White Bird in a Blizzard is an adaptation of Laura Kasischke’s mystery slash coming-of-age novel written and directed by Gregg Araki, and staring Shailene Woodley as a teenager (and unreliable narrator) whose mother suddenly disappears. Since iTunes has a very cool pre-theatrical exclusive rental available right-now I thought I’d give it a review.

Unhappy families. Eva Green, Christopher Meloni and Shailene Woodley in White Bird in a Blizzard.

Gregg Araki is certainly a colorful film-maker, whose day-glo, ‘Apocalpyse’ trilogy (Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, Nowhere). After the barely restrained ‘Kaboom’ (arguably treading old ground), I personally thought he’d disappeared for good, but White Bird in a Blizzard seems to represent an interesting evolution in his film-making style.

I haven’t read the book, but the film certainly feels like an adaptation, with a languid pace, and numerous flashbacks and digressions. Easily Araki’s most accessible work I enjoyed the cinematography and design, although perhaps it was all a bit too ‘on-the-nose’. I felt the late 1980s setting was a little wasted, and changing the era would have made little difference to the film, also Eva Green’s performance as the mother was frankly a little too terrifying, but in keeping with the rest of the piece.

Overall if you are a fan of either the work of Gregg Araki or Shailene Woodley, there is plenty to like here.

White Bird in a Blizzard iTunes HD Review

Kat Connor (Shailene Woodley) puts the pieces together.

The iTunes HD 1080p download clocks in at 2.89 GB with an average bitrate of 3.8 Mbps with peaks of 12.7 Mbps. The image is 1912 x 804 giving an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. Though the bitrate is low (even by iTunes standards) picture quality is acceptable throughout, thanks to largely static compositions but pixel peepers will notice minor artifacting.

Audio is handled by the standard Dolby Digital 5.1 AC3 track at 384 kbps and a stereo AAC track at approximately 160 kbps.

Conclusions

Missile Command ! Unfortunately the iTunes download is restricted to 1980s bandwidth levels.

Three out of five: Good. Technically the presentation could be better. 3.8 Mbps is too low for a 1080p video-stream without some compromises being made, and they most certainly have here. Fans of Gregg Araki and Shailene Woodley dive in immediately. Everyone else is better holding off for the Blu-ray.

Full FTC disclosure: I am an iTunes affiliate advertiser – if you click on one of the above links and purchase a download I get a very small amount of money.

White Bird in a Blizzard iTunes 1080p Screenshots

Snowy dream sequences in White Bird in a Blizzard.

Kat Connor (Shailene Woodley) and stoner boyfriend Phil (Shiloh Fernandez) hang out.

Angela Bassett and Shailene Woodley in White Bird in a Blizzard