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.
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner)
An ecstatically original work of film-history-philosophy with a digital-cinema palette of acutely crafted compositions. Amour Fou seamlessly blends together the paintings of Vermeer, the acting of Bresson, and the psychological undercurrents of a Dostoevsky novel. It is an intensely thrilling and often slyly comic work that manages to combine a passionately dispassionate love story of the highest order with a larger socio-historical examination of a new era of freedom, and the tragedy beset by those trapped in its enclosed world. – Peter L.
Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs)
Everyone’s favorite male stripper (sorry, male entertainer) is back. Only this time, he’s gone legit! It’s been three years and Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) is running his furniture business with some limited success in Tampa. And while we see that dreams sometimes really do come true, good ole Mike can’t resist the pull of the stage when his friends come back into town. Dallas (Matthew McConaughey) and The Kid (Alex Pettyfer) are gone, but the rest of the crew is back, including Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello), Ken (Matt Bomer), Tarzan (Kevin Nash), and Tito (Adam Rodriguez). Before long, they’re on the road headed to Myrtle Beach for “The Convention.” What follows is little more than a sometimes-belabored excuse for our shirt-tearing heroes to dance and dance. And dance. – Dan M. (full review)
My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant)
River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in this haunting tale from Gus Van Sant about two young street hustlers: Mike Waters, a sensitive narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him, and Scott Favor, the wayward son of the mayor of Portland and the object of Mike’s desire. Navigating a volatile world of junkies, thieves, and johns, Mike takes Scott on a quest along the grungy streets and open highways of the Pacific Northwest, in search of an elusive place called home. Visually dazzling and thematically groundbreaking, My Own Private Idaho is a deeply moving look at unrequited love and life on society’s margins. – Criterion.com
Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick)
While most of Stanley Kubrick‘s filmography is available in pristine quality, his 1960 historical epic Spartacus had a less-then-stellar transfer. That’s been remedied, thankfully, in a release today, newly restored from large format 35MM original film elements. Starring Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, and more, the drama tells the rousing story of a gladiator who led a Roman slave revolt. Special features include a look behind the restoration process, a talk with Kirk Douglas, vintage interviews and newsreels, and more. – Jordan R.
When Marnie Was There (Hiromasa Yonebayashi)
Secret World of Arrietty director Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s When Marnie Was There is, in every way, exquisite — exquisitely sad, exquisitely haunting, exquisitely lovely. The latest, and, supposedly, final release from Japan’s Studio Ghibli animation studio might not be a Ghibli classic, but it is a fine creation in every way. It’s a hand-drawn film of great ambition and stunning beauty, and it tackles heavy themes — abandonment, familial loss, adolescent panic — with offbeat charm. The involving story of smart, sad-eyed Anna and a mysterious, blonde-haired girl named Marnie is believably emo, and its attention to the ebb-and-flow emotions of youth is noteworthy. Here is a film about adolescence, friendship, and memory centered on a young adult, but told without the cheap humor that sinks so many animated efforts. “I’m sorry, it’s a sad story,” says a character in When Marnie Was There, and she ain’t kidding. – Christopher S.
Also Arriving This Week
10,000 Saints (review)
Alleluia (review)
Escobar: Paradise Lost
Dark Places
Manglehorn (review)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (review)
We Are Still Here (review)
Recommended Deals of the Week
(Note: new additions are in red)
Adaptation (Blu-ray) – $7.99
A Most Wanted Man (Blu-ray) – $9.60
A Separation (Blu-ray) – $8.00
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $7.78
The American (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $6.58
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $7.24
Black Swan (Blu-ray) – $6.74
The Brothers Bloom (Blu-ray) – $8.23
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Casino (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Captain Phillips (Blu-ray) – $7.11
Children of Men (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Cloverfield (Blu-ray) – $9.04
Collateral (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Damsels in Distress (Blu-ray) – $8.33
Drive (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Fly (Blu-ray) – $5.96
Gangs of New York (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Good Will Hunting (Blu-ray) – $7.50
The Graduate (Blu-ray) – $9.74
The Grandmaster (Blu-ray) – $5.00
A History of Violence (Blu-ray) – $6.69
Hot Fuzz (Blu-ray) – $7.82
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $9.51
Interstellar (Blu-ray) – $9.99
It Follows (Blu-ray) – $12.99
Jane Eyre (Blu-ray) – $8.29
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Lady From Shanghai (Blu-ray) – $7.49
Laura (Blu-ray) – $10.49
Looper (Blu-ray) – $9.88
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Lucy (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Magic Mike (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Magnolia (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Margaret (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $4.95
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $9.65
Mother (Blu-ray) – $9.95
Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $8.85
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $4.96
Observe & Report (Blu-ray) – $7.49
Pariah (Blu-ray) – $8.21
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $6.49
Public Enemies (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Reality Bites (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Rear Window (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Road to Perdition (Blu-ray) – $9.69
The Secret In Their Eyes (Blu-ray) – $6.46
Selma (Blu-ray) – $9.94
Seven (Blu-ray) – $7.50
Seven Psychopaths (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Shining (Blu-ray) – $9.99
A Single Man (Blu-ray) – $6.14
Snowpiercer (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Stoker (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Synecdoche, NY (Blu-ray) – $6.25
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $8.69
The Tree of Life (Blu-ray) – $6.81
The Truman Show (Blu-ray) – $7.84
They Came Together (Blu-ray) – $9.99
True Grit (Blu-ray) – $9.95
This is the End (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Under the Skin (Blu-ray) – $7.99
We Own the Night (Blu-ray) – $6.89
Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Wrestler (Blu-ray) – $7.06
Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $9.99
What are you picking up this week?