6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A lonely, neurotic and hilariously honest middle-aged man reunites with his estranged wife and meets his teenage daughter for the first time.
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Judy Greer, Laura Dern, Cheryl Hines, David WarshofskyComic book | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Do major film studios have historians or at least custodians of their institutional legacy any more? If not, that may account for 20th Century Fox’s reuse of one of the less lustrous titles from their past, Wilson. In 1944, Wilson was released to actually at least somewhat positive critical acclaim, but it flopped big time at the box office, becoming an albatross for Fox and Daryl F. Zanuck, whose involvement indicated this had been something of a pet project for the studio impresario. That Wilson was a pretty staid and frankly not very compelling portrait of the 28th President of the United States of America, and some wags have said it’s the most boring film to ever garner a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. (Fox’s historians could probably have a whole display of less than successful Fox releases that some studio shills have been able to market for sometimes absurd numbers of Oscar nominations, with both Wilson and the much later Doctor Dolittle springing instantly to mind.) The foregoing is, of course, said with tongue planted firmly in cheek (as is the deck below the title above, a reference to another Fox distributed film which featured a "character" named Wilson), since 2017’s Wilson is culled from a graphic novel bearing the same name, with both the graphic novel and the film’s screenplay having been written by Daniel Clowes. This particular Wilson (Woody Harrelson) is a guy who might alternatively be called a misanthrope, curmudgeon and/or geezer, three terms which might help to indicate that this focal character is probably not going to be a traditional hero who will automatically spark audience sympathy, let alone adulation, though in both Clowes' and Harrelson's formulations, Wilson does have some redeeming characteristics and (actually kind of annoyingly) does try to repeatedly reach out and touch various people. Another Clowes graphic novel was adapted into Ghost World, but with a generational (and arguably multi-generational) difference between that film’s teen girl characters and Wilson’s middle aged grump, some of Clowes’ tendencies toward acerbic skewering of hipster culture seem oddly out of place.
Wilson is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The closing credits list Arri as having provided cameras and lenses, but there was no "captured by Alexa" logo, so I can't authoritatively state what camera was used, though some online sources do list the Alexa. The film was lensed by Frederick Elmes, a kind of bizarrely underappreciated cinematographer who has a lot of credits with David Lynch (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet), as well as several other directors of note. The look here is both kind of drab realistic and at times whimsically semi-cartoon like, perhaps subliminally referencing the source graphic novel, though the general appearance here is what I'd term workmanlike and competent, if never really overwhelmingly sharp and precise. Grading is apparent, if subtle, adding both yellow and blue highlights to certain scenes. Elmes and director Craig Johnson seem to favor lighting regimens that often add gauzy halos around focal characters at times, something that adds at least the perception of softness to some sequences. Close-ups have often superb levels of fine detail (see screenshot 6). There are no issues with image instability and no compression anomalies.
Wilson's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is, like the video component, workmanlike and competent, but never really having opportunities to fully exploit "wow" surround activity. There are well placed ambient environmental sounds dotting the surrounds throughout the film, especially (though not solely relegated to) outside scenes. The bulk of the film is resolutely dialogue driven, often with only two characters in the frame simultaneously, and as such while immersion is somewhat limited, fidelity is fine. There are no problems with distortion or damage on this problem free track.
- Who is Wilson? (1080p; 2:00)
- Strip to Screen (1080p; 1:49)
- The Women of Wilson (1080p; 1:41)
I liked Wilson at least a little more than my colleague Brian Orndorf, who reviewed the film's theatrical exhibition here. The film has manifest issues, including incomplete development and a lack of context quite a bit of the time, but for me, the performances made at least some of these hurdles easier to overcome. The disc boasts respectable if not exactly mind boggling technical merits, for those considering a purchase.
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