subUrbia (1996) any news about a DVD? (1 Viewer)

[James L White]

a very good dark comedy/drama that'd I'd gladly buy on DVD

 

[John Garcia]

Are you talking about this?



If so, I picked it up last year. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

 

[Jon Martin]

The link didn't come out.

I think he meant the Linklater film which I don't believe has been released. His only film MIA from DVD.

 

[John Garcia]

What's it about?

 

[Jon Martin]

It's based on an Eric Bogasian play, about a group of people hanging around outside of a convenience store.

Great movie.

 

[Jason Walstrom]

Yikes I hated this movie But I would love to have a Bogosian and Linklater commentary.

 

[Jay E]

I Can't believe that this hasn't come out on DVD yet, I really enjoyed it.

Does anyone know if Warner still has the rights to this title?

 

[James L White]

Yes, it's the Linlater movie

 

[GuruAskew]

Someone should bring this up at the Warner chat.

 

[James L White]

Any update?

 

[GuruAskew]

No, but there's another Warner chat here on February 21 so I hope that somebody uses the opportunity to ask about this movie. I would have last time but I missed the chat.

 

[GuruAskew]

Looks like this may be coming soon.

A few months back Richard Linklater expressed frustration in an Ain't It Cool News interview that "subUrbia" was unavailable on DVD.

The good news was that he seemed to want to get it released on DVD.

The bad news is that he was that he wanted the Criterion Collection to release it, alongside CC's of "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset".

This was bad news because there's a strict "no licensing" policy at Warner Bros. You'll notice that there isn't a single Warner title among the entire Criterion Collection on DVD. This is apparently a little-know policy among directors because director Darren Aronofsky has also expressed a futile interest in having Criterion release "The Fountain".

In any case, as far as "subUrbia" is concerned there is reason to be optimistic that Linklater may have given up on trying to get Criterion to license an unlicensable film and has directed his efforts towards Warner Bros.

This news comes from the website of designer Marc English. Among his previous DVD cover art designs are Linklater's "Slacker" and "Dazed & Confused". The quote speaks for itself:


The good news? The blurb specifically states that it's a Warner Bros. DVD. That's within the realm of possibility as opposed to Linklater's wishes to make it a Criterion release. The bad news? It says "Linklater has asked English", not "Warner Bros. has asked English". I'm fairly certain that Linklater wouldn't be presumptuous to commission cover art for a DVD that Warner Bros. has no desire to release BUT like I said, he did jump the gun a bit re: Criterion in the first place.

I'm gonna be optimistic here and hope that my DVD's of "Slacker", "Dazed & Confused", "Before Sunrise", "The Newton Boys", "Waking Life", "Tape", "School of Rock", "Before Sunset", "The Bad News Bears", "A Scanner Darkly" and "Fast Food Nation" will be joined by their long-lost sibling soon!

 

[Ocean Phoenix]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

On another note, "Suburbia" is pretty cool. The feminist rant at the beginning was a little irritating (gives me a bad reminder of "Slacker", which is in my opinion the most unwatchable movie I've ever seen), but I enjoyed it otherwise. I can't believe how cruel Parker Posey was in this movie after she was endearing in so many others.

 

[GuruAskew]

Read my post. It can't happen.

They're Warner Bros. titles and Warner doesn't license to other companies like Criterion.

 

[GuruAskew]

It's funny, I read about this news re: the cover art designer on months-old postings on the IMDB message board for the film that seemed to go completely unnoticed in the DVD community. I'd posted there before but pretty much to focus people's attention away from Criterion because there were several posts there with people saying stuff like "OMG you can go to Criterion's website and suggest films to them!!!!!" and I would pretty much show up and say what I've been saying here, that bugging Criterion was futile and that Warner Bros. is the company that could release it thus they should be hounded to get it out.

Anyways, the news went unnoticed on IMDB for months but the very day I posted about it in the wee hours of the morning Linklater made the following announcement at South by Southwest:


You can read the whole thing here: http://dvd.ign.com/articles/772/772041p1.html

September is a ways off but Linklater is right, this film has pretty much been forgotten. It's the only Linklater film I've never seen simply because of it's unavailability on DVD and I can't wait to get it.

 

[Marko Berg]

Saw a full screen presentation of this on broadcast TV years ago. I'll gladly buy the DVD when it's finally released.

 

[Matt Harrison]

I adore this movie. Watched the VHS a fair few times. I've been reading for months about the cover being designed and DVD releases etc, but its good to hear some updated news.

Here's hoping for some more news and artwork shortly.

 

[JoshuaB.]

I first saw the film on VHS on a hot summer late night in 1998 and I loved it. I had just seen Slacker, so I was anxious to find anything by Linklater (Newton Boys, not so much). SubUrbia has been one of my favourite contemporary films not on DVD (still waiting for a widescreen release of Lost Highway too) and it's the only Linklater film not on DVD. I don't need a Criterion disc, just a solid release from Warner with the music intact and a Linklater commentary.

 

[GuruAskew]

If "subUrbia" comes out as good as Linklater claims (meaning if it out-Criterions Criterion like he says) than "The Newton Boys" will pretty much be the red-headed stepchild of his filmography on DVD since it has a non-anamorphic transfer and no extras.

I don't think it's his best film but I still like it, and if he's so set on working with Criterion "The Newton Boys" would be eligible for licensing since it's a Fox title. It wouldn't be the best film in the Criterion Collection but it wouldn't be the worst either.

I think Criterion could probably get "Tape" from Lionsgate too. "Waking Life" and "Fast Food Nation" are Fox titles but they aren't in any need for further DVD releases, they're both satisfactory.

 

[The Drifter]

Being a big fan of Richard LInkalter's films - especially his '90's output - I had wanted to see subUrbia (1996) for years, but it's unavailability on modern home video made it tough to track down. Yes, I was able to stream it several years back, but the transfer was full-screen & the PQ sucked - so, while that was better than nothing - I hoped for a better transfer at some point.

So, it was great to finally see this on the relatively new DVD-R. OK print, and while the Disk was bare-bones (no special features other than the trailer), it was still nice to see this in the correct Anamorphic Widescreen format - for the first time.

This was definitely a solid film. Though a story about a group of early 20-something slackers hanging around late-night convenience stores & deserted parking lots all night (and eventually meeting their successful rock star former friend) may sound boring, Linklater was able to give the film a compelling tone/vibe. I also saw this as an interesting commentary on the cynicism of mid '90's suburban youth, and is also now a time capsule into that era as well. It was refreshing to see the lack of cell phones (a beeper was mentioned, but that was it), no mention of the Internet/Social Media, etc.

Sooze's performance art (in the beginning) & rant was pretentious and hilarious, as was her avant-garde, ridiculous haircut - LOL.

The film also almost became extremely dark at times, especially

Spoiler: SPOILER

the ending scene with the discovery of the girl having overdosed on the convenience store roof - this is not the way I expected the film to end.

Unfortunately, the movie's unavailability for years - and the confusion between this and the much better known Suburbia (Penelope Spheeris. 1982) will continue to make Linklater's subUrbia a relatively obscure curiosity - when it should be treated (and thought of) as one of his better films.

I'd also like to see the as-obscure historical drama The Newton Boys (1998) and the underrated, disturbing Tape (2001) remastered and re-released - hopefully in HD. I've seen both films years ago & thought they were great - but, unfortunately these Disks are both OOP these days.