Picture: Who's Camus Anyway? was presented in the original 1.85:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen color it was shot in by director Mitsuo Yanagimachi as released by Film Movement in the USA. The fleshtones were accurate, the use of camera styles varied with each scene (on purpose as part of the movie it appeared) and while it had some grain in most scenes, it came across as a rare bird indeed; a moderately successful experimental film. If you're well versed or trained in film making, you'll recognize many of the forced perspective shots, angling, or use of visual techniques to draw the audiences attention but even a second viewing seemed to yield more clues as to what was going on, making it more of an art film than one you'd pick up for general amusement on a Friday night with a date. There was some light pattern noise at times but it wasn't as bothersome here as it would have been in a movie centering on effects or explosions so you may otherwise consider it to look good.

Sound: The audio was in 2.0 Dolby Digital Japanese with optional English subtitles in yellow block lettering near the bottom of the screen. There was some separation and I really liked the music, though most of it was subtlety placed, but the audio portion of the movie wasn't as delicately woven in terms of complexity (almost as if director Mitsuo Yanagimachi were saying the audio wasn't as important to the message he was trying to get across).

Extras: The best extra, as always on a Film Movement release, was the bonus short film, this time a CGI animated bit called Birthday Boy from Korea by Sejong Park. It was good enough to be nominated for the 2005 Academy Awards and I'm told there's a great separate R4 release of the short, complete with substantial extras (there'd have to be considering the short is about 10 minutes long, though as an individual release, it'd have to be pretty inexpensive to get me to bite; despite great extras). The story is about a Korean boy in 1951 waiting for his dad to get home from the war but settling for a birthday package that alters his life forever. There were also some biographies and a double sided DVD cover though Japanese speaking fans will want to go to camus.com and find a treasure trove of goodies on the main flick.

Final Thoughts: Who's Camus Anyway? was the latest sly look at making a movie within a movie as brought to DVD by Film Movement. It had a lot of insider jokes and nods to the production process as well as some of the more realistic college antics I've seen in a very long time (contrary to National Lampoon's version of college life, people have real matters to attend to, like classes, money, etc.). It was quirky and full of a weird set of characters that you're never quite sure about in terms of their motivations or what's running through their minds but that's half the fun of the show. In all, fans of film and film making will like this one a lot more than the rest of the world but it didn't get too artistic as to be boring, marking it as a worthy chapter in the series by Film Movement as their Year 4, Film 8 release.