Recently released on Blu-ray and DVD: The Third Murder, The Interpreter, Star Trek Discovery: Season One, Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti.
The Third Murder
An attorney defends a man charged with murder only to find his client continually changing his story. The Third Murder by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda is less a murder mystery than a meditation. It considers many things, beginning with the fine points of law and culpability. The elegantly visualized and scripted film also considers whether crime results from social conditions, perversity or fate, and whether truth can be established in any law court—or anywhere else.
The Interpreter
Nicole Kidman has a face haunted by fear in some of the film’s best moments. Playing a U.N. interpreter who overhears a plot to assassinate a world leader, she is confronted by a skeptical Secret Service agent (Sean Penn) and his no-nonsense partner (Catherine Keener). Director Sydney Pollack’s didactic 2005 thriller has many contrived plot points but also a few interesting turns. The political theme remains relevant: when is combating terrorism just an excuse for genocide?
“Star Trek Discovery: Season One”
The Klingons are angry at the beginning of “Star Trek Discovery” and ready to “lock arms” against those who claim they “come in peace.” That would be the Federation, and the recklessness of First Officer Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) triggers more problems, including the death of her mentor and charges of mutiny. “Discovery” is about Burnham’s redemption quest but makes some good points along the way about fighting fanaticism and making martyrs of their leaders.
Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti
Paul Gauguin’s paintings weren’t selling; he hated his life in Paris (“suffocating”) and tried to convince his wife and friends to join him on his journey to Tahiti. They said no but he went anyway and found inspiration—like many early modernists—in what the West deemed primitive, even savage. Director Edouard Deluc’s dramatization follows the painter’s account of embracing Tahiti in its exotic lushness—especially the beauty of the local women who became his subjects.
