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.
Note: Wong Kar-Wai‘s The Grandmaster also arrives on Blu-ray this week, but until its original cut gets released here, we can’t recommend it.
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)
If you thought there was nothing else to be said on a movie screen about America’s history of slavery, then you owe it to yourself to see Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave, the finest narrative film to ever be made about the subject. The aesthetic details are immaculate and rich, but all that accumulated rigor pales in comparison to just how human and nakedly honest the film itself is. There’s great compassion imparted in Chiwetel Ejofor’s performance as Solomon Northup, deep, soul-aching sadness in relative newcomer Lupita Nyong’o’s Patsey, and a tumultuous rot implied by Michael Fassbender’s brutish slave owner. Never indulgent or melodramatic, McQueen’s greatest contribution is his focus on the moral decay at the very heart of slavery as an institution, one not lessened by “good” slave owners or benign practices, but characterized by its ravaging effect on the souls of the oppressed. – Nathan B.
Rent: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Oldboy, The Visitor
Recommended Deals of the Weeks
(Note: new additions are in red)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Blu-ray) – $6.96
Adventureland (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Almost Famous (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Amadeus: Director’s Cut (Blu-ray) – $8.96
The American (Blu-ray) – $6.98
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $7.57
Barry Lyndon (Blu-ray) – $6.96
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Caddyshack (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Casablanca/The African Queen (Blu-ray Combo Pack) – $8.96
Children of Men (Blu-ray) – $9.97
Chinatown (Blu-ray) – $8.96
City Lights (Criterion Blu-ray) – $19.99
Cool Hand Luke (Blu-ray) – $6.96
Contact (Blu-ray) – $6.49
Dark City (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Departed (Blu-ray) – $6.96
Dog Day Afternoon (Blu-ray) – $6.96
Frances Ha (Criterion Blu-ray) – $19.99
The Fugitive (Blu-ray) – $8.96
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $6.96
The Great Gatsby (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Halloween (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Hannah and Her Sisters (Blu-ray) – $8.91
Heat (Blu-ray) – $8.48
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $10.99
L.A. Confidential (Blu-ray) – $8.96
Looper (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Blu-ray) – $8.49
The Matrix (Blu-ray) – $6.96
Once Upon a Time in the West (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Nashville (Criterion Blu-ray) – $19.99
Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $8.49
North by Northwest (Blu-ray) – $8.96
Pan’s Labyrinth (Blu-ray) – $8.96
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $6.96
Raging Bull (Blu-ray) – $8.65
Rebecca (Blu-ray) – $8.91
Repo Man (Criterion Blu-ray) – $18.99
Rififi (Criterion Blu-ray) – $19.99
Saving Private Ryan (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Shane (Blu-ray) – $8.96
Shutter Island (Blu-ray) – $8.48
Source Code (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Spring Breakers (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Sunset Boulevard (Blu-ray) – $8.96
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $6.96
The Town (Blu-ray) – $8.99
To Catch a Thief (Blu-ray) – $8.96
The Treasure of Sierra Madre (Blu-ray) – $8.96
Tropic Thunder (Blu-ray) – $8.76
The Truman Show (Blu-ray) – $8.98
The Usual Suspects (Blu-ray) – $9.98
Vacation (Blu-ray) – $9.98
The Wild Bunch (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman Collection (Criterion Blu-ray) – $105.99
What are you picking up this week?