1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
Real Life
Decades before reality television reigned supreme, there was Albert Brooks's debut feature, Real Life, a brilliantly deadpan, stylistically innovative satire about the perils and pitfalls of trying to capture the truth on film. The writer-director plays "Albert Brooks," a narcissistic Hollywood filmmaker who plans to spend the year in Phoenix embedded with Warren and Jeanette Yeager (Charles Grodin and Frances Lee McCain) and their two children, deploying an arsenal of cutting-edge equipment (including the over-the-head Ettinaur 226XL camera) to capture an American family's ordinary day-to-day. Chronicling the project's disastrous fallout, as the meddlesome Albert can't help getting too close to his subjects, this pioneering mockumentary is more relevant than ever amid today's media landscape.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Albert Brooks, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New interview with Brooks
• New interview with actor Frances Lee McCain
• 3D trailer directed by Brooks
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Mother
Reeling after his second divorce and struggling with writer's block, sci-fi novelist John Henderson (Albert Brooks) resolves to figure out where his life went wrong, and hits on an unorthodox solution: moving back in with his relentlessly disapproving, cheerfully passive-aggressive mother (Debbie Reynolds), whose favorite son has always been John's younger brother, Jeff (Rob Morrow). It's an experiment that, however harebrained, delivers surprising results. Brooks's film perfectly blends the writer-director-star's biting wit with insight and inviting warmth, while giving him a formidable foil in the delightful Reynolds, triumphant in a comeback role that's equal parts caustic and charming.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Albert Brooks, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New interview with Brooks
• New interview with actor Rob Morrow
• Teaser directed by Brooks
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Carrie Rickey
Decades before reality television reigned supreme, there was Albert Brooks's debut feature, Real Life, a brilliantly deadpan, stylistically innovative satire about the perils and pitfalls of trying to capture the truth on film. The writer-director plays "Albert Brooks," a narcissistic Hollywood filmmaker who plans to spend the year in Phoenix embedded with Warren and Jeanette Yeager (Charles Grodin and Frances Lee McCain) and their two children, deploying an arsenal of cutting-edge equipment (including the over-the-head Ettinaur 226XL camera) to capture an American family's ordinary day-to-day. Chronicling the project's disastrous fallout, as the meddlesome Albert can't help getting too close to his subjects, this pioneering mockumentary is more relevant than ever amid today's media landscape.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Albert Brooks, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New interview with Brooks
• New interview with actor Frances Lee McCain
• 3D trailer directed by Brooks
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Mother
Reeling after his second divorce and struggling with writer's block, sci-fi novelist John Henderson (Albert Brooks) resolves to figure out where his life went wrong, and hits on an unorthodox solution: moving back in with his relentlessly disapproving, cheerfully passive-aggressive mother (Debbie Reynolds), whose favorite son has always been John's younger brother, Jeff (Rob Morrow). It's an experiment that, however harebrained, delivers surprising results. Brooks's film perfectly blends the writer-director-star's biting wit with insight and inviting warmth, while giving him a formidable foil in the delightful Reynolds, triumphant in a comeback role that's equal parts caustic and charming.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Albert Brooks, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New interview with Brooks
• New interview with actor Rob Morrow
• Teaser directed by Brooks
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Carrie Rickey
- ryannichols7
- Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:26 pm
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
let me be the first to say: extremely, extremely overdue but the 4K makes it all worth it
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
Can’t say I had Mother on 4K UHD on my Bingo card
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- Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 1:27 pm
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
Strange Real Life doesn't show an essay being included. Maybe just a typo?
- TechnicolorAcid
- Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2023 7:43 pm
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
I did but for a very different film.
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
I wonder how 3D compatible the Real Life trailer will be
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
Worth noting that the trailer for Real Life is the funniest thing Brooks ever did (and my vote for the best trailer of all time), so thank god that managed to show up even with the paucity of extras on these releases
- brundlefly
- Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 12:55 pm
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
Might've been nice to have a piece about An American Family as it's not readily available and ancient history at this point. But I guess Brooks can talk about it for ten seconds or if they decide to bother with an essay that writer can devote a sentence or two to it.
- denti alligator
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
- Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"
- Roger Ryan
- Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
- Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
That's part of the gag.denti alligator wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 2:08 pmWas it shot in 3D? If it’s short enough, it may be easy enough to include both a 2D and 3D version, which would be ideal.
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
It recently became available again.brundlefly wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 2:06 pmMight've been nice to have a piece about An American Family as it's not readily available and ancient history at this point. But I guess Brooks can talk about it for ten seconds or if they decide to bother with an essay that writer can devote a sentence or two to it.
- tolbs1010
- Joined: Wed Oct 21, 2020 7:01 pm
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
Criterion has finally rectified the lack of Rob Morrow in the Collection. Let the floodgates open. Actually, just give us Quiz Show ASAP and stop there.
I like Mother, but it is kind of a weird choice for the Collection.
I like Mother, but it is kind of a weird choice for the Collection.
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
Should note, the transfers won't look great because PBS foolishly discarded the original film elements so per Alan Raymond no new scan will likely be possible, but at least it's all available in some form.hearthesilence wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 6:55 pmIt recently became available again.brundlefly wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 2:06 pmMight've been nice to have a piece about An American Family as it's not readily available and ancient history at this point. But I guess Brooks can talk about it for ten seconds or if they decide to bother with an essay that writer can devote a sentence or two to it.
- brundlefly
- Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 12:55 pm
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
That's great! Thank you.hearthesilence wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 6:55 pmIt recently became available again.brundlefly wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 2:06 pmMight've been nice to have a piece about An American Family as it's not readily available and ancient history at this point. But I guess Brooks can talk about it for ten seconds or if they decide to bother with an essay that writer can devote a sentence or two to it.
But if there were no rights problems keeping it from view, one less hurdle for Criterion to coordinate with PBS and the Louds and the Raymonds for some sort of contextual feature.
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
Raymond is active on Facebook so it's tempting to suggest that idea to him...but he comes off as a bit cantankerous sometimes so I would be reluctant to do so!brundlefly wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2024 1:20 amThat's great! Thank you.hearthesilence wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 6:55 pmIt recently became available again.brundlefly wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 2:06 pmMight've been nice to have a piece about An American Family as it's not readily available and ancient history at this point. But I guess Brooks can talk about it for ten seconds or if they decide to bother with an essay that writer can devote a sentence or two to it.
But if there were no rights problems keeping it from view, one less hurdle for Criterion to coordinate with PBS and the Louds and the Raymonds for some sort of contextual feature.
- Roger Ryan
- Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
- Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
I think I can safely say the Real Life "3D" trailer, as funny as it is, was not actually shot in 3D. I located a pair of old-school 3D glasses (red cellophane over the left lens, blue cellophane over the right), and tried a couple versions of the trailer on-line (including the one currently on the relevant Criterion Collection page). No perceptible depth is achieved, so I think Brooks just had two versions of the same image (one dyed blue, one dyed red) superimposed with the registration a few millimeters off between them to give the impression the viewer was looking at a 3D image without glasses. In other words, the correct way to enjoy the trailer is without 3D glasses.Roger Ryan wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 3:43 pmThat's part of the gag.denti alligator wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2024 2:08 pmWas it shot in 3D? If it’s short enough, it may be easy enough to include both a 2D and 3D version, which would be ideal.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
I always forget how funny Brooks is, so each new film comes as a nice surprise. Mother isn’t the deepest of his films with a pretty obvious set up and follow through, but each second is so deeply funny. Brooks has possibly never been so unpleasant with his narcissism cranked through the roof. The relationship between him and Reynolds is so delightfully sick like a real world variant of Kinds of Kindness’ second episode as each person’s mutual love is sort of canceled out by just not wanting to be here.
Back to funny though, when I got the Simon and Garfunkel joke I could not stop laughing. That’s top tier silliness.
Now I’ve just got The Muse to go to finish with Brooks bingo.
Back to funny though, when I got the Simon and Garfunkel joke I could not stop laughing. That’s top tier silliness.
Now I’ve just got The Muse to go to finish with Brooks bingo.
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: 1231-1232 Real Life & Mother
Andrew Sarris named Mother the best English-language film of 1996, so maybe this was licensed in his memory