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.
Our last disc and streaming guide of the year includes a few good ideas for you last-minute Christmas shoppers, including catalog classics on 4K, a couple of well-received new releases, a bit of genre fun, and a must-buy box set for the film historian on your list. Let’s start there:
PICK OF THE WEEK:
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women”: Back in 2018, Kino Classics blessed us with the essential “Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers” Blu-ray box set, a thorough survey of the female filmmakers who left their mark on the early days of movies. Kino’s follow-up set is a rowdier, less reverent affair, focusing on some of the outliers that didn’t make the cut the first time around: radicals, rebels, comedians, and more. The 99 American and European silents collected herein range from 1898 to 1926 and encompass all sorts of genres and perspectives. It’s both wildly entertaining and enlightening, a combination we don’t get enough these days. (Includes audio commentaries, video introductions, new scores, and a 116-page booklet.)
ON BLU-RAY / DVD / HBOMAX:
“The Banshees of Inisherin”: Writer/director Martin McDonagh and stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson reunite, 14 years after “In Bruges,” for another story of two men getting on each other’s nerves in picturesque Ireland. But this time, he pulls a reversal; the earlier film had the two men going from intense dislike to begrudging affection, whereas this one concerns two long-time friends whose relationship ends, with brute suddenness. Farrell does some of his finest acting to date as a seemingly carefree fella who finds his entire life upended at, seemingly, his buddy’s whim; Gleeson is equally good in the more complicated role of the initially unreasonable gent whose arguments make more sense, the more time we spend with him (and his pal). (Also streaming on HBO Max.) (Includes deleted scenes and featurette.)
ON BLU-RAY / DVD / VOD:
“Call Jane”: Oscar-nominated “Carol” screenwriter Phyllis Nagy directed but did not write this heavily fictionalized account of “The Janes,” the secret group of women who helped those in need of abortions get them in the pre-“Roe” period – a film that seemed far less urgent and timely when it premiered at Sundance last January. Some of the liberties of the screenplay are sort of puzzling (especially its third-act turn into relationship melodrama), but this is a detailed and frequently fascinating look at the logistics of these groups, the pressures placed on them from within and without, and the systemic sexism that was clearly not merely of its era. Elizabeth Banks is quite good in the leading role, a credible and committed audience surrogate, and she vividly conveys how this wealthy woman’s slow evolution into radicalism awakens her – politically, socially, and even sexually. (Includes audio commentary, featurette, and deleted scenes.)
ON 4K:
“My Best Friend’s Wedding”: The pastel tones of this 1997 P.J. Hogan charmer really pop on 4K, and the rest of the movie – which marked its 25th anniversary this summer – holds up pretty well too. Julia Roberts is marvelous as a commitment-phobic food critic who finds herself taking a joke “if we’re still single” marriage vow with her longtime pal (Dermot Mulroney) much more seriously when he finds himself a pitch-perfect bride (Cameron Diaz), sparking a rather unhealthy sense of propriety and rivalry in our heroine. The finely-tuned script by Ronald Bass (“Rain Man”) plays the high concept, but also digs deeper, toying with Roberts’ inherent likability and audience empathy, and filling out the cast with memorable supporting players – Rupert Everett, in his breakthrough role, chief among them. (Includes deleted scenes, alternate ending, featurettes, sing-along, and trailer.)
“The Taking of Pelham One Two Three”: This gritty 1974 action caper is a pressure cooker snapshot of a rotting Big Apple, filled with period flavor, colorful supporting characters, a brassy score by David Shire (the sound of the city, for my money), Walter Matthau’s impeccable leading turn (this was one of a series of mid-70s crime movies that improbably but credibly cast the basset hound of an actor as an action hero), and one of the greatest closing lines (and looks) in all of moviedom. “Pelham” didn’t just inspire a remake; its central premise pre-dates “Die Hard” and its countless imitators, while the color-coded nicknames of the criminal gang inspired Quentin Tarantino to do the same in “Reservoir Dogs.” It’s one of the most rewatchable movies of its era, which makes KL Studio Classics’ richly textured 4K upgrade a most welcome one. (Includes audio commentaries, archival featurettes, interviews, trailers, and TV and radio spots.)
“Wargames”: If there was one thing the movies of the 1980s wanted us to know, it’s that the computers were going to kill us. The “evil computer” trope merged with the then-revolutionary notion of computers communicating with each other via telephone (crazy, right?) in John Badham’s terrific 1983 thriller, new on 4K from Shout Factory. The smart script by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes (who would go on to pen the similarly-styled “Sneakers” screenplay) concerns a wise-ass high school hacker (Matthew Broderick) who accidentally engages NORAD’s supercomputer for what he thinks is a harmless game of something called “Global Thermonuclear War.” Whoopsie doodle! Broderick really hit his groove in this proto-Ferris role, Ally Sheedy matches him nicely, and Dabney Coleman and John Wood are memorably complicated as the grown-ups of the story. (Includes audio commentary, featurettes, and trailer.)
“Nobody’s Fool”: Writer/director Robert Benton (“Kramer vs. Kramer”) teamed up with star Paul Newman for this 1994 adaptation – new to 4K from KL – of Richard Russo’s novel. It’s a laid-back affair, starring Newman as a small-town ne’er-do-well who is forced (albeit subtly) to deal with his failures and aimlessness and think for once, about his future. It’s much more about personality than plot, but you can get away with that when the personality in question is Paul Newman; he’s at his low-key best, so comfortable on screen, by this point in his life and career, that you never catch him “acting.” The supporting cast is aces as well, particularly a playful Melanie Griffith, an unbilled Bruce Willis, and (in a small, early role) Philip Seymour Hoffman. (Includes audio commentary and interviews.)
“Freeway”: It’s a big week for those of us who are nostalgic for Reese Witherspoon’s bad girl era, with new releases of not only “Twilight” (below) but this 1996 cult fave from writer/director Matthew Bright. It’s a modern take on “Little Red Riding Hood” with Witherspoon in the Red role and Kiefer Sutherland devouring scenery as the story’s Big Bad Wolf. Bright’s script sticks to the basic fairy tale beats, while cleverly tossing gang members, serial killers, incest, child porn, and heroin addicts into the mix, resulting in a gleefully subversive black comedy. It was apparently all a little too much for the MPAA, which slapped the picture with an NC-17 for graphic language; it was cut down to an R for its American release, but Vinegar Syndrome’s 4K restores the picture to its original, grisly glory. (Includes audio commentaries, new and archival interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, archival featurette, alternate scenes, and trailer.)
“The Invisible Maniac”: Future family-film screenwriter Adam Refkin, here billed as “Rif Coogan,” writes and directs this very silly exploitation horror/comedy mash-up (also new on 4K from Vinegar Syndrome), mostly remembered these days for its rare non-porn starring turn by the ill-fated Shannon Wilsey, aka Savannah. Noel Peters – really going for it – stars as the title character, a batshit-insane scientist whose obsession with invisibility is only eclipsed by his homicidal instincts. He escapes from a mental institution and bluffs his way into a summer school teaching job at a high school, amounting to, essentially a (somehow) sleazier version of “Hollow Man,” filled with X-rated school scenarios (“I’d do anything for an A,” that kind of thing). It’s tacky and kinda terrible, but enjoyably so, crafted with low-fi ingenuity and an abundance of gonzo energy. (Includes audio commentaries, making-of documentary, deleted scene, archival interview, music video, and trailer.)
ON BLU-RAY:
“Twilight”: No, not that “Twilight.” Four years after “Nobody’s Fool,” Newman, Benton, and Russo re-teamed (this time with Russo a full co-screenwriter) for this modest mystery that plays, at its best, like a continuation of Benton’s wonderful “The Late Show.” Newman stars as an aging private eye – so there’s also deliberate echoing of his work in “Harper” and “The Drowning Pool” – who’s called upon for a favor, and perhaps more, by his friends and former movie stars (played, with amiable but loaded charm, by Gene Hackman and Susan Sarandon). Again, the supporting cast is tip-top, including James Garner, Reese Witherspoon, Stockard Channing, and Giancarlo Esposito, and while it’s not as rich or warm as “Nobody’s Fool,” it’s also very much the kind of movie that major studios just don’t bother to make anymore. (Includes audio commentary.)
“Laws of Gravity”: Future “Sopranos” co-star Edie Falco and “Pulp Fiction” supporting player Peter Greene were among the unknowns in this quicksilver, micro-budget crime drama from writer and director Nick Gomez. Like so many New York crime movies, its roots are in “Mean Streets,” with Greene as a disciplined crook with a dangerous attachment to a wild-card buddy (Adam Trese). Jean de Segonzac’s handheld photography became a bit of a cliche among low-budget ‘90s indie flicks, but it’s wildly effective here, capturing the harrowing, anything-goes intensity of these guys and their combustible lives. Long hard to find on home video, this KL Blu-ray will hopefully increase the visibility of this diamond in the rough. (Includes audio commentary and theatrical trailer.)
“Uncle Kent 2”: The idea of making a sequel to a tiny indie that was barely seen, even in those circles, is ridiculous on its face; this 2016 follow-up to Joe Swanberg’s 2011 cringe comedy (making its Blu-ray debut via Factory 25) not only acknowledges this fact, but uses it as the foundation for its own existence, with its opening minutes directed by Swanberg (who, onscreen, refuses to direct it) before a handoff to director Todd Rohal. As with the original, the focus is on title character Kent Osborne, a cartoonist, pothead, and horndog whose interactions with the opposite sex are both relatable and quietly desperate; this time, we follow him to a comic book convention, where his usual preoccupations are overtaken by the possibility of the oncoming “singularity.” None of this should work, but it does, thanks to Osborne’s oddball charisma, the anything-goes nature of his screenplay, and Rohal’s slyly funny execution. (Includes short films, music video, and the feature-length film “Violeta No Cage el Ascensor.”)
“Burning Paradise”: Ringo Lam is best known for his Hong Kong crime pictures, but this Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray spotlights his one and only foray into the Wuxia genre – and the results are breathtaking. When the Qing government destroys the Shaolin Temple, its monks scatter but are eventually rounded up and sent to the Red Lotus work prison, a hell on earth from which escape is impossible… or is it? The script is witty, the performers are engaging, and the fight scenes are delightfully fast and freewheeling (and more than a little gory). It’s not exactly a classic in the filmography of Lam, or producer Tsui Hark, but it’s superbly crafted and plenty of fun. (Includes audio commentary, new and archival interviews, video essay, trailer, and essay by Grady Hendrix.)