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.
Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
Artificial intelligence is the anointed “next big thing” of our time, and so it makes sense that film would seek to address it. But whereas something like Avengers: Age of Ultron treats artificial intelligence as a way to create an “inhuman” force for evil, Ex Machina decides to use the creation of consciousness as a means of reflecting our own base humanity back at us. Smart, sleek, and spare, Ex Machina functions as a dagger elegantly carving out our own heart to show it back to us. – Brian R.
Gangs of Wasseypur (Anurag Kashyap)
Director Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur is a five-hour, two-part, wildly blood-drenched saga. A densely plotted multigenerational gangster epic, Gangs is a stunning achievement, whether taken collectively or individually. Over the course of these five hours, we experience prison escapes, drug-addled sibling rivalries, revenge killings, tense life-or-death meetings, a Sonny-at-the-tollbooth-style esque massacre, lying politicians, “money and debauchery,” and a dash of Bollywood, with a unique use of music and lyrics to comment on the action (“This barter of bloody blows will make you cry”). Director Kashyap has succeeded in creating a gangster drama that feels fresh and realistic – no easy feat. Yes, it is unwieldy, and Part 2 lacks the visceral impact of Part 1, but there’s no doubt that Gangs of Wasseypur is an exhilarating creation and not-to-be-missed cinematic event. – Christopher S.
Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais)
If what I’m about to say has already become a cliché, it’s only because the sentiment is so widely held. As it were: Alain Resnais died last year, yes, but many of the films remain masterpieces and the legacy is, without a doubt, as strong as ever. Such is the case with his first, Hiroshima mon amour, which screened at the New York Film Festival in a restored format last year and is now arriving on Criterion Blu-ray. – Nick N.
It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
Horror is a genre that gets passed over a lot in these kinds of lists. You can probably blame the cheap jump scare and loud noises productions that have dominated the field lately. So horror buffs and film fans of all stripes should be thrilled to see It Follows. Lovingly crafted with an emphasis on spatial relationships and slow burn tension, this is a film to remind the masses why horror is one of the most purely cinematic genres. – Brian R.
The Salt of the Earth (Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado)
At one point early in Wim Wenders‘ new documentary, The Salt of the Earth, the co-director details his deeply emotional connection to photographer Sebastiao Salgado. Years before the two ever met, Wenders happened across a couple of Salgado’s photographs in a Los Angeles art gallery that immediately enthralled him. One of these was a remarkable image of the Brazilian gold mines of Serra Pelada, the other a portrait-like image of a woman weathered by years of a life most will never know. – Brian P. (full review)
Also Arriving This Week
The Black Stallion
Here is Your Life
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (review)
X-Men: Days of Future Past (Rogue Cut)
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
Baraka (Blu-ray) – $8.49
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $10.55
Black Swan (Blu-ray) – $6.75
The Brothers Bloom (Blu-ray) – $8.01
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Casino (Blu-ray) – $8.96
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) – $11.75
The Counselor (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Deer Hunter (Blu-ray) – $10.73
The Descendants (Blu-ray) – $7.40
Drive (Blu-ray) – $7.99
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) – $8.48
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $7.64
Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $7.66
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $8.49
Jackie Brown (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Jane Eyre (Blu-ray) – $8.13
Killing Them Softly (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut (Blu-ray) – $5.00
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) – $6.50
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) – $9.99
The Secret In Their Eyes (Blu-ray) – $6.70
Seven (Blu-ray) – $7.01
Seven Psychopaths (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Shame (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Shutter Island (Blu-ray) – $6.97
A Single Man (Blu-ray) – $6.14
The Spectacular Now (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Spring Breakers (Blu-ray) – $9.92
Synecdoche, NY (Blu-ray) – $6.59
Tarantino XX: 8-Film Collection (Blu-ray) – $57.99
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) – $9.47
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?