The Exploding Girl

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Bradley Rust Gray
USA 2009

Synopsis: When twenty-year-old Ivy heads home Spring Break with a fresh romance in her heart, everything seems to be going perfectly. When her best friend Al finds himself without lodgings, Ivy and her mother take him in and Ivy and Al's friendship strengthens while her boyfriend grows more distant from afar. Increasingly distressed about her conflicting feelings, Ivy must stay resilient in the face of her epilepsy, lest her emotions become something she can't control. Marking Zoe Kazan's first leading role, Bradley Rust Gray's film is a meditative and realistic portrait of a young girl coming of age and finding a deeper kind of love in New York City.

Director Bradley Rust Gray: Gray is a Fulbright scholar who has received graduate degrees from both USC and the British Film Institute in London. His undergraduate work focused on architecture, sculpture and experimental filmmaking with a degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Gray's first narrative feature, SALT, was filmed in Iceland and won the Caligari Film Prize for Innovative Filmmaking in Berlin in 2003. It was selected for over 20 international film festivals and won three more international awards. The film was released on Sundance Channel in the US. Gray's short film HITCH won an award at Sundance in 2000 and was selected as one of the "Best Films of the Year" in Film Comment.

Excerpt from Oscilloscope website located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 6th, 2009- Berlin International Film Festival

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DVD Review: Oscilloscope - Region 0 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Oscilloscope - Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:20:15
Video	1.78:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate:8.82 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Oscilloscope Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Edition Details: • Crafting a Character - an interview with Zoe Kazan and Bradley Rust Gray(13:28) • "Thursday" by Asobi Seksu - a music video by Soandbrad: This is the song that Al shares with Ivy when they're sitting in the park (4:00) • Flutter - Gray's 1997 Short Film from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (5:28) DVD Release Date: September 7th, 2010 Custom cardboard fold-out digipak Case Chapters: 16

Comments:

Oscilloscope Laboratories continue their trend of releasing interesting and eclectic films on DVD - see past editions; Kent MacKenzie' The Exiles (with Milestone), Sebastián Silva's intimate The Maid, Michael Gondry's personal The Thorn in the Heart, the Danish mystery/thriller Terribly Happy and the 1977 documentary Word is Out. The Exploding Girl is a pensive film that has a gentle restrained pace exporting the story of an emotional bond of friendship, consequence and blossoming love.

The dual-layered, progressive and anamorphic transfer is quite strong - a shade thick but spotlessly clean, and supporting the limited-budget production in a fresh, consistent rendering to SD-DVD. There is no digital noise even in the less lit sequences. Not surprisingly it was shot with the Red One digital camera.

Audio offers 2 options - a 2.0 channel stereo or under-utilized 5.1. many of the conversations feel like eavesdropping with the camera intentionally positioned at a distance. This is a professionally made film with a verité sensibility helping accentuate the narrative. There are optional English subtitles and the package is another handsome eco-friendly cardboard multi-fold-out case.

No commentary but we get a 13.5 minute interview with Zoe Kazan and Bradley Rust Gray under the menu title Crafting a Character and a 4-minute artsy music video by Soandbrad (performing "Thursday") - actually the song that Al shares with Ivy when they're sitting in the park and lastly "Flutter" - Gray's 1997, creative 5.5-minute short Film from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

This is an impeccably sweet Indie film that I am very glad I was able to view. It is light and gentle - very human. Oscilloscope continue to impress and this package is a definite recommendation if you able to open yourself up to simply watching it - you won't be disappointed.