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.
Life of Riley (Alain Resnais)
No, Life of Riley can’t and won’t ever be removed from the context of its creator’s passing, but the resulting points between art, life, and death upon which every seconds thus operates makes clear that it shouldn’t. On paper an absolute downer — and, frankly, sometimes is; how can an extended close-up of Sabine Azéma professing her love for an unseen collaborator not be? — but, in execution, a comic celebration of the limited life affords us, bolstered by a fascinatingly complex visual and aural orchestration. Resnais, ending his career on just about the best closing images any filmmaker could ever ask for, leaves us with no option but to do what its French title suggests: enjoy, drink, and sing. – Nick N.
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry)
The slow-motion, bronze-burnished descent into personal desolation, itself suggested as some men’s only way of ascending to artistic greatness. Already-mild concerns that we’d never receive a proper adaptation of Roth are forever gone, for Listen Up Philip’s commitment to this idea — aided in no small part by Perry’s growing formal acuity — brings us as close as we’ll ever need to get. Zuckerman, Lonoff, and, at some turns, Sabbath do indeed haunt the film’s periphery, but less as a result of direct influence — more, I think, because we’ve only now confronted the wreckage they leave behind. – Nick N.
The Soft Skin (François Truffaut)
François Truffaut followed up the international phenomenon Jules and Jim with this tense tale of infidelity. The unassuming Jean Desailly is perfectly cast as a celebrated literary scholar, seemingly happily married, who embarks on an affair with a gorgeous stewardess, played by Françoise Dorléac, who is captivated by his charm and reputation. As their romance gets serious, the film grows anxious, leading to a wallop of a conclusion. Truffaut made The Soft Skin at a time when he was immersing himself in the work of Alfred Hitchcock, and that master’s influence can be felt throughout this complex, insightful, and underseen French New Wave treasure. – Criterion.com
Also Available This Week
Recommended Deals of the Week
(Note: new additions are in red)
The American (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $6.74
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $6.60
Black Swan (Blu-ray) – $6.59
Bronson (Blu-ray) – $10.91
Burn After Reading (Blu-ray) – $8.85
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Casino (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Captain Phillips (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Cloud Atlas (Blu-ray) – $7.98
Collateral (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Contagion (Blu-ray) – $8.83
Dead Man (Blu-ray) – $9.29
Do the Right Thing (Blu-ray) – $10.00
Drive (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Fly (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Gangs of New York (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Gattaca (Blu-ray) – $9.34
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Good Will Hunting (Blu-ray) – $7.50
The Grandmaster (U.S. Cut Blu-ray) – $10.99
The Grey (Blu-ray) – $6.96
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $9.29
Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Hugo (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $9.96
In the Loop (Blu-ray) – $8.36
Inside Llewyn Davis (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Jackie Brown (Blu-ray) – $7.79
Killing Them Softly (Blu-ray) – $10.00
L.A. Confidential (Blu-ray) – $8.61
Looper (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Margaret (Blu-ray) – $9.99
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Observe & Report (Blu-ray) – $9.29
Office Space (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $7.26
Public Enemies (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Raid 2 (Blu-ray) – $10.00
Reality Bites (Blu-ray) – $9.49
The Rover (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Secret In Their Eyes (Blu-ray) – $8.17
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $8.98
Seven (Blu-ray) – $7.50
sex, lies, and videotape (Blu-ray) – $8.19
Shutter Island (Blu-ray) – $7.48
Spring Breakers (Blu-ray) – $7.99
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $8.69
The Tree of Life (Blu-ray) – $11.39
The Truman Show (Blu-ray) – $7.99
This is the End (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Vanilla Sky (Blu-ray pre-order) – $8.43
We Own the Night (Blu-ray) – $6.91
The Wrestler (Blu-ray) – $6.49
Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $9.99
What are you picking up this week?