Mixed Blood - Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Alphabet City, New York, in the early 1980s, was ravaged by rival gangs competing for territory. Rita La Punta (Marília Pêra) is head honcho in a gang of Hispanic kids (some of whom are her biological children), and everyone wants to knock her down a peg. Being on top comes with its own occupational hazards, it seems. A German drug supplier, an assassin, and the leader of another crime syndicate all have it out for her, while Rita lives a dramatic life full of elaborate costuming and grand speechifying to all who will listen to her. She even makes a poster signed by one of the minor members of the musical act Menudo, hung on the wall of some bodega, sound like a historical artifact worthy of Biblical worship.

Her son Thiago (Richard Ulacia) is a devoted mama’s boy. He’s a terrific soldier, as he guns down his enemies with surgeon-like precision, but he’s not one for complex decision-making. One of the boys he’s recruited in a war against another gang is a spy sent to infiltrate them, and a woman he’s involved with slowly poisons his impression of his mother. Suddenly, having everyone huddled together in a single room, sleeping on mattresses in a dilapidated building doesn’t sound as quaint and familial as it once had. And not being allowed to leave the neighborhood, without mother’s approval, sends him on a rebellious streak.

Mixed Blood was directed and co-written by Paul Morrissey, perhaps best known for his early work with Andy Warhol and for controversial movies like Flesh, Trash, Flesh for Frankenstein, and Blood for Dracula. Mixed Blood is an odd duck of a movie that, somehow, works despite its tonal whiplash. It is, at once, a grounded, realistic crime drama with an authenticity to its locations. It looks and feels real, because it is, filmed among crumbling buildings and urban decay. It is also nearly Shakespearean in how the drama plays out, with double-crossings galore, and monologues that are shouted to the back of an imaginary theater’s audience. On top of everything, Mixed Blood is a comedy, of sorts, a genuinely funny one with some laugh-out-loud moments in between sequences of carnage and violence.

Mixed Blood is a unique movie-going experience that blends gritty realism with campy theatricals. The cast takes this simple direction and gives it their all. Geraldine Smith appears, who had worked with Morrissey previously. Angel David, as Juan, also played “Skank” in The Crow. John Leguizamo makes his screen debut in Mixed Blood in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance on a basketball court. In fact, I did blink, and I did miss it, so I had to Google which scene he was in! But the real star of the show is Marília Pêra, who doesn’t just chew scenery; she makes a meal of it. She owns the movie and dominates every scene that she’s in.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Cinématographe’s release of Mixed Blood arrives on a two-disc release, containing the film on both 4K UHD Blu-ray and an HD presentation on a regular Blu-ray. The two discs are housed in a unique case with a built-in booklet, featuring writing by Erica Schultz, Paul Attard and Madelyn Sutton. Like previous releases under this label, the case is enveloped by an oversized, rigid slip with an interior ribbon for easy access to the movies and essays.

For its release on 4K UHD Blu-ray, Mixed Blood was restored and scanned from its original 35mm camera negative. The video presentation is excellent throughout. There are a few shots, early on, that are out of focus, soft and fuzzy, but these are relegated to select establishing shots of the city. The rest of the film is crystal clear, razor sharp, and through its HDR grading, allows colors to look naturalistic while having a distinct pop. Red clothing, for example, or brightly painted graffiti, stands out against the gray, drab cityscapes. Given the gritty nature of the story, a healthy amount of organic film grain is present. Dirt, scratches and other debris are virtually nonexistent.

Mixed Blood is available with the single audio option, a 1.0 mono mix, encoded in DTS-HD MA. For a single channel, it does a terrific job balancing the Latin jazz musical score courtesy of Coati Mundi and merengue needle drops, along with bullet hits and other mayhem, without ever losing sight of the dialogue that propels the story. Some of the dialogue is a bit muddy, but these instances are few and far between, and more of a symptom of the film’s low budget and filming techniques than with the film transfer. Overall, this is a terrific mix, leveled with precision and care.

Cinématographe has equipped Mixed Blood with some terrific special features, including new interviews, a new audio commentary, a new video essay, and an archival interview. These features help contextualize Mixed Blood among Morrissey’s larger body of work as an artist.

4K Disc

• Audio Commentary - Film historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell

Blu-ray Disc

• Audio Commentary - Film historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell
• Tremendous Drama (HD 15:51) - Interview with casting director Leonard Finger
• Nothing As Wild (HD 18:41) - Interview with editor Scott Vickrey
• The Real Places (HD 19:04) - Interview with producer Steven Fierberg
• The Brazilian on Avenue B (HD 17:48) - Video essay by film historian Chris O'Neill
• Archival Interview (SD 17:16) - Director Paul Morrissey from The Joan Quinn Profiles, recorded in 1994
• Stills Gallery

Mixed Blood isn’t a mixed bag - it’s a surprise bag full of goodies. Reach your hand in there, and you have no idea what you’ll be grabbing. A hard-hitting slice of real-life drama on the violent streets of Alphabet City circa 1984? An aggrandized, larger-than-life melodrama with kings and queens who rule the streets with an iron fist? A laugh-out-loud comedy that varies between subtle observational humor and slapstick? Mixed Blood is all of these things, and more. Cinématographe has presented the film with terrific A/V stats and a wealth of special features. Mixed Blood is Highly Recommended. 

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