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Defending Your Life



Is there love after death? Acerbic everyman Albert Brooks finds a perfect balance between satirical bite and romantic-comedy charm as the writer, director, and star of this wonderfully warm and imaginative existential fantasy. After he dies suddenly, the hapless advertising executive Daniel Miller (Brooks) finds himself in Judgment City, a gleaming way station where the newly deceased must prove they lived a life of sufficient courage to advance in their journey through the universe. As the self-doubting Daniel struggles to make his case, a budding relationship with the uninhibited Julia (Meryl Streep) offers him a chance to finally feel alive. Buoyed by a brilliant supporting cast that includes Rip Torn, Lee Grant, and Buck Henry, Defending Your Life is a rare feat of personal, philosophical filmmaking that happens to also be divinely entertaining.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Albert Brooks, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New conversation between Brooks and filmmaker Robert Weide
• New interview on the afterlife with theologian and critic Donna Bowman
• New program featuring excerpts from 1991 interviews with Brooks and actors Lee Grant and Rip Torn
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  PLUS: An essay by filmmaker Ari Aster

Donna Bowman contributing to this, Emily VanDerWerff doing the Moonstruck essay, it's a good time to be a former AV Club staff member.

Even with such a bad cover, this announcement makes me very, very happy. Give me as much Albert Brooks as possible! (Though Real Life would've been even better.)

Pavel wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 6:55 pm Give me as much Albert Brooks as possible! (Though Real Life would've been even better.)

I'm hoping Real Life is part of their Paramount deal, and I can't imagine them not releasing it, if so

therewillbeblus wrote: Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:18 pm I'm hoping Real Life is part of their Paramount deal, and I can't imagine them not releasing it, if so

This seems highly likely. And I'd imagine several (if not all) of his short films will also be added as features.

...

Chris, I see that you just posted your review. There have been some reports of an audio drop out around 39:38 for a split second. Could you check your disk to see if it's just an isolated incident? Thanks!

When Lee Grant opens her case? I didn't notice anything, went back and double-checked and nothing stood out at first. THOUGH, eventually I did hear a slight little drop/shift/whatever during a moment in her line "is still held back by the fears," with it happening on/around "by" at around 39:44

To be honest, I didn't even notice it until going back and listening closer.

That's his best one since Election

TheKieslowskiHaze wrote: Sun Apr 04, 2021 8:40 pm Blu-ray.com review.

Is Doctor Atanasov qualified to review comedy?

Satire really is the most dangerous art, isn’t it?

Best to skip the afterlife- that's a good one!