Monday, March 15, 2021

Wolfe Sets Writer/Director Harry Macqueen's Supernova For Blu-ray And DVD Release On May 18 • Director Ali LeRoi's Obituary Of Tunde Johnson On May 11

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey

Wolfe announced this past week that writer/director Harry Macqueen’s award winning-drama, Supernova, starring Oscar-winner Colin Firth (Best Actor, The King’s Speech) and three-time Emmy-winner, Stanley Tucci, will be available as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings on May 18.

Macqueen’s heartfelt story about the life-long relationship between Sam (Firth) and Tusker (Tucci) opened on the European film festival circuit in the fall of last year and then found theatrical venues domestically beginning in January of this year.  

For the record, the ARR comes in at 109 days and box office receipts were $237,632, which is quite impressive for this UK-produced import with few theatres these days available for exhibition. 

Sam and Tusker have been in a two-decade relationship and decide to enjoy time together in beat-up campervan while touring England’s picturesque Lake District (northwester area of the country), stopping in along the way to visit family and old friends.  

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey

The trip is not without its purpose — beyond just the joy of a vacation — it seems that Tusker has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia and this trip is a way for Sam to say goodbye; to spend his last few moments with his dear friend who has already started to slip away.

Make no mistake, despite the beauty of this road trip and the strong acting performances of these two great professionals, Supernova is a full-box of Kleenex weeper.   Old memories are shared with friends along the way, and there are the lighter moments, but to watch someone you love fade to nothing right before your eyes is painful, road trip and laughs aside.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey

Bonus features for Supernova, which is certainly one of the best films of 2020, include a making-of featurette.

In other release news from Wolfe this past week, May 11 will mark the DVD debut of director Ali LeRoi’s thought-provoking drama, The Obituary of Tunde Johnson.
His given name is Babatunde Adesola Johnson (Steven Silver — as Marcus in the
13 Reasons Why television series), but he prefers Tunde.   He is a Nigerian-American teenager, of wealth and privilege … his father (Sammi Rotibi — Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Django Unchained) is a famous artist, who is always quick to offer his son advice.   Tunde has it all, nice home, an equally nice car and he goes to an upper-crust private school.

Things get set in motion when Tunde gets pulled over late one night and things quickly go south.   He is shot … and is suddenly jolted awake in his bed.   He is destined to relive — or is it re-die? — the same moment over and over again.   He’s caught in a time-loop.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey

What LeRoi, working with Stanley Kalu’s first script, has constructed is not so much a “sci-fi” tale of someone caught in a Groundhog Day event, but rather the “loop” has the effect of following Tunde through various aspects of his all-too-perfect life.   In this manner, the drama of being gay, of being in a relationship, of being black and of dealing with privileged kids with little moral standing doesn’t become tedious.   Instead, at moments of conflict and dire altercations, Tunde’s life re-sets … he learns as he goes.

The Obituary of Tunde Johnson is social commentary.   Being gay, among people who are supposed to be accepting, but are more subtle in their biases; being black, but not from “the hood,” where people smile, acknowledge your standing and still manage to knife you in the back.   And of parents, and the police and so much more.   On DVD from Wolfe this coming May 11.

 

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey

 

 

 

 


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