Slums Of Beverly Hills
20th Century Fox
1.85:1/Dolby Digital 2.0(Box is mis-marked as 5.1)
Not 16x9
Region:1
Rated:R
Subtitles:Spanish
91 Minutes
$34.98
Original Film Review From August, '98
Slums Of Beverly Hills
Natasha Lyonne's last and first film, Woody Allen's "Everyone Says I Love You", had Lyonne in a small, unimpressive role as Allen's daughter. But deep inside her, you could see talent waving from inside her, saying "I'm here! I'm definitely here." You could see potential in her expressions and gestures, if not from her acting, which wasn't on much display.
In "The Slums Of Beverly Hills", Lyonne plays Vivian, part of a lower class family forced to move like nomads throughout the backstreets of Beverly Hills, where they stay, according to their father, for "the good schools". It's from the first second that Lyonne brings a smile to your face. In the role of a girl coming to terms with her body and her family, Lyonne is dead on perfect. With a lion's mane of hair piled atop her head, Lyonne is all angry awkardness, eyes at first curious about the world around her, then growing into a frown, and then reaching full on anger; there are some scenes where Lyonne throws a fit that are pure comic gold . While talking to her cousin Rita(played nicely by Marisa Tomei), Lyonne suddenly stops and frowns. All of the sudden she throws up her arms. "I hate us. We're freaks!" Her timing is perfect, there and at other times, like when her father begins to tell a story, she does a dead on imitation.
As for the father, Alan Arkin does another wonderful comic job(after his excellent role in "Grosse Pointe Blank"). He is very funny, and very sympathetic. Arkin's character is a single father raising three kids, bolting in the dead of night from various buildings in the area, jumping out on the rent. He's a good father, but he hasn't done well in life, and he battles to get by each month. If Lyonne is the key to the comedy(with support from the two very funny actors who play her brothers), Arkin is the key to the fact that this is a very tender film with a lot of genuine sweetness and emotion. Arkin is the emotional core of the film. There is awkward moments in life, and there's awkward moments in this film. Director Tamara Jenkins(it's a semi-autobiographical tale) makes the awkward moments not only touching but screamingly funny.
The picture is built with a solid, strong backbone and a very loud, sassy and wonderfully sarcastic tone by director Jenkins. This is a picture told vividly, strongly and Jenkin's directing is excitingly self-assured. She also did an excellent job writing this well done, fast paced and very sweet and funny film. Although the picture is suprisingly raunchy in areas, I liked the way that it ended up, with Lyonne coming to terms with her body, and her family as a whole coming to terms with how much they love each other; and how important it is for them to be together....freaks or not.
"The Slums Of Beverly Hills" is an exciting debut film by Jenkins and a star-making performance by Lyonne. It's a strong film that made me smile and laugh loudly throughout. It's one of the year's best films, with excellent performances all around.
The Disc:
Picture: Good picture, letterboxed at 1.85:1. Colors are generally bright and vibrant, but there are some small instances
where the color looks a little washed out compared to the theatrical print I saw. But,to the good stuff: overall, I
liked the transfer. Some of the colors look vivid and bright, and contrast is generally good. There are a couple of instances of compression
artifacts, but nothing that's very noticeable. Images are clear and sharp throughout the film. Good, but it's not the best job that could have been done on this disc. Maybe there wasn't the availability of an anamorphic transfer for this disc, but I think it would have helped make the bright, vibrant colors that are already a big part of the film look a bit better. As it is, color saturation is good, but not perfect, and fleshtones are generally very good. Detail is a little above average, but again, not the best job that could be done on this picture.
Audio:Dolby Surround, as I believe it was in theaters. It's a dialogue film and dialogue is crisp and well recorded. There's some great
songs in the film, but they sound a little underwhelming on this disc. Very pleasing, but not as good as it could be, in my opinion. It works for what the film is, but it's a little on the tame side.
Menus: Cute, with some strange tiny bits of psychedlic animation in the background for the main menu. Maybe I'm simple minded, maybe I was just
tired( i just finished my 4th final project for college, which ends 4 straight days of work ), but for some reason, these little bits of animation were strangely hypnotic.
Extras: The great trailer.
Overall: It's a great film, but the transfer is only a little above average. In terms of value, Fox still has a lot to learn.
$34.98 retail price is far too much to ask for a non Special Edition disc. "The Slums Of Beverly Hills" is a fantastic film,
and it earned a spot on my top 10 list of 1998. It's too bad that not enough people saw this film; I doubt that many are going
to pick it up sight-unseen for $34.98. I recommend that if you're interested, rent the disc and see if you like it. This review
kind of reminds me of a recent review I did of "Crimson Tide". Both are great films and my favorites but they don't have any extras
on the disc. Still, I liked both films enough that they were worth it to me. Still, the fact remains that Fox, who had a lot of success
this year with "There's Something About Mary" and "Dr. Dolittle" among other things, needs to learn that basic discs for this price won't go
over well with consumers. If you look at the top 10 discs of 1998, suprise, you don't see one Fox disc. It'll stay that way for 1999 if
Fox doesn't work on the quality of their DVDs. "Slums Of Beverly Hills" is a great film, and in my mind, it's worth it. But for someone new
to the film, there's nothing more than the film to justify spending $34.98 on a film they're not familiar with.
Overall: It's a great, hilarious movie, but the disc is of an average effort by Fox. For $34.98, we should at least get commentary by director Tamara Jenkins or members of the cast, not to mention a 16x9 enhanced transfer.
