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.
20th Century Women (Mike Mills)
That emotional profundity most directors try to build to across an entire film? Mike Mills achieves it in every scene of 20th Century Women. There’s such a debilitating warmness to both the vibrant aesthetic and construction of its dynamic characters as Mills quickly soothes one into his story that you’re all the more caught off-guard as the flurry of emotional wallops are presented. Without ever hitting a tonal misstep, Mills’ latest feature takes place in a short period of time within relatively few locations, yet seems to pick up every wavelength of the human experience. There are also few funnier scenes in the last year year than Billy Crudup‘s William attempting to explain the ending of a certain classic. – Jordan R.
Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni)
It’s fitting that the first English-language Michelangelo Antonioni film joining The Criterion Collection is also his debut in that regard. After crafting his impeccable trilogy on modernity in Italy, the director ventured to London for what would become a countercultural touchstone. Gorgeously restored for this release, with its vibrant color palette popping like never before, Blow-Up is a transfixing exploration of artistic self-expression and existential mood. As with the majority of Antonioni’s films, it’s one that only grows more impressive the farther one is removed from it, as its intoxicating images linger in the mind. In an expanded accompanying booklet, Criterion have outdone themselves, featuring a piece about the film, one that goes behind the scenes of its creation, and another featuring the Julio Cortázar short story it’s based on. On the disc, the highlight is a new 53-minute documentary which recalls the making of the film as well as visiting its locations in the present day. – Jordan R.
The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook)
The Handmaiden is pure cinema — a tender, moving, utterly believable love story. It’s also a tense, unsettling, erotic masterpiece. There’s a palpable exhilaration that comes from watching this latest film from Park Chan-wook. From its four central performances and twisty script to the cinematography of Chung Chung-hoon and feverish, haunting score by Cho Young-wuk, The Handmaiden is crafted to take your breath away. It’s hard to imagine a 2016 film with a better look, feel, and sound. – Chris S.
Silence (Martin Scorsese)
One need not have any background with faith to be enraptured by the philosophical questions at the center of Silence. Sure, having a theological familiarity with the soul-wrenching struggle of Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) will increase one’s appreciation, but Martin Scorsese‘s adaptation of Shūsaku Endō‘s novel succeeds as a lucid exploration for anyone who has been conflicted with a crucial decision. By meticulously placing us into the battle both internal (through voiceover) and external (how the basis of that voiceover wars with opposing views) raging through Rodrigues, Scorsese’s feat is his patient build-up to one of the most profound endings of his career. – Jordan R.
Also Arriving This Week
A Monster Calls (review)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (review)
Patriots Day (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) – $9.27
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $8.03
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-ray) – $8.68
The Assassin (Blu-ray) – $9.63
The Babadook (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $7.50
The Beguiled (Blu-ray) – $8.13
Blackhat (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Bone Tomahawk (Blu-ray) – $10.33
Carrie (Blu-ray) – $8.46
Casino (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Citizenfour (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Cosmopolis (Blu-ray) – $7.96
The Deep Blue Sea (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Deer Hunter (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Force Majeure (Blu-ray) – $8.79
Frailty (Blu-ray) – $5.00
Godzilla (Blu-ray) – $9.70
Glengarry Glen Ross (Blu-ray) – $6.55
Gone Girl (Blu-ray) – $8.78
Greenberg (Blu-ray) – $6.20
Green Room (Blu-ray) – $11.11
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $5.50
Heat: Director’s Definitive Edition (Blu-ray pre-order) – $16.99
Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Holy Motors (Blu-ray) – $9.33
The Informant! (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Inherent Vice (Blu-ray) – $10.66
In the Loop ( Blu-ray) – $8.94
It Follows (Blu-ray) – $7.88
The Jacques Rivette Collection (Blu-ray pre-order) – $59.48
Jane Eyre (Blu-ray) – $8.71
Jaws (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Killing Them Softly (Blu-ray) – $6.49
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) – $9.99
Magic Mike XXL (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Magnolia (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Man Who Wasn’t There (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $7.49
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Blu-ray) – $5.96
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $8.96
Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $9.99
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $4.96
Out of Sight (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Paterson (Blu-ray pre-order) – $14.36
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $6.50
The Piano (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Blu-ray) – $10.99
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Saint Laurent (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Searchers / Wild Bunch / How the West Was Won (Blu-ray) – $10.46
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Blu-ray) – $8.29
Short Term 12 (Blu-ray) – $9.89
Shutter Island (Blu-ray) – $9.98
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $7.67
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Blu-ray) – $9.31
Somewhere (Blu-ray) – $6.50
Spartacus (Blu-ray) – $7.73
Spotlight (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Blu-ray) – $58.49
Sunshine (Blu-ray) – $8.36
Taxi Driver: 40th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray) – $9.38
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Blu-ray) – $7.33
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $8.49
The Third Man (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Tinker Sailor Soldier Spy (Blu-ray) – $6.78
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Blu-ray) – $8.49
Waltz With Bashir (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $7.88
The White Ribbon (Blu-ray) – $9.60
The Witch (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Wolf of Wall Street (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $7.88
What are you picking up this week?