While fine detail can take momentary dips in some of these moments, even that is often commendably precise looking often in some pretty low light environments. There are other, more brightly lit, sequences that also have kind of effulgent, glowing backlit properties that can tend to obscure the imagery slightly (see screenshot 13), but on the whole the more "normally" lit sequences offer robust detail levels and and an appealing if not overly vivid palette. I noticed a couple of very brief and transitory moments of banding in a couple of fades.
Gloria's source cue stuffed soundtrack is a joy to listen to via its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presentation, with typically excellent immersion offered in the several crowded club and/or bar scenes, where both the thumping music and chatter of the masses provides quite a bit of surround activity. Other outdoor moments, including a sequence with Gloria and Arnold at a shooting range, also offer some good punches of low register energy while also providing smart placement of ambient environmental sounds. Dialogue is always presented cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.
A number of my film freak friends who know I review Lionsgate releases for this site contacted me during Gloria Bell's theatrical run, telling me how much I was going to love it. Well, frankly, I liked Gloria Bell quite a bit, a whole lot, in fact, but I didn't outright love it. It's an incredible showcase for the entire cast, chiefly of course Moore and Turturro, but I felt that whole (and in some cases significant) plot lines were left dangling or under explored. The film still has some absolutely top notch moments, and there's a lived in feeling to these characters that is quite believable. Technical merits are solid, and with caveats noted, Gloria Bell comes Recommended.
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