Little Odessa
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Synopsis
A Dostoevskian family tragedy in the form of a gangster drama, the darkly elegant debut feature by James Gray heralded the arrival of a singular voice in contemporary American cinema. Cloaked in the shadows of New York’s underworld, Little Odessa follows Joshua (Tim Roth), a volatile hit man whose latest assignment takes him back to the Brooklyn neighborhood where he grew up. After his return home, his criminal life collides with the grim domestic world of his abusive father (Maximilian Schell), ailing mother (Vanessa Redgrave), and loyal teenage brother (Edward Furlong). Channeling the brooding fatalism of classic noir, Gray—who won the Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion at just twenty-five—composes a haunting reflection on violence that begins at home and ripples ever outward.
Picture 10/10
Having only been available on lackluster DVDs for the last two and a half decades, James Gray’s Little Odessa receives an all-new 4K UHD edition from The Criterion Collection, who presents the film through a new 2160p/24hz ultra-high-definition master with Dolby Vision on a dual-layer, BD-66 disc in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The presentation is sourced from a new 4K restoration scanned from the original negative. A standard dual-layer Blu-ray is also included, featuring a 1080p presentation of the film and all video features.
Really, all Criterion needed to do to improve upon the previous DVD releases was deliver a half-decent presentation through a somewhat competent encode, and they would have been cookin’! Thankfully, the presentation goes much further than that, and what an entirely different experience this is compared to my last visit with the film.
This is such a gorgeous new presentation, incredibly rich, photographic, and film-like; a far cry from that old, dated master. Shadows are far deeper here, with inky blacks, while HDR and Dolby Vision help ensure nothing is lost or flattened out. This ends up enhancing the nighttime scenes, delivering wonderful gold highlights that illuminate the edges of nearly everything in a shot, while smokier interiors are rendered exceptionally well without negatively impacting the grain. And that grain is reproduced impeccably throughout (another significant improvement over the dated master) and never comes off as blocky or noisy. It even looks fantastic in the darker areas of the screen and around the highlights, another example of Criterion improving in this area.
I also found the color grading far more agreeable here, with the old master heavily pushing a pinkish hue thanks to its boosted magentas. The colors are a bit more muted overall, with exteriors looking cooler and interiors appearing warmer to varying degrees, but it looks great and far more film-like. On top of all of that, the restoration work has been incredibly thorough, making the film look as though it could have been made within the last few years, while the increased resolution delivers an extraordinary level of detail, even in the film’s many long shots.
It really looks fantastic, a stunner from start to finish, and I doubt it could look much better than this. It’s a far cry from what was previously available.
Little Odessa - Screen Captures
Audio 8/10
Criterion includes the film’s original 2-channel surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD MA. Though there are a few moments of louder “action,” the film is generally quiet and the mix is rarely showy. Dialogue-heavy, it keeps most everything focused toward the front speakers, with noticeable panning between them. The film’s music and the ambient sounds of the street scenes do make their way into the rear speakers, which work in unison, but that’s about it.
Even if the mix is lowkey, however, the quality of the track is outstanding. The range is quite wide, with dialogue sounding sharp and crisp and the music reaching some impressive heights. Everything also sounds very clean, with no obvious filtering appearing to have been applied. All around, it’s a terrific presentation, perfectly suited to the film.
Extras 7/10
Criterion throws in a few items, though considering how overlooked the film has been on home video, the package as a whole still comes off as generally underwhelming. They do include the original audio commentary recorded for the (full screen) DVD back in 2000, featuring Gray and actor Tim Roth, who were recorded separately. It’s a fine enough track, with Gray talking about putting the film together during the ’90s peak of American independent cinema, particularly the crime film boom. With Tarantino breaking out and violence in films on the rise, Gray (who admits to enjoying those films) wanted to approach his film a little differently, pacing it more deliberately and constructing its violent moments to be as unglamorous as possible.
Roth pops in and out throughout to discuss his role and working with his costars, particularly Edward Furlong, whom he got along with despite their differing interests (he points out that Furlong was more into video games and Metallica than much else). Unfortunately, Roth ultimately receives very little time. I might have blamed the film’s brief running time of just over an hour and a half, yet there is still quite a bit of dead space scattered throughout, which seems unusual for what is a short amount of time. Despite that, it remains one of the better studio-produced tracks of the period, also offering some great details about Brighton Beach and its community, and I’m glad Criterion was able to rescue it.
Slightly better, though, is a new interview between Gray and critic Sean Fennessey, probably taken from the same session the two sat for when discussing William Friedkin and Sorcerer. Running about 30 minutes, this discussion finds Gray again getting into the film’s development and the independent scene of the period, though he now looks back on everything with more than 30 years in between, giving him a different perspective, and he reflects on some of his decisions. He also talks more about his upbringing, his family, and the Brighton Beach area before the two briefly discuss his subsequent films.
Gray comes off a bit looser here than he does on the commentary, and it’s a good reflection overall, and that helps nicely leading into the next feature, a 52-minute episode of Once Upon a Time… from 2013 covering the film. This series has appeared on several Criterion releases, and I’ve become fairly fond of it, with the episodes gathering academics and people who worked on the films together to discuss their production, while also placing each film within the time period it was produced and how it may reflect the surrounding social and political climate.
This one doesn’t dig quite as deeply into that aspect, probably because the film is a bit newer, at least compared to the other titles typically covered. Having said that, this episode still takes a deeper dive into the history of Brighton Beach, from its beginnings as a resort community to the influx of Russian immigrants who helped shape its character, and more, providing more context around the film. Gray and Roth, among others, also pop up, and if you want an idea of just how awful the old master was, the clips presented here will give you an excellent one. As usual, it’s a great addition, and I’m glad Criterion managed to dig up another episode.
Unfortunately, that’s it for disc content, not even a trailer. The included insert features an excellent essay and appreciation of the film by Glenn Kenny, the only academic contribution.
The absence of any new academic material is a bit of a letdown, but what we do get is enjoyable and insightful enough. I just wish there were a little more.
Closing
Though the supplements leave room for improvement, the new 4K presentation more than makes this edition worth picking up. The film looks absolutely stunning, and the long wait has clearly been worth it.
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