6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Spies, cops, holy fools and well-armed children cross paths on a day of danger, mystery and possible transformation. 'The Power of Few' unfolds over twenty minutes on one New Orleans afternoon, experienced through the lives of five unusual characters who unknowingly are connected to an extraordinary smuggling operation as religious conspiracy collides with urban crime.
Starring: Christopher Walken, Christian Slater, Q'orianka Kilcher, Anthony Anderson, Jesse BradfordCrime | 100% |
Drama | 70% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
“Crowdfunding” has become the latest craze among filmmakers, with Variety reporting that various Kickstarter projects have raised north of $119 million over the past four years. This “grass roots” approach tended to initially be the preferred method of raising funds for those without a strong industry presence, but more and more established stars and other creative types have taken this path, often to rather startling results. The film version of Veronica Mars raised almost four million more than its goal, and Zach Braff just had a cover story in Variety touting his bid to raise around three million for the follow up to Garden State. (Other stars like Melissa Joan Hart have been considerably less successful with crowdfunding.) So with this sudden onslaught of “group investment”, perhaps it’s not so very odd to hear that The Power of Few got some pre-release buzz with an announcement that the film would try something that might be termed “crowdediting” (I fear this may be the start of a brave new world of “crowd” prefixed terms), with an online contest to determine the cut of the film’s final sequence. That buzz was fairly short lived, however (news reports of it date back to 2011), and for whatever reason the film wasn’t released theatrically until earlier this year. Despite a rather remarkably diverse cast and a Tarantino-esque interweaving of tangentially connected stories, as well as a decidedly non-linear storytelling approach, The Power of Few ends up being more like a fairly interesting experiment than a full fledged cohesive film experience. Writer-director Leone Marucci’s only previous feature film was a 2004 effort called Reaction, so it’s obvious the filmmaker isn’t in any big rush to get new product to the screen, and The Power of Few definitely shows a burgeoning talent who isn’t afraid to bite off quite a lot—even if that means he can’t quite chew all of it.
The Power of Few is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Vivendi Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This Red One shot feature offers the typically sleek, crystalline appearance of this format, with accurate, if at times intentionally muted, color and excellent fine object detail. Marucci exploits extreme close-ups quite a bit of the time, which only helps fine detail pop all the further. Marucci also engages in some "bells and whistles" filmmaking, utilizing "helmet cams" for some of the motorcycle footage, speeding things up during a foot chase, and, in one odd but funny moment, making things look like a television news broadcast as we see what's going on inside Doke's mind. Contrast is pushed at times, giving the often sun dappled outdoor scenes an effulgent glow surrounding the characters.
The Power of Few sports a very effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which offers consistent, if sometimes subtle, immersion and surround activity. The best moments are the manic motorcycle and foot chases, where a glut of discrete channelization ably creates a panicked feel. But even some of the relatively quieter scenes, like a pivotal moment in a drugstore where some characters are out in the market area while another character is in a storeroom, offer really effective uses of differing ambient noises and senses of aural space. Fidelity is excellent and there is some boisterous LFE at several key moments in the film.
- Christian Slater (1080i; 4:02)
- Christopher Walken (1080i; 3:54)
- Anthony Anderson (1080i; 5:12)
- Juvenile (1080i; 3:20)
- Clementine & Carrie (1080i; 1:03)
- Local Teens (1080i; 2:22)
Tarantino delights in weird tangents and apparently unconnected stories which then magically interconnect, but even with the wildly hyperbolic elements that have come to define this immensely influential auteur, his film usually have at least a semblance of reason and sense. The Power of Few is a bit too circumspect for its own good. It raises a lot of compelling questions, but it offers few concrete answers. That may actually make it enticing for a certain breed of filmgoer who likes provocation without explanation, but for those who prefer things at least a little more straightforwardly presented, this experience may be frustrating, at least at times. Marucci obviously has a strong grasp of film craft, and a lot of The Power of Few works very well indeed, at least in parts, even if as a whole things are too disjointed to ever completely gel. Despite some passing reservations, this Blu-ray, which features great video and audio, comes Recommended.
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