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 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 Ice Storm (Ang Lee)
While Ang Lee has two Best Directors Oscars (for Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi respectively), it’s truly his under seen 1997 feature that deserves the highest of accolades for this highly intelligent and on occasion formally nutty not-quite auteur. But in only bringing up Lee is to ignore many of the greatest pleasures of The Ice Storm; in particular James Schamus’ rich, hilarious script and the pretty much perfect cast; ranging from established greats like Kevin Kline, Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver to the very young at the time Tobey Maguire, Elijah Wood and Christina Ricci. Comparable to Ozu in its dual narrative strands of the pressures facing each the adults and their children, The Ice Storm may be a period piece emphasizing a specific point in America socially speaking, yet it depicts the continual challenges of emotional and sexual maturity in the most universal way. – Ethan V.
Trance (Danny Boyle)
If you didn’t go for the twisty delights of Steven Soderbergh‘s recent Side Effects, there’s a distinct probability that you’ll be left similarly displeased with Trance, the fantastically depraved new film from Danny Boyle. Like the Soderbergh picture, Trance twists itself until it can’t see straight, discharging clots of backstory and split-second character distortions that are sure to enrage as many viewers as they satisfy. I fall firmly in the latter category, because the head-spinning narrative spirals are always excitingly complemented by the film’s surrounding elements: the shrewdly committed trio of actors at the story’s center (Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson, James McAvoy), as well as Boyle’s increasingly electric display of craft, from Anthony Dod Mantle‘s deceptively shimmery cinematography to the pounding thumps of Rick Smith‘s original score. Add in the kinetic flow of Jon Harris‘s editing, and Trance starts to play like a handful of 2013 releases — Simon Killer, Stoker, Upstream Color, even Spring Breakers — that appear to encourage sensory absorption above all else. – Danny K.
See Also: [Review] Trance, The Film Stage Show Ep. 52 – Trance
Twixt (Francis Ford Coppola)
Largely maligned upon its premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt barely saw anything resembling a release outside Europe. Luckily, with both its streaming availability and forthcoming Blu-Ray release, you’ll be able to see that it’s actually kind of good: Twixt is the work of a man with nothing left to prove but, still, something intensely personal to express. Though an utter breeze in treating kitsch with a winking eye, it’s hard not to see Val Kilmer’s frustrated artist as an avatar for Coppola himself. Look out for the most potent audio/visual combination: the sound of a Skype call bleeding into a dream and effectively ending it. – Ethan V.
Rent: Babette’s Feast, Graceland, Kiss of the Damned, Pieta
Recommended Deals of the Weeks
Airplane! (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The American (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Annie Hall (Blu-ray) – $10.49
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Blu-ray) – $8.98
Black Swan (Blu-ray) – $10.95
Blue Velvet (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Casino Royale (Blu-ray) – $10.03
Cool Hand Luke (Blu-ray) – $8.49
Collateral (Blu-ray) – $7.12
The Descendants (Blu-ray) – $10.95
Drive (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Fight Club (Blu-ray) – $10.00
Flight (Blu-ray) – $9.68
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $8.26
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $10.99
Heat (Blu-ray) – $9.46
The Illusionist (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Inception (Blu-ray) – $9.04
Lawrence of Arabia (Blu-ray)- $9.99
Magic Mike (Blu-ray) – $11.49
Memento (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Miller’s Crossing (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $7.56
National Lampoon’s Vacation (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Raid: Redemption (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Seven (Blu-ray) – $9.15
Shaun of Dead & Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Somewhere (Blu-ray) – $8.49
Smashed (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Blu-ray) – $4.74
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Thing (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Trainspotting (Blu-ray) – $7.79
The Truman Show (Blu-ray) – $8.99
The Untouchables (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Young Frankenstein (Blu-ray) – $8.51
Zodiac (Blu-ray) – $7.99
What are you picking up this week?