The First Omen- I finally broke down and had to get this film on my own, despite having Hulu/Disney Plus, the streaming home for this movie, because Disney cannot be bothered to upload the existing theatrical audio description track for their own film. the First Omen was distributed under Disney’s acquired 20th century Fox label, which feels like it is working now as a modern day touchstone for the more adult projects they can’t wholeheartedly slap a Disney logo on. I should not have such a problem with this track. it exists. This is a Disney owned streamer. I did originally review the film back in June, after giving up that they would add audio description, and I was immediately taken with the score. I still am. I think part of the problem with The First Omen, is that we also had Immaculate in 2024, which is a very similar film. both of them have their own very gory moments, but still, similar. Here, you get a bit more of an idea that our main protagonist has been twisted from the beginning to believe certain things, which skew her perspective on life. She thinks she owes everything to the church for helping her through what she views as her personal mental crisis. Others would call it gaslighting. I would call it Disney needs to do a better job of making sure their product is always represented in the best light, which includes making sure the audio description follows your film. Why you would ever want anyone to experience your film at a sub par quality, which is what it is to watch a horror film without audio description, is beyond me. This movie did make my list of my favorite scores from 2024, but this feels like a retread of movies we’ve seen before. It is somehow still way better than I thought something called The First Omen would ever be. It does deliver on the thematic mood building of dread, and has some genuinely spooky and gory moments. I liked it more than Immaculate, though Sydney Sweeney gave a better performance.
Fresh: Final Grade: C+, Audio Description: B+
The Day Of The Fight- the little indie ignored by critics during awards season that had a strong cast, and a killer lead performance. Michael Pitt leads a cast that includes heavyweights like Joe Pesci and Steve Buscemi, and focused heavily on the internal meditative process a fighter goes through leading up to the fight. It is a boxing movie that focuses a lot more on the boxer than most boxing films. We don’t get a bevy of training montages, or jogging down streets, but instead we get allusions to a rocky past, and his connection to his community. In less time than it took Rocky to feel inherently Philadelphian, Day Of The fight is able to make Michael Pitt feel like an integral part of this block. He knows who he knows, and he’s not a wildly famous or celebrated boxer. I haven’t given much thought to Pitt as an actor since Boardwalk Empire, like he fell off the radar, or has had no roles of consequence, but this was a return to form for a formerly celebrated actor. I wish this thing hadn’t been shoved through awards season without acknowledgement. it was one of the few projects I got that actually came with audio description, and I didn’t have to beg for it. it met my accessibility needs immediately. The track was admittedly not mixed quite at the level of what companies like Deluxe, DVW, and others produce. It felt like placeholder audio description, for a film that doesn’t have distribution. Thelma, for example, had a different audio description track at Sundance than it did for its theatrical release. Still, this was on my top 28 films of 2024, and Michael Pitt was on my list of the Best Actors.
Fresh: Final Grade: A, Audio Description: B
