‘Calendar Girls’ DVD Review – A Rewarding Documentary About Living Your Best Life

A life-affirming documentary about Florida’s most dedicated dance team for women over 60. Recognizable by their wild and wacky costumes, The Calendar Girls perform at over 100 events each year. Through revealing conversations and choreographed dance sequences, the film captures the delicate balance these women strike between family, home, and dance.

For thoughts on Calendar Girls, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:

[youtube https://youtu.be/GklBQOIHPaE?t=3086]

Video Quality

Calendar Girls comes to DVD with a fair 480p transfer that presents the movie as well as the format will allow. This film is captured around this Florida community with a verite style which provides different levels of visual quality. The recent interviews look really great and clear depending on the shooting locations. Overall, the quality can be chalked up to the elements available to the creative team. Skin tones look natural and details hold up fairly well in close up. Colors are a bit flat but shine in certain landscapes, and black levels are subject to a bit of crush and compression artifacting. We would have much preferred a Blu-Ray presentation, but the image is strong and quite pleasing given the format limitations. 

Audio Quality

The DVD comes with a Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 track that does everything it needs to do just fine. Dialogue exchanges are pretty clear throughout with only occasional moments where sounds from the environment muddle the clarity of the subject’s words. There is not much that is going to liven up the soundscape outside of some musical cues and light environmental noise. This track appears to be free from any damage or other issues that would lessen your enjoyment. This presentation is about as good as the source material will allow. The film is presented with English SDH subtitles for those who need them.

Special Features

• Trailers: The minute-and-a-half trailer is provided for Calendar Girls. There are also trailers provided for Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche, Loudmouth, Love Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter and Lowndes County and the Road To Black Power. 

Final Thoughts

Calendar Girls is a terrific look at those who choose not to be hemmed in by societal expectations of aging. You do become very attached to many of these subjects, but the documentary itself never treats these women like cute objects. There are some legitimate badasses on the team who deserve to be treated like the athletes they are. The same goes for their personal lives which contain many heartbreaking and frustrating moments which command your attention. Greenwich Entertainment and Kino Lorber have released a DVD sporting a decent A/V transfer, but a Blu-Ray would have been greatly preferred. If the subject interests you even in the slightest, it is worth a look. Recommended 

Calendar Girls will be available to purchase on DVD on February 21, 2023. 

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the DVD.

Disclaimer: Greenwich Entertainment and Kino Lorber have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.