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.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Marielle Heller)
Writer-director Marie Heller paints an accurate, honest, and vibrant portrait of her young protagonist, Minnie (Bel Powley), in The Diary of a Teenage Girl. With the use of some beautiful hand-drawn animation, an enlightening and funny narration, and Powley’s versatile performance, this is about as intimate as a subjective picture gets. We experience the world as this young girl does. What’s exciting for Minnie feels truly exciting, and the same goes for any moments of pain and confusion. The Diary of a Teenage Girl is as funny and touching as it is an unflinching directorial debut. – Jack G.
Gilda (Charles Vidor)
“Gilda, are you decent?” Rita Hayworth tosses her hair back and slyly responds, “Me?” in one of the great star entrances in movie history. Gilda, directed by Charles Vidor, features a sultry Hayworth in her most iconic role, as the much-lusted-after wife of a criminal kingpin (George Macready), as well as the former flame of his bitter henchman (Glenn Ford), and she drives them both mad with desire and jealousy. An ever-shifting battle of the sexes set on a Buenos Aires casino’s glittering floor and in its shadowy back rooms, Gilda is among the most sensual of all Hollywood noirs.- Criterion.com
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Determining the “best” Coen brothers film seems an insurmountable challenge, and certainly a silly one. But everyone has a favorite, and while I adore Lebowski as much as the next dude, Inside Llewyn Davis takes the top spot. The (fictional) setting — 1961 Greenwich Village, Chicago, back to New York — is an ideal playground for the film’s folk singers, poets, jazz musicians, and intellectuals. And in typical Joel and Ethan Coen fashion, there is great humor here. But Llewyn is exhilaratingly bleak, a character study in which the characters are lovably prickly. It is also highly moving, that rare music-based film in which the performances feel earthy and passionate. We leave Llewyn Davis (so memorably embodied by Oscar Isaac) at a familiar low point, and can only guess at his eventual outcome. His uncertain, unsettled fate resonates, and the film seems to have taken on a life of its own. Like the music at the Gaslight, Inside Llewyn Davis stops, but never ends. – Chris S.
Straight Outta Compton (F. Gary Gray)
With a relatively unknown cast and a director whose work is often hit-or-miss, it was a surprise that F. Gary Gray‘s Straight Outta Compton is among the best films Hollywood has put out in quite some time. There are plenty of pictures that allow the audience to congratulate themselves on progressive viewpoints; fewer illustrate the formation of institutional racism at all, let alone with the nuance Gray does here. He examines the members of N.W.A. both as a unit — a group of Compton youth who made it out by broadcasting their story — and as individuals, each of whom exits or remains home in their unique ways. An ensemble of little-known actors, particularly Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as his father, Ice Cube — as well as sharp editing and impressive cinematography from Billy Fox and Matthew Libatique, respectively — make Straight Outta Compton one of the most electrifying films of the year, in addition to one of the smartest. – Forrest C.
Also Arriving This Week
The Cut (review)
Everest (review)
The Intern
Let There Be Light
Recommended Deals of the Week
Top Deal: A selection of Blu-rays on The Criterion Collection are under $20, including The Uninvited, The Kid with a Bike, Weekend, and many more.
A Clockwork Orange (Blu-ray) – $9.65
A Separation (Blu-ray) – $7.87
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $6.43
The American (Blu-ray) – $5.80
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $8.12
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $8.36
Birdman (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Black Swan (Blu-ray) – $9.23
The Brothers Bloom (Blu-ray) – $8.35
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Captain Phillips (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Casino (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Dear White People (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Eastern Promises (Blu-ray) – $6.70
Enemy (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Gone Girl (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $10.00
Good Will Hunting (Blu-ray) – $5.99
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Blu-ray) – $9.99
A History of Violence (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Kingdom of Heaven 10th Anniversary (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Blu-ray) – $9.69
The Lady From Shanghai (Blu-ray) – $8.77
Looper (Blu-ray) – $9.93
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Mad Max: Fury Road (Blu-ray) – $14.99
Magic Mike (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Magic Mike XXL (Blu-ray) – $14.99
Magnolia (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Margaret (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $6.01
Matchstick Men (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $9.65
Mission: Impossible – The 5 Movie Collection (Blu-ray) $34.99
Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $7.18
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $4.96
ParaNorman (Blu-ray) – $7.16
Pariah (Blu-ray) – $6.49
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $6.23
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Reality Bites (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Re-Animator (Blu-ray) – $7.89
Rio Bravo (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Road to Perdition (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Seven (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Seven Psychopaths (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Short Term 12 (Blu-ray) – $9.99
A Single Man (Blu-ray) – $6.14
Synecdoche, NY (Blu-ray) – $6.25
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $9.19
The Tree of Life (Blu-ray) – $6.88
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Blu-ray) – $6.48
Trick ‘r Treat (Blu-ray) – $9.84
True Grit (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Volver (Blu-ray) – $5.44
We Own the Night (Blu-ray) – $6.85
Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The World’s End / Hot Fuzz / Shaun of the Dead Trilogy (Blu-ray) – $15.49
The Wrestler (Blu-ray) – $7.36
What are you picking up this week?