Tag Archives: The Astronaut’s Wife

After EVIL Was Executed, A Movie Was Released! “Monster” reviewed! (Second Sight Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Own Second Sight Films’ Blu-ray of “Monster.” Order Here!

Aileen had big dreams and big ambitions to be someone in life.  Growing up, she did what she had to do to get ahead, even if that means selling her body at a young age when she had no advantages unlike her peers.  Now getting longer in the tooth, Aileen still unhappily hooks to live hand-to-mouth, day-by-day, just to survive cruel circumstances.  When she meets Selby, a young, lonely lesbian looking for friend, the two become attached at the hip becoming exactly what each other need at that moment.  The two become intwined was not only friendship but passion as Aileen promises to quit the streets and make a better life for her and Shelby but when one of the last nights of prostitution winds up almost killing her and her unloading bullets into attacker, Aileen succumbs to a taste for murdering sleazy men in order to satisfy Selby’s love.  How far will Aileen go to achieve her dream?

The sad story of Aileen Wuornos life is much more than the serial killer segment she’s most infamous for.  Wuornos unlucky dealt hand could be considered the archetype of white trash narratives being born to teenage parents, practically raised without role models or stable parents, sexual and physically abused by those close to her, impregnated during the middle of her high school teen years, kicked out of her grandparents’ house, and learned to survive through the old profession of prostitution.  Yet, all that tragedy is not in the story that is about to unfold before you in “Monster,” the 2003 biopic thriller from “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins.  Mostly authentic with bits and pieces adjusted to protect individuals from the public eye, “Monster” accounts for what Aileen is responsible for, the multiple slayings of clients who were accused by Aileen as rapists and abusers during their sexual transaction.  Also touch upon, and in a very heart-rending sense, is Aileen’s love for another woman and how their relationship crumbled under the stress of life’s tremendously unfair hard knocks.  Jenkins writes-and-directs the film with Wuornos’ blessing under the multiple production umbrella of Media 8 Entertainment, New Market Films, Denver & Delilah Films, K/W Productions, DEJ Productions, and, in association with, MDP Worldwide. 

To play labeled America’s first female serial killer, Patty Jenkins sought after Charlize Theron who, at that time of the early 2000s, was hitting the height of her career having starred alongside Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino in “The Devil’s Advocate,” Johnny Depp in “The Astronaut’s Wife,” and Mark Wahlberg in the remake heist film “The Italian Job.”  Theron, a stunning woman who became the epitome of glamour and beauty in the eyes of Hollywood, put herself through a transfiguration for the role of Aileen Wuornos.  Gaining weight and capturing Wuornos mannerisms and thoughts-process to play, as close as possible, the woman who would go on to murder 7 men in late 80s, early 90s.  Play is perhaps too broad of term for Theron who depicts a drastic overhaul of her looks and her idiosyncrasies to recreate Wuornos in the flesh and in the mind, creating a lifelike illusion of Wuornos on screen that garnered her an Oscar.  Theron’s costar, however, did not dress the part of Aileen’s real-life lover who opted to remain in the shadows of a private life, disconnected from her past sordid by true life crime.  That costar is none other than Christina Ricci.  The “Addams Family” and “Sleepy Hollow” star adds a slender, petite, fictional companion as lonely-lesbian Selby Wall against, who we know more about today, was a heavier set and butch woman that was Aileen’s romantic partner, Tyria Moore.  Jenkins invokes a sense of loneliness between the two women who find each other when they need each other the most, at the lowest point in their lives, and when their journey together seems hopeful, bright, and prosperous, life’s muck and judgement comes raining down life hellfire.  Aileen’s series of johns make up the rest of the cast and a few have familiar faces, such as Pruitt Taylor Vince (“Identity,” “Constantine”), Scott Wilson (“The Walking Dead”), Marc Macaulay (“Wild Things”) and Lee Tergensen (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:  The Beginning”) with Tim Ware, Brett Rice, Marco St. John, and the Oscar winner Bruce Dern (“The Burbs’) rounding the cast out. 

Having been released over two decades ago, “Monster” still retains relevance even when the real-life Aileen Wuornos no longer breathing after her execution in 2002.   “Monster’s” focus isn’t about the episodic killings of a laundry list of varietal behavioral clients who either seek sex out of loneliness or seek it for other devilish, wicked means as Patty Jenkins hones in on a more strung along motif of loneliness that connections not just our principal characters but, in a way, most of the Aileen’s men, the clients.  Baked and weathered by the hot Floridan sun and about as vocally turbo-charged as they come, Aileen isn’t the most beautiful street girl, and not even the most pure and refined soul, but provides a service, a service of warm skin, closeness, and pent-up relief.  In turn, that same service becomes her jailor and her undoing, shackling and imprisoning her growth form an early age, stemmed by a childhood she didn’t have, that didn’t allow her to become somebody and to make something of her downtrodden existence.  The murders are in a backseat, second fiddle to that blossoming love story between her and Selby that engulfs and drives the violence that seeks no end.  Itty-bitty details shine through into Aileen’s humanity, as a perk of the person rather than the monster she’s perceived after the fact, after the trail, and after her capitalized death.  Patty Jenkins sought to make an homage as the reason rather than just the basic news coverage of Aileen Wuornos and achieved eye-opening success.

Second Sight Films invests into a new Blu-ray release with new content encoded onto AVC, 1080p resolution, 50-gigabyte disc, scanned in 2K from the original 35mm film and presented in a 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  What’s impressive about the Second Sight release is retaining the natural looking grain of celluloid film.  Hues are approached organically without an overabundance of grading and this release sees to preserve “Monster’s” hard-edge and enough definitional nooks-and-crannies, especially around the weathered skin and fibrous features of Aileen Wuornos biological appearance.  The Blu-ray comes with two lossless, English audio options:  DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and a LPCM stereo 2.0.  Both offers true fidelity through the layers of range and depth but whichever A/V setup you have will dictate the format you choose.  However, the Stereo option is a good, well-rounded, full-bodied option for all as “Monster” is more a talking narrative than a caffeinated spear of action, but the rear and side channels due funnel a nicely diffused environmental ambience of highway traffic and some supplementary crowd noise underneath a well-verbose and amply clean and clear dialogue track.  New, exclusive content line the special features option on the fluid menu, such as a new interview with Patty Jenkins Making a Murderer that goes into depth about her relationship with muse Aileen Wuornos through conversation and letters as well as Charlize Theron’s transformation and performance, a new interview with producer Brad Wyman Producing a Monster, and a new interview with Director of Photography Steven Bernstein Light from Within that captures a late 80s-early 90s without infusing artificial concealer.  Other supplementals available are an audio commentary with director Patty Jenkins, actress Charlize Theron, and producer Clark Peterson, the evolution of the score featurette, deleted and extended scenes with Patty Jenkins commentary, a making-of featurette that bases the film out of being a true story, and the original theatrical trailer.  For a standard Blu-ray release, Second Sight provides a ton of content; however, there are no physical goodies, nor does the standard release come in a rigid box.  Inside a green Amary case, the single sided front comes, in what has become a prolonged motif amongst Second Sight releases, with a two-tone of black and blue or black and purple and austere cover art of Theron’s portrayal of Wuornos looking worn down.  The UK certified 18 release for strong violence and sexual violence has a runtime of 109 minutes and is hard encoded region B locked so you’ll need either a region B or region free player for playback in the Americas.

Last Rites: A beaut of a Blu-ray for the now over 20-year-old “Monster” that sees new content and insights that cast less shade over a troubled existence that inflicted real life killer Aillen Wuornos. Patty Jenkins and Charlize Theron do the story justice and Second Sight Films just follows suit with enhancing its story told quality.

Own Second Sight Films’ Blu-ray of “Monster.” Order Here!

A Little Space Can Asunder the Strongest Bond. “Alien Love” reviewed! (Sector 5 Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Its Not Strange Love, It’s “Alien Love” now on Blu-ray!

Ryan Van Hill-Song and his wife Sadie are a happily married couple despite their age gap.  Ryan’s ardent journey and dream to reach beyond the clouds and into space is on the verge of coming true while Sadie decides to take a break from the vocational rigmaroles of her young life.  Ryan’s NASA mission goes without a hitch except for a brief loss in communication with headquarters.  Upon his return home, Sadie notices a behavioral difference in her once loving husband who now acts strange in his own surroundings and around her.  Despite a few amorous encounters, Ryan becomes strangely obsessed with the extraterrestrial concept through alien themed movies, local artistic murals, and anecdotal accounts that are engrained into their home city’s culture.  As Sadie begins to suspect Ryan is no longer her husband after learning about her pregnancy, NASA agents move in to chase down Ryan and capture his true being.

Strap yourself in to blast off into the great unknown of extraterrestrial copulating with Simon Oliver’s 2024, Sci-Fi romance-drama, “Alien Love.”  The serial Australian documentary director puts a pause on the confluence of beings from the space frontier, the mysticism of the occult and supernatural, and historical contexts to land terrestrial blending-aliens amongst us, hiding under human skin as our family and as our lovers; in this case with “Alien Love,” as astronaut and husband Ryan Van Hill-Song with a concealed agenda.  The script, that presses themes of usual relationships and their potential inertia, is penned by the principal male lead, Nathan Hill, and Simon Salamon, both of whom are coming hot off the script press of their last feature “Lady Terror” from the previous year.  Hill dons the producer hat as well under his production company NHProductions with Sector 5 Films’ Warren Croyle footing and distributing the microbudget feature. 

Nathan Hill producers, co-writes, and stars in most of his pictures.  However, for “Alien Love,” the accomplished filmmaker breaks up the routine monotony by taking a backseat in the director’s chair to enhance focus on Ryan Van Hill-Song, the astronaut who returns to Earth and is not the same man who left his planet.  Aside from a few lines in flashbacks and a quick, laconic replies here and there, Hill mostly lounges about or takes a run while in character, leaving the brunt of the dialogue and emotional work in the hands of Ira Chakraborty, a model-actress in her full-length feature debut in the role of Sadie.  Ira carries the story that mostly just stagnates with scenes of Ryan’s wandering alien obsession and absence seizure indifference all the while Sadie frustratingly can’t decipher her husband’s acute loafing and lack of any kind of emotion in contrast to the flashback lovey-dovey affections.  The craftier part about this devolving dynamic is the theme it represents between fantastical expectations and grim reality, especially between two considerably different people on a collision course of marital decline.  Throw a baby in the mix, a more calamitous cocktail ensues.  NASA agents, supervised by Colonel John Smith (Edward Mylan), are on the hunt for the close encounter, and if you’re wondering what the hell is NASA is doing in Australia, well, let me school you on that there is a NASA deep space communication center in the land of Oz to allow seamless communications to spacecrafts when the Earth rotates.  The more you know…  “Alien Love” fills out the cast with Eleanor Powell, Demz Lato, Sam Ready, Chase Kauffman, John Robertson, Robert Rafik Awad, Ben Bramwell, Savita Bungay, Emily Farrell, and Dan Heubel.

Preboarding the “Alien Love” ship saw an audience collective view of similarities toward the Rand Ravich directed, Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron-starring “The Astronaut’s Wife,” and after soaring through “Alien Love’s” story, that general consensus is spot on as the Simon Oliver helmed, Nathan Hill production is a remake of the 1999 New Line theatrical release on a much smaller scale.  Going into the film knowing this, there ironically emerges less subjectivity because expectations were set and the cognitive ability to examine “Alien Love” for more than just a remake is formed.  The aforementioned theme of wedging differences between two people is characterized by the age gap and ambitions.  Ryan’s an older man, this fact is mentioned a few times early on, chasing a space dream and Sadie is somewhere 20-30 years his junior and judging with conversations with friend Abbey, Sadie is or was in university.  Love at first is healthy, vibrant, exciting, and hopeful like any first-time marriage but the gap, symbolized by Ryan’s change, becomes alienating, literally, and the once strong bond between the two lovers is now reduced to the occasional sex and just being in proximity of each other as interests change and connections become stale.  This unfortunate walk-through of life is told through the sensationalism of an alien inhabiting human form, but the message of marital decay is loud and clear with all the hallmarks of a souring union between two very different people.  When the alien does make the screen, the simplistic mask man works here with a decent alien archetype look without it being overly schlocky; however, the need more for more context is sorely missing as Oliver goes for more style than substance as the need for digital lens flares and art compositions unbraid the build of the story.

From Sector 5 Films comes “Alien Love” on an Australian Blu-ray home video.  The AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition resolution, BD-R has lossy picture quality simply because it’s a BD-R; however, the bandwidth appears to be adequate to suppress artefact issues and sustain a stable, reliable quality throughout.  Details and colors are generally soft, textures lack distinction, in what is more of a hazy aura veneer with muted colors and no dense shadows, over kneaded by warm pink and rich blue gels to heighten the dreamy affect.  Delineation works for the cityscapes and some handful of land planted with powerlines and towers coupled with interesting camera angles and work.  The only audio option is a lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix that heavy on exposition and Jamie Murgatroyd’s mingling with epic soundtrack.  Dialogue layer has dynamic change depending on how cavernous rooms can be or if background ambience levels are higher that suppress vocal projection.  Overall design diffuses fine from a stereo output with clean and clear dialogue.  Special features include a feature parallel audio commentary with stars Nathan Hill and Ira Chakraborty, an interview with Hill and Chakraborty going over fan questions, interview with esteemed John Hipwell (“Lady, Stay Dead”), deleted scenes with commentary from Nathan Hill, a blooper reel, still gallery, and trailer. With the encoded special features packed with goodies, the Blu-ray design and package leans toward more standard fare with a traditional Amaray case with no inserts or other tangible accompaniments.  Primary cover art looks inexpensive, air brushed, and circa science films of the 1950s.  Disc is pressed with the same image.  The 75-minute feature comes unrated with region free playback. 

Last Rites: “Alien Love” will not be the knock-your-socks-off science fiction film of the year nor will it dazzle with awe-inspiring special effects. What Simon Oliver and Nathan Hill specialize with their latest film is storytelling of a disintegrating couple during alienating times, plain and simple, with a heavy emphasis on the plain and simple.

Its Not Strange Love, It’s “Alien Love” now on Blu-ray!