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.