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.
About Elly (Asghar Farhadi)
A few years before A Separation left its considerable mark on the world-cinema landscape, Asghar Farhadi had another masterpiece under his belt. Why it’s been unavailable in the United States for some six years is a total mystery, but that (courtesy of Cinema Guild) has finally been taken care of — and now, at long last, here is About Elly. For fitting the mold of mystery, hangout movie, social critique, and gender-dynamics drama with equal aplomb, this film is the clearest example of Farhadi’s considerable powers. Its 2009 tag be damned, About Elly is one of the best “new” releases we’ve been given this year. – Nick N.
Day for Night (François Truffaut)
This affectionate farce from François Truffaut about the joys and strife of moviemaking is one of his most beloved films. Truffaut himself appears as the harried director of a frivolous melodrama, the shooting of which is plagued by the whims of a neurotic actor (Jean-Pierre Léaud), an aging but still forceful Italian diva (Valentina Cortese), and a British ingenue haunted by personal scandal (Jacqueline Bisset). An irreverent paean to the prosaic craft of cinema as well as a delightful human comedy about the pitfalls of sex and romance, Day for Night is buoyed by robust performances and a sparkling score by the legendary Georges Delerue. – Criterion
Elena (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize, Elena is a gripping, modern twist on the classic noir thriller. Sixty-ish spouses Vladimir and Elena uneasily share his palatial Moscow apartment-he’s a still-virile, wealthy businessman; she’s his former nurse who has “married up.” Estranged from his own wild-child daughter, Vladimir openly despises his wife’s freeloading son and family. But when a sudden illness and an unexpected reunion threaten Elena’s potential inheritance, she must hatch a desperate plan. – Official Synopsis
Also Arriving This Week
Cub (review)
Hackers
Lambert & Stamp
La Sapienza (review)
Strangerland (review)
Recommended Deals of the Week
(Note: new additions are in red)
12 Years a Slave (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Adaptation (Blu-ray) – $7.99
A Most Wanted Man (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The American (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $5.96
Anna Karenina (Blu-ray) – $12.21
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $10.55
Black Swan (Blu-ray) – $6.75
The Brothers Bloom (Blu-ray) – $8.19
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Casino (Blu-ray) – $9.97
Captain Phillips (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Children of Men (Blu-ray) – $8.51
Cloverfield (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Collateral (Blu-ray) – $7.88
The Counselor (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Descendants (Blu-ray) – $6.56
Drive (Blu-ray) – $7.77
Edge of Tomorrow (Blu-ray) – $13.00
The Fly (Blu-ray) – $6.53
Gangs of New York (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Gone Girl (Blu-ray) – $13.00
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $8.17
Good Will Hunting (Blu-ray) – $7.50
The Graduate (Blu-ray) – $7.88
The Grandmaster (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $9.29
Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $7.66
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $8.50
In the Loop (Blu-ray) – $7.59
It Follows (Blu-ray) – $12.63
Jackie Brown (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Jane Eyre (Blu-ray) – $8.33
Killing Them Softly (Blu-ray) – $6.32
L.A. Confidential (Blu-ray) – $7.42
The Lady From Shanghai (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Looper (Blu-ray) – $12.09
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $8.71
Magic Mike (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Blu-ray) – $6.91
Margaret (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $5.95
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $9.66
Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $6.53
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $4.96
Observe & Report (Blu-ray) – $7.49
Office Space (Blu-ray) – $5.88
Pariah (Blu-ray) – $6.49
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $6.50
Public Enemies (Blu-ray) – $9.47
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $7.57
Reality Bites (Blu-ray) – $8.72
The Secret In Their Eyes (Blu-ray) – $6.50
Seven (Blu-ray) – $6.68
Seven Psychopaths (Blu-ray) – $7.99
A Single Man (Blu-ray) – $6.14
Snowpiercer (Blu-ray) – $8.99
The Spectacular Now (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Spring Breakers (Blu-ray) – $9.98
Synecdoche, NY (Blu-ray) – $6.57
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $8.69
The Tree of Life (Blu-ray) – $6.88
The Truman Show (Blu-ray) – $7.84
They Came Together (Blu-ray) – $9.98
True Grit (Blu-ray) – $9.98
This is the End (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Under the Skin (Blu-ray) – $9.99
We Own the Night (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $6.91
The Wrestler (Blu-ray) – $6.45
Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $9.69
What are you picking up this week?