LADIES & GENTLEMEN THE FABULOUS STAINS - Andy's 4K UHD Review

[AndyDursin]

I have this in my column this week but it's such an obscure movie it's worth mentioning on its own...



7/10

Fans of Diane Lane would do very well to check out this barely-released 1982 Paramount production about three teenagers (Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter) who decide to break free of their industrially-driven small town and find fame as punk rockers.

The “Stains” manage to initially navigate the ins and outs of the music business, as well as being on the road, in a truthful manner courtesy of director Lou Adler, an industry vet who only directed a couple of movies but brought his sage knowledge to this bittersweet take on young feminine power during the punk rock movement, in the days before the ascent of MTV. Ray Winstone co-stars as the frontman for an English band the girls tour with – Lane especially learning major life lessons in a hurry as the Stains grow in popularity, eventually packing malls across the land…for a time.

Screenwriter Nancy Dowd set this story in the same fictional town as her earlier “Slap Shot,” all the more to accentuate the underdog quality of the premise. The performances, Lane most of all, are impressive and yet there is a very fragmented, ragged element to the picture, perhaps due to Adler’s inexperience behind the lens (his only other directorial credit is Cheech & Chong’s 1978 hit “Up in Smoke”). The film clocks in at 87 minutes with some good scenes and yet the drama moves in fits and starts, intermittently broken up by seemingly needless introductory segments from TV newscasts.

Nevertheless recommended for its capture of time and place, Fun City’s 4K UHD sports a good-looking 4K restoration from the original 35mm OCN (1.85) with rocking 5.1 DTS MA surround. Details and contrast levels are all perfectly set, while extras in the 2-disc set (a Blu-Ray is also on-hand) include commentaries from Marc Edward Heuck and another with Heuck and Jake Fogelnest. There’s also an archival Making Of featurette, archival audio interview with Stuart Shapiro (“Night Flight” co-creator), an alternate opening and visual-only deleted scenes, dailies from the (reshot) music video shoot, and commentaries by Lane and Dern, plus another commentary with Adler, carried over from the 2022 Imprint release.