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. If we were provided screener copies, we’ll have our own write-up, but if that’s not the case, one can find official descriptions from the distributors. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best 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.
The Boxtrolls (Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi)
Although their features thus far come from different minds (both on the page and when it comes to the execution), the Oregon-based stop-motion studio Laika clearly has specific, shared preferences. Darker, more daring, and perhaps more meticulously crafted than the average studio animation, following Coraline and ParaNorman, their latest feature feels like a natural next step for the company. Based on Alan Snow‘s 2005 novel Here Be Monsters, The Boxtrolls is set in the secluded town of Cheesebridge, an isolated, dairy-obsessed place occupied by the false notion that little creatures (think Minions with more personality) located in the sewers live only to terrorize the citizens. The only one that doesn’t believe this nonsense is a boy raised by the Boxtrolls themselves, Eggs, who is named after the origins of the obligatory box outfitted to his body, and voiced by Game of Thrones‘ Isaac Hempstead Wright. – Jordan R. (full review)
Lucy (Luc Besson)
Luc Besson’s Lucy may be the most daft and blissfully idiotic science-fiction movie you see this year. That, of course, shouldn’t prevent you from seeing it, because the truth is that this odd hodge-podge of the cerebral and sensational is one of the summer’s most purely entertaining experiences. There’s not a bit of the ridiculous science that makes any real-world sense, but Scarlett Johannson, playing the titular drug mule who gets a mental upgrade via synthetic CPH4, forms a demented partnership with Besson’s visceral styling to deliver a B-movie delirium the film’s trailers barely hint at. As much fun as breathlessly devouring a dime-store pulp novel on a lazy Sunday afternoon, Lucy is a delightfully eccentric addition to the crazy French director’s filmography. – Nathan B. (full review)
My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin)
The geographical dead center of North America and the beloved birthplace of Guy Maddin, Winnipeg is the frosty and mysterious star of Maddin’s “docu-fantasia.” A work of memory and imagination, the film burrows into what the director calls “the heart of the heart” of the continent, conjuring a city as delightful as it is fearsome, populated by sleepwalkers and hockey aficionados. Take part in Winnipeg’s epic annual scavenger hunt! Pay your respects to the racehorses forever frozen in the river! Help judge the yearly Golden Boy pageant! What is real and what is fantasy is left up to the viewer to sort out in Maddin’s hypnotic, expertly conceived paean to that wonderful and terrifying place known as My Hometown. – Criterion.com
The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
This wild tale of wacky wedlock from Preston Sturges takes off like a rocket and never lets up. Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert play Tom and Gerry, a married New York couple on the skids, financially and romantically. With Tom hot on her trail, Gerry takes off for Florida on a mission to solve the pair’s money troubles, which she accomplishes in a highly unorthodox manner. A mix of the witty and the utterly absurd, The Palm Beach Story is a high watermark of Sturges’s brand of physical comedy and verbal repartee, featuring sparkling performances from its leads as well as hilarious supporting turns from Rudy Vallee and Mary Astor as a brother and a sister ensnared in Tom and Gerry’s high jinks. – Criterion.com
Also Available This Week
The Drop (review)
The Green Prince
The Mule (review)
White Bird in a Blizzard (review)
The Zero Theorem (review)
Recommended Deals of the Week
(Note: new additions are in red)
12 Years a Slave (Blu-ray) – $11.99
21 Jump Street (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Alien Anthology (Blu-ray) – $24.96
The American (Blu-ray) – $7.25
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $6.74
Atonement (Blu-ray) – $7.63
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $6.60
Black Swan (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Boogie Nights (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Bronson (Blu-ray) – $10.91
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Captain Phillips (Blu-ray) – $11.95
Casino (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Contagion (Blu-ray) – $8.83
Do the Right Thing (Blu-ray) – $7.00
The Fly (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Gangs of New York (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $8.54
Good Will Hunting (Blu-ray) – $7.50
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Gravity (Blu-ray) – $11.69
The Grey (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $9.29
Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Hugo (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Inside Llewyn Davis (Blu-ray) – $9.99
In the Loop (Blu-ray) – $7.91
Jackie Brown (Blu-ray) – $7.97
L.A. Confidential (Blu-ray) – $8.65
Laurence Anyways (Blu-ray) – $12.94
Looper (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Margaret (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Moonrise Kingdom (Blu-ray) – $10.99
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Observe & Report (Blu-ray) – $9.29
Office Space (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $7.26
Public Enemies (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Reality Bites (Blu-ray) – $9.49
The Secret In Their Eyes (Blu-ray) – $8.09
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $9.80
Seven (Blu-ray) – $6.71
sex, lies, and videotape (Blu-ray) – $8.34
Shutter Island (Blu-ray) – $7.50
A Single Man (Blu-ray) – $8.87
Snowpiercer (Blu-ray) – $12.99
Spring Breakers (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Source Code (Blu-ray) – $5.00
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $8.64
The Truman Show (Blu-ray) – $7.99
This is the End (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Valhalla Rising (Blu-ray) – $10.79
Vanilla Sky (Blu-ray pre-order) – $8.49
Volver (Blu-ray) – $6.56
We Own the Night (Blu-ray) – $6.91
The Wrestler (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $9.99
What are you picking up this week?