Spinning Gold Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Spinning Gold Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 2, 2023

One of the kind of sweet things about the fantastically engaging documentary The Wrecking Crew, a piece about the cream of Los Angeles session musicians who played on countless hits that are probably permanently inscribed in your synapses if you ever listened to any charting singles from the sixties and seventies in particular, is that the doc was shepherded by Denny Tedesco, son of Tommy Tedesco. While the Tedesco surname may not be particularly recognizable to those not prone to reading credits on albums, Tedesco père was one of the Wrecking Crew's notable (sorry, pun unavoidable) members whose guitar graced not just an unfathomable number of hit singles, but also "soundtrack of your life" memories like the themes to both Bonanza (fellow session legend guitarist Al Caiola had the actual charting hit 45 version) and The Twilight Zone (I could be wrong, but I don't think there was ever a hit version of that "tune", and, yes, that's a joke). That personal family connection gave what could have been a dry recitation of facts and figures a really rather substantial emotional component at times, and one assumes that another scion of a prominent person in the music industry was hoping for at least something like that same effect in Spinning Gold. In this particular instance, while Timothy Scott Bogart wrote, directed and co-produced this feature about his iconic father Neil Bogart (portrayed by Broadway's Jeremy Jordan in his big screen starring debut, though Justin Timberlake was evidently originally announced for the part), there are several other Bogarts involved in various aspects of the production, including Neil's mother Joyce Bogart Trabulus and his brothers Brad and Evan Bogart.

Unfortunately, one of the things which I suspect affected the reaction to this film upon its brief theatrical exhibition is that Bogart isn't an especially well remembered surname, either, at least not with regard to this family, and once again excepting those who actually read album liner note credits. But there are also some stylistic conceits at play in Spinning Gold that might be a bit too self consciously "meta" for their own good. Neil Bogart is introduced almost immediately as a beyond unreliable narrator of his own life story, and that includes a kind of ridiculous but rousing song and dance number that sees him more or less taking part in a performance of Edwin Hawkins' memorable crossover gospel hit "Oh, Happy Day", which Bogart did in fact shepherd to Buddah Records and Top 40 prominence. But to offer this opening vignette as a splashy and inarguably silly and potentially even maybe controversial (Reverend Hawkins is shown shoveling piles of bills into his pockets) is a clue that the Bogarts themselves are probably intentionally unreliable narrators themselves of their relative's legacy, and as such Spinning Gold is probably best understood as an undeniable homage to a father and husband from his sons and wife.

Those interested in a data point filled biopic will come away from Spinning Gold with all sorts of questions, but the film at least elides some of the actual history with a series of vignettes that documents Bogart's ultimate founding of Casablanca Records, which is perhaps questionably cited as the most successful independent record label of all time in some text info dumps at the end of the picture (it seems to me A&M might have outsold Casablanca). Some of the background supplements included on this disc overtly mention any number of relatively recent music centered cinematic biographies, including Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, but there's a difference between filling a musical spectacle with supposed "life story" tidbits and a ton of memorable hits tied to that very life story, and the wild tale of an executive and his efforts to build a label. In that regard, the film offers a slew of guest star performances as any number of artists Bogart had a hand in offering to the public, including Ledisi as Gladys Knight, Sam Harris as Paul Stanley, Tayla Parx as Donna Summer, Jason Derulo as Ron Isley and Wiz Khalifa as George Clinton.

The film takes a stab at providing a few more personal moments between Bogart and his first wife Elizabeth (Michelle Monaghan) and second wife Joyce (Lyndsy Fonseca), as well as some passing interactions between Bogart and his father (Jason Isaacs), and various people who passed through the corporate offices of the various labels with which Bogart was associated. Bogart fils doesn't seem shy about addressing at least some of his father's reported peccadilloes, but the film is probably too inherently splashy to qualify as a "warts and all" dissection of a complex personality.

Note: I'm evidently a bit more engaged by Spinning Gold than Brian Orndorf was during the brief theatrical exhibition which he reviewed. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Spinning Gold Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Spinning Gold is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa Mini as the camera utilized, but doesn't specify the resolution of the DI. One way or the other, detail levels are uniformly excellent throughout almost all of this presentation, with really nice and precise renderings of some fun retro production design elements. Fine detail on fabrics and the like is typically great looking. The color timing can occasionally veer toward a slightly orange-yellow tone which can marginally affect the "naturalness" of the palette. There are any number of stylistic bells and whistles that are employed that can also lead to brief deficits in fine detail in particular.

Spinning Gold Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Spinning Gold features a fun and propulsive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that understandably derives a lot of its immersive capabilities due to the musical elements, though that said, some of the musical scenes are actually not "singing and dancing spectaculars" and can be a bit more reserved, as in some "rehearsal" moments in studios. The busy clamor of various studio offices also provides good opportunity for some background spill to waft into the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Spinning Gold Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Spinning Gold: Behind the Scenes (HD; 16:37) has some good interviews with the Bogart family.


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 8:21)


• In the Recording Studio with Jeremy Jordan: Creating Cherry on Top (HD; 3:15) is a brief but fun look at a supposed teeny bopper tune that Bogart recorded.


• Jeremy Jordan's First Audition (HD; 7:53)


• That's a Wrap! (HD; 6:25) offers director Timothy Scott Bogart "wrapping out" the cast and crew.


• Artists on Artists (HD; 4:10) looks at how the guest stars created the characters who made some of the iconic recordings Bogart helped shepherd to the charts.


• Neil Bogart: Bet It All (HD; 3:55) features another brief look at what propelled Bogart's approach to star making.


• Feature Commentary with Writer / Director Timothy Scott Bogart and Director of Photography Byron Werner

Additionally DVD and digital copies are included, and packaging features a slipcover.

Spinning Gold Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Spinning Gold unfortunately kind of hits its real stride in its closing credits sequences, which finds Bogart singing a nice tune called Greatest Time, which includes snippets of any number of other tunes that Bogart had a hand in fashioning through the years. There's quite a bit to enjoy in this film, though it probably never quite hits the bullseye, or, to use a metaphor from the music industry, gets to the top of the charts. The film has a lot of style which may help some to tolerate some other issues in storytelling that crop up. Technical merits are solid and the rather fulsome supplemental features very enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.