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.
Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)
A travelogue through one artist’s subconscious, Cameraperson is perhaps the most plural film of 2016 – a formal, tonal, situational, and pacing exercise that lulls viewers into thinking it’s set on one thing before turning towards seemingly new territory. And it never feels out-of-balance because director Kirsten Johnson has, by building this film around moments that “marked” her, granted such an intimate experience that it almost feels wrong to intellectualize much of anything that’s going on here, no matter how much the treatment may be deserved. So I say to you: see Cameraperson. Nowhere else this year are you more likely to find something relatable, funny, sad, upsetting, and life-affirming in one package. – Nick N.
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Mamoru Oshii)
The sequel to Mamoru Oshii‘s seminal 1995 cyberpunk film consists of quiet mood scenes and dense, citation-heavy musings on the fate of man in a post-human world. The action scenes present, however, are like nothing else ever glimpsed in animation or live action. Though the quick and beautiful blitzkriegs of gunplay and futuristic martial arts combat may warrant the easiest comparisons to John Woo, Oshii and his talented crew at Production I.G. take full advantage of the possibilities of digital animation to play with movement, framing and distortion in ways live-action cinema could never imitate to the same degree of breathtaking fluidity. Though the film’s composition and editing takes at least a general cue from live action (in contrast to some other animated gems like Hiroyuki Imaishi’s masterpiece Dead Leaves — too short to qualify for this list, regrettably, but most assuredly wreaking havoc in our hearts — Oshii, whose earlier work helped inspire the iconic action choreography of The Matrix, is not content to let himself be overshadowed by Hollywood. In GitS2 he proudly demonstrates his mastery of the medium in a final act in which nine minutes of continuous combat are choreographed to a sweeping, otherworldly vocal suite of Buddhist poetry from trusted musical collaborator Kenji Kawai. The “bullet ballet” of East Asian action cinema has never before or since felt so literal, or so transcendental. – Eli F.
Loving (Jeff Nichols)
Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton deliver remarkably nuanced performances in Loving, a late ’50s- / early ‘60s-set true life story of a mixed-race couple whose illegal marriage became a landmark case in the United States Supreme Court. Having tried his hand at the coming-of-age drama (Mud) and both small- and large-scale science fiction (Take Shelter and Midnight Special, respectively), the increasingly prolific Jeff Nichols branches out once more here to the awards season period drama. This heartwarming and wonderfully refined film might not do a whole lot of things we haven’t seen before in the civil rights-era picture, but it does the familiar stuff with enormous care and control. – Rory O. (full review)
Also Arriving This Week
The Alchemist Cookbook (review)
American Pastoral (review)
Desierto (review)
The Eagle Huntress (review)
Frank & Lola (review)
Recommended Deals of the Week
10 Cloverfield Lane (Blu-ray) – $10.16
99 Homes (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Ali (Blu-ray) – $10.96
The American (Blu-ray) – $8.47
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $8.34
The Assassin (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-ray) – $8.64
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $5.32
The Beguiled (Blu-ray) – $7.16
Blackhat (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Carrie (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Casino (Blu-ray) – $9.94
Chi-Raq (Blu-ray) – $11.99
The Deep Blue Sea (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Godzilla (Blu-ray) – $7.90
Glengarry Glen Ross (Blu-ray) – $8.97
Gone Girl (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Greenberg (Blu-ray) – $4.80
Green Room (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $5.66
Heat (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Holy Motors (Blu-ray) – $10.01
The Informant! (Blu-ray) – $7.28
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Inherent Vice (Blu-ray) – $10.70
Interstellar (Blu-ray) – $9.87
In the Loop ( Blu-ray) – $9.97
It Follows (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Jane Eyre (Blu-ray) – $6.01
Jaws (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Knight of Cups (Blu-ray) – $9.99
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) – $7.99
Magnolia (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Man Who Wasn’t There (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $5.26
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $8.96
Midnight Special (Blu-ray) – $12.99
Nebraska (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $8.15
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $6.50
The Piano (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Pineapple Express (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Blu-ray) – $10.99
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $8.08
The Raid: Redemption (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Searchers / Wild Bunch / How the West Was Won (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Blu-ray) – $8.39
Short Term 12 (Blu-ray) – $9.89
Shutter Island (Blu-ray) – $9.00
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $7.18
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Blu-ray) – $9.79
Somewhere (Blu-ray) – $6.50
Sunshine (Blu-ray) – $9.36
Swiss Army Man (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Taxi Driver: 40th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Blu-ray) – $9.69
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Third Man (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Tinker Sailor Soldier Spy (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Two Lovers (Blu-ray) – $9.87
Volver (Blu-ray) – $6.79
Waltz With Bashir (Blu-ray) – $6.50
Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Whiplash (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Wolf of Wall Street (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $9.96
What are you picking up this week?