Recently released on DVD: Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters: Live at David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption, Crossing the Bridge/Indian Summer, The Guardian: The Complete Series, #artoffline.
Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters: Live at David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption
Unlike most rock stars of his era, Robert Plant remains creatively vital. The 2016 concert documented here is no dog-and-pony show of old hits but a musical journey in which Plant connects his blues roots to their syncopated African origins. That distinctive Led Zeppelin howl is heard occasionally but even Plant’s renditions of “Black Dog” and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” are significantly reimagined. West African string instruments are promeninent. And yes, it rocks.
Crossing the Bridge/Indian Summer
Mort, the protagonist of Crossing the Bridge (1992), is brighter than the aimless high school graduates he hangs with in 1975 Detroit. While flawed, director Mike Binder’s debut captures the 8-tracks and six-packs of the era’s teenage wasteland. Will Mort break with his dead end friends and go to college? Will the boys get busted on a drug run across the Canadian border? Crossing the Bridge is paired with Binder’s second film, Indian Summer, on Blu-ray.
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“The Guardian: The Complete Series”
Simon Baker stars as Nicholas, hotshot corporate attorney sentenced to 1,500 hours of community service for his misdeeds. He’s assigned to a nonprofit children’s advocacy service representing abused and neglected kids. Nicholas’ smugness wears off soon enough as he juggles caring for child clients with his day job cutting sweet deals for high rollers. A well-paced social-courtroom drama, “The Guardian” touches on Big Pharma, mental health, the War on Drugs and other enduring issues.
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#artoffline
The limitlessness of the digital has its assets, but in this beautifully composed documentary, the artists, curators and gallery owners interviewed insist on the importance of physical encounters with artwork. A digital image is no substitute for the “total body experience” of facing art in a three-dimensional space. A picture of the Mona Lisa, to use an obvious example, looks considerably different than the real object. #artoffline is a smart rebuke to mindless digital futurists.
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