Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Trouble in Mind Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson June 16, 2023

In his tenth feature as a director, Alan Rudolph constructs a pastiche of different time periods and styles in RainCity, the one-word mythical city that stands in for Seattle in Trouble in Mind (1985). With its throwback portrayals of detectives and mobsters, the picture is in debt to 1940s film noir. Wearing a black fedora and trench coat, ex-cop John "Hawk" Hawkins (Kris Kristofferson) is a paean to noir characters once played by Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, and John Garfield. The local crime boss Hilly Blue, who's portrayed by Divine out of drag, is directly inspired by the larger-than-life bad guys once inhabited by Sydney Greenstreet. (Divine's performance was criticized by some reviewers as an amateurish impersonation of Greenstreet but it's a terrific turn on its own.) The film is set in the near future where martial law patrols the streets. Militia soldiers attempt to keep the demonstrators at bay.

As the movie opens, former detective Hawk (Kristofferson) is being released from prison after serving almost eight years for killing gangster Fat Adolph (Gailard Sartain) without legal provocation. The first person he goes to see is Wanda (Geneviève Bujold), an old flame who's the proprietress of Wanda's Cafe. Hawk would like to rekindle his romance with Wanda but she tells him to back off. Wanda does give him a single apartment above her cafe. In a camper parked nearby, the not-married country bumpkins Coop (Keith Carradine) and Georgia (Footloose's Lori Singer looking a lot like Daryl Hannah) have recently moved in with their baby Spike. Coop wasn't able to pick up a local job so he joins forces with petty thief Sole (Joe Morton), who's also a beatnik poet. Georgia isn't very smart but Wanda gives her an opportunity to work at her cafe as a waitress. Hawk tries get his old job back through his former colleague Lt. Gunther (George Kirby) but the police force is unwilling to rehire him. Hawk develops a fascination with Georgia and wants her to become his new romantic partner. But Georgia wants Hawk to help get Coop out of trouble first.

Trouble in Mind is a stylish homage to the noirs of yesteryear with some memorable characters. Keith Carradine goes from a shaggy, long-haired transient to a professional thief with an Elvis-like pompadour and colorful outfits. Divine's big personality transforms Hilly Blue into an unforgettable villain. Solo and Coop pursue the gangster Nate Nathanson (John Considine) but they underestimate his strength and force. Though Considine only has a bit part, he makes Nate memorable. Rudolph deftly stages the climatic shootout at Hilly's mansion into a breathtaking and sensational sequence.

Trouble in Mind only had a budget of $2.8 million but received some wide distribution and was mostly well-received. It closed the Third Miami Film Festival in style. Jon Marlowe of The Miami News wrote a long appraisal, saying in part: "Trouble in Mind is also much more than just a unique noir film of crazed gangsters, constant action and splashy style. It's a master­ful work of gorgeous art and tender heart, filled with ongoing classic dialogue — little lines in time that soon come to mean every­thing." In both an episode of At the Movies and in his print review, the Chicago Tribune's Gene Siskel made a special comparison to a gangland classic: "The lowlife characters and the workaday mobsters they [visitors of Wanda’s Ca­fe] run into form a wonderful supporting cast, the best in a mob picture since The Godfather." In his four-star review, David Neiwert of the Missoulian (Missoula, MT) regarded it as completely original and ahead of its time: "They just don’t make movies like Trouble in Mind anymore....Come to think of it, they’ve never made a movie like Trouble in Mind. They probably never will again, either, be­cause it’s one of those once-in-10-years movies that’s entirely original....The acting, the plot, the set­ting, even the look of the film combine to make this one of the subtlest and craziest entertainments in years." Both William Wolf of the Gannett News Service and Jeff Strickler of the Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) considered Trouble in Mind Rudolph's best film up to that point. Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times named it one of the best movies of 1985.

Trouble in Mind Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shout! Factory's new Blu-ray of Trouble in Mind comes on an MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (feature size: 28.30 GB). The film appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. I would place a safe bet that this older transfer derives from the same master that Shout! prepared for its "25th Anniversary Special Edition" DVD thirteen years ago. For a lot of its runtime, the picture is gray with a hazy, smoke-filled atmosphere. It also boasts some neon lights and bright colors. The image occasionally shows some print damage in the middle of the frame. For example, see the tramlines in Screenshot #s 20-22. There's also a tramline at the beginning of the scene from frame grab #19. The grain structure is quite harsh throughout the picture but I think that was intentional.

Director of photography Toyomichi Kurita had previously served as a camera operator on Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) and I wanted to see how critics regarded his first solo work as DP on Trouble in Mind. Kurita was rightly praised almost across the board. For instance, Catharine Rambeau of the Detroit Free Press observed: "This is cinematographer Toyomichi Kurita's first feature, and he appears to be extraordinarily talented. The picture glows; even its murkiest settings gleam, and individual scenes are hand­somely framed. Kurita, working with the slick dark streets and lurid neon so popular now, has made them look fresh." Newsday's Mike McGrady descriptively and succinctly encapsulated the overall look of the movie: "In general, Rudolph catches the tex­ture of a Hopper painting — the loneli­ness and alienation of the modern city, somber and smoky grays streaked by garish color bursts, neon everywhere, streetlamps casting perfect white cir­cles out into the darkness, too-red lip­sticks, flickering candles, the blinking blue-red-yellow-white lights atop po­lice cruisers." Shout! has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 34.00 Mbps, with an overall bitrate of 36.20 Mbps.

A dozen chapters accompany the 111-minute film.

Trouble in Mind Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo mix (1675 kbps, 24-bit) as the lone sound track. Spoken words are audible and delivery is adequate. The ballads sung by Marianne Faithfull and the original score by Mark Isham are highlights more so than the f/x. Roger Ebert wrote in his four-star review: "This is a world for which the saxophone was invented." Indeed, Isham performs on sax along with Pee Wee Ellis. This is a bluesy soundtrack with Isham also performing impressively on trumpet and electronic keyboards. On the Antilles/New Directions CD (as well as on the vinyl releases), he eloquently captures the blues on the tracks "Pleasure in Old Sufferings," "The Invitation," and "Intimacy."

Optional English SDH are included for the feature.

Trouble in Mind Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Shout! has retained the two main supplements from its 2010 DVD. The original liner notes leaflet by Alan Rudolph has not been reproduced here.

• HALVES OF A DREAM: Making TROUBLE IN MIND (50:40, upscaled to 1080i) - this retrospective doc features interviews with writer/director Alan Rudolph, producers Carolyn Pfeiffer and David Blocker (brother of Dirk), composer Mark Isham, cinematographer Toyomichi Kurita, production designer Steven Legler as well as actors Kris Kristofferson, Keith Carradine, Lori Singer, Joe Morton, and Geneviève Bujold. This is a pretty comprehensive "making of" that traces the project's origins from script stage to shooting in Seattle. A bulk is devoted to exploring Rudolph's filmmaking approach and creative mind. This is balanced with a discussion of the actors' performances, including those who aren't interviewed, such as Divine, George Kirby, and John Considine. The program mixes talking heads with clips from the movie and production photographs. All speak in English, not subtitled.

• In Conversation: With Writer/Director Alan Rudolph and Composer Mark Isham (37:03, upscaled to 1080i) - Rudolph and Isham sit down for a relaxing, friendly chat about their collaboration on Trouble in Mind as well as other films they've worked on. Rudolph explains how he first discovered Isham's music and hired him to score the picture. They laugh about having to play back cassette tapes during the scoring sessions. They reminisce on the ballads Kris Kristofferson and Marianne Faithfull wrote and performed. They also explain how the songs contributed to the success of the picture. Isham describes how he approached the music for the film. The best moment comes when Isham details how he performed using a MIDI, which produced six versions of a piece he was playing. In English, not subitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:18, 1080p) - a restored trailer for Trouble in Mind presented in about 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen.

Trouble in Mind Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Trouble in Mind is a stylish throwback noir that I'm pleased has finally reached Blu-ray in the States. If you don't own Shout! Factory's 2010 DVD, then definitely pick this release up as it's doubtful that there will be a new transfer made anytime soon. It ports over the two extended featurettes. If you bought the earlier SD, this disc does feature lossless audio and the picture benefits from the added resolution. A SOLID RECOMMENDATION.