Shopping Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Shopping Blu-ray Movie Review

The Unmaking of Paul W.S. Anderson

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 19, 2011

Shopping was the low-budget feature debut of Paul W.S. Anderson, who today is best know for creating the Resident Evil franchise and for such effects-heavy genre reboots as Alien vs. Predator and Death Race. But if Shopping had been treated better by its native England, Anderson might have had a different career. A passion project strongly influenced by American films of the Seventies, the film used the then-widespread phenomenon of "ram-raiding" -- robbing stores by smashing cars through their walls or windows, then grabbing merchandise and running -- as a premise for a generational character study. Anderson cast a then-unknown Jude Law in the lead, because a French journalist told him that British films suffered from having unattractive stars. And the film initially generated good buzz, because it offered something different and exciting in a British film industry whose output was limited to costume dramas and art films. (As Anderson would later say, the target audience was sexually repressed butlers.)

But a hungry press always needs to change the story, and things turned before the film's release. The new line was that the film "glorified" ram-raiding (it didn't) and was violent and socially irresponsible. The British Board of Film Censors held up issuing the certificate required for the film to be shown in theaters, and it missed its release date. By the time Shopping appeared on British screens in June 1994, it was yesterday's news. Anderson took the film to Sundance, where he was offered 1995's Mortal Kombat -- and the rest is history.

Billy (Law) is released from a three-month prison term for an unspecified offense. Just before he's released, a cop named Conway (Jonathan Pryce) asks Billy if he's learned anything. With insouciant cool, Billy replies: "Not to get caught."

Outside the prison, Billy is met by Jo, the Bonnie to his Clyde. She's played by Sadie Frost, who had just finished Bram Stoker's Dracula. Frost and Law would begin a relationship ending in marriage during the making of Shopping. (They divorced in 2003.)

Billy's first order of business is to steal something better than the clunker in which Jo picked him up. They quickly steal a BMW from its driver, outrun several police vehicles and hook up with their old pals, including Monkey (Daniel Newman) and Be Bop (Fraser James). Billy learns that a lot has changed in the short time he's been away.

An old acquaintance named Tommy (Sean Pertwee, an Anderson regular) has decided to make all the street kids work for him, so that their thefts, which used to be random and for thrills, can be organized for sale and profit. The film contrasts Billy's and Jo's impulsive adventures with Tommy's determined but ham-fisted efforts to build an organization. We see Tommy in the derelict arcade ("If It's Plaza It's Pleasure") where he attempts to pose as a king presiding over his kingdom. (The gatekeeper is Bev, a cameo by singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull.) We watch him muscle a market trader (Jason Isaacs, another Anderson regular) peddling goods for him. And we see him trying to impress Venning (Sean Bean), the kind of big fish who can buy stolen goods in volume but will never consider Tommy anything more than a punk. Still, an ambitious punk can be dangerous. This one attacks anyone who gets in his way, even the local police.

As ramshackle and amateurish as Tommy's organization may be, Tommy is still more of a boss than Billy is willing to accept. The basic plot of Shopping involves Billy's efforts -- as doomed as Clyde Barrow's or John Dillinger's, though not as grand -- to remain a law unto himself, against the twin forces of law enforcement and Tommy's rudimentary crime syndicate. Meanwhile, Jo keeps trying to persuading him just to leave, but Billy can't imagine any life other than joyriding and "ram-raiding" ever more challenging store fronts (from which he steals almost nothing; the thrill is in the assault). Tommy tries threats to get Billy to go along with him. When those don't work, he resorts to other means.

One way Anderson squeezed maximum value out of his tiny production budget was to film in the abandoned industrial waterfront region of East London, all of which would be leveled for new construction within the year. (Much of it was already gone. At one point, the director noticed Jonathan Pryce distracted by a distant door. The actor explained that he thought he'd come out of that door in Brazil but could no longer be sure, because so many nearby structures were gone.) With relatively little paint and set dressing, these enormous structures provided the urban wasteland that perfectly conveys the sense of abandonment, alienation and decay needed to explain the reckless behavior of the film's young inhabitants.

Smaller sets permitted more intimate decor through which to express the characters' background, and the film is full of bizarre visual details. For example, Tommy has a rooftop basketball court, even though basketball is not a typical English pastime. Jo is always playing a handheld video driving game, even while driving -- and this was several years before the PSP was available. When Billy tries to visit his former home (where his father's current girlfriend tells him he's not wanted), the walls are covered with an elaborate Star Trek wallpaper. Later, in the trailer (or "caravan") where Billy's possessions have been stored, we see a cache of Star Wars memorabilia. All of this adds to our sense of who Billy is and where he came from, which turns out to be quite normal.

Anderson acknowledges today that character development and dialogue are the film's weakest points, and that's certainly true. But watching how Jude Law makes Billy swagger and laugh in the face of despair, how Sean Pertwee turns Tommy into a restless bundle of coked-up nerves (if he could, he'd look in all directions simultaneously), or how Sadie Frost gives Jo a faraway look of uncertainty before she finally commits to her man, I was reminded of the actor-driven films of the American Seventies. They too sometimes suffered from loosely strung plots and wandering dialogue, but their characters were memorable.

Shopping has more memorable characters than much of Anderson's flashier subsequent work. Maybe he should try working with a tiny budget again.

Shopping Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unfortunately, Anderson's commentary provides no information on either Shopping's cinematography or the transfer done by Severin; so there's no way to judge the fidelity of this presentation to the source. The film was photographed by the late Tony Imi, an experienced DP for both film and television for whom Anderson has nothing but praise.

As presented in this 1080p, AVC-encoded transfer, Shopping is as grainy as one would expect from a low-budget film shot under extreme constraints in conditions where elaborate lighting rigs were not within the budget. On the plus side, the grain has a natural-looking texture and does not suffer from the fixed or "hanging" pattern that indicates careless digital manipulation. But on the minus side, the image is sometimes soft and lacking in detail, as if there simply wasn't enough light to fully illuminate the subject. The amount of detail varies from shot to shot, as a review of the various screen captures will suggest; so this limitation is almost certainly a function of the source. In the absence of other evidence, one must assume that Severin has made the best of the available materials. At the very least, the source from which they worked seems to be in very good condition.

Colors are remarkably strong in those scenes where they exist, but this is frequently a world that's been naturally desaturated by the passage of time. The brightest objects are usually the blue sky and the swaths of colorful graffiti (most of it created by artists hired by the film company). Toward the film's end, there's a sequence in a high-end mall, and the contrast is startling.

Black levels are variable, with crushing evident in some night scenes that can make it difficult to distinguish figures in the dark. This is almost certainly a source issue.

Shopping Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 remix presented in DTS lossless is unremarkable and, indeed, somewhat harsh. The dialogue and effects are certainly clear enough, and the film's techno-rock soundtrack, which was considered groundbreaking in a British film at the time, delivers the intended jolt, but the soundtrack doesn't energize the soundfield and elevate the action as one might expect from a contemporary 5.1 mix, created for multi-channel from the ground up. Though I did not have time to go back and rewatch the film with the included DD 2.0 version, that's the track I'll pick the next time I view it.

Shopping Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Severin continues to master their Blu-rays in the same non-standard approach that first appeared with Hardware. That disc exhibited quirky behavior depending on one's player, and Shopping is the same. On some Panasonic players, including the BDP-50, there will be no time counter display of any kind, either elapsed or remaining. On the PS3, there will be time displays, but neither chapter nor title. (In my review of Hardware for another site, these problems were noted, and I know that they were communicated to Severin, whose software engineers gave the expected response of questioning my player, my skills and my ancestry. But here they are, still making the same mistakes.)

Also, during one playback session on my Panasonic, the menu cursor disappeared. Only stopping the disc and restarting brought it back.

One further note: The extras listed below as "SD" are indeed standard definition, but they have been formatted at the center of a 1080p frame. As far as I can tell, no attempt has been made to upscale them from their original resolution.

• Commentary with Writer-Director Paul W.S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt: With contributions by John Cregan of Severin, who is obviously a knowledgeable fan, Anderson and Bolt speak continuously throughout the running time, covering both the film's production and the subsequent drama of its release and reception both at home and abroad. Anderson is particularly interesting when he discusses the influence of Blade Runner and A Clockwork Orange, and how he was attempting to create a stylized, unidentified city in an unidentified future time. Both producer and director take obvious pleasure that time has vindicated them on the very points for which the contemporary British press most criticized them, including: casting Jude Law, having a techno-rock soundtrack, focusing on young characters, and using a contemporary urban setting.



• Featurette with Paul W.S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt (HD; 1.78:1; 24:22): This set of alternating interviews is something of a "cutdown" of the commentary. Although I didn't go back and compare, many of the comments appeared identical, and it's entirely possible that the commentary session was filmed, then excerpted for this featurette. The focus is on the film's origin, the blush of initial excitement in the press, and then the turn against the project. Anderson reports that at one point the original distributor, the Rank Organisation, told him they were ashamed to be associated with the film.



• EPK Featuring Interviews with Jude Law, Sadie Frost and Paul W.S. Anderson (SD; 1.33:1; 7:06): This is a vintage "behind the scenes" featurette from the set, and it's notable for the unfiltered directness with which everyone speaks, because, as Bolt and Anderson mention in the commentary, they couldn't afford publicists.



• Trailer (SD; 1.33:1; 1:40): This was the U.K. trailer.



• Severin Trailers: Birdemic, BMX Bandits, Devolved, Eagles Over London, Hardware (in German), Inglorious Bastards

Shopping Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In a quote that Anderson and Bolt used for the film's publicity, and still appears on the Blu-ray case, one contemporary reviewer called Shopping a "reckless orgy of destruction". Hardly. There are easily a hundred films from the last ten years that feature more on-screen mayhem, both human and metallic, than what appears in Shopping. Then again, one of the reasons why A Clockwork Orange was a disturbing film was not because of the amount of violence, but the film's attitude towards it. Shopping didn't celebrate violence, but it effectively created a world in which a nihilistic indifference toward law and order was at least understandable, though not laudable. I suspect some viewers found that sensation uncomfortable. With appropriate cautions about the film's roughness -- artistically, visually and sonically -- the Blu-ray is worth your time, but you may want to rent first.