Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage, and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This weekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.
The 90-ish day theatrical-to-home video window means that two of the last major releases before The Dark Time are finally arriving on disc this week (previously only available as PVOD), and both are at least worth a look. We’ve also got two absolute classics on Prime (one of them joining the Criterion Collection), and a trio of catalog titles from the fine folks at Warner Archive. Take a peek:
ON AMAZON PRIME:
“Across 110th Street”: Most modern audiences only know Barry Shear’s rough-edged 1972 crime drama for its melodic theme song, which Quentin Tarantino brilliantly reappropriated for “Jackie Brown.” But the source movie (newly available on Prime Video) is an absolute all-timer, a bleak tale of suicidal stick-up men, crooked cops, and ruthless criminal underlords. Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto turn in career-best work as (respectively) a police detective on the take and the idealistic rookie he’s paired with, but the most haunting turn in the picture comes from the recently-departed Paul Benjamin – best known as one of the cornermen in “Do the Right Thing” – as a criminal who knows he’s on a road to oblivion.
ON AMAZON PRIME / BLU-RAY:
“The Great Escape”: The 172-minute running time of John Sturges’ 1963 classic (new to the Criterion Collection) makes it sound like some sort of plodding epic, but it’s the exact opposite: a fun, fleet-footed caper picture where the expanded duration merely gives Sturges room to breathe, dramatizing the planning and execution of the title event in meticulous and often exhilarating detail. But more than that, it allows him to fully explore the camaraderie and relationships that develop between the loaded ensemble; the character beats (like James Garner’s protectiveness of Donald Pleasance, or Charles Bronson’s panic attack in the tunnel) are the first things a conventional caper would’ve jettisoned. And they’re precisely what makes this one so special. (Also streaming on Prime Video.) (Includes audio commentaries, interview, featurettes, and an essay by Sheila O’Malley.)
ON BLU-RAY / DVD / VOD:
“Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn”: It says a lot about the state of popular filmmaking that star Margot Robbie and director Cathy Yan spun off the only good thing about “Suicide Squad” into a stand-alone picture that’s miles better than the source – and it grossed a fraction of the cash. It still has its problems (some carryovers from “Squad”): the pace is frenetic, the style overwhelming, supporting characters half-sketched. But it’s invested with an overwhelming sense of fun, it cheerfully embraces its R rating, and Robbie remains an absolute champ, handling the comic, dramatic, and action beats with equal ease. (Includes gag reel, featurettes, and “Birds Eye View Mode.”)
“The Photograph”: Stella Meghie’s romantic drama is a bit of a mess from a screenplay perspective – the B-story is a dud and the big reveal is wildly unsurprising – but a movie like this lives and dies by the chemistry of its leads, and in that respect, Meghie scores big. Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield are a beautiful match-up, complementing each other’s off-kilter energy and generating sparks a-plenty; they have an easy, believable chemistry, and the picture is at its mellow best when it just lets them hang out, drinking and talking and flirting and listening to Al Green records. (Includes featurettes.)
ON BLU-RAY:
“Reflections in a Golden Eye”: John Huston’s 1967 melodrama (new on Blu, as are the rest of this week’s picks, from Warner Archive) notoriously tanked on its initial release, and it’s not hard to see why; it could politely be described as “overwrought,” and its ending doesn’t land at all. But it’s also clear that audiences weren’t ready to wrestle with this kind of psychosexual subtext in a major entertainment, and its explorations of masculinity and masochism are endlessly fascinating – particularly when personified by Robert Forster, properly and effectively enigmatic as an object of desire (and, thus, derision) for both Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando. Neither are doing their best work here, but Forster and Brian Keith are strikingly good, and while the most explicitly psychological material (like the title explainer) has more than a whiff of bullshit, Huston’s visual manifestations of these themes are undeniably potent, and often haunting. (Includes two versions – Huston’s preferred gold-hued version and full-color general release – and archival behind-the-scenes footage.)
“Sweet Bird of Youth”: Richard Brooks helms this 1962 adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play starring a stunning Paul Newman as the handsome young escort of a faded movie star (Geraldine Page) who accompanies her to his hometown for what he envisions as a victory tour, though he ends up revisiting his failures and disappointments. Shirley Knight is devastating as the woman he left behind, and together they craft a heartrending snapshot of young people irrevocably destroyed by the insecurities and demands of their terrible families and garbage hometowns. Impressively mounted, with an utterly brutal conclusion. (Includes featurette, screen tests, and trailer.)
“Blood on the Moon”: Full disclosure: I had never heard of this 1948 Western (the title sounds like sci-fi/horror, and someone should swipe it for that purpose) until the review disc landed in my mailbox. And in some ways, it’s a pretty standard oater, with a complicated hero rolling into town and mixing himself up in a local tussle over cattle rights. But the personnel are what makes this one work: Robert Wise directs, Robert Mitchum stars, Robert Preston plays the heavy (and more than holds his own when he and Mitchum go at it), and Barbara Bel Geddes is the tough sharpshooting (gasp!) lady. The melodrama is taut, the fights and shoot-outs are well-executed, and Mitchum is at his sweaty best. (Includes trailer.)