Singles

Singles (1992) is without a doubt one of Cameron Crowe's best films, and one of my personal favourites.  Not too much of a plot going on to speak of, it follows a group of twenty-somethings around (and believe me, back then twenty-somethings were way less obnoxious, entitled, and self-obsessed than they generally are today!) as they navigate their relationships and blossoming lives (before it all goes to Hell, some time around your forties...).  Janet - Bridget Fonda, wonderful here - is questioning her relationship with rocker Cliff (Matt Dillon, again absolutely brilliant) while Campbell Scott is apparently finding the love of his life in Linda - is it on or off? - and perpetual singleton Debbie is going through a dating agency to see what or who works (not helped by her flatmate Pam, who's quite happy to steal Debbie's latest find from right under her nose).  You get the idea.  It's all set to a Seattle backdrop with the then-popular grunge scene forming many parts of the soundtrack.  With a couple of lovely cameos (Tim Burton shows up as 'the next Martin Scorsese'), it's a beautiful film that I never get tired of rewatching every few years.  The music track is excellent, the writing spot on, the characters played universally convincingly, and the story just, well, nice.  There's not too much nice in the world today, so it's even more welcome now than back in the 90s.

I've had this one over the years on tape, DVD, and Blu-ray.  I was a tad disappointed when it appeared on Blu-ray because it didn't look like Warner had put in a whole heap of effort that this one should deserve.  However, the newer disc is actually pretty decent and a world better than its standard definition, and lower, predecessors.  Both the DVD and Blu-ray are framed at 1.78:1, although the former does reveal slightly more information around the sides.  The image didn't initially look to me like it had been bestowed with a full-blown remaster, but looking at the two discs side by side it's obvious that the Blu-ray is significantly sharper, bolder, and more colourful.  Audio is stereo on both discs, losslessly compressed with DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu of course, so it's a winner here too.  It goes without saying that the Blu-ray also plays at the correct frame rate (the PAL DVD is sped slightly at 25 frames per second).

Extras were slim on the DVD: you got a theatrical trailer and a couple of three minute deleted scenes.  On the Blu there is the trailer but you also get a few minutes of entertaining goofs, three full performances from the live gig that was shot for the film (Alice in Chains and Soundgarden), and a plethora of deleted scenes.  My only gripe here is that there is no Play-All function on the deleted scenes, so you have to keep clicking through the menu if you want to watch them all, which most people will - c'mon, Warner!  Still, I can't complain too much at the content even though a Crowe commentary or something would have been a massive bonus.  I picked up the German Blu-ray, which appears to be identical to the American Blu (even the menu is in English), the only difference being the Germans have put their usual, oddly large certification logo on the front cover.  Unusually, the cover is not reversible (to display it without the certificate), but considering it's much cheaper for us in England to import from Germany (for some reason it's not currently available here) now than it is from the US, this huge '12' a minor point.  Overall, if you own Singles on DVD (or VHS or Laserdisc), it's most definitely worth upgrading to this Blu-ray.  If you've never seen the film itself before, I think you're missing out, go check it out!