Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Spring Blu-ray Movie Review

Love Is the Devil

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 3, 2015

Spring is release No. 30 from Drafthouse Films, and like so many of Drafthouse's discoveries, it defies easy categorization, which is just what creators Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead intended. Unlike the Coen Brothers, Benson and Moorhead aren't related by blood, but they seem to function with the same unity of purpose. One writes, the other photographs, and both direct, produce and edit. They call themselves "filmmaker hobos", which belies the seriousness with which they approach their work. They may work outside the mainstream in the low-budget world of independent film, but as Spring demonstrates, the quality of a film isn't determined by how much it costs. Passion, ingenuity and hard work are far more important, which is why Spring is a triumph of imaginative cinema.

The difficulty with reviewing Spring is that even the barest outline reveals too much. Benson and Moorhead are experts in genre film, and they have used audience expectations as an essential element of storytelling. Spring artfully blends multiple genres, and its creators precisely balance the mix so that viewers remain unsure, almost to the end, where the film is going. Notes from early screenings complained that the story needed more scenes, but Benson and Moorhead solved the problem by changing the editing rhythm—the calibration is that precise. No matter how carefully a review is written, even a description of characters and locations risks revealing something; so those who want to experience the film "cold" should skip to the technical sections.

At its simplest, Spring is the story of young man who travels to Italy, meets a young woman and is changed forever. As its title suggests, notions of change, rebirth and renewal are essential to Spring, both literally and figuratively, but so too are themes of death, decay and destruction. In both nature and human life, these are simply the opposite ends of what has, at least to date, been a continuous cycle. If all of that sounds vague and grand, rest assured that it won't be by the end of Spring.

The young man in the film is Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci, who appeared in the recent remake of Evil Dead), a Southern California resident who hurriedly leaves town following the death of his ailing mother (Holly Hawkins), and an altercation that costs him his job as a cook at a local bar and grille. With no remaining ties other than his perpetually stoned friend, Tommy (Jeremy Gardner), Evan chooses Italy as his destination on impulse. In Rome he falls in with a pair of hard-drinking British travelers, whose wanderings lead him to a rustic coastal town where he makes eye contact with a beauty in a red dress on the first day. Her name, he will later learn, is Louise (Nadia Hilker, in a career-making performance). While out at a café one night, Evan sees Louise again, and she picks him up so boldly that he's not sure how to react.

When the British move on, Evan remains, taking a job as an assistant to an elderly widowed farmer named Angelo (Francesco Carnelutti), and scanning the narrow roads and twisting paths for a glimpse of Louise. He finds her soon enough, and the relationship that develops is both hopelessly romantic and deeply confusing. At times, Louise is Evan's dream come true: warm, vivacious, sexual and adventurous. Then, as if a switch has flipped, she can suddenly become brooding, distant and evasive. Angelo the farmer, who still mourns for his late wife, tells Evan that Italian women are "the best", but Evan doesn't even know whether Louise is Italian. Her accent is vaguely foreign but hard to pin down, and she will only say that she is an exchange student. Her family and background are a mystery.

As Evan gradually explores his relationship with Louise, and then finally discovers its true nature, Benson and Moorhead insinuate oddities into the frame. Some are hints, and some are misdirection, but they often appear without fanfare or buildup. Sometimes you're not even sure whether your eyes are playing tricks on you. Vines grow rapidly. Flowers suddenly bloom and wither. Reptiles, scorpions and bugs of all varieties seem to pop up everywhere, and not just in the orchard where Evan works for Angelo. Other manifestations are harder to describe, but the Italians seem to take them in stride. At one point, a husband asks his wife what she's staring at, and she replies that "a zombie was doing heroin"—and he doesn't seem concerned.

The film's third act offers even more surprises, as the story encompasses vast expanses of history, science and metaphysics and poses fundamental questions about the nature of existence. Benson and Moorhead manage this so nimbly that it may take several viewings to fully appreciate the extent of their accomplishment. Their style is doggedly naturalistic. The cinematography, music, sound design and, above all, the performances do not aim for the heightened reality of horror films or impassioned love stories. People walk, talk and interact at a normal emotional pitch and, for the most part, in ordinary colors. (Every other film shot in Italy looks like a travel brochure by comparison.) As a result, when something out of the ordinary happens, the effect is all the more unsettling. Most of the special effects were accomplished "in camera", with just enough CG to polish the result and blend it seamlessly. And the effects are never an end in themselves. They're just one component in a film that uses genre elements to sneak up on you with some of life's most profound questions.

Spring Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Aaron Moorhead photographed Spring primarily on a Red camera, although key shots were accomplished with a GoPro unit attached to a flying drone operated by cameraman Will Sampson, a subject covered in "The Making of SPRING" documentary. Compositing, editing and color grading were all completed digitally, and the primary form of distribution was by DCP. Drafthouse's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray (which is being distributed by Anchor Bay) was presumably sourced from digital files.

The Blu-ray image is clear and detailed, but Moorhead favors a kind of softly diffused light that leaves the actors free to move and gives the camera operator freedom to follow them without worrying about shadows. Except for an occasional scene where the colors have been deliberately intensified (e.g., a boat trip into a coastal cave with bright green iridescent water), Spring's palette is muted and subdued, and rarely does anything in the frame "pop" for attention. Moorhead's cinematography rigorously maintains the naturalistic style that he and his co-director prefer (at least for Spring), and while some viewers might yearn for more saturated color and a more varied palette, the Blu-ray appears to reflect the filmmakers' intentions.

Drafthouse has mastered Spring with an average bitrate of 26.84 Mbps, which is fine for digitally acquired material. Banding, macroblocking and other artifacts were not an issue.

Spring Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Spring's 5.1 sound mix has been encoded in lossless Dolby TrueHD. It's a subtly layered mix that is faithful to each of the film's distinctive environments, from its Southern California opening to the various locations in Italy where Evan's journey takes him. An early example of the care with which different aural elements have been blended is the bar scene where an off-screen argument gradually builds into an on-screen altercation between Evan and another patron that will become the cause of Evan's departure for Europe. In the orchard where Evan works for Angelo, nature can be heard all around, and the town's narrow streets and cul-de-sacs have their own distinctive sonic qualities. The film's less "normal" events are accompanied by their own strange noises, many of them loud and startling.

The dialogue is always clear, even Angelo's broken English. The moody score by Jimmy LaValle of The Album Leaf is used sparingly but effectively. As described in "The Making of SPRING", the score is composed entirely of sampled human voices that have been digitally manipulated, so that the music sounds both organic and electronic at the same time.

Spring Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of SPRING (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:10:11): This feature-length documentary is composed of interview footage shot after the film's completion, as well as iPhone and other informal recordings made during production. It provides a complete overview of Spring's creation, from initial concept through pre-production, location scouting, principal photography, editing, visual effects, sound mix and scoring. Obviously no one should watch this companion piece before viewing the film, but it is both entertaining in its own right as well as providing insight into the filmmaking process.



• Commentary with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead: Listed under "Setup", this commentary with the two auteurs (listed, respectively, as "writer, producer, director & editor" and "producer, editor, cinematographer & director"—who decided on the order?), might be expected to repeat much of the information contained in "The Making of SPRING", but remarkably it doesn't. By sticking as closely as possible to the action on screen, Benson and Moorhead supply even further information about their process and intentions, as they describe the development of particular scenes, with emphasis on the actors' contributions, point out subtle visual effects, describe how locations were found and illuminate numerous details about the making of Spring.



• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 2.40:1; 3:44): The two scenes are not separately listed or selectable. Both exist in shorter versions in the finished film. The longer of the two is discussed in the commentary, where Benson and Moorhead say that they wanted to keep it but had to cut it down for pacing.



• SFX Case Studies (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:22): From FrostFX, source photos, concept drawing, early renderings and footage, before and after compositing, of one of Spring's most important effects.



• Proof of Concept (1080p; 2.40:1; 2:16): Benson and Moorhead made this promotional "sketch" to give potential investors an idea of what Spring would be about. They discuss the process (which was unexpectedly difficult) in "The Making of SPRING".



• "Alternate Ending" (1080p; 2.40:1; 3:45): The words are in quotation marks, because this isn't an actual alternative but a wrap party joke.



• Toronto Film Festival Promo (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:26): A comical promo featuring the two filmmakers.



• Fantastic Fest Promo (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:25): Another comical promo featuring the two filmmakers and executive producer Todd Brown.



• Note (1080p; 2.40:1; 1:56): Multiple takes of the scene in which Evan writes Louise a note, each time with a closeup of a different fake note.



• The Talented Mr. Evan (1080p; 2.40:1; 1:33): Subtitled "An Inside Joke for Lovers of The Talented Mr. Ripley", this should require no explanation.



• Angelo, The Worst Farmer (1080p; 2.40:1; 2:05): A critical review of Angelo's farming practices, as depicted in Spring.



• Wankster Girlfriend Monologue (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:10): In one of Spring's early scenes, a drunken bar patron is angrily telling off her boyfriend, mostly off-camera. This is the entire, obscenity-laced rant.



• Evan Ti Odio (1080p; 1.78:1; 3:59): A black-and-white (almost) silent short about a villager named Filippo, who has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in Spring and stars here as a romantic rival to Evan. Nadia Hilker appears in a cameo.



• Introductory Trailers: Unlike the usual Drafthouse release, Spring has no trailer gallery. At startup, the disc plays trailers for Why Don't You Play in Hell?, The Congress and Cheap Thrills, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Spring Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As Benson and Moorhead repeatedly stress, none of their formal craftsmanship would amount to anything without their two lead actors, both of whom bring an essential conviction to their performances. In their commentary, they talk about the ability of great actors to communicate with just a look, and in the "Making of" documentary, they observe that so-called "chemistry" is something that actors work to create. Spring succeeds because Pucci and Hilker bring the characters' relationship to life, with all of its mysteries and complexities. They're the reason you keep staring at the screen, trying to figure out what is happening with these two people. It turns out to be much more than a holiday romance, but that's all I can say. Highly recommended.