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.
It’s another big week here at the ol’ disc and streaming corner, with a bunch of contemporary hits and classics landing on 4K, a couple of new additions to the Criterion Collection, cult movies galore, a must-have film noir collection, and more odds and ends.
PICK OF THE WEEK:
“Out of Sight”: Steven Soderbergh hadn’t been up to much when Jersey Films took a chance on him as director of their follow-up to the 1995 adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s “Get Shorty”; Soderbergh had yet to find a project that even approached the impact of his debut film, “sex, lies, and videotape,” and had wandered into a wilderness of mostly unseen indies. But “Out of Sight,” an adaptation of one of Leonard’s very best books, gave him a shot at a comeback, and he nailed it: armed with a witty script by Scott Frank (who also adapted “Get Shorty”) and a crackerjack cast (including George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, Catherine Keener, and Albert Brooks), Soderbergh came up with a slick, fresh, sexy, breezy entertainment that mated his experimental style with Leonard’s spiky characters and intoxicating, unpredictable narrative. It’s one of the very best movies of the 1990s, and KL Studio Classics’ new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray edition captures the picture’s combination of grit and sleekness with eye-catching snap. (Includes audio commentary, making-of documentary, deleted scenes, and trailers.)
ON 4K/ BLU-RAY / DVD / VOD:
“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”: Director Tom Gormican and his co-writer Kevin Etten are clearly aspiring for another “Being John Malkovich” with this winking meta-movie, in which “Nick Cage” (Nicolas Cage) battles late-career irrelevance while finding himself in the kind of adventure he’d usually encounter in, well, one of his movies. But a little of that goes a long way, and early on, “Massive Talent” risks turning into one long meme. Luckily, Pedro Pascal saves the day as a millionaire super-fan who hires Cage to hang out with him on his birthday weekend – their chemistry is off the charts, and the more Gormican leans into the gonzo buddy-movie vibe they create, the better the results. (Includes audio commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes, and SXSW Q&A.)
ON BLU-RAY / DVD / VOD:
“The Worst Person in the World”: Renate Reinsve picked up the Best Actress prize at Cannes for her masterful turn in Joachim Trier’s latest (new from the Criterion Collection), a quarter-life crisis story told “in 12 chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue.” She stars as Julie, a 30-year-old medical student who suddenly and unexpectedly changes course, in school and in life, embarking on a perhaps ill-advised relationship (or two) while grappling with who she is, and who she wants to be. It’s a film grounded in recognizable moments and uncomfortable truths, yet capable of unexpected flourishes of magic realism; watch, for example, how Trier dramatizes the flights of fancy that infect one’s brain at the end of a relationship. It’s a moving and candid picture that’s also deliciously funny and achingly sad – a decathlon of contemporary moviemaking. (Also streaming on Hulu.) (Includes interviews, on-location footage, deleted scenes, and essay by Sheila O’Malley.)
“After Yang”: Kogonada, the talented writer/director of “Columbus,” reunites with that film’s leading lady Haley Lu Richardson for this thoughtful sci-fi drama set in the vaguely distant future. Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith star as parents to young Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja); the “Yang” of the title is her eerily lifelike “second sibling” robot (Justin H. Min), who shuts down early in the story, and prompts all to reflect on who they are and what he means to them. (There’s also some very funny material about how much trouble they’re having taking advantage of their warranty, since he was purchased “certified refurbished”). It’s a deeply melancholy movie, so mellow as to be almost snoozy. But it comes together smoothly at the end, blending its powerful images and ideas with emotions that were always bubbling under its clean, cool surfaces. (Also streaming on Showtime.) (Includes featurette.)
“The Bad Guys”: The latest from Dreamworks Animation isn’t the kind of thing adults are likely to seek out on their own – they’re still working at a sub-Pixar level – but it’s a hell of a lot better than much of what passes for family entertainment these days. Much of that is thanks to the voice talent involved; animated wolf or not, you can’t beat casting Sam Rockwell as the leader of an “Oceans”-type crew of cartoon criminals, while Marc Maron brings his signature curmudgeonly perspective to the role of a Hawaiian-shirt wearing snake. It’s fun, and has a smattering of laughs, and that’s about all you can ask for in this “Minion”-ized atmosphere. (Includes deleted scenes and featurettes.)
“Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché”: Poly Styrene was a fascinating figure, a rare woman of color in the mostly lily-white UK punk scene, and Paul Sng and Celeste Bell’s detailed bio-doc manages to do two discrete things at once. Because she was mixed race, they’re able to dive into compelling territory concerning race and class in ‘60s and ‘70s Great Britain; because of her unique place and perspective, they’re able to use her as an entry point into the entire DIY punk scene of the time. But this is an intensely personal film, told primarily by her daughter and via her own diaries and poems (read, affectingly, by Ruth Negga), and delving unflinchingly into her mental illness and addictions. Unlike so many glossy music bio-docs, you walk away with a feeling of truly knowing its subject – and there’s plenty of great music to boot. (Also streaming on Showtime.) (Includes audio commentary and SXSW Q&A.)
ON 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY:
“Shaft”: Photographer-turned-filmmaker Gordon Parks helped kick off the so-called “blaxploitation” movement with this 1971 smash, a hip, urban riff on the tropes of the classic gumshoe detective movie. The story, adapted by “French Connection” scribe Ernest Tidyman from his novel, is no great shakes, nor does it pretend to be. “Shaft” is all about the execution – from Richard Roundtree’s cool-as-a-cucumber lead performance to Isaac Hayes’ oft-imitated, never-replicated score to Parks’ low-to-the-ground cinematography, which captures Times Square, Harlem, and Greenwich Village in all their grimy early ‘70s splendor (and bristles with dirty beauty in Criterion’s new 4K restoration). Bonus: the set also includes the Parks-directed first sequel, “Shaft’s Big Score!,” which can’t match the first film’s scrappy energy, but uses the bigger budget to stage a handful of memorable set pieces. (Includes new and archival documentaries, new and archival interviews, featurettes, trailers, and essay by Amy Abugo Ongiri.)
“Giant”: George Stevens’ 1956 adaptation of Edna Farber’s novel is an epic in scope and length, telling the decades-long story of two intertwined Texas families over three-plus hours. It’s as emotionally involving as it is aesthetically overwhelming, as its three key characters – played by Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean, all leaning into type while twisting those types into unexpected shapes – respond to the changing times and American character in wildly different ways. All three are terrific, but Dean especially hints at all that was lost when he died between the film’s production and release. The Southwestern landscapes impress in 4K; this is a must-have. (Includes audio commentary.)
“Killer’s Kiss”: Stanley Kubrick was so thoroughly identified with his meticulous attention to detail and desire for control that it’s refreshing to go back to his earliest features, where low budgets and their accordant logistics forced the filmmaker to work on the fly. Such is the case with this 1955 film noir, a hard-boiled boxing movie set in some of New York City’s sleaziest corners. Kubrick, who worked for years as a still photographer in the city, captures the gaudiness of its Times Square locations, the neons and flashy storefronts illuminating drunken sailors and gawking passerby, and his characters and camera seem at home in that world. It’s not much like what we typically think of as a “Kubrick movie,” and it’s all the more fascinating for it. (Includes audio commentary and theatrical trailer.)
“True Romance”: Quentin Tarantino wrote this “lovers on the run” action/comedy before he’d directed a film of his own, then sold it to Tony Scott and made “Reservoir Dogs” by the time this one hit theaters in 1993. So it didn’t end up being, as Scott had planned, a showcase for an exciting young screenwriter, but a fusion of two distinct and seemingly disparate artistic sensibilities. And yet the mash-up of sleek, smoky aesthetics and chatty, pulp-y, poppy dialogue works – in fact, they complement each other, with Tarantino’s words and characters giving the picture a heart and soul often absent from Scott’s ‘80s work, and Scott giving Tarantino’s messy script a professional sheen and the kind of movie star firepower that helped establish him as the real deal. Arrow’s new 4K edition (out last year in the UK, but now available from U.S. sellers) beautifully captures both the grit and the gloss of one of Scott’s best films. (Includes theatrical and director’s cuts, audio commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, alternate ending, new and archival interviews, trailers, and TV spots.)
“Thriller: A Cruel Picture”: Well, you can’t say they don’t warn you. This 1973 Swedish exploitation film is one of the sleazier (and more graphic) rape-and-revenge thrillers of the era, and the unsettling subject matter – to say nothing of the hardcore inserts, excised from some cuts but included in Vinegar Syndrome’s new restoration – will certainly put some viewers off. But there’s real artistry here; the filmmaking is genuine (leading lady Christina Lindberg is genuinely sympathetic, and the tortured monologue from one of her fellow prostitutes has real pathos to it), the storytelling is tense (as she trains and waits for her payback), and the craft is precise (the sound design is tip-top), meticulously preparing the viewer for the pleasure of watching her saw off her shotgun and go to her gory work. (Includes English dubbed theatrical version “They Call Her One Eye,” audio commentary, making-of documentary, new and archival interviews, outtakes, trailers, radio spots, and advertising gallery.)
“Uncle Sam”: The final theatrical feature of director William Lustig (“Maniac”), and thus his final collaboration with screenwriter Larry Cohen (with whom he worked on “Vigilante” and the “Maniac Cop” films) looks, at first glance, like yet another entry in the ‘90s horror trend of turning innocuous folk characters into bloodthirsty killers. But as per usual with Lustig and Cohen, they’ve got more on their minds, spending much of the (perhaps too) lengthy set-up on pointed and potent post-Gulf War political commentary. It’s only then that we get to the main event, as the title character (David Fralick), a Master Sergeant supposedly killed in a Kuwaiti friendly fire incident, turns an all-American small-town Fourth of July celebration into a bloodbath. Lustig assembles a who’s-who of exploitation character actors, including Robert Forster, Bo Hopkins, William Smith, Timothy Bottoms, P.J. Soles, and a terrific hero turn by the aforementioned Isaac Hayes. (Includes audio commentaries, stunt featurette with commentary, deleted scene, gag reel, and theatrical trailer.)
“Out of Order”: This 1984 German film (hitting our shores via specialty label Subkultur) is a true discovery, a sweaty, tightly-wound elevator thriller that generates tension with brutal ingenuity. The set-up is simple: after closing time one night, four people are stuck in an elevator together with no one responding to calls for help, and no safe exit imaginable. That would be enough for most movies, but writer/director Carl Shenkel creates four well-defined characters and bounces them off each other, crafting psycho-sexual competition to complement the physical suspense. Their ordeal goes wrong in ways that are both inventive and totally logical (these are the kind of screw-ups I’d make, and so would you), making for a first-rate batch of nightmare fuel. (Includes alternate version, alternate scenes, isolated music track, interviews, and German theatrical trailer.)
ON BLU-RAY:
“Columbia Noir Vol. 5”: The latest entry in Indicator’s peerless film noir series focuses on Humphrey Bogart, which feels, it must be said, like a tiny bit of a cheat – contemporary film fans are frequently drawn to these sets because they offer up long-forgotten, lean and mean B-movies, and Bogie vehicles from this period (1947-1956) were hardly that. But that complaint aside, this is a terrific collection of moody and entertaining pictures, featuring Bogart as a war hero in “Dead Reckoning,” an idealistic lawyer in “Knock on Any Door,” an American expatriate in “Tokyo Joe,” an arms dealer in “Scirocco,” and a sportswriter-turned-press-agent in the best film of the bunch, the boxing drama “The Harder They Fall,”which finds the actor at his most cynical (which is saying something). Also included is the 1951 Lee J. Cobb and John Derek vehicle “The Family Secret,” produced (as many of these films were) by Bogart’s production company, Santana Productions. (Includes audio commentaries, featurettes, vintage short films, trailers, and more.)
“Boomerang”: Incredibly, though Eddie Murphy was arguably the biggest star in the movies in 1992, he’d only made one romantic comedy (and “Coming to America” was not primarily thought of as such). He finally got a chance to play a proper, Cary Grant-style leading man role in this jazzy and funny effort from director Reginald Hudlin (“House Party”), as a hotshot ad executive whose player ways come back to haunt him when he meets the female version of himself (Robin Givens) – and falls in love with her. The screenplay, by longtime Murphy writers Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield, goes in some unexpected directions, while teeing up comic bits from an all-star cast, including Halle Berry, David Allen Grier, Martin Lawrence, Eartha Kitt, John Witherspoon, Chris Rock, and (in one one of her most memorable screen appearances) Grace Jones. (Includes audio commentary and deleted and extended scenes.)
“Pink Flamingos”: Criterion has been adding John Waters movies to their collection for a while now, and not without reason, but it feels like they’ve just been warming up for the addition of this, one of the most notorious movies ever made. Cheerfully disgusting, proudly amoral, and delightfully chintzy (those zooms!), it plays, in spots, less like a movie than an endurance test. But it delivers what it promises in the story of the merciless competition between the repulsive Babs Johnson (Divine, at her Divine-iest) and the Marbles (Mink Stole and David Lochary) for the title of “filthiest person alive.” It is a stiff competition, but Waters’ approach is so disarmingly giggly that you’ll find yourself grinning even while dry heaving. It’s one of the most decadent pieces of outsider art that the ‘70s gave us, and god bless Criterion for treating it with such outsized respect. (Includes audio commentaries, feature-length making of-documentary, interviews, location tour, delted scenes and alternate takes, trailer, and essay by Howard Hampton.)
“Rouge”: Another new Criterion entry, this time from Hong Kong’s Second New Wave, as Stanley Kwan directs Anita Mui as the ghost of a courtesan who turns up at the classified desk of newspaperman Yuen (Alex Man), hoping to place an ad to find the spirit of her lost love (Leslie Cheung), whom she committed suicide with in the 1930s. Kwan playfully interweaves the timelines, using the stylish beauty of the period scenes with the realism of the ‘80s sections, while finding a fair amount of comedy in the contemporary wrap-arounds, particularly as Yuen tries to explain this strange woman to his live-in girlfriend (Emily Chu). It’s both dizzyingly erotic and a lot of fun, while packing some surprising twists into its third act. (Includes interviews, featurettes, trailer, and essay by Dennis Lim.)
“Stanley / Horror High”: One of the most welcome developments of the current physical media landscape is how boutique labels have fed the ever-wide maw of horror fandom with affectionate releases of regional horror titles, made for peanuts for the drive-in circuit, yet often just as frightening as their bigger-budget counterparts, and often more atmospheric as well. Vinegar Syndrome’s new double-feature disc is primarily noteworthy for the release of “Stanley,” from Florida Everglades schlock-master William Grefé (a title absent from Arrow’s excellent “It Came from the Swamp” box set). It’s a fast and funny when-animals-attack affair, featuring a stoic Chris Robinson, a sleazy Alex Rocco (the same year as “The Godfather”!), many, many rattlesnakes, and, inevitably, a quicksand sequence. But Larry Stouffer’s Texas-made “Horror High” is even better, as class nerd Vernon Potts is perpetually picked on – not just by classmates, but teachers and staff – and uses his chemistry project to turn himself into a bloodthirsty Mr. Hyde and exact his revenge. It sounds silly, and it is, but there’s something genuinely creepy and effective about this film, with its sympathetic antihero, inventive compositions, and funky soundtrack. A first-rate drive-in double-bill for those who like their horror a little rougher around the edges. (Includes commentaries, new and archival interviews, featurettes and Q&A for “Stanley,” and TV spots and trailer for “Horror High.”)
“Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives”: This 1992 Canadian film (new on Blu via Canadian International Pictures) initially immerses itself in the golden age of lesbian pulp paperbacks, in the 1950s and 1960s. But that’s just the entry point; the real subjects here are the women who read those books, realized there were other women like them, and ventured out into the world to find them. A total of ten Canadian women recall when and how they entered the life and how they lived it. The framing device, which dramatizes one of those pulpy stories, doesn’t really work, but the documentary sections amount to a vital oral history of lives lived on the margins (then, and possibly, again in the future). (Includes audio commentaries, new and archival interviews, and featurette.)
“Final Flesh”: Once upon a time, “Wonder Showzen” and “South Park” alum Vernon Chatman had a masterstroke: he wrote a wildly odd four-part apocalypse screenplay, but rather than making it himself, he sent each part to custom adult fetish video creators – spending a minimum of money to have, well, something. The end result is perhaps more fun to talk about than actually watch (it would make a good strong-stomach double feature with “Pink Flamingos”), but you’ve certainly never seen anything quite like it. (Includes introduction by Gregg Turkngton, music video, outtakes, and trailer.)