NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Bertrand Mandico's dreamlike film "The Wild Boys (Les garçons sauvages)" comes to us from studio Altered Innocence, on a dual-layered Blu-ray with a maxed out bitrate. The film mixes color and black & white photography and is in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio, with the rounded edges (shot on Super16) of the frame reminding me of Lisandro Alonso's "Jauja". The level of detail is to put it mildly, stunning. It would seem that almost every blade of grass and every hair is visible here, and when the film shifts to a Querelle-like color scheme, it gets even more impressive. A fine release from the folks at Altered Innocence.

The track provided on this Blu-ray is a robust 24-bit 5.1 DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround in the original French language. The trippy score is thanks to Pierre Desprats and it sounds appropriately eerie here. Dialogue (in French) is clear and audible, with good separation. There are optional English subtitles on this Region Free Blu-ray from Altered Innocence.

Altered Innocence have included some interesting extras here, starting with 17.5-minutes of deleted scenes. Up next is a 12-minute making-of featurette, shot in a unique style. The film's trailer is also included, as are trailers for "John From", "Queercore", "Brothers of the Night", and "Islands". There is also a really cool foldout poster insert and reversible cover art.

This is quite a trip. Reminiscent of Kenneth Anger's work, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle, David Lynch's Eraserhead, and even somehow Adam Resnick's Cabin Boy. Even still, the film has its own completely unique identity, full of radical queer thought and imagery. Highly recommended.

Colin Zavitz