The Wife DVD Review

• Actors: Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater, Max Irons, Harry Lloyd
• Director: Björn Runge
• Producers: Peter Gustafsson, Rosalie Swedlin, Piers Tempest, Meta Louise Foldager, Claudia Bluemhuber
• Disc Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: French, English, Spanish
• Dubbed: Spanish
• Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired: English
• Audio Description: English
• Region: Region 1 
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Rated: 
   R 
   Restricted
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• Release Date: January 29, 2019
• Run Time: 100 minutes

        Seemingly coming out of nowhere for most audience members, The Wife has quickly become the frontrunner for one of the Academy Award’s biggest accolades, despite the fact that it was in and out of theaters before award season had even truly began. While there is only so much attention that needs to be given to award nominations, it is telling that Glenn Close has won several major awards for her performance, despite being in a nearly unknown film. While at least part of that seems to be the tendency to reward a career of performances rather than just the one nominated for, there is no denying that Close’s performance carries the film.

First Man 4K Ultra HD Review

• Actors: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll
• Director: Damien Chazelle
• Writer: Josh Singer
• Producers: Damien Chazelle, Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner, Wyck Godfrey
• Disc Format: 4K, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: French, Spanish, English
• Region: Region A/1 
• Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
• Rated: 
   PG-13 
   Parents Strongly Cautioned
• Studio: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
• Release Date: January 22, 2019
• Run Time: 141 minutes

        Having another film with a score filled with jazz music is not reason enough to consider Damien Chazelle to be an auteur, but the themes of First Man connect to the filmmaker’s last two works, despite each existing in a genre of their own. First Man is a biopic, through-and-through, but one that doesn’t fall into the usual narrative trappings. On top of that, First Man contains further evidence of Chazelle’s worthiness as an Academy Award-winning director, from the spectacular camera work to the effectively nuanced performances he gets from the capable cast. Every year, there is at least one film that is shamelessly ignored during award season. This year we have several (in order to make room for the films that made a lot of money), but I would put First Man at the top of the list for under-appreciated films.