Review: Chained For Life
Blu-ray: Chained For Life (2018)
Mabel (Jess Weixler) is a beautiful young actress who has taken the part of a blind girl in a hospital based horror movie which brings up the subject of bodily abnormalities.
It is while on the set of the movie that she meets and befriends her co-star Rosenthal (Adam Pearson): a man who has real life facial disfigurements, and as filming progresses their relationship begins to get deeper.
In an age where showing physical perfection has become increasingly prevalent via online social media platforms, Chained For Life shows that beauty really is skin deep, and that no amount of cosmetic surgery or photographic filters can truly mask your inner self.
Heartfelt performances from both Jess Weixler and Adam Pearson draw you into caring for their changing relationship with each other, while the movie-within-a-movie narrative structure allows you to compare and contrast their onscreen characters and their true selves as the filming progresses.
Also included in this limited edition 2 disc set is the first movie from writer/director Aaron Schimberg, Go Down Death, which was made 5 years before Chained For Life.
Go Down Death is based on the fabricated tales of folklore writer Jonathan Mallory Sinus and plays out as a series of stageplay-like scenes which are delivered mostly through introspective verbal speeches. All interconnected by being set in an undisclosed place where a war is waging in the background.
Less immediately accessible than Chained For Life, the narrative structure and slow deliberate scenes of people thinking out loud to camera did make me look at how long was still to go a few times, but the cinematography and visual style kept me interested until the end.
As I’ve already stated in previous reviews of these new releases from Anti-Worlds (see Relaxer and Holiday), these indie movies may not be to everyones taste, but it is fantastic that they are getting a platform to be seen by many more people and accompanied by some very interesting special features too.
If you want to watch something that little bit different, and which will more than likely never appear at your local multiplex, then make sure to keep an eye on all the future releases incoming from Anti-Worlds.
LIMITED EDITION 2 x BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:
DISC ONE: CHAINED FOR LIFE
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High Definition presentation
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Original mono soundtrack
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Audio commentary with writer-director Aaron Schimberg
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A Different Kind of Intimacy (2020, 18 mins): actor Jess Weixler reflects on the themes and production of Chained for Life
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Good Things Happen to Good People(2020, 10 mins): actor and activist Adam Pearson discusses the role of Rosenthal
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We Are Family (2020, 17 mins): actor Sari Lennick recalls her experiences of making the film
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Eight deleted/extended scenes (12 mins)
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Super 8 On-set Footage (2018, 2 mins, mute): silent material shot by film archivist John Klacsmann
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Late Spring/Regrets for Our Youth(2009, 5 mins): short diary film by Aaron Schimberg
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UK and US theatrical trailers
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Teaser trailer
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Image gallery
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Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
DISC TWO: GO DOWN DEATH (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE DISC)
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UK premiere presentation of Aaron Schimberg’s 2013 debut feature
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High Definition presentation
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Original mono soundtrack
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It would be sad to see this end up in a dump (2013, 6 mins): rare behind-the-scenes footage shot by producer-editor Vanessa McDonnell
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Nine deleted scenes (32 mins)
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Theatrical trailer
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Image gallery
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Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
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Limited edition exclusive 36-page booklet containing new writing on Chained for Life by David Jenkins, Jeff Billington on the 1950 exploitation film Chained for Life, Alejandro Bachmann and Michelle Koch on Go Down Death, and film credits
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Limited edition of 3,000 copies
Review by Dave from discs kindly supplied by Anti-Worlds.
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