One Missed Call (2008)
This week spotlights the “One Missed Call Trilogy,” ‘Manon,’ the documentary ‘Is Anybody Listening?’ and highlights from eight years of CMA Awards shows.
“One Missed Call Trilogy” (Arrow Video)
Ever want to smash your phone? In Japanese director Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call (2003), even cancelling your service can’t stop the horror. A baroque ringtone announces calls from their own numbers from the day after tomorrow. The message? You will die. One Missed Call is a 21st-century parable on the viral properties of evil and the ripple effect when even one person is abused. The sequels on this Blu-ray creatively advance the plot.
Manon (Arrow Academy)
Writer-director Henri-Georges Clouzot is best-known for thrillers (Wages of Fear). With Manon (1949), he followed two doomed lovers through the rubble of postwar Europe. He’s a French resistance fighter who rescues a woman (Manon) from spiteful villagers who accuse her of fraternizing with the German invaders. She’s crafty enough for two. Clouzot’s orchestration of drama, comedy and romance is much like Hollywood of that era, except that in 1949, no Hollywood studio could have released a film this explicit.
Is Anybody Listening? (Indiepix Films)
Paula J. Caplan’s documentary began with her father, who commanded an artillery unit at the Battle of the Bulge. The Harvard psychology professor sadly realized she never understood her father’s wartime experience and set out to collect the stories of veterans. According to her statistics, only 7% of Americans are veterans (only 1% saw combat). The gap between civilian and military life has widened since her father’s day; homecoming for recent veterans is hard.
“CMA Awards Live Greatest Moments: 2008-2015” (Time Life)
Nashville is melancholic judging by many numbers collected on this Blu-ray. The lights dim for sensitive balladeering and midtempo numbers as the singers go on about love lost and dreams deferred. Then again, that was always a big part of country music! Zac Brown gives one of the rootsier performances among the pop-ready tunes collected from eight years of the CMA Awards. Highlights include Sheryl Crow, Miranda Lambert and Loretta Lynn on “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
