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.
Arcade Fire: The Reflektor Tapes (Kahlil Joseph)
A list of things The Reflektor Tapes comes close to being but doesn’t quite end up as: a concert film stitching together Arcade Fire‘s work on a worldwide tour supporting their most recent album, Reflektor; a travelogue of said tour; a sense-memory visual essay tracing the years-long life of songs, tracing from hashing-out and recording to a presentation for thousands of screaming, jumping fans; a channel-futzing sonic exploration of song structure; a look at the making of a highly anticipated album; a study of the creative and romantic partnership between band leaders Win Butler and Régine Chassagne; a voiceover-supported glimpse into their thoughts on creative processes, influences, love, and the course of their lives; and a cultural document of Haiti, the country from which Chassagne hails and to which Arcade Fire bear a strong connection. – Nick N. (full review)
The Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye)
Twenty years after making history as the first feature directed by an African-American lesbian, Cheryl Dunye‘s indie is finally available in a form besides a shoddy DVD. Half of The Watermelon Woman is the best that ’90s New Queer Cinema had to offer, a winning dramedy-romance. The other half is a meticulously constructed mockumentary about a fictional black lesbian actress from Hollywood’s golden age — the eponymous “Watermelon Woman.” With this unusual fusion, Dunye explores the performance of one’s identity and how, in the absence of recorded history for the marginalized, it becomes necessary to create history. – Dan S.
Also Arriving This Week
Girl Asleep
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (review)
Queen of Katwe
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) – $8.99
The Assassin (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-ray) – $8.96
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $5.32
The Beguiled (Blu-ray) – $7.16
Blackhat (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $7.97
Carol (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Carrie (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Casino (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Chi-Raq (Blu-ray) – $11.99
The Deep Blue Sea (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Godzilla (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Glengarry Glen Ross (Blu-ray) – $8.97
Gone Girl (Blu-ray) – $9.64
Greenberg (Blu-ray) – $4.96
Green Room (Blu-ray) – $11.28
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $5.97
Heat (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Holy Motors (Blu-ray) – $10.01
The Informant! (Blu-ray) – $7.52
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Inherent Vice (Blu-ray) – $10.70
Interstellar (Blu-ray) – $9.89
In the Loop ( Blu-ray) – $9.97
It Follows (Blu-ray) – $9.15
Jane Eyre (Blu-ray) – $6.50
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
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Magnolia (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Man Who Wasn’t There (Blu-ray) – $9.99
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
The Nice Guys (Blu-ray) – $12.99
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $7.75
The Piano (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $8.08
The Searchers / Wild Bunch / How the West Was Won (Blu-ray) – $11.16
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Blu-ray) – $8.39
Short Term 12 (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Shutter Island (Blu-ray) – $9.98
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $7.19
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Blu-ray) – $8.98
Somewhere (Blu-ray) – $6.95
Sunshine (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Swiss Army Man (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Taxi Driver: 40th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Blu-ray) – $9.69
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $8.00
The Third Man (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Tinker Sailor Soldier Spy (Blu-ray) – $7.68
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) – $7.99
Whiplash (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Wolf of Wall Street (Blu-ray) – $10.87
Zero Dark Thirty (Blu-ray) – $9.99
What are you picking up this week?