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.
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
With a multitude of long takes set across rapturous vistas as Viggo Mortensen journeys through 19th-century Patagonia, Lisandro Alonso‘s Jauja is a wholly beautiful, occasionally perplexing tale — as if Andrei Tarkovsky tried his hand at a western. When Mortensen’s character treads deeper into the wilderness, time itself becomes distorted, concluding with something that will surely lead to extensive conversations. Jauja is simply one of this year’s must-see films. – Jordan R.
My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears)
Johnny licks Omar’s neck. He’s got some blue paint on his face from decorating the front of the launderette. The two men stand in front of the building, which Omar manages. Johnny’s friends, a batch of rabidly racist skinheads, stand awkwardly nearby. Yet Johnny doesn’t care. The chemistry between the two seems to be guarded by a blissful force field, magically keeping the bitter cold of Thatcherite antisociety at bay. In its place there are only frisky smiles. There may be nothing more plainly erotic in the whole cinema of the 1980s than this moment, one of the subtle crowning achievements of My Beautiful Laundrette, now a member of the Criterion Collection. – Daniel W.
What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi)
As of late, there seems to be no sub-genre more worn out in Hollywood than that of the vampire. Thankfully, a pair of New Zealand’s finest comedic talents are here to breath new life into the blood-sucking mythology with the vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows. Sporting a Real World-esque approach, we’re introduced to our main quartet, made up of Viago, the tidy 879-year-old vampire that’s the ringleader of the group (Taika Waititi, also co-director); Vladislav, a suave, once-feared 862-year-old vampire (Jemaine Clement, co-director as well); Deacon, a 183-year-old vampire with no work ethic (Jonathan Brugh); and Peter, the decrepit, 8,000 year-old (Ben Fransham). – Jordan R. (full review)
Recommended Deals of the Week
(Note: new additions are in red)
Top Deal: All titles on The Criterion Collection are now 50% off through July 27th at Barnes & Noble. (See our 10 recommendations.)
12 Years a Slave (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Adaptation (Blu-ray) – $7.99
A Most Wanted Man (Blu-ray) – $7.99
A Most Violent Year (Blu-ray) – $12.99
The American (Blu-ray) – $8.48
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $5.98
Anna Karenina (Blu-ray) – $12.22
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $10.55
Black Swan (Blu-ray) – $6.76
Brokeback Mountain (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Brothers Bloom (Blu-ray) – $8.01
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Casino (Blu-ray) – $8.95
Captain Phillips (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Children of Men (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Cloverfield (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Collateral (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Contempt (Blu-ray) – $11.99
The Counselor (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Deer Hunter (Blu-ray) – $10.73
The Descendants (Blu-ray) – $7.40
Drive (Blu-ray) – $7.77
The Fly (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Gangs of New York (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $8.25
Good Will Hunting (Blu-ray) – $7.50
The Graduate (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Grey (Blu-ray) – $9.48
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $7.64
Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $7.66
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $8.49
Interstellar (Blu-ray) – $10.00
It Follows (Blu-ray) – $12.90
Jackie Brown (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Jane Eyre (Blu-ray) – $8.33
Killing Them Softly (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (Blu-ray) – $12.99
L.A. Confidential (Blu-ray) – $9.18
The Lady From Shanghai (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Looper (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $8.71
Magic Mike (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Blu-ray) – $6.48
Margaret (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $9.68
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) – $9.10
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Reality Bites (Blu-ray) – $8.72
The Secret In Their Eyes (Blu-ray) – $6.50
Seven (Blu-ray) – $7.01
Seven Psychopaths (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Shame (Blu-ray) – $7.99
A Single Man (Blu-ray) – $6.14
The Spectacular Now (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Spring Breakers (Blu-ray) – $9.92
Synecdoche, NY (Blu-ray) – $6.57
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $7.88
The Tree of Life (Blu-ray) – $6.99
The Truman Show (Blu-ray) – $7.99
True Grit (Blu-ray) – $8.80
This is the End (Blu-ray) – $9.99
We Own the Night (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $6.91
Whiplash (Blu-ray) – $14.99
The Wrestler (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $9.99
What are you picking up this week?