On the Basis of Sex appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with solid visuals.
Sharpness maintained a high caliber of clarity. Interiors occasionally looked slightly mushy, but the majority of the flick seemed well-defined. I saw no shimmering or jaggies, and both edge haloes and print flaws also failed to appear.
Can’t Hollywood at least avoid teal and orange for period biopics? Apparently not, as those tones dominated the film’s palette. Despite the tedious nature of those choices, the colors looked well-represented for what they were.
Blacks seemed dark and deep, while low-light shots offered appealing delineation. This turned into a more than satisfactory image.
Though not as memorable, the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack worked fine for the material at hand. Music dominated and used the various speakers well.
Effects got less to do and usually offered general ambience. That left us without much in terms of auditory fireworks, but given the story’s character focus, this made sense.
Overall audio quality seemed good, and speech was natural and concise. Music sounded peppy and full, while effects seemed acceptable.
As mentioned earlier, these elements lacked much to stand out from the crowd, but they appeared accurate enough. This all added up to a “B-“ soundtrack.
Three featurettes appear, and we begin with A Supreme Team. In this six-minute, 24-second piece, we hear from director Mimi Leder, producer Robert Cort, writer Daniel Stiepleman, production designer Nelson Coates, costume designer Isis Mussenden, and actors Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer and Kathy Bates.
“Team” looks at story and characters, Leder’s impact on the production, cast and performances, locations, costumes and production design. This becomes a pretty fluffy piece without much depth.
Legacy of Justice goes for three minutes, four seconds and includes Jones, Leder, Hammer, Stiepleman, Cort, Bates, and actors Justin Theroux, Cailey Spaeny, Jack Reynor and Stephen Root.
“Legacy” looks at the impact of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s work. Inevitably, it provides lots of promotion and little insight.
Finally, A Loving Partnership features Leder, Theroux, Jones, Hammer, Cort, Bates, Stiepleman and producer Jonathan King. We learn about the Martin and Ruth Ginsburg partnership. Like its predecessors, it brings us happy talk and not much else.
The disc opens with ads for Collette, What They Had, Welcome to Marwen and Mary Queen of Scots. No trailer for Basis appears here.
While its subject blazed a trail as a pioneer, On the Basis of Sex plays it safe. Though it brings us a professional, moderately entertaining affair, the film seems overly conventional and predictable. The Blu-ray brings very good picture along with adequate audio and minor supplements. Basis becomes a serviceable biopic.