Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.
99 Homes (Ramin Bahrani)
Ramin Bahrani made a name for himself with three independent films over the last decade, focusing on humanity’s daily struggles, reinvented foreign lives in America, and a fundamental sense of decency. With 2012’s At Any Price and this year’s 99 Homes, Bahrani has twice returned to the festival that launched his career, presenting the evolution of those themes. Not coincidentally, the worst years of the financial crisis stand between his acclaimed Goodbye, Solo and the tepidly received 2012 picture, and they must have had a profound effect on the direction of Bahrani’s filmography. With a broader canvas, flashier casts, and a more overt penchant for melodrama, At Any Price and 99 Homes single out agriculture and real estate as the catalysts of contemporary American sufferings. – Tommaso T. (full review)
Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro)
Crimson Peak works as many things: a melodramatic romance; both the recreation of a period and a revival of the way movies have made us perceive it; a genre-jumping comedy; and a critique of capitalistic excess. It does these things earnestly and without compromise, and it’s far braver — far more admirable — for having done so. What Guillermo del Toro’s new film doesn’t work as: a haunted-house picture. Although the director will personally tell you it’s not meant to fit this mold, the genre’s shape and intended impacts are certainly identifiable enough to spring to mind. The extent to which it fails here is rather clear, and the entire endeavor is sadly hobbled as a result. – Nick N. (full review)
The Emigrants / The New Land (Jan Troell)
This monumental mid-nineteenth-century epic from Jan Troell charts, over the course of two films, a Swedish farming family’s voyage to America and their efforts to put down roots in this beautiful but forbidding new world. Movie legends Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann give remarkably authentic performances as Karl Oskar and Kristina, a couple who meet with one physical and emotional trial after another on their arduous journey. The precise, minute detail with which Troell depicts the couple’s story—which is also that of countless other people who sought better lives across the Atlantic—is a wonder to behold. Engrossing at every step of the way, the duo of The Emigrants and The New Land makes for perhaps the greatest screen drama about the settling of America. – Criterion.com
Also Arriving This Week
A Mighty Wind
Grandma (review)
Spectre (review)
Recommended Deals of the Week
Top Deal: A selection of Blu-ray pre-orders on The Criterion Collection are over 40% off, including A Brighter Summer Day, The Kid, Paris Belongs to Us, and more.
A Clockwork Orange (Blu-ray) – $9.65
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $6.83
The American (Blu-ray) – $8.78
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $8.12
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $8.70
Blackhat (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Brokeback Mountain (Blu-ray) – $8.79
The Brothers Bloom (Blu-ray) – $9.68
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Captain Phillips (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Casino (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Dear White People (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Do the Right Thing (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Eastern Promises (Blu-ray) – $6.72
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $10.00
Good Will Hunting (Blu-ray) – $5.99
A History of Violence (Blu-ray) – $9.59
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Interstellar (Blu-ray) – $10.00
Jaws (Blu-ray) – $7.88
John Wick (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Blu-ray) – $9.69
The Lady From Shanghai (Blu-ray) – $8.77
Looper (Blu-ray) – $9.93
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Magic Mike (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Magnolia (Blu-ray) – $9.53
Margaret (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Matchstick Men (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $9.65
Mission: Impossible – The 5 Movie Collection (Blu-ray) $34.99
Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $8.08
Nightcrawler (Blu-ray) – $9.96
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $6.99
ParaNorman (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Pariah (Blu-ray) – $6.48
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $6.23
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $7.97
Public Enemies (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Reality Bites (Blu-ray) – $9.63
Re-Animator (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Road to Perdition (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Seven (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Seven Psychopaths (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Short Term 12 (Blu-ray) – $9.89
A Single Man (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Synecdoche, NY (Blu-ray) – $6.25
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $9.19
The Tree of Life (Blu-ray) – $5.89
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Blu-ray) – $6.80
True Grit (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Volver (Blu-ray) – $5.59
Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Whiplash (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Wrestler (Blu-ray) – $7.20
What are you picking up this week?