3 Hearts (Cohen, Blu-ray, DVD) does indeed refer to a romantic triangle, but this French drama from Benoit Jacquot is neither lurid nor lascivious. Marc (Benoît Poelvoorde), a middle-aged tax auditor, is a sensitive schlub whose innate compassion and respect apparently wins over attractive younger women. He meets Sylvie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) in a chance meeting on the streets of her hometown, talking all night and making plans to meet in Paris. When fate intervenes (by way of one of those An Affair to Remember vows to meet again at a certain place and time but not exchange any personal information), she reunites with her ex and moves to the U.S. and her sister Sophie (Chiara Mastroianni), who has become an emotional wreck in the separation, goes in search of tax advice. Good Samaritan Marc helps out, asks her on a date (he has no idea they’re related), and before you know it Sylvie is on her way back for the wedding and that initial attraction fires up again, which is actually harder on Sylvie than on Marc. She feels no devotion to her boyfriend back in the U.S.—it was a failing relationship before they even left France—but she can’t bear the thought of hurting her sister.
There are plenty of contrivances that will distract the logically-minded (really, after all that time in Sophie’s family home, you never noticed that picture of Sylvie on the wall of family photos?) but the main problem is that there’s no spark between Poelvoorde, whose Marc is a dull workaholic with a hangdog face and a decided lack of energy, and Gainsbourg, whose emotions churn like shockwaves through her very being as Sylvie. Love at first sight is a lovely story and Marc does pick up her spirits as they wander her city at night but it’s hard to see any real passion in their interactions. Mastroianni’s much more neurotic sister is a little less mysterious—she seems a little emotionally fragile and Marc is a stable presence as well as devoted partner—but you have to take the swoony romance turned obsessive passion on sheer faith.
Jacquot doesn’t play this as high melodrama. It’s more of a down-to-earth tragedy: love at first sight delayed, the restless heart of a man who reconnects with his first love, the torment of an unhappily married woman in love with her sister’s husband. Jacquot tries to make it all very relatable with well-observed scenes of the sisters at home with their mother (played by Mastroianni’s real life mom, Catherine Deneuve, who has little to do but is magnificent doing it nonetheless) and Marc and Sophie in the lived-in comfort of domestic happiness. I see a trace of Truffaut in the way Jacquot handles his relationships, focusing on the everyday intimacy and the goodness in characters doing destructive things, but he doesn’t give them deep enough inner lives to make their tragedy matter.
Blu-ray and DVD, in French with English subtitles, with a 40-minutes Q&A with the director at a screening at Lincoln Center (he speaks in French, a translator provides the English).
Justice League: Gods & Monsters (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD), the latest DC Universe Original Animation Feature, is also the first actual original. Where others have been adapted from notable story arcs and stand-alone graphic novels published in the past few decades, this alternate reality superhero story was written by Bruce Timm (the godfather of the DC animated rebirth that began with the 1990s Batman: The Animated Series) and Alan Burnett as an original screenplay. In this take, Superman (voiced by Benjamin Bratt) is the son of Zod, Batman (Michael C. Hall) is actually a medical vampire born of Man-Bat, and Wonder Woman (Tamara Taylor) is not an Amazon but a New God.
This is a cruel, violent universe, DC’s version of Star Trek‘s “Mirror, Mirror,” where the superheroes have developed as almost militaristic figures who don’t have any qualms about killing their enemies, and Lex Luthor is no villain but a voice of caution against the unrestrained power of these heroes, who are not held in check or held responsible for any of their actions. They make their own rules and the American government tends to look the other way, perhaps for fear that they will turn. At least until the most prominent scientists in the country are murdered and the evidence points back at the three heroes whose brand of justice is no less brutal. The plotting is a little lazy for a conspiracy thriller (the plan depends on no witnesses or forensic investigations) but the creative intricacy of the reworking of familiar characters and backstories is impressive and there are references aplenty for aficionados of classic DC Comics (who would have thought “The Metal Men” would end up significant players in one of these films?).
This is not an interlocking series like the films of the Marvel Comics Universe but more like a collection of graphic novels and this one, though hardly essential, is a fun variation on a theme and a satisfying addition to the animated canon of DC heroes.
Blu-ray and DVD with a sneak peek at the upcoming DCU animated feature Batman: Bad Blood. The Blu-ray also includes the 24-minute featurette “Calculated Risks: The Making of Gods and Monsters,” two additional featurettes, and two programs from the DC Comics Vault (originally shown on Cartoon Network), plus bonus DVD and UltraViolet Digital HD copies of the film.
Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (Strand, Blu-ray), a documentary on the novelist and controversial essayist and philosopher from filmmaker Michael Paxton, was an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary in 1998. Fans of Rand may appreciate the great detail on her life and the rare interview clips but Paxton’s fawning portrait is so taken with the woman that he never takes the time to really grapple with her philosophy. The liberal use of the word “controversial” to describe her ideas is never followed by any controversy, and you come away with the idea that she’s become part of the canon, which is far from the truth. She did live a fascinating life, however—an individualist born in Russia (the irony which does not escape her) who fled to America, a fan of the movies who went to Hollywood to try her hand at screenwriting, a friendly witness during the blacklist, a successful novelist who put all her ideas, which she eventually called Objectivism, into the novel Atlas Shrugged. As a biographical portrait it’s involving, fascinating, and in many ways humanizing when it’s not falling all over itself to celebrate every triumph with a dramatic swell of music. Sharon Gless narrates.
It debuts on Blu-ray in a two-disc set that includes an archival interview with director Michael Paxton on the making of the film and the complete production of Rand’s play “Ideal” staged and shot by Paxton, plus a deleted scene and galleries of stills.
Also new and notable:
The Water Diviner (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, VOD) is a passion project from Russell Crowe, who directs and stars as an Australian farmer who travels to Turkey to look for his three sons, who went missing after fighting in the Battle of Gallipoli in World War II. With two featurettes.
White God (Magnolia, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, VOD), Hungary’s official submission to the 2015 Academy Awards, is a canine revenge fantasy set on the streets of Prague, where the neglected and abandoned dogs (including the loyal pooch of a loving girl thrown out by an uncaring father) form a pack and revisit the humans who have done them wrong. This is not one for the kids.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XXXIII (Shout! Factory, DVD) presents the respective DVD debuts of four more episodes never before released on disc: the youthsploitation drive-in movies Teen-Age Crime Wave (1955) and Daddy-O (1958), Bert I. Gordon’s 1958 Earth vs. the Spider, and the cold-war spy-sci-fi film Agent for H.A.R.M (1966). All, of course, with our hosts talking over the movie. With new featurettes and bonus interviews and four mini-posters among the supplements.
Digital / VOD / Streaming exclusives:
A LEGO Brickumentary, a documentary on the classic building toy system narrated by Jason Bateman, is available to view on cable and digital On Demand on Friday, July 31, same day as select theaters across the country. It is, fittingly, rated G.
Available for digital purchase in advance of disc:
Hot Pursuit (Warner, Digital HD)
Classics and Cult:
Prime Cut (Kino Studio Classics, Blu-ray)
Miracle Mile (Kino Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD)
Cherry 2000 (Kino Studio Classics, Blu-ray)
The Erotic Rights of Frankenstein (Kino Lorber / Redemption, Blu-ray, DVD)
Zone Troopers (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Ghost Town (1988) (Shout! Factory, Blu-ray)
Facets Kids, Vol. 1: The Power of Imagination (Facets, DVD)
Rolling Stones: Hyde Park Live 1969 (Eagle Vision, Blu-ray, DVD)
TV on disc:
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: The Complete First Season (Warner, DVD, Digital)
Helix: The Complete Second Season (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Homefront (PBS, DVD)
Life on the Reef (PBS, DVD)
Ancient Roads from Christ to Constantine (PBS, DVD)
The Churchmen: Season 1 (MHz, DVD)
Kaboul Kitchen: Season One (MHz, DVD)
Mama’s Family: Mama’s Favorites Season 6 (StarVista, DVD)
More releases:
Home (Dreamworks, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD)
Unfriended (Universal, Digital, HD)
Comet (IFC, DVD)
Our Daily Poison (Icarus, DVD)
Revenge of the Mekons (Music Box, DVD, VOD)
Four Blood Moons (Virgil, DVD, Digital)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD