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Urbania
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Hear any good stories lately?
Those words are the first spoken in "Urbania", the critically acclaimed directorial debut of Jon Shears, rescued by Lion's Gate/Trimark from the smoldering remains of Unapix Films. "Urbania" is the sort of film where no plot summary could really do it justice -- a synopsis would either spoil the numerous twists in the plot or so grossly oversimplify things to where the film wouldn't seem interesting at all. Shears states in the commentary that "Urbania" is a film about control, and that seems like a decent place to start. Charlie, played by "Judging Amy"'s Dan Futterman, has lost control of his life and possibly his sanity when a long-term relationship is brutally severed. Charlie is left alone in an uncaring city, trying to make sense of his life and attempting to make amends...not the easiest thing to do for someone having a difficult time distinguishing between harsh reality and the fantasies of his imagination and of urban legends. See, I told you I couldn't make "Urbania" sound as interesting as it really is. Told in a non-linear fashion, "Urbania" constantly has the audience second-guessing themselves, trying to assemble together the pieces provided until things become shockingly clear at the film's conclusion. Shears, who adapted "Urbania" from the play "Urban Folk Tales", successfully managed to create a film that doesn't really begin until an hour in, but wouldn't have been effective without every frame up to that point. I found some of the homoerotic elements a little unsettling during my first viewing, but "Urbania" is not a "gay movie", something that became crystal-clear when I saw the film a second time. "Urbania" really requires a couple of viewings in order to be fully appreciated, but Charlie's journey is absolutely worth a look, even if you only see it once.
Video: Shear mentions in a featurette that "Urbania" was shot on Super 16, digitally edited, then printed back to film. The small amount of dust that appears would seem to indicate that the transfer for this DVD was from a film print, meaning that, yes, the movie went film->digital->film->digital. That dust seems to be the only sort of flaw in the 1.78:1 image, and even that's infrequent and hardly anything to complain about -- just more than I've come to expect from such a recent release. The minimal amount of grain is consistent with the way Super 16 films typically look. Color saturation and black levels are both well-defined.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is phenomenally powerful in the low-end, frequently making use of some extremely bassy music, particularly early on. As "Urbania" is primarily dialogue-driven, directional effects aren't really to be found, but the sound effects that are present are as rich and strong as the score. It was also a nice surprise to hear Skeleton Key pop up twice (well, twice that I noticed) on the soundtrack. Skeleton Key's drummer, Steve Calhoon, also drums for Mono Puff, a side project of one of the frontmen from my favorite band, They Might Be Giants. Yes, I'm obsessed. "Urbania" doesn't feature the sort of gimmicky mix with sounds bouncing from channel to channel that some people seem to prefer, but it sounds natural and complements the film very well.
Supplements: Seventeen minutes of extended/deleted scenes, presented in non-anamorphic widescreen, play consecutively once selected, a nice change from the traditional button-pressing frenzy required by many discs. Among these is an alternate version of the ending. The commentary track brings director Jon Shear together with Dan Futterman and, briefly, Alan Cumming. Shear provides an incredible amount of information about character motivations, production details, technical details, and script notes, and between him and Futterman, gaps of silence are very few and far between. This is an entertaining commentary that might be best viewed shortly after watching the film for the first time. Shear also provides a featurette entitled "Everything Under Control" that could probably be best described as "commentary lite", condensing the feature-length commentary into eighteen and a half minutes. Virtually every aspect of production is touched upon, particularly the groundbreaking efforts in the digital domain in post-production that was very briefly mentioned in the commentary. A lot of ground is covered twice between this featurette and the commentary track, but "Everything Under Control" is worth a look just to learn about the post-production work. Jan Harold Brunvand, author of "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" and other urban legend-related works, is interviewed about urban legends, what they mean, and how they relate to "Urbania" specifically. Running about 16 minutes, this interview seems to offer more of a list of legends presented in the film than a real discussion. The traditional Trimark hidden trailers are for "Urbania", "Better Than Chocolate", and "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss".
Conclusion: "Urbania" is an engaging, unconventional film that cries out for multiple viewings. That, with the number of quality supplements, make this a disc worth having on your shelf. Highly recommended.
Those words are the first spoken in "Urbania", the critically acclaimed directorial debut of Jon Shears, rescued by Lion's Gate/Trimark from the smoldering remains of Unapix Films. "Urbania" is the sort of film where no plot summary could really do it justice -- a synopsis would either spoil the numerous twists in the plot or so grossly oversimplify things to where the film wouldn't seem interesting at all. Shears states in the commentary that "Urbania" is a film about control, and that seems like a decent place to start. Charlie, played by "Judging Amy"'s Dan Futterman, has lost control of his life and possibly his sanity when a long-term relationship is brutally severed. Charlie is left alone in an uncaring city, trying to make sense of his life and attempting to make amends...not the easiest thing to do for someone having a difficult time distinguishing between harsh reality and the fantasies of his imagination and of urban legends. See, I told you I couldn't make "Urbania" sound as interesting as it really is. Told in a non-linear fashion, "Urbania" constantly has the audience second-guessing themselves, trying to assemble together the pieces provided until things become shockingly clear at the film's conclusion. Shears, who adapted "Urbania" from the play "Urban Folk Tales", successfully managed to create a film that doesn't really begin until an hour in, but wouldn't have been effective without every frame up to that point. I found some of the homoerotic elements a little unsettling during my first viewing, but "Urbania" is not a "gay movie", something that became crystal-clear when I saw the film a second time. "Urbania" really requires a couple of viewings in order to be fully appreciated, but Charlie's journey is absolutely worth a look, even if you only see it once.
Video: Shear mentions in a featurette that "Urbania" was shot on Super 16, digitally edited, then printed back to film. The small amount of dust that appears would seem to indicate that the transfer for this DVD was from a film print, meaning that, yes, the movie went film->digital->film->digital. That dust seems to be the only sort of flaw in the 1.78:1 image, and even that's infrequent and hardly anything to complain about -- just more than I've come to expect from such a recent release. The minimal amount of grain is consistent with the way Super 16 films typically look. Color saturation and black levels are both well-defined.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is phenomenally powerful in the low-end, frequently making use of some extremely bassy music, particularly early on. As "Urbania" is primarily dialogue-driven, directional effects aren't really to be found, but the sound effects that are present are as rich and strong as the score. It was also a nice surprise to hear Skeleton Key pop up twice (well, twice that I noticed) on the soundtrack. Skeleton Key's drummer, Steve Calhoon, also drums for Mono Puff, a side project of one of the frontmen from my favorite band, They Might Be Giants. Yes, I'm obsessed. "Urbania" doesn't feature the sort of gimmicky mix with sounds bouncing from channel to channel that some people seem to prefer, but it sounds natural and complements the film very well.
Supplements: Seventeen minutes of extended/deleted scenes, presented in non-anamorphic widescreen, play consecutively once selected, a nice change from the traditional button-pressing frenzy required by many discs. Among these is an alternate version of the ending. The commentary track brings director Jon Shear together with Dan Futterman and, briefly, Alan Cumming. Shear provides an incredible amount of information about character motivations, production details, technical details, and script notes, and between him and Futterman, gaps of silence are very few and far between. This is an entertaining commentary that might be best viewed shortly after watching the film for the first time. Shear also provides a featurette entitled "Everything Under Control" that could probably be best described as "commentary lite", condensing the feature-length commentary into eighteen and a half minutes. Virtually every aspect of production is touched upon, particularly the groundbreaking efforts in the digital domain in post-production that was very briefly mentioned in the commentary. A lot of ground is covered twice between this featurette and the commentary track, but "Everything Under Control" is worth a look just to learn about the post-production work. Jan Harold Brunvand, author of "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" and other urban legend-related works, is interviewed about urban legends, what they mean, and how they relate to "Urbania" specifically. Running about 16 minutes, this interview seems to offer more of a list of legends presented in the film than a real discussion. The traditional Trimark hidden trailers are for "Urbania", "Better Than Chocolate", and "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss".
Conclusion: "Urbania" is an engaging, unconventional film that cries out for multiple viewings. That, with the number of quality supplements, make this a disc worth having on your shelf. Highly recommended.
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