The following article was written by my buddy and colleague Alonso Duralde. You can be taught extra about him HERE.
What’s new on DVD/Blu-ray/4K in February: ‘Wonka,’ ‘Gay USA,’ Éric Rohmer, and More!
NEW RELEASE WALL
Wonka (Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment): Timothée Chalamet dons the highest hat of the legendary chocolatier on this hit musical, nevertheless it’s a movie that works higher in case you consider it not as a prequel to the darkish and pleasant Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory however as an alternative as a 3rd Paddington film. (It’s from director Paul King, the person who gave us the beloved live-action adventures of the marmalade-loving bear from Peru.) The songs received’t stick with you as a lot because the Anthony Newley–Leslie Bricusse compositions from the 1971 film – none of Neil Hannon’s Wonka songs even made the Academy shortlist – however this new tackle the Roald Dahl hero has a springy silliness all its personal.
Also obtainable:
Afire (Janus Contemporaries): Director Christian Petzold (Transit) sends a gaggle of pals and strangers on a vacation the place an impending forest hearth portends each literal and metaphorical catastrophe.
All Quiet on the Western Front (MPI Home Video): The latest Oscar-nominated adaptation of the basic Erich Maria Remarque novel will get a 4K launch after premiering on Netflix.
The Canterville Ghost (Shout Kids): Stephen Fry as soon as famously portrayed Oscar Wilde, so who higher than to voice the title character on this animated household comedy based mostly on a Wilde brief story? (Fry’s previous comedy accomplice Hugh Laurie is alongside for the journey, as are Freddie Highmore, Imelda Staunton, Miranda Hart, and Toby Jones.)
Dream Scenario (A24/Lionsgate): Nicolas Cage brilliantly portrays a nebbishy professor who abruptly turns into a determine in everybody’s desires on this darkly comedian take a look at the ups and downs of superstar.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Lionsgate): Another prequel, this time taking us again to the early years of the bloodthirsty actuality present and the origins of Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), who will sooner or later grow to be president of Panem.
The Marvels (Marvel/Disney): While this superhero team-up by no means turns into the paradigm-shatterer it sometimes guarantees to be, Nia DaCosta’s MCU film is best than you’ve heard.
Next Goal Wins (twentieth Century Studios): Taika Waititi turns the true story of the legendarily unsuccessful American Samoa soccer group into an inspirational sports activities story.
Priscilla (Lionsgate): Sofia Coppola, who is aware of her approach round tales of ladies trapped in gilded cages, sensitively adapts Priscilla Presley’s memoir, aided by highly effective performances by Cailee Spaeny and Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi as, respectively, Priscilla and Elvis.
Silent Night (Lionsgate): John Woo returns to U.S. cinema with this mostly-wordless story of a grieving father (Joel Kinnaman) out for bloody, Christmastime revenge.
Strange Way of Life (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal star on this brief, attractive Western from Pedro Almodóvar. (Since the film is just 31 minutes, it appears unusual to not have used the additional area on the DVD to launch a bodily model of Almodóvar’s earlier English-language brief The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton.)
NEW INDIE
Weak Layers (Greenwich Entertainment): Three recently-evicted finest buddies got down to win a ski-movie competitors, dealing with off with highly-paid opponents and the old-boy community of professional snowboarding, on this indie comedy.
NEW INTERNATIONAL
Godard Cinema / Trailer for a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars (Kino Lorber): This documentary celebrates this legendary and always-controversial Jean-Luc Godard, the French New Wave filmmaker whose cinematic experimentations proceed to reverberate right now. This new Blu-ray additionally consists of his final movie, a trailer for the characteristic he was engaged on till his dying in September 2022.
Also obtainable:
Cleaners (Kani Releasing): Glenn Barit’s one-of-a-kind coming-of-age film concerned the Filipino filmmaker printing out every body and hand-coloring it with highlighters, the higher to seize its temper of early-2000s adolescent nostalgia.
Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (Yellow Veil Pictures): A person develops a bond along with his dominatrix on this Finnish drama, however his rising dependancy to asphyxiation sends them each down a harmful path.
Lie with Me (Cinephobia Releasing): A homosexual novelist returns to his hometown within the French countryside after a 30-year absence, solely to come across the son (performed by Victor Belmondo, grandson of Jean-Paul Belmondo) of his long-lost love.
The Moon (Well Go USA Entertainment): When a Korean moon launch goes awry, the area company should flip to its former boss within the hopes of rescuing a stranded astronaut.
La Syndicaliste (Kino Lorber): Based on a real story, this thriller stars Isabelle Huppert as a union whistleblower whose investigation of enterprise practices within the French nuclear-energy trade put her in rising hazard.
Under the Fig Trees (Film Movement): Tunisia’s 2023 Oscar entry takes a granular take a look at the day within the lifetime of a fig orchard and the various staff who are likely to it.
NEW DOCUMENTARY
Gay U.S.A. (Altered Innocence): This fascinating documentary about homosexual life from legendary queer filmmaker Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. – whose profession spanned non-fiction, drama, and even erotica – really made its approach into theaters months earlier than Word Is Out, which is commonly credited as being the primary doc about LGBTQ+ American lives. Subtitled “Snapshots of 1970s LGBT Resistance,” Gay U.S.A. seems on the Pride parades of 1977 to seize the political upheaval of a rising queer political motion. This DVD features a new commentary observe that includes historians Jenni Olson and Don Romesberg in addition to 4 documentary brief movies from the interval.
Also obtainable:
The Book of Harth (MVD Entertainment): Conceptual artist David Greg Harth spent a long time getting the signatures of culturally necessary figures in his copy of the Bible, and this doc follows that quest.
Imagining the Indian (First Run Features): With the Kansas City Chiefs as soon as once more profitable the Super Bowl, it’s the proper time to take a look at this take a look at how sports activities groups have exploited Native-American imagery in creating mascots.
Sex and Broadcasting: A Film about WFMU (Factory 25): A detailed-up take a look at the legendary New Jersey indie radio station and its ongoing survival in an period the place terrestrial radio faces unprecedented challenges.
Youth (Spring) (Icarus Films): Winner of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s Douglas Edwards Experimental Film Award, Wang Bing’s documentary examines textile factories in rural China and the underpaid workers who work there and combat for higher situations.
NEW GRINDHOUSE
Drifter (Kino Cult): Like Arthur Bressan, Pat Rocco additionally started as a pioneer of queer erotic cinema earlier than branching out into different genres. This 1974 characteristic, sometimes called a West-Coast tackle Midnight Cowboy, stars Joe Adair as a bisexual hustler making his approach by means of random encounters with women and men in Southern California. In addition to a 2K restoration of the movie for its fiftieth anniversary, this Blu-ray additionally consists of 4 Rocco shorts.
Also obtainable:
Anaconda (Mill Creek Entertainment): The J.Lo-versus-a-giant-snake saga returns in a brand new steelbook version.
Black Tight Killers (Radiance): A battle photographer pursues a stewardess who has been kidnapped by a group of lethal feminine assassins (who use LP information, amongst different objects, as deadly weapons) on this action-packed Japanese camp basic.
Burnt Offerings (KL Studio Classics): Oliver Reed and Karen Black get far more than they bargained for of their creepy summer time rental, which seems to be suffering from the presence of evil.
A Creature Was Stirring (Well Go USA Entertainment): A pair of residence invaders take refuge within the residence of a secretive nurse (Chrissy Metz) throughout a Christmas blizzard, solely to bump into some horrifying household secrets and techniques.
Darkman (Scream Factory): Sam Raimi’s unique tackle superheroes has amassed a cult following within the a long time since its launch, and now there’s a brand new 4K collector’s version.
Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman (Well Go USA Enterainment): A phony exorcist finds himself battle actual ghosts – and overcoming long-forgotten childhood horrors – on this witty thriller from South Korea.
Funeral Home (Scream Factory): An adolescent and her grandmother try to show a mortuary right into a bed-and-breakfast, solely to find that the constructing makes our bodies pile up, it doesn’t matter what enterprise is being carried out there.
The Heroic Trio / Executioners (The Criterion Collection): Now that Michelle Yeoh has been minted as an Oscar-winning actress, it’s the proper time to revisit two of the Hong Kong motion classics that first made her a star.
Hollow Man (Mill Creek Entertainment): Paul Verhoeven’s tackle The Invisible man will get a steelbook launch of his director’s minimize.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (Mill Creek Entertainment): Newly launched within the steelbook format, this cult movie stays beloved by its fanbase, even when it by no means fairly leaves the shadow of the Scream franchise.
Peacock (IndiePix Films): A younger girl raised in a strict South African cult is shipped off to take care of certainly one of its founder, plummeting each of them into terrifying visions of the previous.
Rad (Mill Creek Entertainment): Long unavailable on residence video, this cult favourite about BMX racers will get a brand new steelbook version.
Sexy S.W.A.T. Team (Sacrament): Someone is hypnotizing commuters on the Tokyo prepare system to commit acts of perversion, and solely the titular all-female squad can cease them.
The Shaolin Plot (Arrow Video): The final martial-arts movie to star Sammo Hung earlier than he grew to become a director, this ensemble piece follows a depraved prince (Chan Sing) out to amass the ultimate two martial-arts manuals he must grasp each type of combating, organising a battle royale in a Shaolin temple over the sacred Wu-Tang texts.
The Strangler (Altered Innocence): Before the Italians cornered the market on giallo, French filmmaker Paul Vecchiali took a stab at it with this story of a younger man (Jacques Perrin, The Young Girls of Rochefort) who makes use of his white scarf to take the lives of a string of ladies.
Willy’s Wonderland (Scream Factory): Before Five Nights at Freddy’s got here this story of a drifter (Nicolas Cage) whose job as an amusement-park janitor turns lethal when he should combat off lethal animatronic characters.
NEW CLASSIC
Éric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons (The Criterion Collection): Legendary French New Wave filmmaker Rohmer had a variety of “cycles” over the course of his distinguished filmography – “Comedies et Proverbes,” “Six Moral Tales” – and his remaining sequence was this quartet of movies named for the 4 season. Made whereas the director was in his 70s, these movies see the auteur as ever attuned to the vicissitudes of affection, whether or not practiced by the younger (as in A Summer’s Tale or A Winter’s Tale) or folks later in life (Autumn Tale, Tale of Springtime). These all rank amongst his biggest work, so it’s a delight to have them captured on this stunning field set.
Also obtainable:
Alaska Seas (KL Studio Classics): Robert Ryan and Brian Keith star as two-fisted salmon fishermen decided to maintain poachers away from their traps.
Allonsanfan (Radiance): Marcello Mastroianni stars as a once-revolutionary aristrocrat adrift after the autumn of Napoleon on this basic from the Taviani brothers.
The Big Country (KL Studio Classics): Burl Ives received an Oscar for this sprawling Western a few retired sea captain (Gregory Peck) who finds himself caught in the midst of rivalries over land and energy; the forged additionally consists of Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston, Carroll Baker, Charles Bickford, and Chuck Connors.
Blood on the Sun (KL Studio Classics): James Cagney stars as an American journalist in Tokyo on the eve of Pearl Harbor, enmeshed in espionage and intrigue.
Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection, Volume 4 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment): The studio continues its sequence of 4K releases – and the celebration of its centenary – with a field set that features ultra-hi-def editions of His Girl Friday, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Kramer vs. Kramer, Starman, Sleepless in Seattle, and Punch-Drunk Love.
Contagion (Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment): Steven Soderbergh’s prescient thriller a few lethal pandemic – which abruptly took a brand new degree of relevance throughout 2020 – will get it first 4K launch.
The Early Films of Asghar Farhadi (Film Movement): This new assortment options movies made by the Iranian filmmaker earlier than his worldwide breakthrough with 2011’s A Separation: Dancing within the Dust and Beautiful City.
Fear and Desire (KL Studio Classics): Stanley Kubrick’s formidable debut characteristic, now obtainable in 4K for the very first time.
Fear Is the Key (Arrow Video): Barry Newman and Suzy Kendall star on this fast-paced thriller, which options Ben Kingsley’s first display screen look.
Footloose (Paramount Home Video): Kevin Bacon brings the boogie to John Lithgow’s small-town theocracy, now in 4K.
The Golden Coach (Raro): Jean Renoir’s luxurious tribute to the theatrical life, a private favourite of François Truffaut’s, stars Anna Magnani as an 18th-century stage star pursued by three potential lovers.
Goodbye & Amen (Radiance): Damiano Damiani’s espionage thriller a few CIA agent (Tony Musante) fomenting revolution in an African nation co-stars Claudia Cardinale and John Forsythe.
Gunfight on the OK Corral (KL Studio Classics): A 4K launch of the legendary Burt Lancaster–Kirk Douglas Western.
Jeanne Moreau, Filmmaker (Carlotta Films US): The legendary actress has created artwork on each side of the digital camera; this set consists of 4K restorations of her narrative options Lumière and L’adolescente and an HD restoration of her documentary Lillian Gish.
King: A Filmed Record… Montgomery to Memphis (Kino Classics): An important doc of the civil rights motion, this movie from Sidney Lumet and Joseph L. Mankiewicz captures the staggering accomplishments and ongoing legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Last Castle (KL Studio Classics): Two a long time after Brubaker, Robert Redford takes on one other corrupt jail – however this time it’s a navy facility lorded over by a ruthless James Gandolfini.
Let’s Dance (KL Studio Classics): Fred Astaire journeys the sunshine unbelievable with Betty Hutton on this 1950 Technicolor musical.
Leviathan (KL Studio Classics): Peter Weller and Richard Crenna lead an all-star forged on this thriller about deep-sea miners caught between storms above and a terrifying creature beneath.
Little Darlings (Cinematographe): Finally obtainable on residence video, this Eighties teen-comedy basic options Kristy McNichol and Tatum O’Neal as rival summer-campers out to lose their virginity (to, respectively, fellow camper Matt Dillon and suave smoothie Armand Assante). With girls writing the screenplay, this can be a extra female-gaze R-rated romp than different movies of its period.
Madame DuBarry (Kino Classics): Pola Negri and Emil Jannings star on this early historic epic from legendary director Ernst Lubitsch.
Man-Eater of Kumaon (KL Studio Classics): Sabu and hunter Wendell Corey combat to save lots of a village from the ravages of a lethal tiger.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (The Criterion Collection): Robert Altman’s epic, post-modern Western will get a 4K launch on this extras-packed Criterion version.
Nothing But a Man (The Criterion Collection): A landmark of Black American cinema, this drama stars Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln as a working-class couple striving to create a life for themselves amidst systemic racism.
One Man (Canadian International Picture): Len Cariou stars on this gripping 1977 drama a few reporter who dangers all of it to research the deaths of kids attributable to a close-by manufacturing unit.
OSS 117: Five Film Collection (KL Studio Classics): France’s reply to James Bond shoots and smooches his approach by means of a quintet of super-cool spy tales.
Paprika (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment): Satoshi Kon’s mind-blowing anime characteristic will get a North American 4K launch.
The Road to Shame (Kino Classics): In this thriller from Édouard Molinaro (La cage aux folles), a person fights to liberate his fiancée from intercourse traffickers and to carry down a felony ring.
The Roaring Twenties (The Criterion Collection): It’s the whole lot you’re keen on about gangster photos in a single nice film, as WWI veteran James Cagney turns to bootlegging, solely to battle with Humphrey Bogart’s sadistic gangster to save lots of the lifetime of Cagney’s previous pal, now a do-gooder district legal professional.
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days (Zeitgeist Films): This award-winning docudrama tells the story of the legendary anti-Nazi activist.
The Sting of Death (Radiance): In post-WWII Japan, a lady careens towards insanity over her husband’s affair with one other girl in Kohei Oguri’s 1990 drama, which received the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes.
The Swiss Conspiracy (Film Masters): David Janssen pursues a blackmail ring within the remaining movie from Creature from the Black Lagoon director Jack Arnold, now restored to 4K.
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (Shout Studios): Jack Black and Kyle Gass do their factor, now in Blu-ray for the primary time ever.
The Thomas Crown Affair (KL Studio Classics): Celebrate the profession of the late Norman Jewison with this fashionable and attractive caper movie starring Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen at their most ravishing.
The Tune (Deaf Crocodile): Bill Plympton’s twisted imaginative and prescient involves full fruition on this dazzlingly offbeat animated characteristic.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Mill Creek Entertainment): The film that attempted to save lots of us from rock-biopic clichés – to no avail, apparently – is now obtainable in a steelbook version.
Witness for the Prosecution (KL Studio Classics): Agatha Christie’s twisty story stays one of many biggest courtroom dramas ever filmed, with unforgettable turns from Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Elsa Lanchester, and Tyrone Power below the route of Billy Wilder.
NEW TV
Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete Eighth Season (Lionsgate): Look, Kim Dickens is again, and that’s motive sufficient to take a look at the ultimate season of this zombie-packed spinoff.
Also obtainable:
The Bridge: The Complete Series / The Bridge: Series 4 (each MHz Choice): Another present whose impression was felt all over the world (and, like The Kingdom, led to an unsuccessful US remake), these releases embrace the ultimate season of this taut political thriller.
Monk: Season Four (KL Studio Classics): Tony Shalhoub’s meticulous detective OCDs his approach by means of one other season.
Special Ops: Lioness – Season One (Paramount Home Entertainment): Zoe Saldaña stars as a CIA agent combating the battle on terror below the command of bosses Nicole Kidman and Michael Kelly.