Between the Lines [Blu-ray Review]

Between the Lines arrives with an all-new restoration. Director Joan Micklin Silver is enjoying a career resurgence among film fans, so I applaud Cohen for restoring one of her oldest films. That being said, it’s still a film about Baby Boomer friends working at a fictional Boston newspaper. I love Lindsay Crouse and Jeff Goldblum, but that plot setup is going to kill most interest in the movie.

Workplace comedies are always a pain in the ass to get right. You have to balance dating yourself without turning into a relationship drama. But, if you don’t focus on the relationships, then what do you do? Back and forth the battle goes, until it eventually gets around to who is going to bang who? Why is that?

Well, the easy answer is that nobody cares about how a newspaper actually works. Most modern people have a hard time understanding facts and reality. So, when forcing that mess into a film that requires an open response…you’re just asking for your film to be buried for decades. Still, dig that Steven Van Zandt score.

The Blu-ray comes with a new interview, trailer and a re-release trailer. The 2.0 MONO PCM track is super thin, but accurately sourced from the original track. The 1080p transfer is refreshing. You can tell it has been cleaned up, but without being aggressively modernized. If you’re a Joan Micklin Silver fan, I’d recommend a purchase.

Between the Lines is available June 18th