Rating summary
Movie | | 3.0 |
Video | | 4.5 |
Audio | | 4.5 |
Extras | | 3.0 |
Overall | | 4.0 |
Prince Avalanche Blu-ray Movie Review
Burnout
Reviewed by Michael Reuben November 10, 2013
After three studio films, only one of which, Pineapple
Express, proved successful, director David
Gordon Green returned to his independent roots with Prince Avalanche, a stripped-down affair
that Green called a "palette cleanser". Shot in less than two weeks, with two main actors and a
four-person crew, the film restored Green to the minimalist, allusive style that first attracted
critical and festival attention with George Washington (2000) and All the Real Girls (2003). It
also freed Green from studio oversight and allowed him to make the kind of film he obviously
prefers, which concerns itself more with exploring oddball characters than with working through
plot mechanics.
A friend introduced Green to an obscure Icelandic film named Either Way (Á annan veg) by
writer/director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurđsson, which was little seen even in its homeland. Green
immediately recognized a kindred spirit. Working only from subtitles, he transposed the story to
his native Texas. He already had a specific location in mind: Bastrop State Park in central Texas,
where raging fires in 2011 had destroyed 98% of the forest and over 1600 homes. There Green
could recreate the surreal sense of dislocation and isolation that he'd observed in Either Way's
use of the bleak Icelandic countryside. Of course, the time period had to remain in the Eighties.
The kind of isolation on which both films depend wouldn't be possible in the present era of
permanent connectivity.
I haven't seen Either Way, but Prince Avalanche has been described as an unusually faithful
remake. Still, Green left room for the serendipitous. An entirely new character was found during
location scouting, and her appearance, though brief, changes the film's emotional temperature. In
an equally brief appearance, the late Lance LeGault, to whom Prince Avalanche is dedicated,
jolts the film awake with a presence (and I am using the word deliberately) that is uniquely
American.
The odd couple (as Green likes to call them) at the center of
Prince Avalanche are Alvin (Paul
Rudd) and Lance (Emile Hirsch), who, in 1988, are restoring painted yellow highway lines and
reflectors in an area of burnt-out forest. An opening screen of text describes a fictional disaster
of widespread fires the previous year. Alvin has the job, but he has hired Lance as an assistant,
because he is the younger brother of Madison, the single mom Alvin is dating, whom we never
see, although we hear her voice on the phone (supplied by director Lynn Shelton).
Though Alvin professes to love Madison and sends her money, he also cherishes solitude and
self-sufficiency, which is why he has taken this job. As he writes to Madison, he cannot believe
that her brother has grown to young adulthood without acquiring any of the basic skills required
for survival in the wilderness. It's apparent that Alvin considers himself a modern-day Thoreau,
who doesn't want his life frittered away by details and has sought out this landscape to help him
"simplify, simplify". But why, then, does he care when Lance writes in his vintage comics? What
difference does it make what music Lance plays on the boom box? If Alvin is so confident in the
rightness of his approach to life, why does he find Lance's longing for the city so threatening?
And what
does Madison think about all this? We only hear Alvin's letters (in voiceover), never
hers.
Lance, by contrast, is the epitome of hormonal shallowness. His primary concern is getting laid,
and to hear him talk, he should have no problem in that department. But his account when he
returns from a weekend in the city is full of reversals and near-misses suggesting that his social
behavior is governed by the same clueless indifference that he routinely displays around Alvin.
Among other things, his intended target was his best friend's recent ex.
As these two mismatched co-workers bicker, bond (but only tentatively), share stories from their
past and do manage to get some work done, they elicit different aspects of each other, and Green
stands back and lets his camera record what happens. He doesn't appear to have directed the
actors in detail; instead, he let's
them discover Alvin and Lance for themselves.
Two additional characters appear to challenge the perspectives of Alvin and Lance, and also to
energize
Prince Avalanche and suggest additional layers to the experience of these co-workers
without explicitly defining what they are. The first is Lance LeGault's nameless truck driver, who
passes Alvin and Lance on the road from time to time, and always stops to hand out beers spiked
with what is probably moonshine. A plainspoken and direct soul, the trucker is given to blunt
observations (like telling Alvin that he looks "stupid" smoking a cigar) and odd bits of advice
(like "never sleep with the same woman more than three times"). Eventually you can't help but
wonder whether he's real or some messenger sent from who-knows-where—maybe the future,
where Lance's older self is trying to warn his younger one about missteps he can avoid. (There is
absolutely no basis for this notion in the film, but
Prince Avalanche tends to prompt such
speculations.)
The other character is an elderly lady (Joyce Payne) upon whom Alvin chances during one of his
solitary walks. She is digging among the charred ruins of what was once her home looking for
something, anything, that might have survived the fire as a memento of her former life. The
scene is sad and moving, but Green has also edited it to make it surreal by separating the voices
from the action, so that the dialogue is heard in voiceover while the characters do not appear to
be talking. Is the conversation really happening? It appears to be, but a brief scene near the film's
end suggests a supernatural element.
Prince Avalanche does not so much conclude as come to an end. One often gets the sense with
Green that he hates the closure that comes with traditional conclusions, as if he can't stand
cutting off future possibilities. Green wouldn't want to predict where Alvin and Lance will end
up in ten years. He's only interested in watching them deal with where they are
now.
Prince Avalanche Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
According to Green's commentary, Prince Avalanche is his first feature to be photographed
digitally, using the Arri Alexa. The cinematographer was his longtime collaborator, Tim Orr
(Seeking a Friend for the End of the W
orld). The result, after color-correction and post-production on a digital intermediate, has produced a superior 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray
from
Magnolia Home Enterainment. The image is crisp and sharp, detail is plentiful, black levels are
excellent, and the color palette makes exceptional use of the contrast between the earth tones of
the gradually returning forest vegetation and the red, white and blue wardrobe favored by Lance
(and, to a lesser extent, Alvin). Orr's compositions are frequently worth pausing to admire, and
there are only occasional traces of video noise and banding (almost always on dissolves to black)
to detract from the viewing experience.
The average bitrate is a generous 29.94 Mbps. Magnolia continues to outshine many of the major
studios when it comes to allowing its features the maximum room to "breath".
Prince Avalanche Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Prince Avalanche is a dialogue-driven film, and its lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track isn't
particularly showy. The burnt-out forest that is gradually reawakening has a subtle ambiance, and
certain specific sounds—an approaching or departing vehicle, a bird flapping away, etc.—utilize
the multi-channel system's capability for directional effects. But other than rendering the
dialogue clearly, the soundtrack's primary function is the soulful reproduction of the distinctive
soundtrack by Explosions in the Sky and David Wingo.
Prince Avalanche Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Commentary with Director David Gordon Green, Set Production Assistant Hugo
Garza and Talent Driver Paul Logan: Green begins the commentary with Logan, then
sends him out of the room at about the half-hour mark in exchange for Garza, only to
summon him back later. It's not clear whether he's serious when he asks them to dish on
Hirsch and Rudd, but what he gets from both is the unbridled enthusiasm of young
hopefuls who clearly want to work in the film industry and are willing to take any job to
be on the set with an established director. (In the case of Garza, his job was craft
services.) When they try to ask Green serious questions, such as the meaning of the title,
which Green says came to him in a dream, he is evasive. Along the way, Green does
reveal a few items almost inadvertently, e.g., his obvious distaste for the wastefulness of
Hollywood filmmaking, where dozens of people stand around waiting for each operation
and moving the production company takes hours. But anyone looking for genuine insight
into Prince Avalanche will be disappointed.
- Deleted Scene: Do the Dance (1080p; 2.40:1; 0:30): A brief moment of Lance practicing
his moves.
- Paul & Emile (1080p; 1.78:1; 6:55): Green, Rudd and Hirsch discuss the process of
developing the characters and their relationship. Producers Craig Zobel and Lisa Muskat
also participate.
- From the Ashes (1080p; 1.78:1; 9:29): This featurette opens with figures regarding the
2011 fires that ravaged most of Bastrop State Park and destroyed over 1600 homes.
According to Green, he saw the landscape before becoming aware of the Icelandic film
Either Way, of which Prince Avalanche is an adaptation. Green, Zobel and Muskat
discuss the freedom of working independently.
- Lance LeGault (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:41): "Like a tornado" is how Rudd describes the single
most vivid presence in Prince Avalanche. Hirsch adds his recollections, and Green
recounts how he met LeGault (a more detailed version appears on the commentary track).
- Interview with Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch (1080i; 1.78:1; 6:47): "Could I take
longer with the pauses in answering this question?" asks Rudd at the end. It's a very
informal interview.
- Interview with Writer/Director David Gordon Green (1080i; 1.78:1; 5:02): This
interview is a compact and efficient summary of points that Green makes at greater length
elsewhere. One can skip most of the other extras after playing this one.
- AXS TV: A Look at Prince Avalanche (1080i; 2.40:1; 3:32): This typical AXS TV
promo expands the trailer with excerpts from the two interviews listed above.
- Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2.40:1; 2:20): The trailer is edited to highlight the absurdist
comedy, but it doesn't capture the more elusive dramatic elements.
- Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment: The disc includes trailers for Drinking
Buddies, I Give It a Year,
Syrup and Touchy Feely, as well as a promo for AXS TV.
These also play at startup, where they can be skipped with the chapter forward button.
- BD-Live: As of this writing, attempting to access BD-Live gave the message "Check
back later for updates".
Prince Avalanche Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Green's style of filmmaking isn't for everyone, and if all you've ever seen is Pineapple Express,
Your Highness or The Sitter—or even, for that matter, the Green-directed episodes of the HBO
series Eastbound and
Down—you won't know what to expect from Prince Avalanche. The latter
wanders a winding path with an uncertain destination, or none at all, and establishes an
idiosyncratic rhythm that will be hypnotic for some and soporific for others. On the technical
merits, the Blu-ray is recommended, but the content is a tougher call. Worthwhile, but not on a
blind buy.