7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A rough, short-tempered patriarch of a working-class family sees his life and the relationships around him slowly unravel.
Starring: Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke, Charlie Creed-Miles, Jamie Foreman, Edna DoréDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Gary Oldman's 1997 semi-autobiographical directorial debut (to date his lone directorial effort) is a stunning, punishing feature masterfully designed to beat you into submission, stripping away the safety of fictional violence as seen in the comfort of a theater and replacing it with an all too real, too brutal, too unflinching look at flawed, traumatized people in a flawed, traumatizing world. It's both overwhelming and compelling, terrifying and exhilarating, disquieting and poignant; it's a dark, haunting fever dream that offers no haven, no escape, to its characters or its viewers. And much like Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, Gaspar Noé's Irreversible and other devastating glimpses into the grimy alleyways of modern life, Nil by Mouth isn't interested in entertainment, likeable characters or happy endings. Instead, Oldman crafts a dystopia lurking within our own society; a bleak street-next-door amorality tale that rarely attempts to empathize or explain, positing pain and abuse (both generational and systemic) are the only true evils in a world beset by despair and suffering, punctuated by the briefest of moments, dysfunctional as they may be, of brilliant warmth and human connection.
Minted from a newly created, director-approved 4K master, Sony's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation is nothing short of stunning. Don't get me wrong: Nil by Mouth will probably never be the go-to film you think of when rattling off Blu-ray releases with perfect transfers. And yet this is as exceptional as it could ever be. Heavy 16mm grain assaults the image by design, creating an at-times overwhelming sense of unease and disruption. It's captured in striking clarity and consistency, as is the fine detail battling to be loved beneath it. You might assume that such aggressive grain would interfere with the crispness of textures and the refinement of the image's edge definition, or simply the artistic and cinematographic integrity of the image. But you'd be wrong. Take some time to peruse the screenshots accompanying this review. Hard. Rough. Grainy. But beautiful, filmic and revealing; exactly as they were intended to look when Oldman and director of photography Ron Fortunato set out to shoot Nil by Mouth. It all suits the themes and tone of the film wonderfully, as does the stark, strongly contrasted hues and deep blacks of the film's palette. Flesh tones remain relatively lifelike in the blaring lights and absorbing shadows of south-east London, and more domineering swaths of color -- the grays, blues and yellows that hang like burdens over Ray, Val and their family -- are striking in their richness and saturation. I was completely taken with BFI's remastering efforts and Sony's domestic transfer (which appears to be the same transfer featured on the Region B-locked Limited Edition release available overseas).
Sony's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track follows suit. Though not as viscerally remarkable as its video transfer, and while rather front-heavy on occasion, Nil by Mouth's lossless experience is all at once engaging, effective and absorbing. Voices have a more in-the-room quality tonally, creating a more convincing aural feeling of "being there". Prioritization isn't traditionally exacting as a result, since realism is meant to trump vocal fidelity. Even so, you won't have trouble hearing any dialogue clearly, although some of you (ahem, us) will need to turn on subtitles to follow every word when thick accents and angry ranting merge into one semi-incoherent string of slang. LFE output flexes its muscle when needed, and rear speaker activity embraces the organic sounds of the London streets, backing everything from traffic to crowd noise to increase the illusion of a living, breathing city.
While the Region-B locked 2-disc Limited Edition Blu-ray release of Nil by Mouth includes a bevy of extras -- a newly recorded audio commentary with director Gary Oldman and producer Douglas Urbanski, over two hours of solo interviews with key members of the cast and crew, two short films (one from Oldman about his mother), deleted scenes, a photo gallery, a 25th anniversary trailer and an 80-page booklet with essays, interviews and storyboards -- the single-disc domestic Sony release only includes a trailer. Quite a disappointment, especially since the UK edition is region locked and will only be helpful to people with a region free player.
Nil by Mouth is an incredibly powerful, wholly affecting drama and easily one of the best films of 1997, if not the decade. It won't be one you return to again and again -- it's too uncompromising and overwhelming (think Requiem for a Dream or Irreversible) -- but it is an amazing film that belongs in your collection. If you don't have a region free player, Sony's Blu-ray release is a must-have thanks to an excellent AV presentation. It doesn't have any extras, though, so if you have a region free player, be sure to order the 2-disc Limited Edition UK release, as it's packed with supplemental content. Either way, the film warrants a purchase. Highly recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
1969
Tom à la ferme / English packaging / Version française
2013
1963
Signed Limited Edition to 100 Copies - SOLD OUT
2015
1960
După dealuri
2012
1958
2002
1968
1977
Нелюбовь / Nelyubov
2017
지금은맞고그때는틀리다
2015
Limited Edition to 3000
1987
1976
2009
2015
1996
1990
1956
1970