Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Tone-Deaf Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 12, 2020

The universe’s extremely dark sense of humor which I mentioned in our recent Abigail Blu-ray review is evidently continuing apace. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph of that review, Abigail, a film about a global pandemic and the population's panicked response to it, crossed my review queue just as news of the Coronavirus was (no pun intended) starting to spread, and now Tone-Deaf arrives with another seemingly pointed reference to current events (more or less, anyway). Early in this rather cheeky combo platter of horror and blacker than black humor, curmudgeonly Baby Boomer Harvey (Robert Patrick) breaks the cinematic fourth wall for the first (but not the last) time to deliver a diatribe to an audience he assumes is made up largely of Millennials. He then suggests (and here’s the current events “comedy” — if you can call it that) that the entire generation drink a gallon of bleach in order to (to paraphrase a certain Ebenezer Scrooge, whom Harvey probably resembles in pre-salvation temperament if not in total assets) “decrease the surplus population”. That very statement highlights a chief aim of writer and director Richard Bates, Jr., which is not just to provide a story with about equal amounts of gore and at least giggles if not outright guffaws, but to also offer a certain generational social critique.

If Harvey is the elder member of the film's generational divide, the younger side of things is personified by Olive (Amanda Crew), and in fact the film actually begins with a series of vignettes detailing first her breakup with boyfriend York (Nelson Franklin) and then her firing by unctuous boss Asher (Ray Santiago). The film has already offered a rather shocking little opening vignette which the viewer is initially left to puzzle out that shows a little girl playing the piano at a recital and obviously looking for someone or someones in the audience who aren't there, which is intercut with scenes of a couple getting ready for some event which disturbingly ends with the man's suicide. Suffice it to say, it doesn't take long to put two and two together to figure out that the two indignities suffered by Olive as a Millennial adult are just the latest assaults that include the long ago event of her parents missing a childhood piano recital of hers due to her father killing himself.

Olive is encouraged by two of her BFFs to clear her head by getting out of the city, maybe to an Air BnB sort of place, for the weekend. This is an idea also approved of by Olive's space cadet mother Crystal (Kim Delaney), who has retreated to a commune in the wake of the tragedy involving her deceased husband. Almost on a whim, Olive throws caution to the wind and books a place in the country, which turns out to be a palatial mansion built by Harvey, one which he has vacated after the death of his wife. In a rather abrupt turn from the (mostly) snarky humor that suffuses the first part of the film, things become considerably darker as Harvey "confesses" to both a neighbor named Agnes (Nancy Linehan Charles) and to the audience (in one of those aforementioned fourth wall breakings) that his estranged son thinks he has dementia, and then as if to prove it, he more or less kidnaps Agnes in preparation to cross a rather curious item off of his bucket list: killing someone.

It may be obvious from even the above summary that Bates loves to dart hither and yon on any number of detours, and that proclivity may tend to diffuse some of the energy of the film. There are a number of arguably needless sidebars here, including the arrival of Harvey's son James (Tate Ellington), and a relationship between Crystal and a commune nebbish named Uriah (Johnny Pemberton), not to mention underdeveloped contexts for Agnes and even Harvey's late wife. I'm also not sure the whole generational angle is consistently handled, either, since one of those aforementioned detours involves a Millennial guy Olive meets on a Tinder like app who turns out to be a Ted Bundy in the making, so that when Harvey "deals" with him, it kind of weirdly puts Harvey into a quasi-good guy role, if only for a moment. Frequent hallucinations and/or nightmares suffered by Harvey introduce a whole other bizarre element into the film, with cobalt colored figures who seem to have escaped from a nearby Blue Man Group performance (even if some of them most definitely are not men). Kind of ironically, then, an actual acid trip Olive goes on late in the film is depicted in a relatively straightforward presentational style.

One of the film’s running gags is that Olive is a totally horrible piano player, though one who has gotten “participation trophies” courtesy of always approving comments about her performances from family and friends. It’s obvious that Bates is riffing on what he sees as Millennials’ tendencies toward feeling entitled, but like some of the other jokes in this film, this one only intermittently pays off. If this and some of the other “meta” material Tone-Deaf proffers isn't completely successful, the film does offer nice showcases for both Patrick and Crew, both of whom are a lot of fun in their roles.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf may have liked Tone-Deaf a bit more than I did. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Tone-Deaf Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tone-Deaf is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The films closing credits sport a "Captured with Alexa" logo, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. Aside from some passing murkiness that shows up in some of the intentionally shadowy interior scenes in the mansion (especially in the last half of the film), this is a rather appealing looking presentation, with consistently good detail levels and some nice, vivid saturation in the palette. A few outdoor moments look just slightly softer than the bulk of the presentation, including the first scene with Harvey, but generally speaking clarity is excellent and fine detail levels are consistent. Harvey's hallucinations often feature what I'm assuming is pretty exuberant contrast that can tend to push whites toward blooming levels, but which makes the blue pop rather well.

Tone-Deaf Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tone-Deaf features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that does achieve some nice angsty qualities courtesy of washes of low frequency effects and menacing tones in the score. Olive's ham handed piano playing is also rendered cleanly (if with intentional boxiness and distortion in the opening flashback). There are a couple of startle effects that erupt from individual channels once the real mayhem starts, and couple of outdoor scenes offer good ambient environmental effects. Dialogue and some pretty "squishy" sound effects are rendered with excellent fidelity and no problems whatsoever that I heard.

Tone-Deaf Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Struggle is Real: Making Tone-Deaf (1080p; 21:25) is an enjoyable EPK featuring interviews with some of the principal cast and crew, including stars Amanda Crew and Robert Patrick, as well as writer and director Richard Bates, Jr.

Tone-Deaf Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a lot to like about Tone-Deaf, but this was a film whose reach perhaps exceeded its grasp. Bates is obviously a very talented writer and director, but I think he might benefit from some outside counsel on paring down his ideas or at least making them more integrated. Fans of the cast may well want to check this out, and this disc offers solid technical merits for those who are considering a purchase.