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Part Coen Brothers-esque black comedy and part light’em up celluloid anarchy, Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass proudly puts the family “fun” in dysfunction. It might not land every swing of the hammer, but Nelson’s film is certainly a down-home charmer, full of Oklahoma locations and some seriously “stoned” mid-western charm. Written and directed by Nelson, Leaves of Grass has moments of pure spell-binding magic that play for laughs as well as they plays for affection.
Tricked into coming back home from his honored Ivy League position in academia by his own twin brother, Bill Kincaid (Edward Norton) discovers just how endlessly surprising the ties that bind actually are. Wrangled into some bad dealings over some homegrown “product”, Brady Kincaid (also Norton) – along with his best friend Bolger (Nelson) – decide its time to force a family reunion or sorts so that they might best deal with Pug Rothbaum (Richard Dreyfuss) and have an “identical” alibi in that of longtime gone away brother, Bill. Co-starring Keri Russell, Josh Pais, and Susan Sarandon, Nelson’s film defines itself by its warring faction: classical philosophy vs. pot smokers.
Norton is a great actor and appearing next to himself is a testament to his acting and his morphing abilities. Playing a set of “couldn’t be any more different” twins, Norton balances their differences with some well-played character tricks that compliment each other when sharing the same space. It’s quite funny and quite odd to see two Norton’s sharing the same screen; however, it flows so naturally you’ll be hard-pressed to determine your favorite variation on the Kincaid family. It seems their pride in being totally different is somehow just an illusion…which makes the film all the more ironic in its execution.
There’s a lot going on in this wonderfully layered narrative and Nelson handles it well – neither selling his role in the film or his role on the set of the film short. It’s an eccentric story with plenty of characters operating under the own set of rules. While most of Nelson’s characters are obsessed with weed, this isn’t simply a stoner comedy. That’s too much of a disservice for Nelson’s work. Sure, Leaves of Grass is about stoners, but it operates on a lever more in-tune with the world of academia that Bill hides away in deep inside New England; a far cry from his roots in rural Oklahoma.
Twisting and churning its tone from black comedy to consequential situations, Leaves of Grass plays a bit unevenly, but - for those willing to overlook its shortcomings - it is certainly an accomplished effort from Nelson, using its title in form and function as a tip of the hat to American poet Walt Whitman.
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Blu-ray Details:
Available on Blu-ray - October 12, 2010
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)
Leaves of Grass arrives on Blu-ray in its original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The transfer by First Look’s transfer is accurate to the film’s original HD video format. The detail is crisp with only black levels suffering at times. Cinematographer Roberto Schaefer, using the Red One camera, provides a rich handling which is well-preserved by the transfer. The audio is presented in a standard English Dolby Digital 5.1 track. There is some hissing, but the film quality doesn’t suffer much.
Supplements:
Commentary:
- Wow. Now, this is how a commentary should operate. It features Nelson, Norton and producer Bill Migliore. This is a humorously dynamic and knowledgeable discourse over the film. Very intelligent. Very artistic. Quite brilliant actually.
Featurettes:
- Making of Featurette (12min): Full of standard interviews and behind-the-scenes clips this is way too brief of an affair considering the levels of thought injected into this narrative.
Theatrical Trailer
The Blu-ray also comes loaded with trailers for other First Look feature films:
- As Good As Dead
- My Son My Son What Have Ye Done?
- The Locksmith
- Dead Awake
- Once Fallen
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