In & Out 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

In & Out 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 30, 2024

Who knew that an Oscar acceptance speech could itself inspire a film which would go on to at least get one Academy Award nomination? When Tom Hanks famously mentioned one of his gay teachers and a gay classmate he had gone to school with when he won Best Actor for Philadelphia, it may have seemed like a sweet if not particularly notable momentary "validation" for those two, especially given the still roiling atmosphere surrounding AIDS/HIV as documented by Philadelphia itself. In & Out screenwriter Paul Rudnick had already amassed some impressive credits in a number of media, including a 1992 play he later adapted into the film Jeffrey, which came out a year after Philadelphia. Jeffrey obviously has some tethers to In & Out, at least in passing, but as early as Rudnick's 1982 effort Poor Little Lambs, he was investigating perceived "gender roles" and resultant discrimination. Those interested in snarky film criticism (is there any other kind?) may know that Rudnick also had a long run as fictional writer Libby Gelman-Waxner in an scabrously funny column in the late, great Premiere Magazine.

Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline) is exactly the kind of high school teacher you'd want to have schooling your kids: he's smart, he's sweet, he's funny and he's very involved in the lives of his students. He's also on the verge of marrying fellow teacher Emily Montgomery (Joan Cusack, that aforementioned sole Oscar nomination for this film in the Best Supporting Actress category), and Howard and Emily are among many gathering around community television screens across a fictional small town in Indiana to watch that year's Academy Award ceremonies, where local boy made good Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon) has been nominated for Best Actor. To the jubilation of all, perhaps mostly Howard and Emily, Cam not only wins the award but begins his speech with a laudatory tribute to the impact Howard had on Cam's earlier life. The wide eyed appreciative wonder in the eyes of Howard, Emily and assorted others is suddenly turned to outright shock when Cam unexpectedly ends his speech by "outing" Howard as a gay man.

That suddenly thrusts Howard into a probably untenable position where he's forced to somehow "prove" he's not gay, something that is perhaps of understandably panicked interest to Emily, especially with those pesky impending nuptials on tap. And for all the wittiness and unabashed heartfelt emotion suffusing Rudnick's screenplay, it's in this very element, and especially the later probably unsurprising "reveal" that Howard is indeed gay, where some may feel Rudnick may not have had the courage of his "be your own best self" convictions, despite some apparent "feel good" aspects of Howard's ultimate decision to come out.

Now all of the following is merely hypothetical and meant to explore an admittedly "alternate version" of the film, but what if it had turned out that Howard wasn't gay? In other words, was it somehow a "requirement" that Howard had to be gay in order for Rudnick's spot on commentary on misperception and "being true to yourself" to resonate? In other other words, would In & Out have been materially different had Howard been revealed to be actually straight, if perhaps slightly divergent from "normative" gender behaviors? And could it have possibly have been even more affecting and perhaps less trifling feeling at times had something along those lines been followed, since it might have allowed even more insight into how people are often judged unfairly or even victimized in a way by being pigeonholed in some category or the other? These are admittedly simply rhetorical questions that have occurred to me since the first time I saw this film.

Now, it's obviously a fool's errand to try to rewrite this film, especially when it's so admittedly well written, and if simply taken on its own merits, a lot of In & Out hits its various targets with intelligent acumen. The floundering, flustered behaviors of both Howard and Emily are often wonderfully funny and awkward, and the supporting cast offers fantastic little moments for Debbie Reynolds and Wilfrid Brimley in particular as Howard's confused parents. Tom Selleck has an amusing supporting role as a seemingly unctuous infotainment reporter, and the inimitable Bob Newhart is also on hand as the principal at the school where Howard works.

In & Out 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screencaptures are taken directly from the 4K UHD disc and downsampled to 1080p/SDR. For that reason, they're not an accurate gauge of the true UHD presentation, and in fact I'd recommend those interested to look at the 1080 screenshots included in my In & Out Blu-ray review for an at least relatively accurate look at the color space in particular.

In & Out is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Kino Lorber with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of this release states this was culled from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative. While this presentation enjoys a marginal uptick in fine detail levels on items like the textures on Elizabeth's flowing wedding gown, and the palette probably has a bit more energy courtesy of HDR / Dolby Vision, I found the improvements over the 1080 version to be rather minimal overall, though some may see enough to warrant opting for this version over Kino Lorber's generally excellent 1080 presentation. This version often struck me as a bit on the dark side, and HDR / Dolby Vision tends to add a bit of a brown/orange tone to highlights at time, especially noticeable in some of the school material. This is another shot on film release where tolerance for sometimes rather heavy grain fields may be needed, but that said, grain is really rather nicely resolved for the most part (unfortunately things kick off with a pretty long optically printed credits sequence, meaning heavier than usual grain).

In & Out 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

In & Out features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options. This is obviously not a "whiz bang" effects laden track, but the surround version nicely opens up a rather charming and melodic score by Marc Shaiman, as well as positioning ambient environmental effects throughout the side and rear channels. Dialogue on both tracks tends to be front and center, and is always rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

In & Out 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K UHD Disc

• Audio Commentary by Screenwriter Paul Rudnick, Moderated by Author / Film Historian Lee Gambin

1080 Disc

• Audio Commentary by Screenwriter Paul Rudnick, Moderated by Author / Film Historian Lee Gambin


• Ins & Outs (HD; 18:42) is an interview with Frank Oz.


• Dancing with Performers (HD; 18:15) is an interview with composer Marc Shaiman.


• Vintage Interview Clips with Kevin Cline, Joan Cusack, Tom Sellect, Debbie Reynolds, Frank Oz and Paul Rudnick (HD; 17:38)


• Behind the Scenes Footage (HD; 5:46)


• In & Out Trailer (HD; 2:32)

Trailers for several other releases from Kino are also included.

Packaging features a slipcover.

In & Out 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The world may not have been ready for it at the time, but I frankly think In & Out would have been even more provocative and potentially even funnier if Howard had turned out to be a misunderstood straight guy. That said, there are a ton of winning performances here, and the writing is typically sharp and witty. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements are enjoyable, including a nice commentary track available on both discs. Recommended.