Shot on vivid 16mm film over a three-year period, ANONYMOUS CLUB chronicles notoriously shy, Melbourne-based musician Courtney Barnett’s ups and downs on the world tour for her album Tell Me How You Really Feel. Featuring Barnett’s unguarded narration from her audio diary, recorded on a dictaphone provided by filmmaker Danny Cohen, the film delivers frank and unprecedented insight into Barnett’s creative process, the sacrifices and inner conflicts set in motion by fame, and the sometimes dark backdrop to her whimsical, relatably poetic compositions.

For in-depth thoughts on Anonymous Club, please see my colleague Andre Couture’s review from its original theatrical release here.

Video Quality

Anonymous Club debuts on Blu-Ray with a nice 1080p presentation that faithfully captures its 16mm roots. Even with this being a new film, the format does lend itself to a more gritty, textural experience complete with some flecks of debris and brief instability. One of the first shots includes an extended streak where the film was damaged when loading it into the camera, as explained in the commentary track. With this in mind, the movie looks nice and clear depending on where the footage is being captured.

The color grading is natural with some impressive hues in the environments visited. The picture showcases some pretty strong black levels and stable highlights. There are no instances of compression artifacts or other digital nuisances of the sort. There are detailed textures within the background such as clothing and furniture. Everything looks as good as the original material will allow. Oscilloscope Laboratories has treated this one every bit as well as you would hope.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray arrives with a favorable DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that translates this material as it should. Since this is a documentary about a musician, one would hope that music would come through with peerless fidelity. Thankfully, there is no disappointment in this department as songs flow through without signs of strain or damage. There is an engaging sound design as Barnett travels from city to city meeting fans and exploring different locales. Ambient noises are rendered with accuracy within the sonic collage.

Dialogue comes through clearly even if some might need the subtitles to parse inflections of the Australian accent. The persistent voice memos that guide the film come through with great clarity depending on when and where they were captured. The audio track accomplishes everything that is asked of it. There are optional English SDH subtitles included for those who desire them.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Courtney Barnett and director Danny Cohen provide an affable commentary track in which they discuss the creation of the film, memories behind different moments, the motivations behind certain creative choices, unique factoids, and more.

Deleted Scenes: A 21-minute selection of unused material is provided here that is worth exploring thanks to some great interviews that didn’t make it into the film.

Trailer: The two-minute trailer is provided here.

Final Thoughts

Anonymous Club is an occasionally cyclical but ultimately rewarding look at Courtney Barnett that oozes with vulnerability. Those who are already a fan of the artist will probably respond best to the film, but newcomers should be able to empathize with some of her struggles and how she views her path in life. Keeping this mostly from the point of view of Barnett rather than allowing this to become a parade of talking heads allows the film to achieve a catharsis that more distance from the subject simply wouldn’t allow. Oscilloscope Laboratories has provided this film with a Blu-Ray with a great A/V presentation and a nice selection of special features. If you are a fan of personal music documentaries, give it a shot. Recommended

Anonymous Club is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Oscilloscope Laboratories has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.