Altamont Now - Daniel Louis Rivas

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

directed by Joshua Brown
USA 2008

After making a splash on the punk rock scene, street-raised, letter-bomb-mailing Richard Havoc (Daniel Louis Rivas, SID AND NANCY, appropriately) mysteriously disappears into the California desert. Documentary filmmaker Mark Clark (Raphael Nash Thompson) and his cameraman track him down to a missile silo that is the home of pirate TV studio "Travis TV" hosted by hook-handed Travis Hook (Teddy Eck, THE NOTORIOUS BETTY PAGE), Karen Kennedy (Frankie Shaw, TV's BLUE MOUNTAIN STATE), emotionally scarred former child star of the sitcom WHY'S DADDY ACTING FUNNY?, and brand-name energy drink-guzzling Alex Urban (Matthew Humphreys, OBSESSED). Havoc is surprisingly amenable to being the subject of a feature film documentary (as long as it's not for PBS), but Clark soon realizes that Havoc has plans to use the film's wider exposure to put out a call of revolt to the youth of the "United Corporation of Americide" (who probably haven't been watching his pirate broadcasts and have probably already forgotten about - or never heard of - him). Performances are consistently dead on (particularly Rivas) but, with the exception of Karen, the film spends more time laughing at the characters rather than exploring why they embraced such derivative forms of rebellion as original. Based on a stage play, the clichéd anarchic posturing - in the face of nothing concrete to rebel against - is well-played, and even funny (as are Havoc's music video performances that intercut Havoc's singing with stock footage of sixties and seventies riots), but is saved from becoming monotonous by some affecting grace notes (such as the scene of Karen watching her younger self on the sitcom) and tense, unpredictable scenes that could easily become comic or violent (or a combination of the two).

Eric Cotenas

Theatrical Release: 22 March 2008 (USA)

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DVD Review: Factory 25 - Region 1,4 - NTSC

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Factory 25 Region 1,4 - NTSC
Runtime	1:20:27
Video	1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.25 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 stereo
Subtitles	none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Factory 25 Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.78:1 Edition Details: • Audio Commentary with director Joshua Brown • Deleted Scene 1: Mark Arrives at the Silo (16:9; 2:27) • Deleted Scene 2: Travis TV Expanded (16:9; 2:08) • Deleted Scene 3: Alternate Ending (16:9; 4:19) • Behind the Scenes: Richard Recording Studio (16:9; 2:55) • Behind the Scenes: Missile Silo (16:9; 4:55) • Short Film: OUT GETTING RIBS (16:9; 2:48) • Five Songs from the Soundtrack (16:45) DVD Release Date: July 27th, 2010 Digipack in Slipcase Chapters 5

Comments

This single-layer, anamorphic transfer has been given a respectable bitrate (the feature occupies 3.09 GB of the total 3.96 GB). What starts out looking like compression artefacts is revealed to be a distracting template NLE film-grain overlay effect to emphasize the "found footage" feel (its strength does not seem to have been adjusted for different lighting situations), although the chromakey composites do occasionally mimic eighties music video effects. Although no one will even remotely fall for the "found footage" disclaimer on the visual level, the accompanying clear, stereo soundtrack further obviates the effort. The director spends most of the commentary talking about his influences from Godard to, more appropriately, WILD IN THE STREETS. An odd, uneventful short film called OUT GETTING RIBS by the director is also included. The three deleted scenes include two extensions from the first couple minutes of the film and the third is an alternate ending. Two behind-the-scenes featurettes explore the locations and five of the film's songs are playable in a separate menu.

- Eric Cotenas

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