The year's most crushing disappointment, as director Todd Haynes (the brilliant, disturbing Safe) tries for something Miramax-friendly and succeeds spectacularly, divesting himself of wit, intellectual acuity, dramatic rigor, psychological insight--indeed, of everything except sheer spectacle. Clearly, this is one of those unfortunate projects that began not with a story or a character or an indelible image but with a vague, subject-card-catalog idea, e.g. "Wouldn't it be cool to do a movie about the whole '70s glitter era?" Copious research ensued, and now we're assaulted with the sum of Haynes' scattered knowledge: a gaudy, hyperbolic tapestry of thinly disguised facts and anecdotes, signifying little more than "were folks transgressive back then or what?!" Bowie-clone Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and American icon Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor), ostensibly the story's focus, remain ostentatious ciphers, and the structural allusion to Citizen Kane is more irritating than incisive: Welles exposes numerous facets of his protagonist, whereas Haynes can't even manage one. Not entirely without merit, as some of the boffo production numbers are kinda fun--I especially enjoyed Rhys Meyers' wicked rendition of Brian Eno's classic "Baby's on Fire"--but, ultimately, not recommended. (M. D'Angelo)[Blu-ray Review—Dec. 20, 2011—Lionsgate, 119 min., R, $19.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1998's Velvet Goldmine features a decent transfer and DTS-HD 5.1 audio. Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by writer-director Todd Haynes and producer Christine Vachon, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid Blu-ray debut for an uneven film.]
Velvet Goldmine
(Miramax, 119 min., R, avail. May 11, <b>DVD</b>) Vol. 14, Issue 3
Velvet Goldmine
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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