Film Focus: Philip Seymour Hoffman (1999 – 2007) (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Joel Schumacher/Richard Kwietniowski/Sidney LumetRelease Date(s)
1999/2003/2007 (June 10, 2026)Studio(s)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Sony Pictures Classics/THINKFilm (Imprint Films/Via Vision Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: See Below
- Video Grade: See Below
- Audio Grade: See Below
- Extras Grade: B+
- Overall Grade: A-
Review
[Editor’s Note: This is a Region-Free Australian Blu-ray import.]
Philip Seymour Hoffman (PSH) was a fearless performer. I’m sure he was afraid at times, you’d be stupid not to be working against some of the best actors for some of the greatest directors of all time, but he got up in the face of things and did the work. And boy, was that work great. So great that he himself became one of the greatest. Imprint’s new Film Focus series showcases three wonderful examples of his work. These are not the best slices from his filmography, but they are tasty ones that showcase how great a character actor he was.
FLAWLESS
Up until 1999, PSH did most of his work as a standout supporting character actor—bratty Bully in 1992’s Scent of a Woman, storm chaser Dusty Davis in Twister (1996) and unloved but loveable Scotty J. in Paul Thomas Anderson’s breakout Boogie Nights. He was also brightly featured as an ensemble player: the reason a heist goes belly up in The Getaway (1994), assistant to “The Big” in The Big Lebowski (1998) and the very definition of creepy in Happiness (1998). But in 1999 he got to be the lead. Or the co-lead anyway, against a mostly indiscernible Robert De Niro in the Joel Schumacher passion project, Flawless. Flawless is mostly silly and the story is riddled with clichés, but the work Hoffman and De Niro were able to pull off in this swirl of color and noise is pretty remarkable. De Niro is Walt, a gruff security guard who suffers a stroke during the film’s MacGuffin—a murder in an apartment filled with colorful people who, one amongst them, may be holding stolen loot from an angry drug dealer. One of those colorful folks is Rusty (PSH), a “female impersonator” who Walt reluctantly hires to do musical vocal therapy to help him work through the paralysis on his right side. The two work through their differences and come to understand one another’s personal trauma and how it made them the flawed human souls they are. Hoffman’s performance feels real and respectful without leaning on or into some of the broader stereotypes a performance like this risked.
Originally released in North America on DVD and an out-of-print Blu-ray from Olive, this edition from Imprint presents the film 1080p at 1:85:1 and it looks great. Colors pop, detail is sharp and blacks are solid. Sound is equally grand, with two options—DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 (with optional English subtitles). It’s not the most dynamic sounding film, but there is nice play and both tracks are clean. Extras include a newly recorded commentary track with film historians Bryan Reesman and Max Evry. It’s a traditional track discussing the origins of the film, character insight and critical and cultural significance. There is also a collection of archival interviews, a set of interviews with PSH, one with Robert De Niro and Joel Schumacher and one with Schumacher by himself. Standard fare, but fun to see. There’s also some behind-the-scenes footage taken by a third-party visitor to the set, marked as B-Roll Footage, but it’s not in-camera production material, so that label is misleading. And, as always, really trashed trailers Imprint likes to feature—in this case, a loop of two.
FLAWLESS (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO/EXTRAS): B/A-/A-/B+
OWNING MAHOWNY
After a run of doing more spectacular character work for a-list directors like Anthony Minghella, David Mamet, Spike Lee and Paul Thomas Anderson and a turn on Broadway, including his legendary 2000 role-swapping with John C. Reilly in Sam Shepard’s True West, Hoffman became the lead again in the true crime feature Owning Mahowny. PSH plays Dan Mahowny, a young Canadian bank executive in the early 80s whose addiction to gambling destroyed his (and a few others) life. It’s a mesmerizing performance, so much so that you really forget it’s PSH in the role and you feel like you’re watching a wholly different person. He’s a man teetering on the edge of everything, fully focused and pulsing. It’s like watching a firecracker as you wait for it to go off.
This release features a clean and good looking 1080/24p transfer in 1.78:1. The contrasts between the cold Canadian bank world and the bright Ozian Atlantic City casinos showcase nicely here. Sound is a nice but unspectacular LPCM 2.0 with optional English subs. Extras include a new to this edition podcast-y commentary with Gary Stephen Ross, author of the book Stung aka No Limit the film is based on, and podcaster Dr. Will Dodson from Someone’s Favorite Productions. The information is good, with a lot of good background info—but the audio is terrible. Much of it sounds like a Zoom call with a bad connection. There’s also a commentary with Film Freak Central’s Walter Chaw, which is more film production centric and better recorded. A video essay by film programmer Billy Ray Brewton titled Place Your Bets: The Agony and the Ecstasy of Gambling in Cinema showcases exactly that in ten minutes or so in a very informative, well-rounded way. Rounding out the features is an archival making of and the film’s dusty and blurred theatrical trailer. This is the first release of Owning Mahowny on Blu-ray in the world. It has a 2003 DVD from Sony, but it’s out of print.
OWNING MAHOWNY (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO/EXTRAS): A/A-/A-/B+
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
PSH did a few more films, including his Oscar-winning turn as Truman Capote and playing, quite possibly, one of the best cinematic villains ever in Mission: Impossible III, but mostly between 2003 and 2008, he was artistic director of The Public Theater on Broadway. Acting in the revival of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, directing the premiere of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and developing his passion project Jack Goes Boating, which he would turn into his cinematic directorial debut in 2010. The shining light during that period was what would turn out to be Sydney Lumet’s last film, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. Told in a fragmented, non-linear narrative more akin to book prose, Before the Devil... has a conventional underpinning—two brothers with money troubles each of their own, decide to pull a heist that should be no nonsense, clean and easy but find out firsthand that crime doesn’t pay and there’s no such thing as a victimless crime. Flitting around and showing the story from different characters perspectives, Rashomon-style: PSH’s Andy, a tightly wound businessman with payroll issues, his brother Hank (Ethan Hawke), an easy going with-the-wind sorta guy who owes back child support and their father Charles who becomes stuck in the middle of their failed crime spree. Supporting them is a variable who’s who: Marisa Tomei as Andy’s wife, Michael Shannon and Aleksa Palladino as a man and his sister with information to sell, Amy Ryan as Hank’s ex-wife and Rosemary Harris as the boy’s mom. It’s a wonderful film that gets better with every viewing. Lumet was a master of his craft and the fact that he made this at 82 years old is incredible—the pace is fast and youthful and very modern. If you haven’t yet checked out Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, do chase it down.
Originally released in North America by Image in 2008 and Shout Select in 2020, Imprint’s edition looks to be the same as the 2020 Shout Select version. The video quality is similar, Lumet got on the digital bandwagon quite early, shooting this film with the Panavision Genesis HD Camera and then transferred to 35mm film so the image has a nice cinematic look. It’s a 1080p transfer in 1.85:1 and it’s nice for what it is. Color is bright, detail is good, there’s some nice grain with minimal, but apparent background noise here and there, buy nothing too distracting. Before the Devil... is a good candidate for 4K—this is a film that would benefit from a nice upgrade. Audio is presented DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 with optional English subs. Both serve the film well, but some of the environmental dialogue coming across as light but as a whole these tracks are solid. Extras are exactly what is found on the Shout release. There is the Image release’s commentary track with Sidney Lumet, Hoffman and Hawke and it’s a nice listen considering two of these guys have left us. It’s full of love, mutual respect and a long conversation about what makes the melodrama genre underrated. When Lumet calls The Silence of the Lambs a melodrama it really makes you start to think what defines a genre. Next up is Best Last Film, an interview with Hawke going over his memories of working on the film, working with Lumet and his feeling on Lumet deciding to shoot on digital. It’s a fascinating watch. Best of the three featurettes is A Dark Story, a nice long interview with the screenwriter Kelly Masterson talking about the script’s origins, what was added by Lumet and what he thought of those additions and his inspiration for the non-linear approach to the story. Wrapping up the featurettes is Directed by Sidney Lumet: How the Devil Was Made, also from the Image release and a good deal of this is covered in the commentary, but it’s still nice to see Lumet talking about his craft. Finally, there’s a theatrical trailer.
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO/EXTRAS): A/A-/A-/B+
Three great films but a great actor. I’m not sure if it would be cheaper to chase these films down individually, but all of them are library titles, so if you don’t have these films or are looking for Blu-ray upgrades, this is a great way to pull these titles in.
- Todd Doogan