The following article was written by my pal and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can study extra about him HERE.
What’s New on DVD/Blu-ray/4K in January: Eileen, Coffin Joe, Chantal Akerman, and More!
NEW RELEASE WALL
Eileen (Decal Neon): In director William Oldroyd’s follow-up to the acclaimed Lady Macbeth, Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie carry out a sophisticated dance of possession and obsession as two very totally different workers of a grim Nineteen Sixties juvenile facility: McKenzie’s mousy, put-upon employee is dazzled by Hathaway, all Marilyn Monroe–hair and cigarettes and class as a mysterious new therapist on the hospital. The characters drag one another to darkish locations, however there’s no taking your eyes off the 2 leads.
Also accessible:
Butcher’s Crossing (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment): Nicolas Cage leads a celebration of buffalo hunters by nightmarish terrain on this Western.
Journey to Bethlehem (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment): It’s the Nativity story, it’s a musical, it’s obtained Antonio Banderas.
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One (DC/WB): One of DC Comics’ legendary story arcs makes it to the much-loved collection of DC Animation motion pictures, with a stellar voice forged that features Darren Criss, Jensen Ackles, Stana Katic, Matt Bomer, Jimmi Simpson, and Zachary Quinto.
The Marsh King’s Daughter (Lionsgate): Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn star as a daughter and father delivered to an inexorable conflict with dad escaps from jail.
Mudbound (The Criterion Collection): Dee Rees’ acclaimed, Oscar-nominated saga of the post-WWII South will get the total Criterion therapy.
Thanksgiving (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment): Sixteen years after teasing this turkey-day terror in Grindhouse, director Eli Roth lastly delivers the scary, humorous items; the leftovers are yummy all 12 months spherical.
Trolls Band Together (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment): Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake are again for this tuneful, animated threequel, they usually’ve introduced the remainder of NSYNC with them.
NEW INDIE
Queen of Earth (IFC Films): Before Her Smell, Elisabeth Moss and writer-director Alex Ross Perry collaborated on this chilling indie a few reunion of two previous buddies (performed by Moss and Katherine Waterston) that descends into bitterness, recrimination, and insanity. This Blu-ray launch includes a new commentary observe with Perry, cinematographer Sean Price Williams (whose solo characteristic debut, The Sweet East, hits US theaters this month) and Hari Nef (Barbie).
Also accessible:
Ladyworld (Yellow Veil Pictures): A celebration for eight teen women goes from dangerous (earthquake) to worse (Lord of the Flies–model jockeying for energy) to even worse (the potential arrival of a male prowler).
Your Lucky Day (Well Go USA Entertainment): A dispute over a profitable lottery ticket results in a hostage scenario by which witnesses should determine whether or not or not their humanity outweighs a minimize of the prize cash.
NEW INTERNATIONAL
Fireworks (Cinephobia Releasing): In 1982 Sicily, shy teenager Gianni (Samuele Segreto) falls in love with mechanic Nino (Gabriele Pizzurro). As the close-minded residents of their small village register their disapproval In mountingly severe methods, these two younger males are confronted with the selection of following their hearts or caving in to stress in Giuseppe Fiorello’s lyrical love story.
Also accessible:
Millie Lies Low (Film Movement): A younger New Zealander has a panic assault when she’s speculated to fly to New York for a prestigious internship, however she tries to pretend it on her social media (whereas nonetheless hiding out in Wellington) on this hilarious comedy of discomfort.
My Sailor, My Love (Music Box Films): A widowed sailor finds love along with his aged caregiver, and that relationship prompts him to fix fences along with his estranged daughter.
The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie (Crunchyroll): The common anime collection concerning the 5 Nakano sisters wraps up with this characteristic movie.
Sisters (IndiePix Films): Two Latvian orphans are about to be adopted by a rich American couple, however the older sister nonetheless holds out hope for a reunion with their organic mom, newly launched from jail.
NEW DOCUMENTARY
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Greenwich Entertainment): One of one of the best of a powerful crop of 2023 documentaries, director Anna Hints permits viewers to share the intimate conversations of a gaggle of ladies sharing secrets and techniques and life experiences in a South Estonia smoke sauna. It’s fly-on-the-wall filmmaking at its finest, as this neighborhood welcomes Hints and her digital camera and maintain again nothing from their hilarious, heartbreaking, deeply felt encounters.
Also accessible:
Ever Deadly (Kino Lorber): Legendary Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq co-directs this documentary and takes middle stage on this exploration of her profession and activism.
Four Daughters (Kino Lorber): This Cannes winner for Best Documentary melds truth and re-creation in its have a look at the titular siblings, the elder two of which finally turned radicalized by Islamic terrorists.
Pianoforte (Greenwich Entertainment): Go behind the scenes on the fiercely aggressive International Chopin Piano Competition, the place the world’s best younger pianists assemble as soon as each 5 years in Warsaw in search of glory.
Rookies (Icarus Films): A prestigious Paris highschool opens its doorways to college students of varied nationalities and financial backgrounds when it establishes a hip-hop dance squad.
NEW GRINDHOUSE
Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe (Arrow Video): This field set options 4K restorations of all six of the “Coffin Joe” movies from cult Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins. This is a horror director whose movies stay as much as their legendarily lurid titles: At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul, This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse (aka The Strange World of Coffin Joe), The Awakening of the Beast (aka The End of Man), When the Gods Fall Asleep (aka The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures), Hellish Flesh (aka Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind), and Embodiment of Evil. Extras embody a collectible e-book that includes new essays, in addition to double-sided Blu-ray paintings and artwork playing cards.
Also accessible:
The Boogens (KL Studio Classics): This 4K launch of the legendary 1981 creature-feature includes a trove of extras, together with a brand new audio commentary.
The Childe (Well Go USA Entertainment): To save his mom’s life, an novice boxer travels from the Philippines to Korea in the hunt for his estranged father, solely to find he’s being adopted by a harmful killer.
Conan the Barbarian / Conan the Destroyer (each Arrow Video): Arnold Schwarzenegger took on the sword and loincloth of Robert E. Howard’s legendary hero in these two Nineteen Eighties cult faves, accessible for the primary time in 4K.
The Devil’s Partner/Creature from the Haunted Sea (Film Masters): This double-bill from Roger Corman’s The Filmgroup firm pairs an early Satanic thriller (starring Edgar Buchanan of Petticoat Junction, no much less) and a sea-monster saga co-starring a younger Robert Towne (billed as “Edward Wain”), each in 4K.
The Flying Swordsman (Well Go USA Entertainment): Eight assassins emerge to take possession of a legendary treasure map on this wuxia motion story.
Loaded Guns (Raro Video): Ursula Andress stars as a stewardess who will get caught up in a Naples gang conflict on this wild action-comedy from director Fernando Di Leo.
S&M Hunter Begins (Redemption): This 1985 prequel to the sleazy Japanese cult basic reveals how an on a regular basis salaryman picked up a whip and have become the titular BDSM superhero.
Skateboard (Factory 25): Leif Garrett, Allen Garfield, and skateboard legends Tony Alva and Ellen O’Neal co-star on this 1978 exploitation basic, the primary film to capitalize on the then-new skateboarding craze.
Sons of Steel (Umbrella Entertainment): The distributor calls this “The nuttiest, wildest, most utterly insane science-fiction-time-travelling-rock-opera-eco-terrorist-action film Australia has ever produced,” and who’re we to disagree?
Thinner (Scream Factory): Stephen King’s story of a losing curse will get a candy new collector’s version Blu-ray, with new commentaries, interviews, and a behind-the-scenes documentary concerning the results make-up that took Robert John Burke from hefty to gaunt.
Underworld (Kino Cult): This Clive Barker adaptation, making its 4K debut, stars Denholm Elliott, Steven Berkoff, Miranda Richardson, and cult icon Ingrid Pitt.
Vile 21 (VHShitfest): This gory, low-budget regional obscurity involves disc for the primary time, with commentaries, deleted scenes, and extra.
Wolf Pack (Well Go USA Entertainment): An investigation into his father’s dying leads a doctor to affix up with a gaggle of mercenaries, solely to uncover a harmful worldwide conspiracy.
NEW CLASSIC
Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968-78 (The Criterion Collection): It’s a tragedy that Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman didn’t stay to see herself turn into the primary lady director to prime the Sight & Sound listing, which she did in 2022 along with her landmark movie Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai des commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. But posthumous respect is best than no respect in any respect, and the celebration of her life and work continues with this new Criterion field set, inspecting the primary decade of Akerman’s extraordinary profession, together with her debut movie Saute ma ville (made when the director was simply 18 years previous), her sexually daring worldwide breakthrough Je tu il elle, and naturally Jeanne Dielman. The extras-packed set features a celebratory essay from director Ira Sachs, new 4K remasters of all of the titles, an unfinished movie, a brand new movie essay that includes B. Ruby Rich, new interviews, and rather more. An important set, documenting the work of an important artist.
Also accessible:
The Apu Trilogy (The Criterion Collection): Satyajit Ray’s immortal coming-of-age saga, in 4K for the primary time.
Blood Simple (The Criterion Collection): A brand new 4K launch of the movie that rewrote the foundations of neo-noir and put the Coen brothers on the map.
Coming Home (KL Studio Classics): Hal Ashby’s searing have a look at the results of the Vietnam War on a sheltered army spouse, her combat-weary husband, and the injured veteran she grows to like earned Oscars for Jane Fonda and Jon Voight in addition to for its highly effective screenplay.
The Devil’s Brigade (KL Studio Classics): William Holden and Cliff Robertson lead an all-star forged in Andrew V. McLaglen’s WWII motion yarn.
The Dog Who Stopped the War (Canadian International Pictures): Over Christmas break, youngsters in a small French-Canadian city determine to have a conflict, selecting sides and mounting ever-growing armies, and it’s as much as four-legged Cléo to maintain the peace on this movie that launched the “Stories for All” collection from Canadian manufacturing entity Les Productions la Fête.
Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XVI (KL Studio Classics): More cigarettes and shadows on this ongoing collection; the most recent entry consists of The Mystery of Marie Roget, Chicago Deadline, and Iron Man (and no, not that one).
Has Anybody Seen My Gal (KL Studio Classics): While Rock Hudson and director Douglas Sirk are best-known for collaborating on luxurious melodramas like Written on the Wind and Magnificent Obsession, additionally they teamed up for this Nineteen Twenties-set musical romance. Keep an eye fixed peeled for Hudson’s future Giant co-star James Dean as a soda-fountain patron.
He Walked by Night (KL Studio Classics): The noir movie that impressed co-star Jack Webb to start out Dragnet, this one’s additionally taken from the LAPD case recordsdata, with the cops out to seize an elusive thief and cop-killer performed by Richard Basehart.
The Hell with Heroes (KL Studio Classics): Fighter pilots get blended up with smugglers within the instant aftermath of WWII on this Rod Taylor automobile.
Kindergarten Cop (KL Studio Classics): It’s nonetheless not a tumah, however it’s in 4K.
Lone Star (The Criterion Collection): John Sayles’ acclaimed story of corruption and long-buried (actually) secrets and techniques makes its 4K debut, with new interviews included.
Lords of Dogtown (Mill Creek Entertainment): This Blu-ray steelbook of Catherine Hardwicke’s docudrama concerning the rise of SoCal skateboarding is at present a Wal-mart unique.
Murphy’s War (Arrow Video): When a U-boat sinks a British service provider ship in the course of the waning days of WWII, sole survivor Murphy (Peter O’Toole) seeks revenge for his fallen comrades and launches an obsessive one-man effort to sink the German vessel.
The Mysterious Castle within the Carpathians (Deaf Crocodile): This elaborate, absurdist Czech comedy – that includes stop-motion steampunk gadgets created by legendary animator Jan Svankmajer – begins off as a Jules Verne adaptation (The Carpathian Castle) earlier than launching into cloud-cuckooland.
Odds Against Tomorrow (KL Studio Classics): Robert Wise’s tense drama mixes heist suspense with social commentary, as racist ex-con Robert Ryan has second ideas about getting in on a financial institution job as a result of one of many thieves is Harry Belafonte.
The Outside Man (KL Studio Classics): This worldwide hit-man thriller includes a forged of heavy hitters (Jean-Louis Trintignant, Ann-Margret, Roy Scheider, John Hillerman, Alex Rocco, Talia Shire, a younger Jackie Earle Haley) and a rating by Michel Legrand; this new Blu-ray version consists of the French and US variations.
Please, Not Now! (Kino Classics): The Blu-ray debut of one in every of many Roger Vadim comedies that made Brigitte Bardot a global intercourse image.
The Road to Hong Kong (KL Studio Classics): It’s 1962, and Hope and Crosby had been nonetheless on the street to any unique locale that might be recreated on the Universal backlot. (The “negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures” disclaimer applies.)
Run Silent, Run Deep (KL Studio Classics): Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster star on this basic a few WWII submarine commander pushed by revenge and going through what is likely to be his final battle.
The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (KL Studio Classics): When Soviet commander Alan Arkin by chance grounds his sub on the American shoreline, a small New England city loses its thoughts on the considered an imminent Communist invasion in Norman Jewison’s charming comedy.
Scarlet Street (KL Studio Classics): One of the highlights of Fritz Lang’s American profession makes its 4K debut; mousy Edward G. Robinson will get pushed additional and additional down the stony finish by the conniving Joan Bennett and her sleazy “manager” Dan Duryea.
The Sea Shall Not Have Them/Albert R.N. (Cohen Film Collection): Two WWII dramas from director Lewis Gilbert, who would go on to helm such 007 classics as The Spy Who Loved Me.
Split Image (KL Studio Classics): All-American teen Michael O’Keefe will get embroiled in a cult run by the charismatic Peter Fonda, and solely renegade deprogrammer James Woods can save him. (So when are we getting a Blu-ray of the similarly-themed Canadian fave Ticket to Heaven?)
Stielke, Heinz, Fifteen (Altered Innocence): A faithful member of Hitler Youth spirals uncontrolled as he discovers that he’s truly Jewish on this acclaimed 1987 drama, lengthy unavailable however now restored in HD.
Trainspotting (The Criterion Collection): Danny Boyle’s worldwide breakthrough will get its first 4K launch, loaded up with extras from earlier Criterion variations.
Varsity Blues (Paramount Home Entertainment): It has one way or the other been 25 years since James Van Der Beek wore soccer pads (and Ali Larter sprayed on a whipped-cream bikini), and that silver anniversary will get celebrated with a brand new 4K.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Mill Creek Entertainment): You do need part of this – the two-disc “Hard as Steel” steelbook version, accessible completely from Wal-mart.
NEW TV
Billions: The Final Season (Paramount Home Entertainment): We’ve seen numerous reveals about wealthy guys and attorneys over the course of tv historical past, however this Showtime drama dug deep, hit arduous, and supplied juicy moments to a supremely proficient ensemble, together with Paul Giamatti, Damien Lewis, Corey Stoll, Asia Kate Dillon, Maggie Siff, and Kelly AuCoin. Farewell, Billions. (P.S. tax the billionaires)
Also accessible:
Bocchi the Rock! – The Complete Season (Crunchyroll): This anime hit follows the coming-of-age of a lonely high-school outsider whose life adjustments when she’s invited to affix a rock band.
Magnum P.I.: The Final Season (Paramount Home Entertainment): After 5 seasons within the shadow of Tom Selleck, Jay Hernandez will get to hold up his Hawaiian shirt.
Monk: The Complete Third Season (KL Studio Classics): Tony Shalhoub returns because the non-public detective who makes his OCD a characteristic and never a bug.
Ultraman Battle Kaiju Series 02: Ultraman vs. Alien Baltan (Mill Creek Entertainment): More kaiju greatness on this ongoing collection of Ultraman releases.