Ray (2004) - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Long before Walk Hard was released, musical biopics were known for adhering to a strict formula. You’ve gotta hit some very specific story beats: A death in the past that haunts the musician, a drug habit, rehab, and at the end, the subject of the biographical feature will need to vanquish those demons and redeem themselves in front of a packed audience of adoring fans. And, by God, Ray has them all. But unlike many films of the same type, it delves deeper than the formula it adheres to, with genuine interest and curiosity about what made Ray Charles tick.

Jamie Foxx plays the titular lead, Ray Charles, in an Oscar-winning performance. Not to keep griping on the genre as a whole, but unlike so many high-profile releases, Foxx doesn’t simply perform an impression of the famous piano player. He puts in one hell of a performance as a man who, yes, is a genius musician, is blind, struggles with drug addiction, and is haunted by his past, but this is, first and foremost, a character that he embodies and portrays. He’s not simply doing a silly voice under a pair of sunglasses. He’s putting in a nuanced performance as a man who is, at once, extremely confident, given the number of accomplishments he’s achieved, but still suffers from low self-esteem, because of a cruel world constantly trying to undermine him.

Perhaps it helps that Ray Charles himself is simply an interesting subject for a film about his life. He was, first of all, enormously talented. He had a magnetic stage presence that complemented his performance - he wasn’t just a piano player, he was a whole identity and could build a crowd up through his infectious energy. Ray and director Taylor Hackford inherently understand this, and it’s brought to life through Jamie Foxx, who has a similar infectious energy, through his screen performance.

It’s hard to dislike Ray. Sure, it’s predictable, but life itself is predictable. So many of us have the same trajectory, and in a high-pressure life in show business, a lot of what performers go through is a universal experience. While it’s easy to roll your eyes and scoff at a familiar beat in a story, it’s a cliché for a reason: Because it happens with alarming frequency. Call it a condition of the human experience.

Vital Disc Stats: The Ultra HD Blu-ray
Ray pounds the piano keys on 4K in a two-disc release from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, in both 4K/HDR and 1080p/SDR versions, with the majority of supplements found on the Blu-ray disc. Both discs are housed in a standard case, enveloped in a slipcover, with the case and the slip featuring classic cover artwork, with Foxx as Charles, framed against a black backdrop.

For this release, Ray features both a brand-new 4K/Dolby Vision and HD/SDR master, from a 4K scan of the film’s original camera negative, approved by director Taylor Hackford. Ray was shot on 35mm film by cinematographer Pawel Edelman, with a keen eye for the smaller details that add up to a larger whole. The look and feel of the film is so lived-in, so raw and so real; each individual sequence looks exhaustively composed. Through the Dolby Vision HDR grading, colors pop without oversaturation, gleaming brilliantly, and those live performance numbers, with Charles onstage in a sea of velvety black beyond the bright stage lights, look exquisite. There’s a slight layer of film grain throughout, but for the most part, this is a very sleek-looking production.

Subtlety be damned. It need not apply. I’ve reviewed some musical biographical features whose philosophy on sound design is that, in watching a performance, it would be more realistic to have those numbers be front-heavy, with some echoes carrying over to the rear of the soundstage. Or maybe some incidental effects, like a cheering audience. The rear speakers, then, see most activity through the film’s score or through atmospheric effects. Ray isn’t having any of that. Each musical number explodes throughout the entirety of the soundstage, creating a ring of noise during those sequences. Outside of the musical numbers, the sound design sounds just as full, busy, and alive, with constant activity through atmospherics like the whooshing cars on a busy street, the idle chatter of a busy café, or a gentle breeze in a flashback sequence set in northern Florida. Despite the complexity of the sound design, dialogue never gets lost or overshadowed, instead remaining front and center, prioritized to help propel the story.

There’s some good news and some bad news when it comes to special features on KLSC’s release of Ray. Let’s start with the good news: It’s packed with features. Tons of featurettes with interviews with the filmmakers and cast, deleted scenes, uncut musical performances, and audio commentaries. The bad news is that these are almost all archival supplements, dating back to their DVD release, with the sole new feature, an audio commentary track from Dwayne Epstein - which isn't bad by any means, but those looking for more than what they've seen before might be a tad disappointed. Otherwise, it's a nicely stacked set of materials. 

4K Disc

• NEW Audio Commentary - Film historian and author Dwayne Epstein
• Audio Commentary - Director Taylor Hackford

Blu-ray Disc

• NEW Audio Commentary - Film historian and author Dwayne Epstein
• Audio Commentary - Director Taylor Hackford
• Introduction by Taylor Hackford (SD 1:35)
• Ray: An American Story (SD 28:48) - Featurette
• Stepping into the Part (SD 10:41) - Featurette
• The Women of Ray (SD 9:56) - Featurette
• The Filmmakers' Journey (SD 9:23) - Featurette
• Ray Remembered (SD 4:04) - Featurette
• A Look Inside Ray (SD 3:21) - Featurette
• Deleted Scenes (SD 27:37) - With optional audio commentary by director Taylor Hackford
• Uncut Music Performances (SD 25:34)
• Theatrical Trailer

Ray is a shining example of the biopic genre at its best. There’s a comfort in formulaic sometimes, and you go into a movie wanting to see those familiar beats, almost like a best-of album, playing all the hits. And so, too, does the soundtrack play the greatest hits of a brilliant musician, Ray Charles. Director Taylor Hackford and star Jamie Foxx aren’t content with a flashy, surface-level telling of the man’s life, so they give us more, a compelling story about a man who battled his demons his entire life, and overcame so much—with humor, grace, and bravery, in the face of much adversity. Kino Lorber’s release looks and sounds amazing and would be a welcome addition to anyone’s physical media library. Ray is Highly Recommended.