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.
This week’s disc and streaming roundup is a bit lighter than usual (or at least, compared to that last epic). But we’ve got a lovely comedy/drama from late last year, a 4K upgrade for a four-star spy picture, Kevin Costner’s breakthrough movie, and a bunch of genre pics and documentaries that are well worth your attention.
PICK OF THE WEEK:
“Fandango”: The years-long collaboration between director Kevin Reynolds and star Kevin Costner began with this cheerfully anarchic coming-of-age road picture from 1985. Costner and his college pals decide to embark on one last farewell adventure before they’re separated by the paths of marriage, the draft, and post-grad life, resulting in a series of spectacularly funny misadventures. But it’s mostly a character piece; Reynolds’ script has a keen sense of the roles people take on in these groups, and how fragile those relationships can prove to be. Most of all, it’s an insightful snapshot of this perilous moment on the verge of adulthood, when a “farewell fandango” like this can start to feel like cosplaying a rapidly retreating youth. (Includes trailer.)
ON BLU-RAY / DVD / VOD:
“C’mon C’mon”: Mike Mills’ latest bittersweet comedy/drama is no “20th Century Women,” but who’re we kidding, few things on this earth are. This story of a mostly-absentee uncle (Joaquin Phoenix) caring for his nine-year-old nephew is, basically, “Kramer vs. Kramer” circa 2021 – modern man, unexpectedly pressed into child-rearing, finds himself in the process etc. It can occasionally veer into the realm of twee or too-cuteness, but not often; Mills has a keen understanding of how kids’ brains work, the way they create strange little alternate personalities and realities, and an ear for how they communicate those connections. Phoenix is quite good – and Gaby Hoffmann, as his harried, newly-single-mom sister, is even better. (Includes audio commentary and featurette.)
ON 4K:
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”: Tomas Alfredson’s elegantly played and splendidly cast spy thriller gets the 4K treatment from KL Studio Classics, all the better to appreciate the drab interiors and loaded silences that make it so memorable. Given the unenviable task of adapting John le Carré’s intricate and complex George Smiley novel, screenwriters Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan chose to lean in rather than simplify its many betrayals, reveals, and secrets. They trust their audience to keep up, or (more likely) rewatch, which makes this a particularly attractive purchase. Gary Oldman should’ve won that “Darkest Hours” Oscar for his work here, which is both fierce and muted, while the supporting cast (which includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Ciaran Hinds, John Hurt, Toby Jones, and Mark Strong) is like a who’s-who of Europe’s finest contemporary character actors. (Includes audio commentary, featurette, interviews, deleted scenes, and trailer.)
ON BLU-RAY:
“Walker”: “The men are just a little bit confused about what exactly we’re fighting for,” William Walker is told, to which he replies with confidence, “All you need to remember is that our cause is a righteous one.” Walker (played with gusto by Ed Harris) was an ambassador for American business interests who ruled Nicaragua from 1855 to 1857, but this 1987 epic (a Blu-ray upgrade from the Criterion Collection) is no staid period piece – it’s the work of Alex Cox, director of “Sid & Nancy” and “Repo Man,” and it’s expectedly rowdy, freewheeling, and cynical. The latter quality comes primarily from its none-too-subtle connections to the ‘80s of its origin, when the U.S. was again meddling in the affairs of Nicaragua and Central America, so Cox augments his astonishing visions of simultaneous carnage and beauty with heroic narration that’s comically incongruent with the onscreen action, all while peppering the film with anachronisms that climax in a concluding conjoining of the past and (then) present. Inexplicably dismissed by critics of the time, this is a brutally incisive indictment of American ego, colonialism, and myth-making. (Includes audio commentary, featurettes, Cox short films, trailer, and essays by Graham Fuller, Linda Sandoval, and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer.)
“Born to Win”: Full disclosure: your humble correspondent contributed an audio commentary to this Fun City Editions release, alongside my friend and podcast producer Michael Hull. But! But! I would recommend this release heartily even if I hadn’t participated, as it rectifies a long-time injustice; for decades, the public-domain status of this 1971 New York junkie comedy/drama from director Ivan Passer (“Cutter’s Way”) has made it a mainstay of bargain VHS and DVD bins, preventing it from ever receiving a proper home video treatment. And it deserves it – this is one of the unsung gems of early ‘70s NYC cinema, a grimy snapshot of desperate lives, but done with high style and humor, thanks in no small part to the charisma of stars George Segal and Karen Black, as well as the supporting work of the absurdly young Robert De Niro and Hector Elizondo. (Includes audio commentary, trailer, and essay by Justin LaLiberty.)
“Other Music”: Other Music was a haven for East Village music lovers, open from 1995 to 2016, a place of discovery, discussion, and affection. Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller’s documentary beautifully captures the specificity of record store culture (there are scenes that play like a non-fiction “High Fidelity”) – but also to the way that obsession and fandom feed off each other, and create these communities around all sorts of media. “Other Music” moves fast and has fun, sharing some great stories and great music, and makes you mad all over again that the damn place is gone. (Includes audio commentary, deleted scenes, trailer, and essay by Tom Scharpling.)
“The Mob”: Canadian International Pictures continues shining a light on forgotten films from our neighbors up north with this 1975 gangster flick from director Jacques Godbout, in which a low-level foot soldier (Marc Legault), in trouble with local mob bosses for doing a job in New York, decides to burn all his bridges by calling in to a radio talk show and spilling all his secrets. It sounds like a post-“Godfather” American mob flick, but its style and sensibility is much closer to the Eurocrime pictures of the era; it is, first and foremost, a wonderful piece of ephemera, capturing the clothes, music, cars, and cityscapes of the time. But it’s also more introspective than the typical crime movie, especially in its charged closing scenes. (Includes Quebec crime film trailers, short films, and essay by Marc Lamothe.)
“Love & Saucers”: “Well, when I was 17 I lost my virginity to a female extra-terrestrial. That’s all I can say about it.” Those words open Brad Abrahams’ documentary, spoken by the now 72-year-old painter and writer David Huggins, and of course, that is not all he can say about it – he says much, much more, in great detail, in the 65 minutes that follow. He tells of the many sexual encounters he’s had with these aliens, which also inspired his writings and his paintings, which are, um, well, they are what they are. To Abrahams’ credit, he resists the opportunity to point and laugh and Huggins; he lets him say his piece, and tell his story, in all of its absolute insanity. The film is a quietly pointed commentary on what we choose to believe, and why. (Includes audio commentary, isolated soundtrack, Q&A with Huggins, and additional interviews.)
“Beauty Day”: The 1995 home video that opens Jay Cheel’s 2011 documentary is a jaw-dropping chronicle of a backyard stunt gone awry, in which a man named Ralph Zavadil attempts to plunge into a covered pool from atop a ladder and ends up breaking his neck. That was when Zavadil, who did a wild homemade Canadian public access show in the character of “Cap’n Video,” went viral (as much as one could in those days); Cheel catches up with Zavadil as he’s putting together an anniversary special, which proves a fine opportunity to revisit his wild, weird life (all documented on video, of course) and look back at his triumphs and mistakes. He’s quite the character, and “Beauty Day” is an entertaining portrait of a true gonzo groundbreaker. (Includes audio commentary, anniversary special, deleted scenes, and original show clips.)
“Video Murders”: You might read the title and see the cover of this 1988 thriller (on disc for the first time from Culture Shock Releasing) and think you know how sleazy it could possibly be, and you would still be wrong. This story of a serial killer who hires sex workers, lures them to his hotel room, and videotapes himself strangling them is, unsurprisingly, pretty disturbing. But it’s also not a dumb slasher throwaway; in ways that recall “Last House on the Left,” its tiny budget and grimy aesthetic gives it an effectiveness that a slicker movie might not have, while its lead performance (by Eric Brown) and its closing chase are rock solid. (Includes audio commentary, interviews, music video, audition tapes, and trailers.)