Todd Haynes is one of my favorite filmmakers. Being a cerebral person, he doesn’t make the same film twice. He’s very versatile, while capturing humanity at its unpredictable malaise. And with his now-iconic collaboration with the great Julianne Moore, he has become an magnificent director of women. This all started with their 1995 modern classic Safe, a film that continues to invite many conversations of what it’s really all about.
Buy Safe (Criterion Collection)In one of her signature roles, Moore portrays Carol White, a beautiful suburban housewife and stepmother in 1980s Los Angeles who seems to have it all: beauty, a wealthy and handsome husband (Xander Berkeley), a big and fancy home, servants, and many friends. However, she is rather unremarkable and empty with the world around her. To make matters worse, she starts developing a mysterious (and unnamed) illness that makes her allergic to seemly everything around her. She doesn’t know what’s going on, and neither does anyone else.
A profoundly disturbing and prescient film, Safe is a portrait of many things: modern alienation, self-help, rich-people problems, AIDS, and inner turmoil. Is it about an ordinary woman being confronted with her ordinariness? Is it a film about the world turning on the privileged? Who knows? Haynes leaves it up to you. Whatever you think it’s about, it is a horror film about unseen horror and it definitely stays with you after it’s over. And it gave Moore her breakthrough and we’re still thanking her and Haynes for that.
Now making its 4K UHD debut from Criterion, I hope that one of the best films of the ’90s will look and sound even better with its new restoration. The wonderful commentary with Haynes, Moore, and producer Christine Vachon, as well as the conversation between Haynes and Moore; interview with Vachon; The Suicide, 1978 short film by Haynes; and trailer are all included. A great essay by critic Dennis Lim is also included.
If you’re a big fan of Haynes, Moore, and independent cinema in general, or are least looking to upgrade previous releases of the classic film, then this 4K UHD/Blu-ray combo will make an amazing addition to your collection. Just have some safety masks and wipes at hand.
Other interesting releases:
The People vs. Larry Flynt 4K UHD (Arrow): Milos Forman’s entertaining and highly acclaimed biopic starring Woody Harrelson in an Oscar-nominated performance as the title character, the notorious pornographer who became an unlikely champion of free speech when he took his biggest case to the Supreme Court against Rev. Jerry Falwell.
Prom Night 4K UHD (Synapse): Jamie Lee Curtis dances the disco night away in this 1980 slasher fan favorite as a masked killer stalks four teenagers involved in the accidental death of a classmate six years prior.
Exit 8 (Decal Releasing): A desperate man finds himself trapped in an endless, sterile subway on a mission to find his way out with one simple rule: do not notice anything out of the ordinary. Easier said than done.
Random Harvest (Warner Archive): Ronald Colman is a shell-shocked World War I veteran who can’t recall his days as the husband of a secretary (Greer Garson). Advised not to corrupt his mental state, she cannot reveal her identity, so she has to find other ways to help him remember their life together.
