New Indie:
It may not be the utter triumph that his previous film Frances Ha was, but Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young (Lionsgate Home Entertainment) sees the filmmaker slicing into both Gen X growing pains and Millennial narcissism with razor-sharp precision. It’s a contemporary comedy that’s both knowingly witty and uncompromisingly satirical.
Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts play husband-and-wife documentary filmmakers feeling alienated from their best pals who’ve just had a baby. Along come young upstarts Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver, who pull the older couple into their world of vinyl albums, vintage VHS cassettes and hipster street happenings. Are Stiller and Watts exploiting their new friends for their youthful energy and bravado, or do the kids have an agenda of their own? The answers are constantly surprising and often hilariously funny.
Also available: Rinko Kikuchi (The Brothers Bloom) plays a Japanese office drone in search of the movie Fargo‘s cache of cash in the acclaimed Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Anchor Bay/Amplify); Camp X-Ray (IFC Films) sees Kristen Stewart ditching the vampires to play a young guard at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base; based on the novel by David Baldacci (who also wrote the screenplay) Wish You Well (eOne Entertainment) stars Ellen Burstyn as the caretaker of her great-granddaughter (Mackenzie Foy) in 1940 after the death of the girl’s father.
Newly-separated Emma moves in with her gay restaurateur son, and they turn their dysfunctional relationship into great food in the comedy Eat with Me (Wolfe Video); The Flash‘s Danielle Panabaker stars in Time Lapse (XLrator Media), a thriller about a camera that can photograph the future; The Squeeze (Arc Entertainment) takes place in the high-stakes world of golf hustling, which is apparently a thing.
Friday the 13th survivor Adrienne King gets her own chance to horrify teens as a harshly disciplinarian school principal in All American Bully (Wild Eye Releasing); Lost for Words (Green Apple Entertainment) sees an ex-Marine (played by Sean Faris) and a Chinese ballerina (Grace Huang) in a star-crossed love affair; in the waning days of chivalry, Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman are the Last Knights (Lionsgate Home Entertainment); Tom Sizemore and Judd Nelson topline the serial killer/phone harassment thriller Private Number (Arc Entertainment).
New Foreign:
If you know Eytan Fox as the director of hard-hitting contemporary Israeli films like Yossi and Jagger or The Bubble, get ready to enjoy his goofy side with Cupcakes (Strand Releasing Home Entertainment). A sextet of friends gather, as they do every year, to watch the goofy Eurovision-esque UniverSong Competition. One of them is blue over a breakup, and the others sing her a song to cheer her up, never suspecting that their ditty will go viral and propel these amateurs all the way to the next year’s UniverSong. Wildly colorful, packed with music and thoroughly silly, Cupcakes is as sugary, and irresistible, as its title suggests.
Also available: Bruno Dumont is one of France’s most polarizing directors, but even many of his detractors were enchanted by his miniseries Li’l Quinquin (Kino Lorber); the great Tsui Hark finds excitement and adventure in The Taking of Tiger Mountain (Well Go USA Entertainment), set in the late 1940s; Oscar nominee Timbuktu (Cohen Media Group) explores the impact of jihadist militants on a small rural town on the edge of the Sahara.
Of Girls and Horses (Wolfe Video) offers legendary filmmaker Monika Treut’s look at young love in the stables; both girls and horses play key roles in the family-friendly Irish import The Legend of Longwood (Shout! Kids); in Healing (Anchor Bay), Hugo Weaving plays a prison guard who rehabilitates inmates by teaching them to care for injured birds of prey.
New Documentary:
Long a fixture on “Great Documentaries Not Available on DVD” lists, Penelope Spheeris’ powerful trilogy finally makes its way to home video with the eagerly-anticipated The Decline of Western Civilization Collection (Shout Factory) box set. The 1980 original takes a searing look at the rising punk scene of Los Angeles, featuring unforgettable performances by bands like X, The Germs and Black Flag. 1988’s Part II: The Metal Years vacillates between darkly hilarious and chillingly fatalistic as it examines the hair-metal movement, and Part III (1998) brings us inside the lives of L.A.’s homeless punk teens, a sad and sobering climax to one of the great documentary trilogies of all time. The box also includes a bonus disc featuring extended interviews from Metal Years, panel discussions, an interview with Spheeris, and much more.
Also available: If the Decline music is too rough for you, there’s a whole variety of new music-based releases encompassing everything from the big-band era — Bob Hope: Entertaining the Troops (Mug Shot Productions) — to the sounds of the 1960s — The Wrecking Crew (Magnolia Home Entertainment), A MusiCares Tribute to Carole King (Shout Factory) — to modern folk — Melissa Etheridge: A Little Bit of Me, Live in L.A. (Shout Factory).
Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity (Kino Lorber Home Video) takes us inside the mind of one of this generation’s boldest choreographers; there used to be this thing called magazines, and they mattered in the culture, and that era is captured in Smiling Through the Apocalypse: Esquire in the ’60s (First Run Features); as parents live longer and longer, more people must cope with Caring for Mom & Dad (PBS).
Recently the victim of terrorism, the venerable French satire magazine takes center stage in Tough Being Loved by Jerks: Charlie Hebdo on Trial (Kino Lorber Home Video); Children of Giant (PBS) visits the Marfa, Tex., locations of the Rock Hudson-Elizabeth Taylor-James Dean classic; speaking of which, movie buffs won’t want to miss two documentaries featuring interviews with Europe’s most extraordinary filmmakers, Marcel Ophuls and Jean-Luc Godard: The Meeting in St. Gervais and Chantal Akerman, From Here (both Icarus Films).
New Grindhouse:
If you think science-fiction satire of Reagan-era excesses begins and ends with They Live, then you’ve definitely missed Brian Yuzna’s brilliantly gonzo Society (Arrow Video), now available in an impressive two-disc Blu-ray set. In this wickedly hilarious and grotesquely gory (thanks to Screaming Mad George’s envelope-pushing effects work) horror-comedy, the 0.1% of Beverly Hills literally feed off the poor. The many extras on this new release include contemporary interviews and commentaries with cast and crew.
Also available: They just don’t make great exploitation horror like The Thing with Two Heads (Olive Films) anymore, particularly given that the heads are played by Ray Milland (as a rich racist) and Rosey Grier; grindhouse classic Spider Baby (Arrow Video), gets a gorgeous Blu-ray repackaging with lots of great behind-the-scenes material as well as an early short from director Jack Hill, starring the legendary Sid Haig — Hill and Haig also teamed up on Pit Stop (Arrow Video) and for the Pam Grier classic Foxy Brown (Olive Films), both also new on Blu-ray; those creepy Scarecrows (Scream Factory) aren’t exactly nailed down in one place, as a group of criminal interlopers learn the hard way.
It’s military men vs. werevolves in Dog Soldiers (Scream Factory), directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent); the brilliantly bananas Takashi Miike goes somewhere completely unpredictable — a musical — with his acclaimed, indescribable The Happiness of the Katakuris (Arrow Video); Sleepaway Camp is best remembered for its rule-breaking ending, but if you really need to know what happens next, Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (both Scream Factory), now availably in Blu-ray, will answer all your questions.
Jason Momoa stars in Debug (Ketchup Entertainment), about a group of hackers of the future who must defend themselves against the ultimate killer app; Ghosthouse & Witchery (Scream Factory) gives us real estate haunted by demonic spirits and David Hasselhoff; suburbanites do their best not to get Infected (RLJ/Image Entertainment) by a global pandemic; Tentacles & Reptilicus (Scream Factory) are supremely watchable rip-offs of Jaws and Godzilla, respectively, but sadly only one of them features Shelley Winters.
New Classics:
Yes, July 4 has passed, but the classic musical 1776 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) is lots of fun all year round, especially in this gorgeous 4K restoration on Blu-ray. This version, which premiered earlier this year at the TCM Film Festival, is stunning, and the Blu-ray comes loaded with great extras, including a new commentary, deleted scenes, screen tests and an extended cut of the film. It’s the signing of the Declaration of Independence restaged as a musical, and not only are the songs great, but the wonderful screenplay by Peter Stone (based on his Tony-winning Broadway play) also actually generates suspense over whether or not the Continental Congress will break away from England. A must for any collection.
Also available: After breaking the studio bank on his wildly visionary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam bounced back as a commercially viable filmmaker with the poignant, darkly funny and Oscar-winning The Fisher King (The Criterion Collection), featuring one of Robin Williams’ finest performances; She-Devil (Olive Films) sees Roseanne taking delicious vengeance upon husband-stealing romance novelist Meryl Streep; Michelle Williams and Anna Friel are heartbreakingly spot-on as mismatched best friends in Me Without You (First Run Features).
I’m admittedly too old to be in this film’s cult, but fans will be thrilled about The Last Unicorn: The Enchanted Edition (Shout Factory), featuring an uncut, hi-def version of the beloved animated feature; Fanny Ardant is a woman of mystery (novels) in Claude Lelouch’s compellingly twisty Roman de Gare (First Run Features); an all-star cast buoys the Warner wartime extravaganza Thank Your Lucky Stars (Warner Archive Collection); The Boys in the Band (Kino Lorber) are still being snippy with each other, but they’ve never looked better than in the new Blu-ray release of this gay cinema classic.
The Maltese Bippy (Warner Archive Collection) was the first and only attempt to turn Laugh-In‘s Rowan and Martin into big-screen stars, but the memorable gags that bookend this curiosity make it worth at least a look; more Studio Ghibli titles out on Blu-ray include the stunning Oscar-winner Spirited Away along with The Cat Returns (both Walt Disney Home Entertainment); Jean Michel Basquiat and other art-world legends of Reagan-era New York City pop up in the influential quasi-documentary Downtown 81 (Music Box Films); would you believe Anthony Michael Hall and Robert Downey Jr. as high school football stars, and Uma Thurman (in her debut role) as the girl next door, in Johnny Be Good (Olive Films)?
Before there was a New Queer Cinema, filmmaker Sheila McLaughlin made the influential and powerful lesbian tale She Must Be Seeing Things (First Run Features); rave culture got its own entertainingly goofy Thank God It’s Friday with the sprightly, tuneful comedy Groove (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment); Czech new wave classic Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (The Criterion Collection) is here to remind that if you think you’ve seen everything that vampire cinema has to offer, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
The Sunshine Boys (Warner Archive Collection) stars Walter Matthau and an Oscar-winning George Burns as a pair of retired vaudevillians who hate each other’s guts in this gem from Neil Simon; get a double dose of Mickey Rourke at his Rourke-iest in the double feature disc of The Pope of Greenwich Village & Desperate Hours (Shout Factory); Doctor, You’ve Got to Be Kidding! (Warner Archive Collection), says an incredulous Sandra Dee, who suddenly finds herself with a ticking clock when it comes to choosing among her suitors in this daffy 1960s romp.
New TV:
The Newsroom: The Complete Third Season (HBO Home Entertainment) actually saw the much-maligned Aaron Sorkin show find its groove in a lot of ways, making it all the sadder that this was the series’ farewell lap. Set at a fictional cable news network, the show seemed mainly to exist as a way to speculate what the terrain might have looked like if Keith Olbermann (seemingly the main inspiration for Jeff Daniels’ Will McAvoy) had stuck around MSNBC or Current rather than return to ESPN. Between legal battles over leaked government documents and a corporate takeover by a bunch of internet know-nothings, to say nothing of a wedding and a funeral, things were definitely hopping in this final batch of shows.
Also available: For a reminder of just how long this show-business legend was making great TV, check out That Show with Joan Rivers (Film Chest Media Group), four discs featuring 29 episodes of the comic’s NBC weekday show back in 1968-69; a TV legend makes it to Blu-ray in the handsome box set for The Wire: The Complete Series (HBO Entertainment), featuring all 60 acclaimed episodes; Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades of Grey) plays one of the original colonizers in the British adventure drama New Worlds (RLJ/Acorn).
Romance and Mountie uniforms make an irresistible combo in When Calls the Heart: Heart and Soul (Shout Factory); Two and a Half Men: The Complete Twelfth and Final Season (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) sees out the beloved/hated long-running sitcom; Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers are still so damn sexy and sophisticated on Hart to Hart: The Final Season (Shout Factory).
The wave of Gerry Anderson reissues culminates in the one you’ve all been waiting for: Thunderbirds: The Complete Series (ITV Studios/Timeless Media Group), and rest assured, Thunderbirds are still GO!; Mrs. Garrett copes with those girls, girls, girls on The Facts of Life: Season Six (Shout Factory); in Pretty Little Liars: The Complete Fifth Season (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment), the plots just keep thickening.
David Morrissey is The Driver (RLJ/Acorn) for a bunch of gangsters, and he’s soon in over his head, alongside co-stars Ian Hart and Colm Meaney; Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins face off for one last standoff in Justified: The Complete Final Season (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment); also in his final set of episodes is the ever-roguish Ian McShane in Lovejoy: Series 6 (RLJ/Acorn).
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