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 twice-monthly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.
Two of this year’s most memorable new releases make their way to disc this week, alongside a pair of Criterion discs, a handful of cult favorites, and two stone-cold David Lean classics. We’ll start there:
PICK OF THE WEEK:
“Lawrence of Arabia”: When Columbia released their first “Classics Collection” of 4K titles two years ago, they clearly underestimated demand – or wanted to create a collector’s item. Either way, used copies are now going for double the original price, and those of us who missed out have been waiting patiently for, if not a re-release, then stand-alones for the films included. The latter finally arrives in the form of the set’s most desired title, David Lean’s epic 1962 Best Picture winner, tracing the WWI exploits of British officer T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole, in his breakthrough role). The storytelling is grand and the performances are top-notch, but the real draw here is the spectacle – it truly feels like the kind of film 4K was made for. (Includes featurettes, making-of documentaries, deleted scenes, new and archival interviews, premiere footage, trailers, and TV spots.)
ON BLU-RAY / DVD / VOD:
“Ambulance”: Michael Bay’s latest is plagued by many of his familiar flaws (a bloated running time, hokey dialogue, moments of flag-waving corn) but it also boasts a singular, personal aesthetic: the perpetual golden hour, the relentlessly prowling camera, the three cuts when one will do, the drone shots on speed. After over a decade of studio blockbusters designed by a committee and shot through a thin glaze of pixels and mud, it is refreshing to encounter a film that feels like it’s made by a single human being. Bay’s style, which seemed downright clobbering a decade and a half ago, now feels like a breath of fresh air. Add in a perpetual-motion narrative and a nutso Jake Gyllenhaal (he’s so entertaining that by the second half, he’s getting laughs merely with the force of his cockeyed line readings), and you’ve got Bay’s best movie in decades. (Also streaming on Peacock.) (Includes featurettes.)
“The Northman”: In just three films, Robert Eggers has proven himself one of our most gifted and confident filmmakers – and least predictable. After veering from the folk horror of “The Witch” to the bleak comedy of “The Lighthouse,” he now gives us a fierce Viking riff on “Hamlet,” with Alexander Skarsgard avenging the death of his father (Ethan Hawke). The battles are bone-crushing and the craft is breathtaking, but Eggers doesn’t get lost in the big production; his work is still delightfully eccentric, with blasts of weird energy and dark comedy a-plenty. Claes Bang is an appropriately dastardly villain, while “Witch” leading lady Anya Taylor-Joy makes a welcome return, elevating what could have been a dull romantic interest into something far more compelling. (Also streaming on Peacock.) (Includes audio commentary, deleted and extended scenes, and featurettes.)
“Farewell Amor”: It opens with a reunion at JFK, as Walter (Ntare Mwine, so good on “Treme”), an Angolan immigrant, welcomes his wife Esther (Zainab Jah) and daughter Sylvia (Jayme Lawson). They’ve been separated for 17 years, almost Sylvia’s entire life, so the reunion is, to say the least, complicated. But writer/director Ekwa Msangi renders those dynamics with sensitivity and grace, both in the tender screenplay and the empathetic construction, which tells the story of those tentative first few days from each perspective individually. She accumulates such emotional urgency by the time their stories reconnect that the film feels like a genuine miracle; this is a filmmaker of genuine gifts, and her debut feature is more than worthy of its Criterion Collection inclusion. (Includes audio commentary, three Msangi short films, interviews, deleted scenes, trailer, and an essay by Tiana Reid.)
ON 4K:
“The Bridge on the River Kwai”: This 1957 Best Picture winner is definitely the lesser of the two David Lean titles making their way to 4K this month, but that’s sort of like being the runner-up for the Nobel Prize. Alec Guinness stars as the leader of a group of WWII-era British P.O.W.s, charged with building the titular structure for their Japanese captors, in defiance of the Geneva Convention; they elect to thwart the bridge, by any and all means they can muster. Though running a leisurely 161 minutes, Lean keeps things moving at a good clip, and Guinness finds the right note of defiance and ingenuity, while William Holden adds extra spark as a rebellious American officer. (Includes featurettes.)
ON BLU-RAY:
“The Tales of Hoffmann”: It’s a little surprising, considering the recent 4K release for “The Red Shoes,” that Criterion chose to go Blu-ray only for their upgrade of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1951 adaptation of Jacques Offenbach‘s 1881 opera; it’s the kind of visual feast that lends itself to the newer format, all richly saturated, beautifully rendered Technicolor images. But let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth – it’s still a stunner on Blu-ray, nearly every frame worthy of pausing and savoring. A slight word of warning, though: it is really and truly an adaptation of an opera, without any of the spoken dialogue or contemporary framing devices often added for (more) contemporary audiences, so if you’re averse to that particular medium (hi), proceed accordingly. (Includes audio commentary featuring Martin Scorsese, interview with George A. Romero, Powell’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” short, design sketches and paintings, trailer, and an essay by Ian Christie.)
“Femme Fatale”: Brian De Palma rebounded from the failure of the decidedly uncharacteristic “Mission to Mars” with one of his most purely De Palma movies to date, and it’s an absolute blast. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who turns out to be a marvelous pseudo-Hitchcock Blonde, is the title character, a thief and double-crosser who attempts to go incognito as the wife of a diplomat (Peter Coyote), only to be found out by a scuzzy paparazzo (Antonio Banderas). The plot is absolute nonsense, of course; it’s the clothesline for De Palma’s set pieces, including an opener – a jewel robbery involving, somehow, hot girl-on-girl action at the Cannes Film Festival – that’s among his very best. (Includes interviews, featurettes, and trailer.)
“Stunt Rock”: Aussie exploitation master Brian Trenchard-Smith’s 1978 action musical isn’t as good as its title – but then again, what could possibly be? The premise is simple: world-famous stunt man Grant Page leaves Australia for a lucrative Hollywood TV gig and starts palling around with rising rock band “Sorcery” to create a fusion of their forms. It makes for a lopsided movie; the songs are terrible, and the initial charm of their hypnotic un-coolness fades fast, thanks to far too much footage of concerts that recall the most pretentious stuff in “This Is Spinal Tap” (there are wizards and magic). But Page’s material is fun, with fascinating “how it works” on-the-set material and occasional sizzle reels of his greatest hits (literally), complete with copious ‘70s split-screen. The stunts are genuinely impressive and Page, while clearly not an actor, is adequately charismatic; it’s a good time, as long as you have the fast-forward button at the ready. (Includes audio commentary, interviews, and trailer.)
“The Horse Soldiers”: This 1959 John Ford/John Wayne Western is one of their less celebrated, or even discussed, collaborations, but it’s a sturdy Civil War-era adventure with much on its mind. Duke stars as Colonel John Marlowe, who’s leading a Union raid behind Confederate lines to cut off supply chains and take out a key railroad depot. William Holden co-stars as Major Hank Kendall, a military doctor sent along on the mission, which sets up a sturdy central conflict: the needs of the pragmatist soldier vs. those of the humanitarian physician. The casting leans into each actor’s strength, allowing these well-defined characters to spark against each other memorably; Ford orchestrates the large cast and big action sequences with his customary ease. (Includes audio commentary and theatrical trailer.)
