before-trilogy

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.

Allied (Robert Zemeckis)

allied

That thing we can’t take for granted: a film whose many parts – period piece, war picture, blood-spattered actioner, deception-fueled espionage thriller, sexy romance, and, at certain turns, comedy – can gracefully move in conjunction and separate from each other, just as its labyrinthine-but-not-quite plot jumps from one setpiece to the next with little trouble in maintaining a consistency of overall pleasure. Another late-career triumph for Robert Zemeckis, and one of the year’s few truly great American movies. – Nick N.

Before Trilogy (Richard Linklater)

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As the years pass in any relationship, one wishes they might have recorded that first interaction — the overwhelming euphoria of attraction and mutual edification of getting to know one another. This is one of the magnificent abilities of Richard Linklater‘s Before Sunrise, taken to even more romantic heights in his follow-up Before Sunset, both ravishingly restored in Criterion’s new trilogy box set, which also includes the feature-length documentary Richard Linklater: Dream is Destiny. Upon watching all three films back-to-back, the few years of distance from Before Midnight also further strengthens its effect. The sheen of 35mm in the first two films — an idyllic correlation with the arc of Jesse and Celine — gives way to the more unforgiving use of an Arri Alexa in the most recent film, which feels like a culmination of the conversational strands of mortality their younger selves previously found delight in discussing. It offers a more mature, realistic depiction of love, with all of its bumps and bruises, and ultimately, the effort required for a reconciliation. While the release of the box set trilogy may signal a definitive end to series, throughout various conversations on the discs — most notably an excellent black-and-white documentary on the set of Before Midnight directed by Chevalier‘s Athina Rachel Tsangari — the trio never rule a return out, but the earliest they would start thinking about it is 2018. So, as we await a potential quadrilogy expansion in 2022, this Criterion set is one of their most remarkable releases: a beautiful tribute to perhaps cinema’s finest trilogy, and with its special features, a comprehensive reflection on its lasting, eternal power. – Jordan R.

Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)

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Stories — whether black, white, or other — always have the potential to transcend race, economics, and environment to hit on a deeper level, stripped of labels, known as universal humanity. Barry JenkinsMoonlight does this. I’m not black, gay, or poor, yet I saw myself in Chiron’s struggle for identity within a world trying to exclude him. He’s betrayed and bullied, but never broken. We never grow to become quite what we expect, despite forever remaining a manifestation of our individual pasts. Nothing reveals this truth better than Trevante Rhodes‘ portrayal of Chiron in this time-warp triptych’s final third: wholly different from the boy met an hour previous, and identical to his core. – Jared M.

Kate Plays Christine (Robert Greene)

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Christine Chubbuck’s final words resound with more eeriness the further the media collapses in on itself. “In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in ‘blood and guts,’ and in living color, you are going to see another first — attempted suicide.” Kate Lyn Sheil and Robert Greene dive into the gap between performance and authenticity, both as it pertains to the craft of acting and our lived and public lives, and cast about for the truth. Whether they find any is up for debate, but the journey is unquestionably riveting. – Dan S.

Also Arriving This Week

Doctor Strange (review)
Rules Don’t Apply (review)

Recommended Deals of the Week

10 Cloverfield Lane (Blu-ray) – $10.16

99 Homes (Blu-ray) – $7.99

Ali (Blu-ray) – $9.99

The American (Blu-ray) – $9.92

Amelie (Blu-ray) – $8.07

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-ray) – $8.68

The Babadook (Blu-ray)  – $7.88

Beginners (Blu-ray) – $7.28

The Beguiled (Blu-ray) – $7.16

Blackhat (Blu-ray) – $9.96

Bone Tomahawk (Blu-ray) – $9.99

Brooklyn (Blu-ray) – $9.99

Carrie (Blu-ray) – $7.99

Casino (Blu-ray) – $9.94

Chi-Raq (Blu-ray) – $11.99

Cosmopolis (Blu-ray) – $4.97

The Deep Blue Sea (Blu-ray) – $9.99

The Deer Hunter (Blu-ray) – $9.96

Frailty (Blu-ray) – $5.00

Godzilla (Blu-ray) – $9.05

Glengarry Glen Ross (Blu-ray) – $8.94

Gone Girl (Blu-ray) – $8.03

Greenberg (Blu-ray) – $4.80

Green Room (Blu-ray) – $10.48

Haywire (Blu-ray) – $5.50

Heat (Blu-ray) – $9.96

Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $5.99

Holy Motors (Blu-ray) – $9.33

The Informant! (Blu-ray) – $7.19

Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $7.99

Inherent Vice (Blu-ray) – $10.70

In the Loop ( Blu-ray) – $8.99

It Follows (Blu-ray) – $7.88

Jane Eyre (Blu-ray) – $7.43

Jaws (Blu-ray) – $7.99

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Blu-ray) – $9.99

Knight of Cups (Blu-ray) – $9.99

Kubo and the Two Strings (Blu-ray) – $11.99

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (Blu-ray) – $9.89

The Lobster (Blu-ray) – $9.99

Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $7.77

Magic Mike XXL (Blu-ray) – $7.99

Magnolia (Blu-ray) – $9.99

The Man Who Wasn’t There (Blu-ray) – $9.49

Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $5.12

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Blu-ray) – $5.96

Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $8.96

Midnight Special (Blu-ray) – $12.99

Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $6.58

No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $4.96

Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $6.50

The Piano (Blu-ray) – $7.99

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Blu-ray) – $10.99

Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $7.99

The Raid: Redemption (Blu-ray) – $7.99

The Searchers / Wild Bunch / How the West Was Won (Blu-ray) – $10.76

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Blu-ray) – $8.39

Short Term 12 (Blu-ray) – $9.89

Shutter Island (Blu-ray) – $9.74

A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $7.74

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Blu-ray) – $9.64

Somewhere (Blu-ray) – $6.50

Spotlight (Blu-ray) – $9.99

Sunshine (Blu-ray) – $7.52

Swiss Army Man (Blu-ray) – $11.64

Taxi Driver: 40th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray) – $9.99

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Blu-ray) – $9.69

There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $7.36

The Third Man (Blu-ray) – $9.99

Tinker Sailor Soldier Spy (Blu-ray) – $8.22

Trilogía de Guillermo del Toro (Criterion Blu-ray) – $45.49

Two Lovers (Blu-ray) – $9.87

Waltz With Bashir (Blu-ray) – $6.99

Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $7.88

Whiplash (Blu-ray) – $9.99

The White Ribbon (Blu-ray) – $9.30

The Wolf of Wall Street (Blu-ray) – $9.99

Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $7.88

See all Blu-ray deals.

What are you picking up this week?

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