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 Babadook (Jennifer Kent)
Conditions are ripe for a monster in Jennifer Kent‘s directorial debut, The Babadook. The widowed Amelia (Essie Davis) and her ostracized six-year old Samuel (Noah Wiseman) are the kind of people demonic entities love to prey on. Both Amelia and Samuel’s lifelines to the outside world are dwindling quickly. Amelia, still not emotionally intact after the death of her husband, is finding it difficult to cope with the rigors of suburban motherhood and her son’s erratic behavior. In a repeated visual, Amelia hovers high above her bed, lost in the horrific nightmare that marked both Samuel’s birth and her husband’s death, before coming down to a reality far worse. – Zade C. (full review)
God Help the Girl (Stuart Murdoch)
Although the reaction to the directorial debut of Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch was divisive (just look at our Sundance review for proof), I found the story following a youthful band to be brimming with sincere energy and one that would make a great pairing with last year’s We Are the Best! (or even Not Fade Away, which was severely overlooked a few years back). Backed by an infectious soundtrack, it’s a deeply personal work that will hopefully find an audience as it hits DVD today. – Jordan R.
Goodbye to Language 3D (Jean-Luc Godard)
Breaking the rules has always been something that Jean-Luc Godard seems to naturally gravitate towards. His latest film, Goodbye to Language, is no different, an acid trip into life, language, and the lunacy of the modern condition. The impressionistic use of 3D is reminiscent of the way he subverted digital technology with In Praise of Love during the advent of digital cameras, by shooting half of that film in black-and-white 16mm and the other in standard video format. Godard similarly uses different expressions and the third dimension to startling effects, like only a true artist who appreciates the complexity of the medium would. Bizarre, brazen and bold, it’s so refreshing to know that, at the age of 84, Godard has never felt more alive. – Raffi A.
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg)
After making one of the most authentically emotional films of his career with A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg has begun exploring the world of artificiality. Cosmopolis, which may end up standing as the director’s best film, explored the idea of capitalism in the digital age by creating a language, a series of green screen windows, and, essentially, a society in which numbers and data trumped any factors that might be described as physical. The same could be said for Maps to the Stars, except the target here is the artifice of Hollywood. – Peter L. (full review)
Odd Man Out (Carol Reed)
Taking place largely over the course of one tense night, Carol Reed’s psychological noir, set in an unnamed Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con leading a robbery that goes horribly wrong. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves (Kathleen Ryan) searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker (who would collaborate again on The Third Man) create images of stunning depth for this fierce, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself. – Criterion.com
Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges)
Tired of churning out lightweight comedies, Hollywood director John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) decides to make O Brother, Where Art Thou?—a serious, socially responsible film about human suffering. After his producers point out that he knows nothing of hardship, Sullivan hits the road disguised as a hobo. En route to enlightenment, he encounters a lovely but no-nonsense young woman (Veronica Lake)—and more trouble than he ever dreamed of. This comic masterpiece by Preston Sturges is among the finest Hollywood satires and a high-water mark in the career of one of the industry’s most revered funnymen. – Criterion.com
Also Available This Week
Big Eyes (review)
Class of 1984
Recommended Deals of the Week
(Note: new additions are in red)
22 Jump Street (Blu-ray) – $12.96
The American (Blu-ray) – $8.69
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $6.72
Anna Karenina (Blu-ray) – $12.02
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $6.49
Black Swan (Blu-ray) – $6.99
The Bling Ring (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Bronson (Blu-ray) – $10.91
Burn After Reading (Blu-ray) – $8.89
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Casino (Blu-ray) – $8.95
Captain Phillips (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Cloud Atlas (Blu-ray) – $6.97
Cloverfield (Blu-ray) – $8.68
Collateral (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Contagion (Blu-ray) – $8.86
Do the Right Thing (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Drive (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Fly (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Frank (Blu-ray) – $10.71
The French Connection (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Gangs of New York (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $8.35
Good Will Hunting (Blu-ray) – $7.50
The Grey (Blu-ray) – $8.72
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $8.73
Hugo (Blu-ray) – $6.99
The Illusionist (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $8.00
Jackie Brown (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Jane Eyre (Blu-ray) – $9.39
Killing Them Softly (Blu-ray) – $7.99
L.A. Confidential (Blu-ray) – $8.58
The Last Waltz (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Looper (Blu-ray) – $8.00
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $8.49
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Margaret (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $7.46
Moonrise Kingdom (Blu-ray) – $10.99
Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $6.49
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $4.96
Observe & Report (Blu-ray) – $8.17
Office Space (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Pariah (Blu-ray) – $6.13
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Public Enemies (Blu-ray) – $8.72
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $7.00
Reality Bites (Blu-ray) – $8.49
The Rover (Blu-ray) – $9.91
The Secret In Their Eyes (Blu-ray) – $7.42
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Seven (Blu-ray) – $7.00
Seven Psychopaths (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Shutter Island (Blu-ray) – $6.98
Spring Breakers (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Synecdoche, NY (Blu-ray) – $9.98
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $8.35
The Tree of Life (Blu-ray) – $7.50
The Truman Show (Blu-ray) – $7.99
This is the End (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Vanilla Sky (Blu-ray pre-order) – $8.38
Waltz with Bashir (Blu-ray) – $9.46
We Own the Night (Blu-ray) – $9.04
Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Whiplash (Blu-ray) – $14.99
The Wrestler (Blu-ray) – $6.49
Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $9.96
What are you picking up this week?